The Shadow of Kong

The BBC is reporting that the makers of the Kong game recommend against purchasing the 360 version of that title. The article states that an Ubisoft rep, Yves Guillemot, stated that the 360 version is just too dark to play well on a non-HD screen. However, Voodoo Extreme got in touch with Ubi for the official party line, and they had something very different to say. From the article: "Ubisoft is actively investigating isolated reports of resolution issues on specific plasma screens, which should be easily resolved by adjusting/increasing the settings. Ubisoft believes that King Kong offers one of the best gaming experiences available on the Xbox 360 and encourages gamers to check it out for themselves."

In other news

[SmallFurryCreature]

Ubisoft attends the local emergency ward to have a chair removed from its skull and a rabid ballmer is put back in his pen by MS zookeepers

Ah well, it is a good laugh.

Re:Well duh!

[Anonymous Coward]

Although I understand your sarcasm, what I find amusing is that the "something different" that they supposedly said is little more than a claim of "out of context!", followed by "it got good reviews!" and "buy our game! (it's better than the other XBox360 ones)".

Oh yeah, and a single line acknowledging that there is an issue on some televisions.

Re:Well duh!

[Guppy06]

"Buy it for one of the other three current consoles, preferably all three."

Re:The Revo strategy makes more sense to me now

[Keeper]

The first is that HD will catch on, who knows how popular it'll be over the Revo's life cycle? If it becomes the standard, will the Revo's graphics start feeling dated when our eyes are spoiled by HD?

You act like people can choose to continue purchasing SD tv's indefinately. It isn't a matter of "if it catches on", it is a matter of "when does the government throw the switch?"

By the time 2007 rolls around, every TV sold in the US (by law) must be capable of receiving an hd signal.

Re:The Revo strategy makes more sense to me now

[damsa]

The law is receiving a digital signal, not necessarily high definition signal.

Re:The Revo strategy makes more sense to me now

[Keeper]

The law mandates that TVs be capable of receiving an ATSC signal, which may be transmitted in any of the following horizontal resolutions/fields:

480i60, 480p24, 480p30 576i50, 576p25, 480p60, 576p50, 720i50, 720i60, 720p24, 720p25, 720p30, 720p50, 720p60, 1080i50, 1080i60, 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p30

How the TV chooses to display those signals is up to the hardware manufacturer, but they must be capable of receiving and displaying a hidef signal.

Under your logic...

[Headcase88]

...I have to buy an Xbox 360 because my TV is capable of recieving its signal. But under my logic, I don't, so I'm not buying one.

Re:Under your logic...

[Keeper]

Are you dense? That's not what I'm saying at all! Being "lowdef" is not a marketing advantage, period. It may not be a huge disadvantage, but it certainly isn't something to be proud of. Any arguement to the contrary is ignorant fanboyism.

Re:The Revo strategy makes more sense to me now

[rohlfinator]

"By the time 2007 rolls around, every TV sold in the US (by law) must be capable of receiving an hd signal."

But not every TV sold in the US will be capable of displaying that signal in HD, which is the important part. Also, ~90% of Americans still have SDTVs, and I'd be willing to bet that when the government cuts the analog signals, a lot of people would much rather buy a $30-40 set-top box for their current TV than a new HDTV for $1000+.

In addition, these consoles are marketed worldwide. The only co

Re:The Revo strategy makes more sense to me now

[paedobear]

I suspect you'll find the HDTV penetration is around 10% higher in Japan than the US. Europe, yes, just a buzzword (though plenty of people with decent monitors which the 360 will output to fine)

Re:The Revo strategy makes more sense to me now

[Keeper]

You're arguing that people are going to shun hidef technology -- that it won't catch on. It isn't happening.

People want that fancy HDTV -- they're just waiting for the price to drop or are waiting for their current set to "expire" before replacing it. All HDTV's don't cost > $1000 either.

25% of the TV's sold in the US were hidef in 2004. Estimates for 2005 are roughly 50% of the TVs sold. And it is looking like sales of hidef TV's will reach critical mass in 2006.

I can't see what universe someone ca

Re:The Revo strategy makes more sense to me now

[grumbel]

Many TVs that display HDTV don't suppert the full resolution, they simply downscale it to something that isn't much better then SDTV. HDTV will for sure catch on, but TV that really can display the full resolution are still very expensive and will probally stay so for quite a while. So till real HDTV is available on a large scale will take at least some years.

### And this is completely ignoring the demongraphic data

Nintendo is targeting the families, children and non-gamer, folks that most likly will not ha

You're forgetting something important

[brunes69]

25% of the TV's sold in the US were hidef in 2004. Estimates for 2005 are roughly 50% of the TVs sold. And it is looking like sales of hidef TV's will reach critical mass in 2006.

Percent of sales of TVs means nothing, because people do not buy a new TV every year. Hell, most peopole buy a big TV maybe once every 15 years.

Every single person who came of age in the 90s and spent $500 or more on a 32+ inch TV is *not* going to rush out and replace it with an HDTV until absoltely necessary. Why? Theres a mul

Re:You're forgetting something important

[leland242]

"Every single person who came of age in the 90s and spent $500 or more on a 32+ inch TV is *not* going to rush out and replace it with an HDTV until absoltely necessary. Why? Theres a multitude of reasons. First of all, they're 40-some years old now with kids to feed, and don't have thousands of dollars of disposable income to drop on a luxury item. Second, they dont give a shit, to them their current TV is just fine."

Is every single person? no, of course not. But I did. And I'm 28, not 40-something. I

Re:You're forgetting something important

[KDR_11k]

Unless that's not a HDTV I've seen the thing on the XBox 360 demo units. I'd buy that for 50-75 Euros (you can get 17" PC monitors for 90 Euros and that HDTV thingie has the drawbacks of being an LCD and widescreen). A nice, simple HDTV->VGA converter would be more useful though. Would need some trickery to make up for the godawful 50 Hz TV has in this country (and the not-much-better 60Hz you can use on consoles).

Re:You're forgetting something important

[Keeper]

Percent of sales of TVs means nothing, because people do not buy a new TV every year.

Did you stop reading my post at that point? Of course it doesn't mean that everyone gets a new tv. It means that when people buy a new TV, half of them go for the hidef tv. Next year, more than half of the people who buy a tv will buy a hidef tv. People don't see hidef tv's as some sort of gimick, or something that's too expensive to consider -- they see them as something they want.

Second, they dont give a shit, to them

Re:The Revo strategy makes more sense to me now

[rohlfinator]

"You're arguing that people are going to shun hidef technology -- that it won't catch on. It isn't happening.

No, I'm arguing that it hasn't caught on yet, and the government isn't going to "throw a switch" to make that happen. It's pretty obvious that HDTV is going to be the standard eventually. The problem is that it's not big yet, especially outside of the US. And even if a third of all Americans has an HDTV in 2006, they will still be watching SD videos and SD TV shows for a while. The lack of HD

Re:The Revo strategy makes more sense to me now

[AuMatar]

They rolled the date back 3 or 4 times already. It'll be pushed back again. The vast majority of existing hardware does not support it. As such, they can't throw the switch. It will be at least a decade before they do.

Re:The Revo strategy makes more sense to me now

[lotsotech]

Why in the world are so many claimed tech-heads fighting against HD? I've had my set for a couple years and that was years after sets had already been available. People will buy $500 video cards or better yet 2 of them for SLI or they'll buy whatever handheld gadget is on the market, but balk at the thing they probably spend most of their time watching. You can't play most new PC games on a 10 year old PC and you can't play Xbox 360 games on a Colecovision. You paid $400 for a game console, buy a halfway

Re:The Revo strategy makes more sense to me now

[Tim Browse]

I mean, now with future 360 games that they want to make "dark and atmospheric", they'll have to make an SD option that avoids the darker shades that can't be differentiated on an SD TV. Higher development costs.

Yes, I mean they'll have to include a whole new control on the options screen to select from a couple of gamma profiles. Or tell people to turn up the brightness.

Oh noes! Development costs will skyrocket!

Re:360 - A Complete And Total Disaster

[drewmca]

You seriously need to read news from another source besides slashdot, which is right now the only site reporting frequently on the supposed "disaster" of the 360 release.

Re:360 - A Complete And Total Disaster

[DoktorSeven]

So read from other news sites that are paid to write glowing, positive reviews of the piece of turd that is the 360?

We've had power supply problems, subpar games, and graphics that have yet to exceed the worst of the last generation of game systems. How is the XBox 360 *not* a disaster?

[Since this is obviously flamebait, I'm posting as AC. -- sc]

Re:360 - A Complete And Total Disaster

[DoktorSeven]

Oh, never mind, since I missed checking the Post Anonymously button.

Mod me down as flamebait -- unless you think it is insightful.. ;)

Re:360 - A Complete And Total Disaster

[Headcase88]

As much as I enjoy my Nintendo games, this is really narrow thinking. Some people like Xbox games and I'm sure some people are enjoying the 360 games on the market.

Now the question of whether those same games would be just as enjoyable on a regular old Xbox is another matter... The jump from N64/PS1 to GC/PS2/XBox seemed to have a little more impact on actual gameplay compared to what I'm seeing from the 360, but I suppose lots of number crunching comes in helpful on certain genres.

Re:360 - A Complete And Total Disaster

[AlexMax2742]

We've had power supply problems, subpar games, and graphics that have yet to exceed the worst of the last generation of game systems. How is the XBox 360 *not* a disaster?

Yeah, it's really a disaster when it's impossible to find a new Xbox 360 except on ebay. I think you need to be reminded about what a "complete and total disaster" actually is [n-gage.com].

Let me put something in perspective for you. I was playing a Half Life mod called The Specialists a few days ago. My roomate looked up at what I was playing

Re:360 - A Complete And Total Disaster

[delus10n0]

I'm guessing you've never played Kameo or PGR3 on XBox360? They are hardly "graphics that have yet to exceed the worst of the last generation of game systems." Call of Duty 2 looks gorgeous as well. I'm sure we haven't even begun to fully tap the capabilities of the system, either (same goes for any new console launch.)

Re:360 - A Complete And Total Disaster

[Threni]

> You seriously need to read news from another source besides slashdot, which is right now the
> only site reporting frequently on the supposed "disaster" of the 360 release.

You need to learn how to use a search engine:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4525318.stm [bbc.co.uk]
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3146387 [1up.com]
http://www.forbes.com/2005/12/14/gates-jackson-xbo x-cx_cn_1214autofacescan02.html [forbes.com]
http://news.com.com/2061-10797_3-5995807.html [com.com]
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/675/675720p1.html [ign.com]

Re:360 - A Complete And Total Disaster

[KDR_11k]

You were paid off by Microsoft.

Do you have any legit posters?

See? Baseless claims work both ways.

Ubisoft rep?

[Alarash]

Yves Guillemot is not just a "Ubisoft rep.", he's the CEO (being one of the Guillemot brothers, who founded Guillemot - videogames - and Hercules - hardware).

Re:Ubisoft rep?

[dtfinch]

I guess that means he's not fired.

Re:Ubisoft rep?

[Alarash]

Guillemot brothers founded Ubisoft - videogames - and Guillemot (later on renamed "Hercules") for hardware. My bad.

Huh?

[pnevin]

As long as you can still see the barrels Kong throws at you, I don't see the problem.

donkey kong

[kwoff]

I was going to ask if anyone knew why it was called *Donkey* Kong. Then I googled "name donkey kong", and it pointed to the Wikipedia entry where it explains that

The name was chosen by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto as a combination of the word "Kong", since the movie King Kong had caused it 'to colloquially mean monkey' in Japan. According to Snopes, "Donkey", was chosen because Miyamoto intended it "to convey a sense of stubbornness."

Re:Encouraging

[StingRay02]

$60, actually, for the 360 version.

Politics

[Anonymous Coward]

I strongly suspect this issue is 99% political. I have a 360 premium, Kong and a non-HD TV. The game looks absolutely fine to me. No brightness issues at all. Got a few friends in a similar situation, one of whom has a non-HD plasma TV and none of them are having problems either.

I'd love to see Ubisoft's profit margin on each copy of the game sold for the 360, compared with the other platforms. I'm guessing one of their accountants dropped the ball big-time during contract negotiations and now they're tryin

So...

[rbarreira]

So... So far we have a company which didn't test its console as well as it should have [xboxaddict.com] and now game developers who didn't test their games on normal TVs... Nice!

Define "dark"

[KDR_11k]

This is Ubisoft. When they realize something is too dark that means you're in deep shit. Even "bright" games like Beyond Good & Evil and Rayman 2 are unplayable without turning up the brightness a lot, their definition of "dark" must be close to Doom 3.

Exactly

[Taulin]

I got to see the 360 for the first time the other day at CompUSA and it had this game on a small HD TV display. It is funny reading this article because I thought it was a horrible game to showcase in public since the game looked so dark. Shortly after I saw COD2 at Walmart and also thought it was a horrible game to showcase because it looked like an average game I play on my PC. I would suggest showing DOA4, or at least an exclusive game to the system.

Re:Exactly

[delus10n0]

So you'd rather spend $1000+ to play CoD2 on your PC, than just $300+$50 for HD CoD2 on your TV?

Re:Exactly

[delus10n0]

XBox360 gaming = high def. Your PC = not high def.

I'd like to know what $80 graphics card can do CoD2 in 1920x1080 with 4x anti aliasing and maintain a smooth 30+ FPS. That's right, there is none.

Re:Exactly

[Taulin]

Why would I pay $1000+ for a new PC when I already have one that can play CoD2 at those settings? The best part is, it does a crap load of other things too. I wasn't bashing the XBox in my post anyway. I was just pointing out the games I see showcased really don't help the XBox. They need to get a demo of something unique to the system that can't be compared to anything else and use that in the stores.

Re:Exactly

[delus10n0]

You're not thinking from the mind of a gamer, or someone who would purchase a console in the first place:

1) Hi-definition gaming.
2) Way more advanced/the best console out right now, no competition.

Also, see my other post about playing "hi def" on your PC; it ain't happening cheap. It'd be much cheaper for you to just get an XBox360.

Re:Exactly

[Taulin]

...and CoD2 does not give the 360 justice since it is just a PC port. I say port because it plays like a PC FPS and looks like a PC game. This is in contrast to games that utilize powers of a specific console (DOA4, Gaiden, etc). There are many console games that can not be ported to PCs because they are architected for a specific console (GoW for example). If CoD2 is just one of the many games that the 360 will have that are mearly PC ports, I will take the PC version anyday, and forget the HD, I will

Re:Exactly

[delus10n0]

Okay, let me know when XBox/PS2/Gamecube can handle CoD2.

And don't tell me CoD2 is out for those systems, because it ain't. "Big Red One" isn't the same game; and I dare you to tell me it looks just as good as the XBox360 does.

You guys are really funny. If you want a PC, that's great, more power to you. But for console gamers, the XBox360 is where it's at right now.

Re:Exactly

[delus10n0]

It's funny how you're comprimising costs and quality now. Why not just buy the friggin XBox360 to begin with and get HD+4xAA, etc., not to mention an easy to setup system (no motherboard, videocard, soundcard drivers, etc.) We haven't even touched on the fact that there are hardly any soundcards that can encode to a Dolby Digital 5.1 stream. Only one card comes to mind (the nForce and it's MCP)

If you want a PC, buy a PC. If you want a videogame console (with a few other nice features), buy an XBox360. There

Bullshit!

[bVork]

I have a standard TV. I actually rented both the Xbox and 360 versions of the game to see the graphical differences. I ended up buying the 360 version. The graphics are night and day - this is THE game I suggest to show off the graphical power of the 360. I don't think the game is too dark. Granted, it IS a tad darker, but nothing that affects gameplay. In fact, the slightly darker graphics bring out the brighter effects like fire and sunlight much better. The Xbox version is a bit lighter but has a washed-