360 Prices announced

[AndrewTS 0]

He's assuming it will be plenty of room. Honestly, nobody is going to fill up a 20 GB harddrive with game data, but we're not sure exactly how much room 360 saves are going to take up.

 

The hard drive alone is worth 100 bucks if you're going to use the backward compatibility. Assuming most or all of the XB games you want to play work with it, it still beats buying a new XB or, if you're lucky, spending 80 bucks for a used one. Plus, buying the other accessories extra--it's better to get the $399 version.

 

However, 40 bucks for a controller is insane. I honestly don't see the big deal about standard wireless controllers, anyway. Aren't every single one of these wireless controllers going to be eating up batteries?

 

Oh, and the 360 will get a wrestling game that doesn't suck, something the first one had a problem pulling off...

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/08/17/news_6131258.html

[Art Sandusky 0]

Go Revolution!

[Jobber of the Week 0]

It seems to be saying that Silver is only going to allow for stuff that's one-on-one--for example DoA4. However, for anything multiplayer, it seems you *need* Gold.

 

Hm, let's put it this way.

 

The Silver experience is more of a non-competitive community environment. Friends lists, messaging, video chats, micropayments, etc. The matchmaking system isn't involved.

 

Gold includes the experience currently provided in Quickmach & Optimatch of competitive multiplayer, and official tournament play.

 

Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Morgan Securities, wasn't as cheerful. He sees the $299 model as a "publicity stunt." "They're doing it to say they are launching at $299. The hardcore guys will absolutely not buy the $299 model...only a complete idiot would buy the $299 model."

 

Not my words, though.

 

He's speaking from a purely financial standpoint, but there's a point that I agree with him. Charging $100 more for over $140 of equipment serves only to make things more confusing. IMHO, Microsoft should have made the "big" box even more expensive, to make buying the regular box and one add-on a more tempting idea.

 

However, they're probably also assuming, rather smartly, that most chains (example: EB) are going to go with the bundles again, and require you to buy a game and/or third-party accessories along with the super box. If that's the case, the lesser box can become more attractive provided the same isn't done to it. Game chains will probably go that route to maximize the sales of both SKUs.

 

Yet Sony and even Nintendo are putting a much stronger focus on online gaming in the next generation. 

 

It has to do with the success of MMO's, which are more financially successful and more popular than a pay-for-play matchmaker service. People are looking, perhaps foolishly, at the example set by World of Warcraft and thinking "hey, those people just released that game and it's making tons of money."

 

Of course, Blizzard tends to be more talented at creating an interesting game than a lot of companies and even they had their share of online world pains with Diablo. Nintendo should be able to at least do something similar with the Pokemon license, though.

 

I don't see it as unfathomable for total 360's Gold members to equal or beat current Live customers within the next 4 years.  I'd say it's inevitable.

 

I'd say it's immediate, since current Xbox Live customers are given Gold status on 360 for the entirety of their subscription.

 

Well, so much for a $99 X-Box, but that's not too surprising considering they already sell 'em at a loss.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, there's two schools of thought on that. The first is that Sony made that same song and dance about the PS2, charging $300 for it for practically forever until Microsoft dropped prices and suddently their "we will absolutely, positively not drop the price of PS2" promises flew out the window. I still remember reading the online ravings and rantings of people who got burned by that one.

 

The other thought is that they really mean it, and since they openly state that they're looking at trying to put the Xbox division on the road to being in the black, then they aren't going to let the old system cripple them from reaching that goal. To an extent, greed is the name of the game for 2006, but at least they're being honest about it.

 

So if I understand you correctly JOTW instead of just owning a harddrive you'd rather buy multiple memory cards?

 

It's the way the other systems work. The hard drive was the original Xbox's signature component, if you want to call it that, but most people didn't use it for anything other than a big assed save card and many's (mine included) still list the usual 80 bazillion+ blocks. Even with my saved data on it and a number of map downloads for Unreal and Halo, the "space remaining" hasn't made a dent. Thus why they probably decided that it was time to up the RAM cache and just make the drive optional.

 

How many PS2 memory cards do you own? The 360 memory card has 8x as much space as the PS2 one does. I know I've only owned one PS2 memory card since I bought it, the January of it's launch holiday. The original Playstation, yeah, I had two cards, but they're smaller and I had a bunch of RPG saves. *shrug*

[AndrewTS 0]

The Silver experience is more of a non-competitive community environment. Friends lists, messaging, video chats, micropayments, etc. The matchmaking system isn't involved.

 

Personally--yawn.

 

He's speaking from a purely financial standpoint, but there's a point that I agree with him. Charging $100 more for over $140 of equipment serves only to make things more confusing. IMHO, Microsoft should have made the "big" box even more expensive, to make buying the regular box and one add-on a more tempting idea.

 

It'd be nice for retailers to allow totally custom bundles. I'd take a harddrive, XBL Gold, and 2 wired controllers myself.

 

As it is, the marginal cost is well worth it especially if XB1 won't be dropping. The Premium pack still comes with crap I don't need (headset, remote, and I don't care for wireless controllers much).

 

I'd say it's immediate, since current Xbox Live customers are given Gold status on 360 for the entirety of their subscription.

 

Depends on how many people become 360 owners around launch, of course. However, if the cost is about the same and the service is better, seems a no-brainer for current XBL users to upgrade. However, if PD0 and other launch titles don't really offer much, it may not be until Halo 3 that it grows much.

 

Well, there's two schools of thought on that. The first is that Sony made that same song and dance about the PS2, charging $300 for it for practically forever until Microsoft dropped prices and suddently their "we will absolutely, positively not drop the price of PS2" promises flew out the window. I still remember reading the online ravings and rantings of people who got burned by that one.

 

The other thought is that they really mean it, and since they openly state that they're looking at trying to put the Xbox division on the road to being in the black, then they aren't going to let the old system cripple them from reaching that goal. To an extent, greed is the name of the game for 2006, but at least they're being honest about it.

 

Since X-Box production I think has halted, XB1's major releases have tapered off, and their focus is currently on the 360, it does puzzle me. Couldn't retailers unload unsold X-Boxes by selling them at a loss, even without MS's approval? XB1 doesn't have much life left in it, unlike PS2, which I can easily see getting trickles of games onward into 2007.

 

That previous article hinted strongly that a $99 PS2 is on the way sooner. A big reason for the PS2 redesign is that it's cheaper to manufacture, and I guarantee Sony's going to be producing them for a while (and they'll probably sell a lot of them this Christmas). Yet, what could MS gain from a $99 X-Box? It seems like they're waving the white flag on this era, worried more about their preemptive strike on PS3.

 

How many PS2 memory cards do you own? The 360 memory card has 8x as much space as the PS2 one does. I know I've only owned one PS2 memory card since I bought it, the January of it's launch holiday. The original Playstation, yeah, I had two cards, but they're smaller and I had a bunch of RPG saves. *shrug*

 

Never owned an X-Box memory card--owned 3 PS2 cards and 4 PS1 cards.

[Scroby 0]

At leat you make a valid reasoning Jobber, I was half expecting just a "yes" answer.

 

How many PS2 memory cards do you own? The 360 memory card has 8x as much space as the PS2 one does. I know I've only owned one PS2 memory card since I bought it, the January of it's launch holiday. The original Playstation, yeah, I had two cards, but they're smaller and I had a bunch of RPG saves. *shrug*

 

I don't own any PS2 memory cards...I don't even own a PS2.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

The $399 version also comes with a premium chrome finish.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3143142

 

Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility Illuminated

 

A lot of us have been wondering about the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility issue. Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360 will be partially backwards compatible. What does that mean? Today we spoke with an industry source who shed some light on the subject.

 

One of the rumors floating around is that backwards compatibility will only work with a hard drive, which would have left Core systems out in the cold. As it turns out, that's only partially true. In many cases, the hard drive will indeed be necessary because you'll need an Xbox emulator file to sit on the hard drive (it's still unconfirmed whether this emulator comes pre-shipped on 360 hard drives but it is highly likely the case) and make your Xbox games 360-friendly. However, our understanding is that this isn't perfectly foolproof, and that it may not work in every single case.

 

What's especially interesting, though, is that select premium Xbox titles in the present and future are getting special treatment. We've learned that Microsoft is inviting some developers to make their current Xbox titles backwards compatible for both 360 SKUs -- that the games themselves will contain the Xbox 360 emulation code on them. In fact, certain Xbox titles already contain the code to boot up under emulation on the Xbox 360. Teams from Microsoft are helping developers with the project.

 

But resources are limited, so only triple A titles will get this kind of attention, and only products coming out in the window after the Xbox 360 announcement. Which ones? We have some hints, but nothing we can officially talk about yet. But don't worry, we're on the case.