Rumors float around the Internet questioning when Microsoft will ship a Blu-ray enabled Xbox 360 or add-on device like they did with the, now failed, HD-DVD. At CES 09 Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division, says this request is “way down the list.”
Mr. Bach had some great selling points as to why a Blu-ray player has little value in the world of Xbox 360. The primary reason, of course, being the Xbox 360 developers cannot take advantage of Blu-ray as a development platform for games. This was the price Sony, or the consumer, paid to own a PlayStation 3 since all games are printed on the media and are, in effect, Blu-ray “capable.”
We say capable because not all (any?) PlayStation 3 games currently make full use of the Blu-ray media. Many games will reprint the game on the media for optimization purposes, fill the game with international voice overs for all countries or, otherwise, stuff the media with something that will serve a useful purpose. Sony has near-future-proofed their device by giving game developers years of growth in terms of utilizing the Blu-ray capacity.
Microsoft chose to take the smaller old-style DVD format for games and media. Adding the HD-DVD didn’t add a large deal of risk because, as we saw, they can discontinue the model and not change their core gaming demographic. We still laughed a bit at them, but that was where it ended. Bach also said that it’s not really a great economic time to push a new 360 SKU on potential customers with additional cost just for Blu-ray movies playback.
They could add Blu-ray game development support as well but that would just alienate the “28 million Xboxes” they have already shipped.
“OK, let me get this straight: I’m going to add something to the product that’s going to raise the cost, which means the price goes up, consumers aren’t asking for it, and by the way, my game developers can’t use it.” (gamespot)
Of course, the first thing that came to our mind was “well, you did it for HD-DVD, how is Blu-ray different?” The key areas we can think of really come down to Blu-ray is a Sony technology and they are a direct competitor and, to top it off, HD-DVD allowed them to fight against the PS3 at the media level of the industry. They minimized the risk by making the product a secondary add-on device and, if HD-DVD had won, they’d have the winning format already under production (still not for games).
It seems Microsoft has changed their battle plans a little. They started out talking up the media aspects of the 360, using Media Center, renting movies and TV shows and had the HD-DVD as a subproduct. Today, they’re investing in Netflix for media and everything else favors the games.
Which is fine, we like games.
@Diablo III I also think they will be selling more than those numbers tell, but I think that the goal of the “buy one year of WoW, get D3 free” is to get more money into Wow rather than more sales in D3.
@QOFTW – I’m thinking about backing up Xenonauts, which is X-Com: Enemy Unkown kinda remake. The approach seems different from the official remake, where in Xenonauts they’re trying to keep it closer to the original.
Meaning there will be two different games based on the original X-Com, and I hope I’ll enjoy both.
PS:
@What I meant with Korean Carebear fest (about Tera) – Carebear is what PvP-driven MMO players call to people who don’t like open PvP, full loot and overall activities that involve risking your virtual goodies.
I didn’t mean it as an offense, its just at first it looked like Tera was bringing a lot of PvP action and a somewhat sandboxy experience, but the comunity started to realize that in fact it is more of a WoW kind of thing with some light sandbox tweaks.
So for the community that has been waiting for a good game (pvp and sandbox wise) since Ultima Online, it was a bit of a disappointment.
As for the Korean part, I was talking about the graphics.
Sorry it was late guys, I was stuck with a sick MySQL server at work (yes, I do have a day job) and couldn’t make it then I guess the other guys had some kind of recording difficulty. C’est la vie… Hope the exams went well for everyone!
@EA deals with Rock Band iOS debacle
Oh man :)) Now it makes sense why EA won the award as the worst company …
As for what Harmonix would do, well, you’re quire optimistic Jonah. What I foresee is a small update made to the game, then selling it, regardless if you had the old game or not.
@Microsoft “banned” in Germany
Oh man … welcome, global players, to a world that does not have a global legal system.
@Diablo 3
The minimum specs for Diablo 3 is within my reach. Yet I don’t have broadband, because we live in a remote area; we only have a 3G modem, but that’s not broadband.
@ Next Xbox already in production:
Ha! So they might launch it in the holiday season this year.
As for concentration camps justifying a country to have stricter ratings, then Russia should impose the same rules for their game market. Oh wait, they won the war … nevermind …
@QOTW
Hmm … none, so far. I don’t bother visiting the site, so I have absolutely no idea what projects are there.
I know that all type of ideas get presented there, from games to devices, but still, the site didn’t catch on me.
“In Soviet Union, TV watches you!” 😉
Wow Paul, you get whiny when you are discussing the new generation of consoles. 😛
Almost finished with my exams, only 8 left.
@QOTW: Currently, none. As a 15 year old, I barely have any money for indie games which I don’t know much about yet.
The list I left you wasn’t a list of kickstarters I was excited for, but a list of successful video game kickstarters since Double Fine Adventure. I just thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss if there isn’t much news. I’m still surprised about how many kickstarters actually reached their goals.
Here is a list of the links just to make it easier. I picked the ones which have earned at least $100,000 to make the list shorter:
http://kck.st/xBJJ0N
http://kck.st/HiG1V7
http://kck.st/sRf3LL
http://kck.st/yAfgj2
http://kck.st/HYQbcy
http://kck.st/I1vU2N
http://kck.st/GTp0kn
http://kck.st/HqymGE
http://kck.st/HE8nZJ
http://kck.st/HEHrEK
http://kck.st/HujJPy
Hey guys missed you last week, glad that you’re back!
@Next box, although I don’t see it coming out for a while, I agree with Jonah. The sooner this next generation of systems comes out the better it is for gaming in general. Progression is one of the most important factors in the game industry. The better and newer the hardware, the better and newer the games and the opportunity for developers to really do some new amazing things with it. I hate to see the state of gaming stuck at the current peak of what the current gen systems hardware can do.
The major companies trying to prolong the life of the systems with movement controls was stale and gimmicky before it even started, with a few exceptions. I think we all want some innovation and new things in console gaming, and I feel like we’ve run out of room the the current systems. And hope to see them revealed as soon as possible without hurting current developers of course.
What does it mean if a comment is awaiting moderation? Is Jonah the moderator? If for some reason you can’t read my comment here it is again without links:
Wow Paul, you get whiny when you are discussing the new generation of consoles.
Almost finished with my exams, only 8 left.
@QOTW: Currently, none. As a 15 year old, I barely have any money for indie games which I don’t know much about yet.
The list I left you wasn’t a list of kickstarters I was excited for, but a list of successful video game kickstarters since Double Fine Adventure. I just thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss if there isn’t much news. I’m still surprised about how many kickstarters actually reached their goals.
@EA and RockBand
With all the mess ups EA is having lately I am surprised it didn’t shut down yet. Seriously, it’s starting to look like a continious marketing stunt to keep EA in the news. No one can screw the pooch at such a consistent rate.
@Microsoft banned in Germany
Corporations trying to skim each others profits. Move along. Nothing to see here. Capitalism at its finest.
@Next gen Xbox rumours
Remember the days when we would find out about new consoles AFTER developers began working on the concepts? Yeah, me neither. I am indifferent to when a new generation arrives. I am satisfied with things as they are now but wouldn’t mind if they changed. Since I am quite young and come from the poverty stricken Eastern Europe, if I ever run out of contemporary games to play, I can fall back on the extensive PSX or N64 libraries for new (if rather dated) experiences. It was lovely to hear how you were all arguing about it thou. It was starting to get so heated up, I thought Paul will eventually get FALCO PUNCHED (verbally).
@QOTW
Never bothered with Kickstarter. It sounds like a good idea but as a student I have more important things to invest my money into. Although I would join in if they had something like Shenmue III or a sequal to XIII (the comics FPS). I would love to see Kickstarter revive some franchises that were consoidered dead. Oddworld anyone?