Xbox 360 Launch to Face Several Hurdles 428
JamesO writes "Microsoft's J Allard has said that the Xbox 360 will be released in differing versions over the next five years. "It's something we're not ready to announce yet," he said. "I don't think it's a one-size-fits-all [approach] over the next five-year horizon." Relatedly JamesO writes "Microsoft is saying that anywhere up to 40 games could be released for the Xbox 360 during its launch period, but which of those will make or break the console's launch? Pro-G choose their ten most important Xbox 360 launch games. Not the ten best launch games, but the most important for the success of the Xbox 360."
Okay, that's it... (Score:5, Interesting)
I put a down payment for an XBox 360 under the assumption that WHAT THEY HYPED was what would be in the unit. Not some pie in the sky, it'll have HiDef DVD next year and then the year after that we'll introduce XBOX360 3.0 which, as you all know, is when Microsoft gets it right so hooo-baby, get your preorders in for that one, and oh sorry about that built-in wireless router but that was too expensive.
I completely and totally understand that some features may change from preorder to launch. But all of this hype now about different consoles and such and I'm ready to just drop the whole thing until they actually ink the final shipping product features.
Fool me once, shame one you... fool me twice...
One things for sure, it'll be a LONG time before I preorder any Microsoft game system again.
Re:Backflip (Score:5, Interesting)
Hell for consumers (Score:2, Interesting)
Sticking with my PS2 for now (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hell for consumers (Score:4, Interesting)
What I don't like is that games will be programmed to 'potentially not use the HD', which means that some incredibly content may or may not be available because of all of the contingencies with creating essentially two underlying versions of each game.
For example, a game like Fable, already plenty of things were ripped out of the game at the last minute -- if they had to spend extra safeguards to make sure that people without HDs get a comparable experience -- which doesn't sound like a lot of programming code in theory, but in practice, would that cause more functionality to require removal?
Way to make different versions work? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Skip TFA (Score:5, Interesting)
It seems that the market is fucked up in such a way that the only thing companies can come with are SEQUELS. Same happened for the PS2, and now it's going to happen for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
Re:Skip TFA (Score:5, Interesting)
I suspect the reasoning is that Madden, every year, is either the #1 or #2 top-selling game in the US market, if not the world. That seems pretty important, whether or not the Japanese like the game.
Oh, and in case you weren't aware, the US gaming market is much larger than that in either Japan or Europe. All the talk about how Japanese consumption defines the success of a console is based on a) the fact that every console designed and/or produced by a US company since the Nintendo has sucked compared to its competitors and b) just plain old fallacy. For example, the Saturn, a console made by a Japanese company, did pretty well in Japan yet tanked everywhere else. The end result of that was creating a situation where Sega ran out of money to compete.
It might ALSO be worth noting that the list is generated based on the US launch titles. There are titles being developed that, so far, are only planned for release in Japan. There are Japanese RPGs, soccer games and others being developed specifically for Japanese Xbox 360 customers.
Short version: Your criticism is based on little but thin air.
Like Windows and Office (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder if they'll have lifecycles on the older X-Box 360s and, over the next 2-3 years, kill Live support for the earlier generations of X-Box 360s that lack hardware of the most recent ones.
M$, stop buying all good game makers (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Obvious development (Score:3, Interesting)
Baldur's Gate 1 (circa 1998): 500 megabytes
Baldur's Gate 2 (circa 2000): 1.2 gigs
NeverWinter Nights (Circa 2002): 2.1 gigs
Knights of the Old Republic (2003): 4.0 gigs
2005: 8 GB
2007: 16 GB
2009: 32 GB
2011: 64 GB
2013: 128 GB
The PS3 is released in 2006, so it will be 7 years old in 2013, which is reasonable for a console's lifetime. (Except for Microsoft's, which life only 4 years)
Re:Okay, that's it... (Score:3, Interesting)
The parent poster was talking about unspecified changes to the XBOX, and I was just pointing out that such behavior is endemic to Microsoft. I don't have any XBOX 360 examples, as I really don't care about the XBOX 360. Most of my computer gaming these days consists of occasional LAN parties involving Half-Life counterstrike. I might get a PS3 at some point, assuming it can still play all my old PS2 and PSone games as promised, and there are some PS3 games I want to play.
Re:Nailing your own coffin (Score:3, Interesting)
Sony and Microsoft are both failing horribly at this game and will soon be pushed out of the market by their own profit whoring.
This is like the wal-mart issue: the international megacorporations (Sony, Microsoft) are trying to push the little guy who's been in the industry since the beginning (Nintendo) out of the market, but at least this time the little guy is going to win!
Re:Backflip (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, but the XBox does. Therefore one would expect the 'new and improved' XBox to not have less functionality.
And since the post I was replying to indicated the XBox was "just like a PC", the lack O' hard-drive (eventually, maybe, sorta, they haven't decided yet) could change that.
The fact that other machines in the past didn't have functionality doesn't change that the versions in the future shouldn't be downgrades.