Next Gen Console Systems

[TooLBlue]

PC is for MMORPG's, and even some of those aren't very good either. Most PC games you can find on consoles, some better, some worse, it all depends on how good the computer running it is.

PC does FPS games better, also...

I can't play console shooter games. You simply need a keyboard

[D.A.R.K.[CotC]]

I couldn't care less for a keyboard, I need a mouse to play FPS's, but some FPS's on consoles I'm pretty good at.

[Death_Dealer[CotC]]

Everything I have read in magazignes and on trust-worthy web sites says that Sony's system is expensive but Sony PS3 is going to sell between $400-$500 at a loss to compete in the market with Microsoft's 360. PS3 still has the benifit of playing games all the way back to PS. Blueray allows for some amazing games and is the only thing jacking the price up so high. This will cause limited availability upon launch.

Nintendo's Revolution will allow you to download old games all the way back to the NES. The new controller is interesting and has great potential, but it all relies on the game manufactures to make games. Nintendo has already scared away many game companys with the N64 and Gamecube. This new controller and the fact that Nintendo stated that they don't need to have HD to compete with the others. On the N64 they refused to go to CD's and limited what content programers were allowed to make for the first year until they lost some of the biggest software developers, by the time they changed there ways it was to late for N64. With the Gamecube they refused to go to DVD wich really limited the games being made. Also it is stated that the Revolution is hard to program for. I love nintendo (zelda, metroid, mario, ect.) but I fear for Nintendo's future. The Revolution does have the same controller ports as the Gamecube so you can atleast use the wavebirds.

I just dont care for Xbox so I will only say this. Can release a damn system without it having critical hardware problems.

One last thing all three system are quite different in programing. which makes it hard for companies to make cross platform games, which translates into a lot more single console games, that blows.

Everything I stated I read in a gaming mag recently or on a creditable website, I didn't pull any of it out my @$$ or read it off a forum and repeat it as fact.

[Neophyte]

Death Dealer, I don't discount your sources, but what does your brian tell you? How many games do you own on any system that require more than 1 DVD?

I know, but the new games will be high def! Right? The latest game that I bought for my PC was Elder Scrolls Oblivion. And that took almost 1 DVD. If it needed more they could have used a double sided DVD. And PC's are a high definition device, so it's a good comparison.

But they'll charge less for the game system and just recoup the $400 - 500 offset in game titles right? Well, no. Not unless they charge a lot more for games. Today, makers of the game system only earns about $10 per title. The retail store earns about $10. Leaving the rest of the money for the publisher, distribution, shipping, and the game developer. Retail stores like Walmart will dictate that a game title must sell XX number per week. If it doesn't meet that mark, the game maker must discount the title and take a loss. Walmart doesn't take the loss. Even in a rosey picture you're talking about 40-50 titles sold before Sony starts to turn a profit on the system. That's a serious concern because EVERY PS3 sold must have that number of attach rate. I know of some console systems that through the life of the system nobody collected more than 20 titles. Sony will also make an additional $2 on movie sales to offset the cost. But now you're talking 250 movies to make PS3 profitable. You can mix the numbers between games and movies but you're talking some serious inventory here before Sony makes a profit. I just don't think they are that generous to the public, or that stupid.

Disk space will be necessary in the future. But games can simply use existing $39 DVD drives and call for a 2nd or 3rd disc and equal the same function and detail levels of a $350 BluRay DVD drive. BluRay is only necessary for HD movie content where its distrcting to swap disk's mid-show. Why not spare the gamer the $311 so that he/she can buy games?

I'll tell you why... Sony is betting that if you have the drive, you will buy more Sony movies. They want you to re-purchase your dvd library in HD format because it makes more money for them. Sony also makes their money by selling BluRay licenses to studios to allow them to save and distribute a disk in BR-DVD format.

The bigest problem with BR-DVD is the copy protection. Hollywood MPAA dictated to Sony how minute and exacting the standard will be. Sony rolled over like a very *friendly* person and took all that and put it in their format. That's bad news for us consumers.

[D.A.R.K.[CotC]]

A couple things

First, I own about 5 games that are more than one DVD in size.

Second, Microsoft and Sony don't make money off the console, they make it off of the individual game sales. And if you think they don't sell enough games to make up for any losses they have, you're terribly mistaken. They sell games by the millions, and make huge profits from them. The gaming industry is a really big industry, and sales are in the billions of dollars a year, and are expected to more than double through the next few years.

You also have to take into account that Microsoft and Sony don't base their company off of games. The majority of their profits come from elsewhere: Microsoft has Windows and other computer software, Sony makes electronics. They can easilly afford to take any hit from their gaming section b/c the rest of their profits far outweigh any losses they could possibly incur from their gaming section. Their profits are in the billions, who says a couple millions in losses will hurt them?

As of right now, the PS3 is estimated, and almost guaranteed (still waiting on the final word from Sony) that their price will be set around $400-$500.

And one more thing. The majority of games are not made by Sony or Microsoft, they only license the games. Games are made by actual professional game-designer studios, like super power Electronic Arts, Capcom, Square Enix, and Activision. The costs of producing games are burdened by these companies, not Sony or Microsoft. Sony and Microsoft pay to have the game made, licensing it out to whoever can do it.

On a final note, which could be an impact for the rest of games out there, Activision announced that they would be raising the prices of games they make for the new systems by $10, to $60. This could be caused by many reasons, like how much more sophisticated the games have to be now. And yet, these top game-making companies are boosting their game development spendings by 30-40%, to over $450 million, some as high as $600 million.

Makes you wonder where the money is doesn't it? They're smart, they know what they're doing. Companies are only getting bigger, and people are only buying more.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/ ... mes05.html

http://www.dfcint.com/news/prfeb112003.html

You can find all of this at the above link, and I can easily find more, like the quarterly earnings of all the companies, comparison charts, the internet is loaded with it. I did a research paper on this once, and there's tons of info just floating around.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=5199969

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4172753

Here's even some radio shows that you can listen to.

http://www.gdconf.com/

And this site is pretty interesting too.

[D.A.R.K.[CotC]]

Here's some more info for you guys to digest.

http://www.ps3vault.com

Good for all PS3 info

http://www.ps3vault.com/ps3-price/

Price info for the PS3

http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_ ... d=24355287

This is supposedly pure rumor and speculation, but it's rather interesting and a good read.

http://searchwarp.com/swa25272.htm

I think this is true facts... should clear up any questions on the Revolution.

I think that's enough

[Death_Dealer[CotC]]

Thanks Dark

[D.A.R.K.[CotC]]

It's what I do

[Neophyte]

Hey Dark, what 5 games do you have that take more than 1 DVD?

I didn't know that Nintendo was thinking about lowering the license fees for the Revolution. Microsoft and Nintendo would put themselves in a good position to take over Sony's business if Sony can't safely lower the cost of the PS3. With the Xbox 360 at a lower price than the PS3 and allready on the market pumping out HD graphics and Nintendo driving the low cost angle, Sony needs to get something out there and do some damage control. Of course it's all speculation, but I would like to sneak into a Sony executive meeting and hear what they are planing to do. Low-cost PS3 without the BR-DVD drive? Interesting!

[Rico]

... but what does your brian tell you?

OK, if DeathDealer has his own brian, where can I get mine? I need a brian to do all those chores I hate to do...

[D.A.R.K.[CotC]]

Come November we will all know what Sony and Nintendo are really going to do

[D.A.R.K.[CotC]]

Take a look at this little doozy, figures that lawyers are going at it already..

"Lucent sues Microsoft over Xbox tech

Lucent Technologies has filed a patent infringement suit against Microsoft over the same MPEG-2 decoding technology at the center of a 2003 legal dispute.

According to the formal complaint, filed March 28 in U.S. District Court in San Diego, the telecommunications equipment maker is suing Microsoft for patent infringement against Patent No. 5,227,878, titled "Adaptive Coding and Decoding of Frames and Fields of Video," which was issued to Lucent in 1993. The patent concerns MPEG-2 video encoding.

In 2003, Lucent filed infringement cases against Dell and Gateway over several patents, including No. 5,227,878. Because of its indemnity agreements with the companies Lucent was going after, Microsoft filed a countersuit against Lucent that same year.

Although Microsoft won several patent infringement claims on summary judgment, the claim concerning Patent No. 5,227,878 was dismissed without prejudice (meaning the lawsuit can be filed again if the problems are fixed) because of a typographical error in Lucent's patent.

"The judge dismissed the countersuit without prejudice, giving Lucent the opportunity to file for a patent correction, which we did," John Skalko, a spokesman for Lucent, told CNET News.com. "However, between the time of this original dismissal and our re-submission, there was another development. Microsoft issued the 360."

The typographical error in the patent concerned the phrase "compressed video bit stream," which has been corrected to read "compressed digital video bit stream and fields of compressed video bit stream."

The Certification of Correction to the patent that allowed the correct phrasing to be put back in was issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on October 2005. The certification gives Lucent "the same effect and operation in law on the trial of actions for causes thereafter arising as if the same had been originally issued in such corrected form." According to the complaint filed by Lucent, the alleged infringement on this patent concerns the Xbox 360's "'out of the box' MPEG-2 decoding capability."

"The patent at issue is one that previously had been asserted by Lucent in connection with patent litigation between the parties since 2003. We're currently reviewing the complaint. Microsoft is an intellectual property company and we respect the intellectual property rights of others," Microsoft said in a statement.

Said Skalko, "We have a case. Otherwise it wouldn't be in court."

Lucent has requested a jury trial and is seeking an injunction against unauthorized use of the technology and unspecified damages."

This article is taken from Gamespot.com

[Neophyte]

Doesn't Microsoft have a department that researches this stuff?

I wonder if the big MS holds the record as the most sued company in the world yet?

[BD]

Go Microsoft and Go EA!!!

(disclosure: I own both of these. )
(sorry, youo guys wrote too much )
So what's the vibe? Is PS3 a 360 killer or just playing catchup and will it run PS1/2 games? (part of my homework to see if Sony is worth getting into)

[D.A.R.K.[CotC]]

I suppose they want to make it a 360 killer, but not much else can be said. It will run all current PS1 and PS2 games, plus the new PS3 games, with up to 7 players able to play at one time without the need for a multi-tap (who owns one anyway?). It's boasting some of the best and most superior graphics yet, and new technology with their disks that will make their games larger than life... Who knows what will happen, especially with Nintendo pricing it's console so much lower than the rest that IT could actually be the killer instead of 360, especially with it's new retro-gaming compatability (I think it goes back to the N64... maybe Super Nintendo).

Also, the vice president of Sony made a statment about the pricing:

"$500 is cheap for a Blu-Ray player, but too expensive for a console..."

I'm not sure what he's getting at, but that's what he said.