The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
X360 - Microsoft's Living-room Trojan
Toast
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
A number of people have been saying for quite some time that the Xbox doesn't even remotely make sense unless MS is trying to build its presence in the living room for strategic reasons. Well, guess what? Bill Gates agrees:
[quote=Bill Gates]
Yeah, but it's a general purpose computer. In terms of that first generation in particular where we were still known as a PC company, the need to make clear how we were prioritizing the needs of demanding gamers, that was super important. That was super important in terms of the culture of the team that was doing the work and how they thought about their marketing. But, we wouldn't have done it if it was just a gaming device. We wouldn't have gotten into the category at all. It was about strategically being in the living room. And this is not some big secret. Sony says the same things. During that first generation, they had more latitude to talk about it since Sony has already gotten their gaming credentials but they were not there even more than gaming. For us, people sort of take it for granted -- hey, you do phones, and set-tops, and IPTV and all these things so it's easier for us now that that's part of the message for people to say, of course Microsoft's is going to make Messenger work on the Xbox. They're going to let you look on your phone and see that someone beat your record on this game and schedule an Xbox gaming thing. There's a huge milestone this year -- I'm basically agreeing with what you're saying -- Xbox was a gaming device. Now you can download videos on it. I sit and watch high-def videos never touching a plastic disc. You can take all the PCs in the home and use this extender capability so you get your PC richness up on that screen, in Media Center or whatever, and we're announcing that it's a set-top box so if you're somewhere that's got IPTV now you've got live TV, the most state of the art experience; downloading movies, state of the art; gaming, state of the art; and projection of the full PC experience. It's not a PC but it brings that PC into the living room. So when you talk about convergence it's the first device that says, oh yeah, this is convergence. It's real.[/quote]
So yeah. I'm kinda amused by the "no shit, sherlock" response, but eh. I'm not saying its necessarily a bad thing of course - hell, the talk about bringing the PC into the living room rather than simply replacing it is pretty reassuring - but there you have it. It's good having it out in the open too, IMO, saves arguments and lets everyone know where they stand.
The rest of the article is worth a read too - the stuff about net neutrality particularly so, IMO. I'm sure people will find plenty to discuss, anyway
[quote=Bill Gates]
Yeah, but it's a general purpose computer. In terms of that first generation in particular where we were still known as a PC company, the need to make clear how we were prioritizing the needs of demanding gamers, that was super important. That was super important in terms of the culture of the team that was doing the work and how they thought about their marketing. But, we wouldn't have done it if it was just a gaming device. We wouldn't have gotten into the category at all. It was about strategically being in the living room. And this is not some big secret. Sony says the same things. During that first generation, they had more latitude to talk about it since Sony has already gotten their gaming credentials but they were not there even more than gaming. For us, people sort of take it for granted -- hey, you do phones, and set-tops, and IPTV and all these things so it's easier for us now that that's part of the message for people to say, of course Microsoft's is going to make Messenger work on the Xbox. They're going to let you look on your phone and see that someone beat your record on this game and schedule an Xbox gaming thing. There's a huge milestone this year -- I'm basically agreeing with what you're saying -- Xbox was a gaming device. Now you can download videos on it. I sit and watch high-def videos never touching a plastic disc. You can take all the PCs in the home and use this extender capability so you get your PC richness up on that screen, in Media Center or whatever, and we're announcing that it's a set-top box so if you're somewhere that's got IPTV now you've got live TV, the most state of the art experience; downloading movies, state of the art; gaming, state of the art; and projection of the full PC experience. It's not a PC but it brings that PC into the living room. So when you talk about convergence it's the first device that says, oh yeah, this is convergence. It's real.[/quote]
So yeah. I'm kinda amused by the "no shit, sherlock" response, but eh. I'm not saying its necessarily a bad thing of course - hell, the talk about bringing the PC into the living room rather than simply replacing it is pretty reassuring - but there you have it. It's good having it out in the open too, IMO, saves arguments and lets everyone know where they stand.
The rest of the article is worth a read too - the stuff about net neutrality particularly so, IMO. I'm sure people will find plenty to discuss, anyway
Toast on
0
Posts
edit* also, what is with the thread title? Like our sacred living room is being invaded by microsoft. I love the 360 as a media hub, it is really good at what it does.
It's true.
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
I'm pretty sure that Sony's said the same thing, too.
Nintendo hasn't because I don't think they care too much about living room space...they just have the "let's get people as many gameboxes as possible" philosophy. I mean, their Wii is very living-room centric, but they aren't really going for the whole media center experience.
Not that there's anything wrong with either philosophy. A good living room/den solution is welcome. So are good gameboxes.
It's a great console, and I now use it as a DVD player and to stream MP3s off my PC. I don't see it as a viable replacement for movies and TV with bandwidth and storage limitations what they are, and at any rate I much prefer having a physical disk to a saved file somewhere.
What does it do, exactly? At the moment I'm running XBMC on an original xbox, but I'm thinking of getting a 360 sometime in the next few months. I'm just curious whether it does anything that XBMC doesn't.
It was the first assumption a lot of people made but I've not seen an MS person much less Gates himself come out and say so explicitly before. If you've got links to prior sources please let me know.
I'm Bored.
You're Boring Toast.
Xbox = Media center pc extension.
Everybody and their mother ever already knows.
Thread over.
Nah, XBMC actually does alot more more, it's just that, as Llama said, what the 360 does do, it's really good at. Like, setting up a share between a 360 and a PC on a network literally takes like ten seconds, and from there, it's even easier. It's just damn effortless.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
How does the sharing work? I have a lot of my media files on a fileserver running FreeBSD and Samba. Will the 360 stream from that or does it require some weird arrangement with Windows MCE?
Because then it will be a SEX-box 360.
Oh, well, thanks.
Entirely my pleasure.
i don't think you can do it if you don't have a windows-based pc
Halo.
It uses a Windows Media Player 11 function called media share.
The only thing I wish the 360 could do is play more media formats. There is absolutely no reason it should not be able to play .avi files.
keyboards work on the 360 for certain things and MMOs like FFXI
KBAM controls will never happen because they belong on the PC and not a console
I played both the PC and Xbox versions of Halo, and the Xbox version controls so much better... I can't even try to imagine playing Halo 2 with KBAM, you'd have to press more buttons at a time than most keyboards will let you. (To crouch walk with the bomb, to attack someone you'd need to stand up or else your PC will beep at you for trying to press more than 4 keys)
That being said, I'd only play Renegade with a KBAM setup.. because they made the game with that in mind.
I guess I'm one of those weird people that can play with both schemes and not bitch or talk about how one is supposedly superior over the other 100% of the time.
Yeah, but look who was behind porting it.
I'm sure that there are ways to keep from having to press too many buttons at once, every other PC FPS does it just fine and Halo 2 is not the most complicated FPS ever.
That being said, I think halo on PC doesn't work, not because of controls, but because it isn't fast enough. Also, the weapons just don't feel right on a PC.
I love it as a media centre. The advantages I would give the 360 over XBMC is it's ease of use (comes out of the box and interface is excellent) and the 360 can obviously play 360 games and orriginal xbox games so that means one less box for my tv, but the XBMC wins due to the fact it can play avi's. (Though it should be pointed out that the the 360 can but you do need windows MC)
Satans..... hints.....
Gearbox Software? Makers of arguably one of the best FPS expansions of all time?
And some of the worst console to PC ports of all time.
Such as? About the only thing I can find that was a true port was a Tony Hawk game; other than Halo, of course.
I don't know, maybe I don't give them enough credit. My experience with their ports has been aweful. Halo was very "meh". The controls just didn't translate well to me. Brothers in Arms would have been a fantastic PC game if it was made with the PC in mind. It was a clunky port, just like Halo. Nightfire was bland before it was a port, so I guess that it could have been a decent port for a bad game, but I doubt it. Due to experiences with their past games, I will stear clear of any console to PC ports that gearbox does.
I'm not going to argue with you guys over it, it is just my opinion.
Their PC exclusive stuff has a spotty record too. Blue Shift and Opposing Force were awesome, Condition Zero not so much. I have high hopes for Aliens though.
Also, Australia won't be doing this whole internet TV thing for a while, probably a long while, so our trojans are looking rather neutered.
HD downloadable content: Not nearly enough space on the 360 HD, made redundant by more capable HD DVRs, unable to take content on the go.
IPTV: Great in theory, but fails in a number of key areas compared to cable and satellite - HD content availability, QoS and (again) the limited capacity of the 360.
Media Streaming: The really robust features are limited to tech-heads who can setup a Windows MCE install and network; limited severely in regards to file formats; limited support with the #1 portable media player (iPod); basically requires you to be locked-in from top to bottom with Microsoft products to maximize usefulness.
HD-DVD player: Even if it's beating Blu-Ray, it's not anywhere close to DVD. By the time that high-definition discs actually matter, it'll be time for another console revision. Sony and Microsoft seem to have wasted a lot of time and money on shit that a near-insignificant portion of the market actually cares about.
Some things will be ameliorated by a larger (and hopefully affordable) hard drive. HDMI is good, but it'll only effect dudes who haven't been able to do HD over component or VGA yet - HDCP hasn't really reared its ugly head yet.
And, really, all that doesn't change the fact that the 360 is a great console with a robust online setup and some fantastic games. It's just that it's as much the "omfg second coming digital living room dream of tomorrow" that Media Center Edition is: a limited success among Windows diehards, while the masses are fine with whatever they get from Comcast or TiVo or DirectTV.
AT&T vs. Time Warner.
The resulting deals and price fights will make the world a better place.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Uhhh, funny, I did it for the first time last night, and it took me all of about ten seconds. Really. Jack 360 into network. Enable sharing with it from WMP11, where its auto detected over the network.
And I don't run WMCE, either.
Limitations on file formats I'll give you too, but iPod support? It's pretty damn complete to me, especially considering it's for a device they don't even own. That's like complaining you can't use ford parts on a Toyota, dude. o_0
Yeah, I it was a dumb idea to put HD-DVD functionality built into the cons.... OH WAIT :roll:
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Hopefully we can all agree on this and just let them do whatever extraneous bullshit they want, just so long as it doesn't interfere with that whole game thing or drive up the price.
Two things. 1. Thier version of Condition Zero was never seen by the public aside from screenshots. The version that was was made by Turtle Rock Studios, and people who bought that version got the Ritual Software version as free "deleted scenes"
2. Apparently, Nightfire for the PC was actually a seperate game than the console version, and was made using the Half-Life (GoldSource) engine.