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.
In an interesting interview this week at 1up.com,
Podcast
@PSvita loosing weight
I am not sure this is necessary. Especially since I hear this is more of a step back for the Vita. PSP needed a slim version because the original was chunky and had loading time issues. Is there anything so wrong with the Vita that needs fixing? Especially in UK? For me it’s a problem because I wanted to buy a Vita as it’s gotten quite cheap here. The new version will play havoc with local prices. I am not sure how this will play out.
@First the manuals. Now this.
I agree with Paul. The industry is not ready for discless consoles. And not just because people like hard copies. Major concern is that it requires a system of digital game sales on consoles that will actually work. At the moment, a digital game release costs almost twice the price of a hard copy. £60 for a new PS3 title from their online store as opposed to £40 for a disc. I am not OK with that. If digital stores were along the lines of Steam, this would work well. Otherwise it would just kill the used games market and force us to buy games at extortionate prices. On the account of the disc less Xbox I say meh. It will be an alternative that no one will buy. It will be seen as lacking compared to the standard Xbox one.
@Rescuscitation of the walking dead
The heads of Nintendo took a pay cut because it’s their fault Nintendo tanked. No one else’s. In my opinion they should have stuck the whole management crew into a space cannon and shot them to Alpha Centauri. The stubborn old fools will only damage the company further of they stay in power. This restructuring move should have happened a year ago. Instead Nintendo carried on as usual and sunk itself even further. Now it’s in dire straits and needs extreme measures. I hope that Disney buys Nintendo and makes Satoru Iwata work in one of their parks in a Micky Mouse suit. He deserves it.
@QOTW
Has to be Crysis. The game took a nosedive once the aliens started shooting everyone but the ending was of the shelf action movie crap. “A gigantic alien mothership is attacking. I wish we had a super mega ultimate secret weapon to shoot it down. Oh wait, it’s right over here.” Worst part was that the ending suggested that everything you just did was pointless and you have to go back to the island to “roll credits”.
Great Episode guys.
@Kotor II: I am with Jordan and I didn’t notice that it was unfinished, only that I was an overpowered character destroying everything in my path. I also didn’t find Kria impressive, just seemed like another whiney character who didn’t get their way and is taking it out on everyone else.
@Miner49er: I loved that you guys mentioned this game, I played it as a child and I had forgotten it’s name! I also played Jumpman Junior along with that one.
@Chocobo Tamagotchi: There was in fact a companion App game for FF8 on the Pocketstation. You played sd the Chocobo who got to fight monsters and collect treasure so it wasn’t too bad. It never came to America though.
@Black Isle: Speaking of Baldur’s Gate what do you guys think the chances are of getting the Baldur’s Gate 3 Beamdog is supposed to be working on? Did the Enhanced Editions do well enough?
@Facebook games: I find the whole Pay to win game mechanic to be very weak. More a ploy to milk customers of as much money as possible and give poor gameplay in return. I used to play Backyard monsters and it would constantly have stopping moments while I had to wait hours or days for things to finish building. It really can take the wind out of your sails to want to play. All the while giving the message “Save on resources by spending real money!” When I keep getting THOSE messages that tells me they don’t have any real game here just bait for you to click the Pay to Win. There was no real consequence to losing you could always easily recover. There just isn’t any challenge for these casual games.
Another example of a terrible Pay to win game is StarTrexels which has giant pay walls preventing you from going forward until you either spend HOURS collecting enough Dilithium or pay $15 to go to the next area.
So to answer Paul’s possibly rhetorical question, Yes I would rather pay for a 50-60 dollar game then deal with the Pay to Win crap.
At least Paul’s game Pinsanity sounds nice if you can actually win physical Pins and you are supporting our Olympic team.
@QotW: Best unfinished game would have to be Minecraft since they are still working on it.