Well, according to MS, it sounds like it will continue to be difficult to find one for quite a while into 2006. Without seeing specific reports from retailers (which they may not even have for the 360), this is about the best info I can get regarding any info about further 360 shipments. And seeing as how they are basically saying that they won't be able to ship as many as they thought, I'd find that pretty disappointing. If MS really wants to cut deep into Sony's market share, they're not helping themselves here. Perhaps I could try spinning it some, just like Peter Moore spun the terrible sales in Japan, but that wouldn't really be helpful in showing how much this could possibly impact (negatively) the Xbox 360. Had they been able to pull this off (worldwide launch), I would have shown much more appreciation towards the system and MS. It would put Sony in quite a bind, especially if MS was able to sell the system in Japan. That didn’t happen though; in fact, I'd say that given what has occurred so far, MS may have even rushed things too much. So in this regard, the 360 has been a bit of a disappointment IMO.
I apologize, but it looks like I used an article that used false information. Here's the correct story on this issue from GS: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6142087.html So I guess MS might miss their estimates, but they never said they would; of course, on the other hand, they might meet and exceed those estimates as well, although you would think they wouldn't dodge the question if that was the case. However, until those 90 days pass, it is impossible to know that from these articles. So again, I apologize for jumping the gun on this, and obviously I have a slightly different view point on the 360 supply issue. I still stand by my statements regarding the launch of the system and everything else, but I have no reason to be critical of MS for continuing to have supply issues this long after launch...at least, not yet since it hasn't been proven.
Thanks RC Cola for the information again. I would argue with hotballa on some of his issues (some are admittedly legitimate complaints), but this is the Hangout and not the D&D so I will leave it at that. I also think that MS screwed up a bit and should have just concentrated on building the base in the US first or waited until they had enough games to whet the market wherever it may be (US, Japan, Europe etc). Why bother to do a worldwide launch when you fail to make a dent in those countries at all in the first place? Maybe they should have tried a reverse of Sony and just make huge strides in the US market first then go after the international one. Just a thought. An FYI, but I am not a die hard Sony loyalist. I would take the better product (i.e, the console with the most games that I would want to play). It is the same reason why I would buy an Apple Ipod over the new Sony MP3 players (Sony is finally coming out with some decent ones though). Finally, yes, I know the Japanese gaming market is not the end all or be all, but for whoever doesn't think it is an important one is clearly missing something here.
i want my 5 minutes back from reading your junky posts, hotballa. all your trying to do is stir up some d&d controversy.
The entire article was based on fake information, therefore the entire thread was a waste of time. Props to RC Cola for admitting his mistake and posting a counterreport. BTW, this must be the 2nd or third time you've posted something that turned out to be false Still though, each time you've admitted your own mistake and owned up to it. It's something I admire even though I trhink you're a fanboy. Mishii, I still stand my statements about Japan's repressive homogenous nature (which is the complete opposite of China's, which wholeheartedly embraces foreign goods), but we can save that for D&D when one of us feels up to it
Here's a question: All the HD-DVD & Blu-Ray machines shown off so far are MASSIVE. They are also f-ing expensive (the cheapest being one HD-DVD model priced at $499). So... A.) How in the hell will Sony fit the Blu-Ray drive, along with the power supply (which I imagine would be sizeable & is supposed to be internal on the PS3), hard drive, & network/connectivity hardware into that little case? Will the 360 add-on HD-DVD be some massive brick, as well? B.) Are these companies really willing to take that much of a loss (the drives cost more than the freaking consoles) to push a format (either one) that most consumers are far from ready for?
Yes, I have been slacking quite a bit in the last few months. In fact, I came this close to posting a thread about Nintendo having Silent Hill as an exclusive franchise next-gen, but I found out it was all a joke, similar to Clutch's April Fool's Day articles. Hehe...I guess I need to try and be a little less aggressive when trying to report the news. I have no problems admitting my mistakes, but it is something I'd rather not do that often. Also, I don't know if I'd say this thread was a complete waste of time. While the thread was based on misinformation, we ended up discussing various VG topics, and I even got to give some props to Blue Dragon, which I'm not sure many people know about. Sometimes, I'll try to post just about any kind of news just so I could also post something I normally wouldn't dedicate a thread for. I would have hoped that the original news actually turned out to be 100% accurate, but at least some other things got thrown in that had a litte bit more value. First off, a new picture I saw recently that might answer part your question: That's supposed to be an external HD DVD player from Toshiba. I guess the 360 one would be about the same size, assuming this isn't THAT complicated to do. IIRC, the DVD players out around the time of the PS2 were pretty big as well, yet they had no problems fitting it into a "small" case. As for the PS3 power supply, it is not really known whether or not it is internal or external yet. The PS3 cases they've shown so far suggest internal, although I think the 360 concept designs suggested the same as well (perhaps "concept design" is a key word?). It would make a lot more sense to make it external since I imagine it would draw a lot of heat, something the PS3 doesn't need more of inside. It would be massive too, similar to the 360 power supply. So we can have a round 2 for power supply jokes. As for your second question, keep in mind that the prices they're asking for these players are not really indicative of how much it cost them to make these BR/HD DVD devices. It isn't like Pioneer is just getting by with their $1800 player; in fact, I'm sure Toshiba is making at least a small profit on their $499 player, and that is a great price for a HD disc player. It remains to be seen whether or not they'll be successful with these moves, although at least both formats are being pushed by some popular devices. In a few years, someone who bought either one and also had a HDTV for HD gaming may just go ahead and buy a BR/HD DVD movie since they already have the necessary equipment. MS and Sony, just by supporting HD and these disc formats, are helping out the chances of either one of these formats succeeding, especialy for BR since it will be in every system. Had they done otherwise, I would think it would be MUCH tougher (if not even close to impossible) for either of these formats to succeed DVD.
Yeah, saw that yesterday at another forum. It was basically ignored after the 1st sentence, where they stated only 5 developer kits were in NA. Not sure how reliable the rest of article is, but that right there puts it under heavy scrutiny.
Actually, I think they verified him as a developer (one with a significant history). See the comments.
Ah, you are indeed correct, although Joystiq sure didn't help clear up any confusion with this article. After looking into it a bit, I found out that this was written back on Nov 24 2005 (maybe even sooner, but that's the earliest date I can find for it). And this Josh Robinson is indeed an artist for SOE and SCEA. I still find the dev kit comment a bit strange, although he actually says "We received one of 5 PS3 dev kits in the United States some time ago," so depending on how much "some time ago" is, that might be correct. I'm pretty sure Epic, EA, and Rockstar all had one devkit each at least by E3, and this guy was working with another one, leaving one left for the US...still a bit hard to believe IMO, especially since I would think those teams should have more than one each, but it is a little more in the realm of possibility I guess. While I have no doubts about his position in the industry, his comments just seem so...strange. I'm not sure why he was wondering where the PS3 was in November of last year...final kits weren't even scheduled to be out until December, and that may have even been slightly delayed, at least for the developers that aren't on the short list. For comparison, the final Xbox 360 kits weren't out until like 2-3 months prior to launch, IIRC, and there was much bigger difference between the 360 final kits and the previous kits compared to the final PS3 kit and its previous kits. So again, he's complaining about not having final kits ~4 months prior to the earliest time Sony would launch the system? Factor in a more logical time period, like say the fall, especially for a SCEA game, and the gap widens. Not really sure what he meant by that. Then he says something about being the only company, to his knowledge, that ran live off the box at E3. I'm assuming his demo was the SOE clip, which had the flowers, river, and all that other stuff in it. I guess he didn't watch the show (although he keeps linking it in the forum), because Epic and EA both manipulated their games in realtime, running of the dev kits, something that he said that they couldn't even do on his demo.Then he admits he's not a technical person, so he doesn't really understand all the Cell processor and stuff like that. Finally, he goes off basically saying he hasn't seen anything that looks next-gen, and that the expected things from next-gen like higher poly counts, subsurface scattering, and a fair amount HDR aren't being used. Unless he's just expecting something INSANE from these consoles, I guess he just hasn't seen much outside of his own game. Kameo and PGR3, to my knowledge, seemed to have quite a bit of HDR, and I'm pretty sure the poly counts in PGR 3 were much higher than anything before. I think there was a quote from Bizarre that said something about one bridge in PGR3 had more polys than an entire level in PGR 2 (or maybe PGR1, can't remember). I know they were saying something about 40K polys for the inside and outside of the cars as well (so 80K total IIRC). I think from his posts in their forum, he says something about HL2 still being the best game he's seen. Although to be fair, I'm not even sure I understand what he means by this anymore. He mentions Gears of War several times as being something that would actually take advantage of the hardware, but wouldn't that be something he's seen? Is that not "next-gen" enough? Or even worse, does he think HL2 is better looking that it? I don't even have to get into the MGS4 demo, which by itself pretty much conflicts with what he says. In fact, FN3 also seems to disagree with him, although I'm not sure if there was any substantial footage of the game at the time of the article, outside of the E3 demo...which I don't think he ever saw given his previous comments about being the only realtime demo. So again, he is indeed a developer for a PS3 game (he even works for Sony). Yet, I'm not sure how much his opinion is worth noting, especially since he doesn't really know anything about the technical aspects of these consoles.
I checked out what some others thought about this guy at Beyond3D. Something one of the PS3 developers there mentioned that I didn't even think about is that if this guy has a NDA that is anything like their NDAs, then he'll be out of a job pretty soon. In fact, even if they aren't the same, the fact the he was basically dissing his own game might be enough to get him fired. As one of the developers there said, he doesn't seem to be the sharpest tool in the box. I'm actually kind of glad you pointed that out to me Rocket G. If it wasn't for you, I would have stopped at the dev kit comment and never seen all the other strange things he said. This has all actually been pretty funny.
