[BlackDove]

Can't feel it truly until you turn that stupid censor off.

Oh oops, my bad on the 100gig drive Microsoft was supposedly planning. I guess that piece of news was fake. Seems like inferior storage capacity is the ultimate answer then.

[Deepblue]

Daaaaammnnnnnn.

(will not comment further)

[BlackDove]

No need for you to comment. This isn't a discussion or a debate.

[Turnsky]

other than savegames, what do you ultimately need the Hard Drive for?, i mean sure you can store demos and stuff on the damn thing, but also get rid of them when they outlive their usefulness.

[Deepblue]

Furthermore, why is HD media necessary for next-gen gaming? The truth is it isn't. You can get everything you need for next gen gaming with $299, and you can step it up with perks (which, I might add, were available last-gen as well) for $399.

Or you can try new-gen gaming for $249.

If you want an HD movie player though, yes the 360 will cost just as much as the PS3. But you HAVE THE OPTION. Remember, this is a GAME console.

[phatosealpha]

*read*

Oh, BS from Sony?  That's all.  Big whoop.  They specialize in that.


If they manage to get their PS3 to give killer BJ's, call me.  Until then, you can find me in the nintendo camp.

[Turnsky]

really, all i can see "Blue-Ray" being used for so far is more voiceacting in Square-enix games. 

[Black Wolf]

It wasn't that long ago that people were wondering what on earth games would need all the storage capacity on a CD for you know...

[Turambar]

nintendo wins this round of the console war

[Mefustae]

nintendo wins this round of the console war

Now, now, the dice are still in the air. Come November we'll see whether or not Big N craps out.

[Shadow0000]

It wasn't that long ago that people were wondering what on earth games would need all the storage capacity on a CD for you know...

Probabily not soon, but if the UHDV is implemented in the future, then even Blu-rays with 6 layers won't have enough space to store enough video for a movie, unless someone makes an encoding format with incredible high compression ratios that mantains quality overall.

[Ulala]

Furthermore, why is HD media necessary for next-gen gaming?

Personally, I don't think it's necessary at all. Well into the future, sure, but certainly not the current ("next")  generation.

[Turnsky]

really all disc space would be used for is more voiceacting, larger, bloated designs, higher texture resolutions..

all of which would be limited by whatever bottlenecks the system has.

i think sony's gone and shot themselves in the foot, a console is not the way to test thoroughly unproven, and pretty much still in flux, drive formats.

they didn't learn from their betamax experience, that's for sure.

the success of blue-ray hinges on the success of the PS3, which hinges on the success of its games, which are on blue-ray... a vicious cycle, perhaps?

[Mefustae]

they didn't learn from their betamax experience, that's for sure.

That was Sony?

[aldo_14]

Furthermore, why is HD media necessary for next-gen gaming? The truth is it isn't. You can get everything you need for next gen gaming with $299, and you can step it up with perks (which, I might add, were available last-gen as well) for $399.

Or you can try new-gen gaming for $249.

If you want an HD movie player though, yes the 360 will cost just as much as the PS3. But you HAVE THE OPTION. Remember, this is a GAME console.

Wasn't MS doing the big 'only HD' type advertising thing when the 360 was released?  Only logical that sony hook onto that, especially given their TVs et al (and the Bravia is a gorgeous piece of kit, just overpriced).

HD media is an interesting one.... on the one hand, the PS3 is most definately a Trojan Horse for Blu-ray and there's no immediate need for it.  However, it's also worth noting that modern games tend to be rather huge once installed - Flight Simulator X is apparently 15GB - and that size is simply going to increase overtime (in much the same way as early PS2 games used CDs and now we see DVDs completely filled).  But then you have another layer of interesting complexity on top of that in the form of compression and procedurally generated content. 

Truth is, of course, you can get everything you need for 'next gen' gaming for less than $299 depending on what you define next gen as.  If it's the Wiis' control method; $249 (I think?).  If it's the 360s horsepower and (established) internet connectivity, it's $299 (plus perhaps some optional bodgins).  And if it's the PS3s arguably greater longevity, HD movie playback (which some people do care about, certainly the lack of it was attributed as a failing of the Gamecube) and, um, ability to function as a fallout shelter once hollowed out, it's something ludicrous.

(to be fair, I've heard a fair number of positive reports about the PS3 as a console; the impression I've been getting is if it was $100US cheaper, it'd be a front-runner ahead of the 360 simply down to brand power and the 360s continuing and surprisingly poor* sales)

*less sales than the original Xbox in the same time period and still being outsold by the - obviously differently priced - PS2 in the US, I believe.

[Turnsky]

they didn't learn from their betamax experience, that's for sure.

That was Sony?

yep

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/format/beta/betamax.html

[Ulala]

Ugh, I had to convert like 200 betamax tapes to DVD for work, and because we didn't have the right equipment, I had to go through VHS in the process. Took weeks.

[Roanoke]

My local Co-Op had 360 Premium Packs for £300 last week.

Even so, I couldn't justify that kinda cash on a console.

[bizzybody]

The reason they all want movie playing is because of the success of the original Playstation 2 in Japan, back when a standalone DVD player was still an expensive item.

To get a game console AND a DVD player (which also played all the Playstation one games) for not much more than a DVD player was a big deal.

Meanwhile, SEGA didn't have the money up front to buy DVD reader mechanisims for the Dreamcast. (Though I wonder how much they spent in R&D on the GigabyteDisc-ROM, or did that come from another company?) Ohyeah, and their stupid gaffe of telling the world they weren't making any more consoles after the DC. Yeah, that helped sales...

SEGA had one bright spot in their home videogame history, when their 16bit console blasted Nintendo off the top of the heap. From there it was one stupid desicion after another, and the bad luck to be the first presenter at the first E3, with the Saturn*, only to be blasted by Sony's simple announcement of a price $100 less for the Playstation.

Hmmm, this is interesting, a list of 792 Dreamcast games. *woot* Any other consoles meet or beat that? And ISRT that a couple new DC games were released last year. SEGA is also selling refurbished Dreamcasts on their website somewhere.

*And not demanding that the majority of Saturn games use both CPUs and video processors. Too many games only used HALF the Saturn's capability.

[Turnsky]

The reason they all want movie playing is because of the success of the original Playstation 2 in Japan, back when a standalone DVD player was still an expensive item.

To get a game console AND a DVD player (which also played all the Playstation one games) for not much more than a DVD player was a big deal.

Meanwhile, SEGA didn't have the money up front to buy DVD reader mechanisims for the Dreamcast. (Though I wonder how much they spent in R&D on the GigabyteDisc-ROM, or did that come from another company?) Ohyeah, and their stupid gaffe of telling the world they weren't making any more consoles after the DC. Yeah, that helped sales...

SEGA had one bright spot in their home videogame history, when their 16bit console blasted Nintendo off the top of the heap. From there it was one stupid desicion after another, and the bad luck to be the first presenter at the first E3, with the Saturn*, only to be blasted by Sony's simple announcement of a price $100 less for the Playstation.

Hmmm, this is interesting, a list of 792 Dreamcast games. *woot* Any other consoles meet or beat that? And ISRT that a couple new DC games were released last year. SEGA is also selling refurbished Dreamcasts on their website somewhere.

*And not demanding that the majority of Saturn games use both CPUs and video processors. Too many games only used HALF the Saturn's capability.

do note that the dreamcast has a huge indy following, and third party games for the DC are abundant in japan. from a western market perspective, the Dreamcast is all but dead, in japan, it's reasonably alive and well.