War! 360, PS3, & Revolution

[Jedieb]

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/ontech/0,15704,1063256,00.html?cnn=yes

I don't pretend to be a serious gamer. In fact, my major motivation in buying systems is play the newest SW games. The next generation of systems are right around the corner and a couple of them look damn impressive. PS3 -iis boasting it's practically a "supercomputer" and the X-Box 360 wants to be a multimedia hub that will challenge Sony for the number 1 spot.

I'm just curious who everyone is picking to win this next round. I think the X-Box has a huge advantage by beating Sony and Nintendo to the punch. The 360 will be out in time for X-Mas.

[Shawn]

PS3 -iis boasting it's practically a "supercomputer"They said the same thing about the PS2. Sony's hype machine is unrivalled and is a very large reason why the PS2 enjoyed the popularity it did. I think that's going to carry over to the PS3. Already, they're misleading people into believing pre-rendered screenshots are in-game footage.

On the other hand, the PS3 very well may be the most powerful of the next gen consoles. And if they have the largest installed userbase (which I'm guessing they will), then they'll probably also get the largest variety of games.

Microsoft really needs to put forth more effort into their image. In Japan, the XBox was an utter failure - solely because their poor image there. The 360 is coming out well before the PS3, yet we're already seeing Sony's "Chang3" campaign with virtually no competition from Microsoft's front.

Nintendo, like always, doesn't really bother with image because their core audience will always buy their consoles/games, while their core detractors will always ignore whatever they have to put out. When it comes to war, Nintendo will probably just stay on the sidelines.

[Morgan Evanar]

Sony has an excellent hype machine that already killed one great console system, the Dreamcast, even though it took two years for it's games to look about as good.

I hope that Microsoft does a better job marketing the X-Box because Sony is excellent at hype.

[Jedieb]

What is everyone planning on buying? I'm waiting to hear what the price points will be. They have to come in at $300. Anything more than that and I think a lot of people are going to pass. At $300 I'd probably ebay my X-Box to get my hands on a 360.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'm a Nintendo girl at heart, though the only reason I can see myself buying another console is for the Final Fantasy games (which have gone down hill in recent times) or the Zelda series.

[Khendon Sevon]

Microsoft’s propaganda machine is working. Just look at the exposure they got on MTV and in Time magazine. I didn’t know about ps3 until after hearing about 360—and only then because it was mentioned in passing in the Time article.

Additionally, if you’ve seen the 360 you’ll notice that it’s a huge change from the original death star of a console that xbox is. It’s sleek, sexy, and customizable. Microsoft has snagged some nice names to throw around for games (Blizzard and BioWare are among them).

So, what am I getting? 360 all the way.

Edit: and what's up with the "cell" processor? They say it'll be 10 times faster than a regular processor, what the hell are they going to do? Make it 512bit? How are they going to get their processor ready for all of the software/hardware demands required of it by their (next) summer release expectations and keep prices down?

No, tried and true technology is needed, not empty promises. I don't want a console the price of a ps3 to burn out like my PS and PS2's have.

[Shawn]

Originally posted by Khendon Sevon
Edit: and what's up with the "cell" processor? They say it'll be 10 times faster than a regular processor... This is exactly what I mean when I talk about Sony's hype machine. They throw around confusing techno-babble and make outrageous claims, and people eat it up.

I'm not sure which console I'm going to get; Whichever one has all of my favorite franchises is the one I'll go with. I bought the PS2 because both Soul Reaver 2 and Silent Hill 2 came out on it (both of which were later ported :mad).

[QuiGonJ]

Course, the damper on all this are the price tags I've heard from Trouz who works at an Electronics Boutique.. $500 for the X-Box 360 and $700 for the PS3. Nobody will pay those kinds of prices.... least I don't think they will.

[Shawn]

The prices won't be that high; Neither Sony nor Microsoft even attempt to make money on system sales. They both take huge losses every time they sell a system. Where they make all their money is on the licensing fees from the games themselves. The XBox 360 will be between $300-350, and Sony will match whatever price they set when they launch the PS3.

[Drake Shadowstalker]

if Microsoft thinks that it can gain any significant advantage by releasing the 360 a little earlier, they are more delusional then i thought.

[Morgan Evanar]

Originally posted by Drake Shadowstalker
if Microsoft thinks that it can gain any significant advantage by releasing the 360 a little earlier, they are more delusional then i thought. Um it's going to be released before the Christmas season and the console is about in beta clothing.
Originally posted by QuiGonJ
Course, the damper on all this are the price tags I've heard from Trouz who works at an Electronics Boutique.. $500 for the X-Box 360 and $700 for the PS3. Nobody will pay those kinds of prices.... least I don't think they will. Historically EB employees are horribly wrong.

[Khendon Sevon]

Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
Historically EB employees are horribly wrong.
Amen. Never ask them to decide between two games for you--you'll end up choosing the one you wouldn't have gotten and will return it the same day for only 50% of the original price back :(

[Silus Xilarian]

Ive nearly choked an EB employee all three times that ive gone in.

Im hoping number 4 is a charm.

[Cat Terrist]

Originally posted by Drake Shadowstalker
if Microsoft thinks that it can gain any significant advantage by releasing the 360 a little earlier, they are more delusional then i thought.

Would you care to rethink that statement? PS2 got a huge jump out of the blocks by being first and established. The whole thing is about mindshare and if the 360 is out there selling units while the PS3 is hype, then what are the game developers going to do?

Go for the cash. Console in release = cash. Developers = mindshare.

I dont see anything delusional in Microsoft's thinking.

[Morgan Evanar]

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/xbox360-1.ars awesome article on the X-Box's CPU. Hannibal is the best CPU tech writer on the net.

[Gav Mortis]

I'm a Nintendo girl at heart too, Jen. :cool

[Jedieb]

Historically EB employees are horribly wrong.



Amen. Never ask them to decide between two games for you--you'll end up choosing the one you wouldn't have gotten and will return it the same day for only 50% of the original price back

Ive nearly choked an EB employee all three times that ive gone in.

Im hoping number 4 is a charm.

I'm sorry if any of my employees have ever provided anything but the best in customer service. Please provide me the store location and the employee's names and I will promptly have the employee and their entire family disposed of. :shootin

I think getting the system out before X-Mas is a big advantage. It'll get casual gamers first and those parents who don't mind shelling out big bucks for X-Mas will snap it up. What does everyone think about the DVD players? The PS3 is going to play Blu-ray and regular DVD's. I'm dreading the upcoming HD format war but I think that's a nice extra to have. I kind of wish the 360 had followed suit.

[Morgan Evanar]

Actually Microsoft is playing it safe because the HD DVD format is a pretty big uknown at this point. It's not like changing optical drives for them is a big deal. When the dust starts to settle MS will release a "special" version with the new drive.

[Clive Solo]

Originally posted by Jedieb
I think getting the system out before X-Mas is a big advantage. It'll get casual gamers first and those parents who don't mind shelling out big bucks for X-Mas will snap it up.

Yeah exactly...kinda makes you wonder why PS didn't push for a pre-Christmas release.

[Shawn]

Originally posted by Jedieb
I'm sorry if any of my employees have ever provided anything but the best in customer service. Please provide me the store location and the employee's names and I will promptly have the employee and their entire family disposed of. :shootinI've always had poor experiences in retail game stores. It's generally not the fault of the management, just the stupid fanboy employees.

Re: HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray: I dunno. Blu-Ray is a superior format, but I think HDDVD is going to be more widely accepted.

I believe Microsoft went with standard DVD for the 360 as a cost cutting measure; And really, 2x DVD9s should be more than enough for even this generation of games (for reference, that would be ~ 20gb).

[Khendon Sevon]

Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/xbox360-1.ars awesome article on the X-Box's CPU. Hannibal is the best CPU tech writer on the net.

Wow.

[Morgan Evanar]

Originally posted by Clive Solo
Yeah exactly...kinda makes you wonder why PS didn't push for a pre-Christmas release. Because Sony thought it knew how to make a graphics chip and realized it does not, so it had to work with Nvidia adapting the G70 to the PS3.

[Clive Solo]

Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
Because Sony thought it knew how to make a graphics chip and realized it does not, so it had to work with Nvidia adapting the G70 to the PS3.

Ahh I see. I heard that Sony was going with Nvidia, but I hadn't heard that they tried to develop one themselves first...

[Morgan Evanar]

The original plan was to have Cell also do the graphics, which if you understand how graphics chips work is really really funny.

[Clive Solo]

Yeah, I agree. I didn't know any of that.

So what in your opinon will be the better system graphics wise? Isn't both PS and 360 close to a 3.2 capability? Basically like high end computer gaming, which is good for me because my computer blows.

[Morgan Evanar]

They're both going to be absolute monsters in terms of graphics. While Killzone 2 was essentially a bag of hooey the PS3 will be able to compete with the X-box. At this point image quality is going to stop being so much of an issue. The two chips are roughly equal. Cell is likely a little faster on paper, but Microsoft actually knows how to design developement evironments and out of the gate it might be easier to develope for. There is a lot of similar architecture for the main proccessors, which were both developed primarily by IBM and based on the PowerPC design. It's really too early to tell if ATi's embeded memory that does anti-aliasing for free is going to make a big image quality contribution versus the PS3's moderately faster chip.

In this generation of consoles it's going to stack up image quality wise identically the way the latest ATi and Nvidia cards do: the same.

[Khendon Sevon]

Which means it'll come down to features and games. Should be an interesting, and bloody, battle.

[Yog]

There was some story/rumour on gamespot about Nintendo releasing all of their titles for NES, SNES and N64 free for download for the new console. Some 210 titles or so. If that turns true, thats amazing value. Classics like the Mario Bros, Zelda series etc..

Ignoring the possibility above, I think PS3 is the frontrunner in this race, because of the allready large userbase. MS will probably gain some marketshare while Sony keeps the lead.

[Shawn]

I've heard the same thing, but I feel pretty skeptical. Especially since they're still making money off several of those titles by re-releasing them on the GBA. I could be wrong, but I bet it's something like "Free when you have a monthly subscription of $9.99 to our new program."