Xbox Author Discusses Microsoft Handheld 65
Dean Takahashi wrote an authoritative book on Microsoft's original console, called 'Opening the Xbox'. We're fortunate enough to be able to read a similar work on their next-gen console, a book entitled The Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Takahashi did an interview recently with Kyle Orland, of Videogame Media Watch. There he lays out the challenges of reporting on the industry, and getting publishers to understand the subject matter. Eurogamer reports that part of the book discusses a Microsoft handheld gaming system. From that article: "Takahashi claims the team was split in two following the launch of the Xbox 360, leaving the other half to work solely on reducing production costs for Microsoft's next-gen console. According to the writer, the portable is planned to be released halfway into Xbox 360's lifespan, a strategy to assuage the crippling costs of moving through hardware cycles. A Microsoft gaming handheld has been long-rumoured, the latest occurrence adding fuel to this particular fire being the release of a movie for the company's Origami project. A promotional video for the handheld PC showed Halo 2 running on its screen."
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah really. There's already the GBA and the DS.
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:2)
--Jeremy
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:2)
It might succeed, because I think the PSP screwed up by trying to use discs and not catridges. There may yet be room on that end of the market for a higher-end game machine with better graphics, but without the
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:2)
Unlikely, at least for retail games, as proprietary media is pretty much the only weapon the handheld market has got against piracy - imagine the furor if handheld gamers had to deal with registration keys and things. I could see MS in particular using an extra flash card for optional downloadable stuff in the vein of XBox Live, but not as a format for games on the shelf.
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:2)
If I had to guess, they'd simply completely block execution off of the flash media, which can be done very effectively if they put their mind to it (never allowing it into memory marked as "executable").
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:1)
Yeah, 'cuz if there is one thing Microsoft doesn't know how to do, it is make a profit [google.com].
\end{sarcasm}
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:1)
That is not true. I love Nintendo, and while they rarely sell at a loss, they still do occassionally. However, it's only in the single digits, [nintendoinsider.com] and not for very long.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:3, Informative)
So we basicly have a convicted monopolist using money from their monopoly to horn in on another market, at losses no other company could even consider taking. Yeah, I think theres lots of roo
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:2)
Your post from there on out lost me for a minute until I realized that you weren't talking about Nintendo. MS and Nintendo are both convicted monopolists.
IMHO, what Nintendo did was far worse from a video gaming perspective than packaging a Web broser into an OS or even taking losses to sell more hardware. Nintendo used monopolistic practices to keep game companies from publishing their games on other platforms. Funny how Nintendo's marketshare has steadily d
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:2)
What games? Besides the ones nintendo makes themselfs?
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:2)
"As a condition for an independently-developed game to be allowed to play on Nintendo machines, Nintendo required that the game not appear on the rival systems sold by Atari and Sega for a two-year period.
Without delving into the details of that case (and Nintendo
Microsoft and consoles (Score:2)
If they'd focused on improving Windows by e.g. adding features from Xbox Live, making a standard install-and-play process which is as simple as putting a disc in an Xbox, and insisting that their OEM partners like Dell et al bundle gamepads with a standard layout with their PCs (so developers can count on having dual analogs available if they want to make a PC game that uses
Re:Microsoft and consoles (Score:2)
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:1)
This means there's a market for an open-development handheld
Re:Typical Microsoft (Score:1)
Xbox 360 as a portable? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Xbox 360 as a portable? (Score:2)
Re:Xbox 360 as a portable? (Score:1)
Two words: Wind-up powered. Double kudos from happy parents for both keeping their kids busy and fighting obesity by requiring physical activity!
tsk tsk tsk - don't they ever learn? (Score:5, Insightful)
Picture this: Your're on the train, the train doesnt have a power-outlet and you've been playing your PSP for hours...naturally draining it's batteries to the last bit - in just 2-3 hours. Furthermore the PSP is bulky beyond belief, huge screen
Let's take a look at what the winners of portable gaming knows, they know stuff that the rest of them dont - saving on power, not on the entertainment! A Nintendo DS lasts for at least 10 hours (with 2 backlit screens!) and the older Nintendos lasted up to 40 hours - straight! Now that's more like it, always there - ready to play.
I remember my "superior" Atari-Lynx, can you belive it? 16-bit, 4096 colors and games that would beat the living sh*t out every competitor around at the time, but it FLOPPED! Why? It drained the batteries after 1.5 hours, people simply didnt use it.
Nintendo knows it (and thats why they're now launching the DS-lite, smaller - more portable - better lights...and still pretty cool 3D).
In short: Learn from experience (even if others) - make your handhelds simple, entertaining and last forever.
Re:tsk tsk tsk - don't they ever learn? (Score:2)
The PSP has a sleep mode, but even it is "turn off, put back in case (if you don't already have a Logitech clamshell, which is bulky", then put away to protect the screen from dirty fingerprints".
Don't get me wrong - I like my PSP (great handheld emulator, and "DJ Max Portable" is sweet), but some design elements were from the "bigger is better" campaign - which in the world of handh
Re:tsk tsk tsk - don't they ever learn? (Score:1)
I had a sega game gear, good graphics... stupid short battery life (and it killed 6 AA's each time). got the point i couldnt play it without plugging it in as i couldnt afford the batteries.
Make it small, make it light, and make it run for a LONG time
I smell bias (Score:3, Interesting)
It's smaller than the original GBA form factor.
About the same, actually. (Score:3, Interesting)
GBA: 144.5 mm X 82 mm X 24.5 mm @ 140g (w/o batteries)
PSP: 170 mm X 74 mm X 23 mm @ 161g (w/o batteries)
The GBA is shorter and weighs less, but is thicker. The DS, however, is bigger than both. I just got one recently, and it's a bit of a shocker how much heavier it feels after a few years of using an SP. I don't have a PSP to compare, however.
Re:tsk tsk tsk - don't they ever learn? (Score:2, Funny)
I tend to think the size worked against it as well, as it was tragically released between the fashions of parachute pants and cargo pants, which are the only pants with pockets large enough for either the skateboard or the stereo chunk varieties. And yeah, that
Re:tsk tsk tsk - don't they ever learn? (Score:2)
Very true! The lite DOES have some caveats though...such as protruding GBA cartridges
About the Atari: the only pants with pockets large enough for either the skateboard or the stereo chunk varieties.
LOL, yeah. I bought the FIRST version, that one kind of resembled the design of a skateboard too, maybe on purpose? At that time I was actually *geeky* enough to have a jacket that could fit it, but it was a
Re:tsk tsk tsk - don't they ever learn? (Score:2, Informative)
I'm not sure about 40 hours either, but I dunno. I've never let my SP die all the way and it just blows me away how long that thing lasts. 40 hours though?
Re:tsk tsk tsk - don't they ever learn? (Score:2)
Potential iPod rival combined? (Score:3, Insightful)
If MS decides to make a handheld gaming device, the best bet might be to make it a great MP3/WMV player (the gamepad would be fine for navigation, maybe with a center button so they're not exactly ripping off the iPod Wheel, but same functionality), and use the HDD for storage. Let people download games either through their 360 (plug in, get games/movies/music, walk away - which would make it a useful media hub) or through their main computer.
They have a lot of potential here - I'd say the key is leveraging the Internet and their existing base to draw people into their Live service. Odds are, knowing Microsoft, they'll just add in tons of extra hardware and bloat and try to make it look like Windows rather than a handheld, but if the 360 interface is any indication, they at least have *some* idea how to do it.
Of course, this is just my opinion - I could be wrong.
It's a brilliant strategy (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Potential iPod rival combined? (Score:1)
Re:Potential iPod rival combined? (Score:2)
If they would have put a half-decent hard drive into this thing and done some Music/Video sync service, they could have driven it right down the Nano's throat.
Re:Potential iPod rival combined? (Score:2)
You're missing something... (Score:2)
Where's the 'breasts option?'
--
Worst. Sig. Evah.
another money burner? (Score:3, Interesting)
The PSP is great, no questions asked. But it isn't good enough. If Sony can't get it right - what will Microsoft come up with? A 3-pound ugly box that runs out of batteries after 30 minutes of playing the latest DX10 game on a 320x200 screen?
Re:another money burner? (Score:2)
I'm not a fan of the PSP, in fact I had one and ended up taking it back. There are lots of things about it I don't like and that I feel Nintendo did a much better job on. Heck, I'm a foaming-at-the-mouth Nintendo fanboy. With that in mind, I really cannot call the PSP unsuccessful. They've got millions of machines out there and a decent library of games. No other non-Nintendo portable has done this well.
"If Sony
Re:another money burner? (Score:1)
There is one problem though. It hasn't been selling games very well.
I don't understand why people judge success of a console based on number of consoles sold and not the number of games sold for that console.
Who cares if a million people buy something that they never play or buy games for? The console maker doesn't make any money this way, the gamer doesn't have much fun this w
Re:another money burner? (Score:2)
I haven't been able to find information on the total games sold for either platform, so the best I've got is the number of consoles sold with the assumption that each console sells a game or two. That would be the main reason. I'd love to see sales numbers for games. The DS has had quite a few million+ titles. I don't know if the PSP has had anything like that. Lu
Re:another money burner? (Score:2)
Re:another money burner? (Score:2)
Re:another money burner? (Score:2)
Re:another money burner? (Score:1)
Well, that pretty much describes the new ThinkPad with Windows XP I'm configuring, so I'd say you're right on target.
oh no! (Score:1)
eBook: PDF, 404 pages (with color photos), $14.95 US
Where the hell are the pages?
Re:Shutup and See What Happens (Score:1)
Everybody else posted legit reasons on why they think this will or won't work.
All you did was call the DS a "gay stylus Nintendo dual screen hunk of junk"
Wait, you mean Microsoft is the reason we aren't playing Pong on our TV's?
Gee how Insightful.
Re:Shutup and See What Happens (Score:1)
Re:Shutup and See What Happens (Score:1)
I don't think most people were complaining about Microsoft.
You're just mad that most of us don't think it's a good idea.
apple game console (Score:1)
Re:apple game console (Score:2)
Microsofts handheld (Score:1)