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.
If youtube would have an easy way to get to the mp4 file they host, I could whip out some hosting/customized audio player/podcast feed thingies.
I mean they [youtube] do provide a good API for their player, I can do an app that you’d just right click on an MP3 and say “Publish”. But when it comes to doing a podcast feed, I’d need to link to the mp4 file, and that is not yet allowed by them.
@Yoshida: PlayStation Vita sales are below expectations
Erm, did you really expect something else? Not enough devs, you say? Really? Here’s my thought:
“And what do we have here? A PS Vita? It has a game pad, a back touch screen and a price that is too damn high”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqHZWdFVyyQ
Yessir …
@DICE giving away Battlefield 1942 for free on Origin
I did play BF1942.
Funny how a simple thing, such as password recovery page can have quite an impact on the number of customers. So yeah, bad web programmer, no twinkie.
— edited —
Their password recovery system is working ok now. He he he, forget what I said.
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Jordan, you do recall it right, but I think it was 1943, for BF3 (thanks Jonah for confirming).
@“lower-case aaa” games where the industry should be heading
You know, I am starting to hate the use of financial rating system with games. What would be rated as a Baa game?
As for ‘async MP as a core component’ … I think the writer went a bit outside of what was sane advice: “cut the costs and make good games”. Leave the game design decision to the game makers, please.
@Microsoft and 343 Industries taking hard stance on sexism
Really? Ban players for sexism? And you think that THAT will stop it? Really? On planet Earth?
Oh, and did I mention about this automatic censoring system that censored “glass” because of the “ass” part?
The same person who’s a sexist is not sexist just in Halo 4. Fix the bigger problem, with the real world, and the little one will not exist.
@QOTW:
Plenty of SP games that can be played. Plenty of software development that can be done without Internet. Most likely pull apart my for-repairing-and experimenting-with binoculars, see if I can’t do anything to improve it.
Just an update on my offer to help out moving the podcast to youtube:
If a feed like this is OK for an iPod, then I can implement the thing during the winter holiday:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/UploadsByClarkeanddawe
@Yoshida: PlayStation Vita sales are below expectations:
orly? is that so? perhaps one of the main reasons is, i dont know, YOU ARE STILL GIVING FULL SUPPORT FOR THE PSP?
seriously?
@DICE giving away Battlefield 1942 for free on Origin:
seen it, got it, played it, AWESOME.
even for 2002 graphics, the intro still gives me the chills. the gameplay is fantastic, simpler and still giver dozens of ways to play the game your way (i know it is a slower paced than now-a-days shooters, but who cares?) the sad thing is, in the first day there were thousands of players. today there were only about 300. the game is good, it was a great deal by EA, but unfortunatelly, is dying soon.
@Microsoft and 343 Industries taking hard stance on sexism:
sexism, racism, and anti-gay…ism are very real issues and deserve to be treated like so. i’m glad she (whoose name had escaped my mind right now) is taking the 1st strike against such issues online game wise, even if it is, officially, only on sexism.
@QOTW:
when the power is out i spend most of my hours trying the lights on my house *click* *click* *click* *click* until the power comes back, and when i have no connection i do what any sane person would do: SPAM F5
so, seriously, out of power, i TRY to do something productive, always fail. always end up on some kind of deppressive state of “what should i do now”?
no internetzz: i play single player games, or campaign mode or watch some series/movies i have on my external HD, while spamming F5 each 5 or 10 minuter appart.
@Asian Civilizations
Haven’t played Civ since 3 so this won’t affect me. It makes sense to release games aimed at the eastern audience. The East has a very different culture from the West. If something gets popular, pretty much everyone gets involved. Lots of dosh to be made there. But it doesn’t make sense to bar the rest of the world from it. I hate it when I can’t play a game cause my eyes are too big.
@DICE free Battlefield
Got it. Played it. Dated but still fun.
@Microsoft, 343 Industries and all that
The man behind Halo 4 was a woman?!!! Despicable!!! I will take out my frustration by traveling to the Large Hardon Collider to smash my copy of Halo 4 into a copy of Call of Duty to merge them. Oh no. Wait. 343 Industries already done that for me. Still can’t believe that the assault rifle I used for the past 10 years now sounds like an M60 machine gun. And “press B to crouch”. Seriously? This is why we can’t have women do man things.
On a more serious note, I tend to play on-line games with my friends in a private party chat. I dislike joining game chat parties because I hate trash talk. And singing 10 year olds. That’s my advice to anyone. You don’t want to be subject to abuse – don’t expose yourself to the low intelligent common rabble. If you find yourself forced to mingle with the simpletons (i.e. no party chat in Counter Strike: GO), just ignore them. Remember: Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.
@QOTW
I read books. A book is an object which is imprinted with letters that form words that form sentences which form Harry Potter. It causes no strain on your eyes and has a positive side effect of raising your intelligence, granted you are not reading Twilight (in which case you are a lost cause and should DIE). I always have a book around. It’s a great way to pass time while my brain is rebooting for some more gaming action.