E3 Microsoft Conference Thread

I thought it was a good conference showing and playing games on stage that you can play this holiday... I am guessing most of the announcements with bang for upcoming yr will happen at Leipzig (sp?)

 

'Many' as in 'forum'?

Most game sites agree it was pretty solid.

 

COD4 looks incredible. I was stunned.

 

I have kids, digital distribution is the last thing you want. You want a $10 DVD which you then rip to the HD as a fuggly 600MB file that kids can watch at random moments. You do not want to get a dics out and really don't want to DL and pay for a $3 version every other day.

I really can't see how anyone can afford Live's movie service, it cost too much and in the end you own nothing.

 

Seriously? Its no more expensive then driving to your local Movie joint to rent a movie, that you have to drive back to the store to return? I know more people who rent movies, then I know who buy DVD's.

Not counting Netflix, since thats a different model, but I use Live and Comcast ONDEMAND for many more new HD movies that I never thought I would of a few years ago.

Even with Netflix, I still get maybe 1-2 movies every other week. Which by the Live numbers, is what the other 7 million people hooked up to Live are doing as well.

 

agreed... game of the show so far IMO

 

It closely matches the conventional movie rental system, which people happily afford.

If your kids want to watch the same movie over and over again, then rental is the wrong solution - regardless of whether Live is an option or not.

 

I don't think there was anything at all 'everyday' about the fact that MS generates revenue at a rate in excess of 2:1 over both their competitors combined. Or that those revenue streams are going to be enhanced by spreading globally.

I'd have to assume you are a consumer, and not a publisher, developer, or investor, which is what 'the new E3' is aimed at. Perhaps you are letting your past ideas of what the E3 is supposed to encompass cloud your views.

MS keynote was clearly aimed at the group I mentioned above. It was a business address, with a side note to the consumer. Not the other way around. The aim was for MS to impress its business partners, investors and potential partners and investors.

 

It was one of the most boring E3 press conferences I've seen. With the amount of good games coming out you'd think they would have more than a couple demonstrations on stage; where were the first party demonstrations? Halo 3, Lost Odyssey, or Mass Effect, games we haven't seen very much of. It would have been nice to see a little more of PGR4 as well.

No Rare was a huge disappointment, I figured they would have something to show off, an XBLA game in the least. Rare supposedly has at least four teams working on games plus the handheld team and they couldn't show a damn thing? They have a huge catalog of games that they could bring to XBLA yet all we have is Jetpac Refueled, which I admit is really fun, but to not have anything else from them is....strange.

Talking about XBLA, they show a quick clip of Marathon during the XBLA montage and speak nothing else of it. You'd think they could have had some sort of a surprise release XBLA game like last year. (btw-were any XBLA games put up today?)

 

I understand how you can personally have a problem with the model, Todd, but to project your preferences across the population doesn't hold up as Ant and Zassk have both demonstrated.

The numbers of people who are downloading content off Live Marketplace was extremely impressive. So while you might wish to own the physical media, others don't have a problem with renting.

Additionally, if one was required to purchase the physical media to appease their children, I would expect that children's titles would do typically poor in other forms of video rentals, and I hardly doubt this is the case.

So while the option might not appeal to you, I think it's pretty evident there would be universal appeal for this feature.

 

sadly to hear that becuase we (my and wife in our late twenties) are perfectly happy with it. it has nice eclectic selection of sd&hd media, its hd image quality is good(better than comcast hd) and it's prices are not that bad (i pay comcast 4.99$ for new most of the new hd movies and i get only 2 day period to watch them compared to xbl's 7 to 14 days)

 

yeah Sonic and Golden Axe

 

I mentioned in the Sony conference thread that MS had 3 big duds in theirs and those were the ones I was referring to.

I didn't dislike that they had Harmonix guys demoing Rock Band, because the idea is to show that it's fun to play, not that you look good doing it. But it is not fun to play a game when someone who doesn't know how to play accidentally pauses the game twice and it's maddening to be forced to watch it. I am especially pissed about this because I am so eagerly anticipating the game. I don't imagine Harmonix, EA, or MTV were too pleased either.

I felt exactly the same about the Madden Demo as Asher and Rancid. 'Nuff said.

The Halo3 360 got a completely appropriate reaction form the crowd. Their silence spoke volumes.

Otherwise, it's absolutely true that people are grading down MS's showing as much on what they didn't announce/show as what they did. But IMO that's fair. They had the gaming world's full attention and I don't think they exploited that to the degree that they could have.

Even in spite of all this, you can't really call it a bad showing, though. They really do have an amazing holiday lineup and it was right to focus on it. I also think the live demos were very effective (with the above 2 exceptions) and they get extra points from me over Sony for this.

 

I wouldn't give Comcast a penny for movies either. Just use Netflix which has 100x the content. Even renting a couple movies a week from XBL is like $16/month (Netflix is $12.99/month) in HD and the selection is anemic. Not to mention HD-DVD/BD is full 1080P and not highly compressed 720P.

If the prices were $2/movie for HD I might be tempted.

 

Yep, and Itunes is doomed to fail too.

 

Wow, that was a leap, the two services are nothing alike.

 

Most people can't realize the economies of scale that you're talking about. When you rent 2 movies/month, all of these delivery methods cost roughly the same. The differences come down to convenience and selection. In terms of overall convenience, I think Live > Netflix > VOD > store. The selection comparison speaks for itself.

As for quality, the vast majority of HDTVs are ~720p, and the vast majority of sound systems can't really deliver sound quality beyond the ~450k that Live delivers. For most customers in 2007 and 2008, HD/BD is overkill, and Live is very close to the sweet spot.

As the average home theater rises in quality in future, a download service can be improved to match it.

 

Who the hell rents a 'couple movies a week'? Get real. Why not look at a realistic scenario that would demonstrate the attractiveness of digital media?

For example a couple who rents 2-3 movies a month, on weekends.

The typical visit to Blockbuster involves driving, waiting in line, and 8 of the top 10 movies are all sold out. 99% of the time they watch the movie one time.

If you can get the same releases, through VOD, in HD, with a short lead time, for $5? Hell ya, why not?

It's really not hard to imagine scenarios where online rentals are attractive.

 

It is also similar in look to that of the Zune Halo Edition too(except for the army green). BTW, that's not orange trim, it's suppose to be a GOLD trim instead. The reflection just makes it look orange.


Tommy McClain

 

Looks like they're wireless at least according to the box. And the big button on each controller is a different color. Makes sense as there is no ring of light around the Xbox Guide button to tell you which controller you have.



http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/just-lik...me-brings-movie-trivia-to-xbox-360-277515.php

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/s/sceneitlightscameraaction/

I think I might pick this one up. Would be great to take to my dad's during the holidays.

Tommy McClain