Xbox 2 to Release in Fall of This Year 765
GamesIndustry.biz has the news that the Xbox 2 will be launched sometime in late fall of this year. With EA games already working on Xbox 2 titles and rumors of a name for the console in circulation, it looks like the first of the next-gen consoles will be here soon. From the article: "Many have expressed concern that Microsoft is forcing the next generation of console hardware too early, and that the current generation still has much to achieve. The most famous example of this came from then Nintendo of Europe MD David Gosen speaking at an ELSPA summit in London last October, where he lambasted Microsoft for pushing a next generation machine to market in 2005, and even went so far as to question Microsoft's motivation as profit." Additionally, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has Balmer saying that they will "blow by Sony" with their next console.
Blow by Sony? Hahaha (Score:3, Informative)
Come on Steve who are you kidding. Even a monkey can see that you will be pwned.
PowerPC 970MX (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Um, duh? (Score:5, Informative)
Uh, sorry, no. (Score:5, Informative)
Bungie seems to have been the one good investment H&E has made since the beginning of the XBox. But there is no chance they are going to be able to make the segment float on its own. Meanwhile if you can produce an event which causes a quarterly profit once, this isn't terribly impressive. H&E might as well have put $50 million in a savings account every quarter for a few years, then withdrawn it all at once and said "look! we made a profit this quarter!"
Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
I suspect my post above was unclear, I am sorry. What I was trying to point out is that gamesindustry.biz has no evidence in their article more solid than "according to sources". I was not trying to say Microsoft couldn't or wouldn't or shouldn't release their console in that timeframe, just trying to observe that maybe readers should be aware that this news is not from official sources and should not be taken simply at the Slashdot headline's word. We don't know anything for certain yet.
Re:More power to them. (Score:2, Informative)
Hmm, what about:
internal hard drive
built-in network capability
graphics that are nearly on par w/ the best PC cards 2.5 years later
XBox Live community
use of the system as a multimedia device (MP3 player, Karaoke, music mixer)
Those seem innovative to me, and many are only doable on the PS2 with hardware add-ons after the fact. Granted, these all existed on the PC, but I own all 3 current systems and a high-end PC, and the X-Box is clearly the most technologically advanced, considering it requires virtually no configuration or added hardware to use any of these features.
Those who think that the X-box is the least advanced of the 3 current consoles are likely twitchy MS-haters.
Re:More power to them. (Score:5, Informative)
Now, I'm no huge fan of the XBox, nor Microsoft. But I will give credit where it is due. The XBox (a year after launch) brought the best online connectivity solution out, passing what Sega was starting to do on the Dreamcast. The XBox live service blows away gaming online on any other console. GameCube has what, one true online game? Playstation has a few, but they don't link in any way, so I can't see if my friends are playing game A or B. Lastly on the online area, the XBox shipped standard with ethernet for online play. Dreamcast shipped standard with a modem. Gamecube ships with no connectivity option, and only recently were PS2s being sold with the networking built in (the mini PS2), or with an adaptor in the box.
The XBox also excels in putting out more HD games then any other console. Gamecube only does 480p, and the PS2 claims to do 480p as well on some games. Neither outdo almost every Dreamcast game supporting 480p, except the XBox going on to also support 720p and in some cases 1080i.
Then there is audio. Way better support from the developers for full 5.1 sound out of the XBox compared to any of the others.
I didn't even touch on the hard drive yet and already have 3 major points. The drive allows expansions to games, like the added game types and maps to MechAssault. Though that I feel was more due to MechAssalult being rushed for release, but hey, at least it could be added later.
The first next gen console I got was the Dreamcast and loved it. Next I got a Gamecube, just because Nintendo does indeed do well in making fun to play games. I picked up my XBox when Steel Battalion came out (I'm a mech junkie), and finally only recently got a mini PS2 and several of the now $20 games. I still have more GameCube games over any other console, but that may change now that I own an HDTV and want to see more games on it take advantage of the higher resolution. I don't like the idea of supporting Microsoft a ton here, but they are doing a decent job in the console space. I saw both the Gamecube and PS2 as a downgrade to the Dreamcast in several areas, only the XBox was an upgrade to me.
Re:According to "sources". (Score:3, Informative)
X - the quintessential variable
by 32_Footsteps,
in Games
, Jun 30, 2000
Pros: Potentially powerful, has serious marketing muscle behind it
Cons: Serious questions about games and support, can the X-Box survive a DOJ breakup?
Yes, that was almost 5 years ago... Why are you talking of every 2 years ? I don't like Microsoft, and I dislikes console even more. But what I hate most, that's those "like fact" sentences.
Re:Dreamcast (Score:1, Informative)
Most of us play in the same room as the TV set, so the graphic edge of the X-Box is pretty obvious, especially on HDTV sets.
Re:Um, duh? (Score:1, Informative)
Proof you want? How about this:
-KotOR (PC): good game, but with a terrible inventory system due to a lack of mouse on the XBox.
-Deus Ex Invisible War: I needn't really comment, need I?
-Halo: Way short of its promises, it became a standard shooter. The only feature that made it worth playing (Co-op) was removed in the PC port... which took 1 effin' year to make.
-Fable: well... it might have sucked on the PC as well.
Anyway, I do sympathize with your desire for cheap hardware hacking... but I'd really prefer a healthier game industry.
Re:It's all about the games... (Score:3, Informative)
I'm curious. You didn't happen to have the PS2 at a vertical angle did you? I used to have a PS2 sitting on a box. Because of the weight it eventually deformed the box and the PS2 sat at a slighty forward angle. It was around that time I noticed the PS2 making disc scratching noises. After a couple of days my copy of TTT was rendered completely worthless. Also, the people I know that have had their PS2s stand vertical seem to have had problems with disc scratching as well. I don't know if this means anything but they seem to be related.
But yeah the optical drives Sony puts in their Playstations must be the absolute cheapest shit they can find. I've went through 3 PSOne's and 2 PS2's (the first one I bought from Sony directly didn't work). It's a good thing I've found ways to "take advantage" of various retail stores return policies. There's no way in hell I'd throw $50(or whatever the cost to take it to a repair place) at Sony to fix their cheap ass optical drives.
Re:According to "sources". (Score:3, Informative)
Here [uchicago.edu] they claim it's been out since 1994.
Which puts it between at least 10, possibly 11 years now.
Not sure if that's authoratative, but it's at least a date I found via a quick google search.
It's been obsoleted by the PS2 for what a little over 4 years? (It came out during the Christmas shopping season of 2000 if I remember correctly).
However, it's not like a lot of titles are being released. It's not like the blockbuster games are being dual ported.
I'd see fewer problems with this, if the X-Box 2 was going to be backwards compatible with the X-Box. However, from everything I've read, it's nearly a technical impossibility to do that if what has been publically guessed about the X-Box is true (I'm not sure if Microsoft has officially said anything besides that ATI will be making the video cards). I'm not paying that much attention. I believe it's supposedly going to have a PPC chip of some time (possibly a Cell, which is PPC + an array of vector processing chips if I understand it correctly).
If they released backwards compat consoles ever 2-3 years, I wouldn't care. However, releasing non-compatible ones every 2-4 years is just insane from a consumers perspective. However, as Microsoft is just gettings it's feet wet, I could see why they are doing this (fix thier previous mistakes, and get a head of the game on the hardware cycle is probably a good idea from a business perspective, especially if they can finance the losses).
Kirby
Re:Um, duh? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:PowerPC 970MX (Score:2, Informative)
DirectX is usually used for sound, input, etc. So considering how many games are 3D, i'm not sure having DirectX support is such a wonderful thing. By the way, the Gamecube is much easier to develop for than the PS2.
Re:Microsoft is trying to force Sony (Score:1, Informative)
The Xbox2 SDK was shipped long time back.
You think EA started working on the games without a SDK?
Re:PowerPC 970MX (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.gotw.ca/publications/concurrency-ddj
In todays Windows World I haven't found any games that actually take advantage of Multi-proccessor. You may gain a little bit of speed from the OS's scheduler, but it's not like 2 1Ghz CPUs will yield a machine that as fast as a 2Ghz machine.
Re:PowerPC 970MX (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Dreamcast (Score:2, Informative)
As opposed to the totally open source products Sony produces right? Competition is good for us as consumers. I would much rather have the option to buy Xbox 2 or PS3 than to be stuck using proprietary products like Sony's betamax, minidisc, and memory sticks.
Sony has continuously tried to lock users into their products and has often succeeded. The PS and PS2 are great examples of that. Just because they have not been as successful at it as Microsoft is no reason to demonize MS in favor of Sony. Both companies will screw you if they have the chance.
Re:Yet another "next generation" of consoles (Score:2, Informative)
Reason 1: It's very bad for your brain.
Turns out that using the "false" stereo generated by perspective displays makes your brain interpret the signals coming through your eyes in the real-world incorrectly. This effect occurs in nearly everyone who dons an HMD, but goes back to normal after a period of time. Trouble is, that period of time varies from person to person on a bell curve distribution. Some folks come back to normal nearly immediately, while others take hours or days. This means you *can not* trust your depth perception after using a fully immersive VR system. (Don't believe me? Check out the SRI report on this, published in 1996.)
Reason 2. It's bad for your neck.
Adding even just a little weight to your head increases torque forces on your neck, and can result in neck strains. The old generation of "Darth Vader" HMDs were particularly bad in this respect. Now that they're little more than heavy eyeglasses, this isn't so much a problem, but it does need to be considered - particularly in children, whose necks can support a lot less weight.
Reason 3: Bad VR will make you sick.
As had been noted by another poster, any desynchronization between your body and your brain of greater than 50 msec *will* make you motion sick. And some people are more sensitive to motion sickness than others - this too varies along a bell-curve distribution. Now while the computer can nearly always respond in less than 50 msec., it is difficult and expensive to develop sensors which can give you accurate yaw/pitch/roll readings that quickly.
Given these three conditions, it isn't surprising at all that immersive VR hasn't taken off - it's bad for you!