Inside X360: Jeff Henshaw Interview Part One AND TWO

[jvd]

seismologist

You have to understand a few things

1) A unified format for all games on the xbox 360 will help out many users who do not use a pc to play online games like quake 3 or counter strike . Learning 1 set of menus for connecting to your games beats learning 20

2) Once again making a unified format for all things makes it much easier for the casual to add things in . For example instead of each game having its own way to add your own music to it , you have 1 way through xbox live . Instead of having 20 diffrent ways to get more content you have 1 way through xbox live . It once again makes things easier and attracts the casuals

3) Video chat , voice chat , messages , live email . These are all things that keep people coming back . People like forming bonds . Doesn't matter if its at your local park shooting hoops or on live . People like to talk and share info which tehse things all do


Sure there is some fluff and things many wont use . But its thier and uniformed and casuals will only have to learn it once where as with out live they would have to learn it many times over .

 

[Inane_Dork]

Something akin to this setup is most likely the future model of living room entertainment will be based on something more complete like a PC offers.

That's entirely open for debate. People don't need everything the PC offers for powering their TV. Office? Calculator? Email? All unneeded. So it's not unreasonable for companies to offer closed boxes with a fraction of the PC's capability.

Personally, I see the model MS used for MC to become standard. In that model, the extenders need not be anything special. They just need to funnel video and audio to the display from the server, and you don't need a PC for that.

Which is why it baffles me when I hear about all the hoops MS is jumping through just to get video to play on the television through your Xbox.

Jumping through hoops? What hoops? The 360 connects to the Media Center and you're done. The only hoop I see is plugging everything in. You must know something I don't about this. Please, tell me.

Sony and MS have in mind a set top box idealogy. I'm kind of hoping Sony will stick to the Linux path to provide a more versatile solution.

Oh yeah. That's WAY fewer hoops than other options...

And that set top box idea will never work. TiVo proved that.

 

[BenQ]

I'm not saying that Sony doesn't have a plan, it's just at this point I'm not feelin it.

But with M$, I feel they have a CLEAR strategy, and and supporting their own hardware. Sony prefers to provide the hardware so that perhaps "someone else can do something with it."

When it comes to online console gaming you really do need a service live XBL.

If "PS3 online" is anything like PS2 online was, I'll have no part of it. I went out an bought the PS2 NA, and gave PS2 online an honest shot.... but it's JUNK by ANY standrd.

 

[randycat99]

I'm not saying that Sony doesn't have a plan, it's just at this point I'm not feelin it.

It's very simple once you step outside the bias.

•Maintain dominance in the coming round of console gaming.

•Take the technology crown for the coming hardware generation/ spearhead the era of an exciting and new processing architecture.

•Usher in the adoption of BR as the next media/movie disc standard.

You may or may not agree with the likelihood of these points, but they do seem to stand out clearly as objectives, nonetheless.

 

[Tap In]

WOW

very impressive feature set they have built into the X360.

I can't wait, as I'm one of those gamers who HATES gaming online with a PC, too may patches, too many different interfaces, too many reboots, too much frustration for this gamer who just wants to pop in a disc, have everything work and work well.

MS is on the right track IMO. Live has captivated me, and I NEVER thought I would try gaming online again until I tried LIVE.

This new functionality built into 360 will captivate others as it did me (on the first gen).

 

[scooby_dooby]

I'm not saying that Sony doesn't have a plan, it's just at this point I'm not feelin it.

It's very simple once you step outside the bias.

•Maintain dominance in the coming round of console gaming.

•Take the technology crown for the coming hardware generation/ spearhead the era of an exciting and new processing architecture.

•Usher in the adoption of BR as the next media/movie disc standard.

You may or may not agree with the likelihood of these points, but they do seem to stand out clearly as objectives, nonetheless.

To me Sony's strategy basically seems to be to try and out-power MS simply with hardware and then ride their brand-name. That's about it.

Seems like they are not doing much for games, or for online play. Why is Square-Enix developing for 360? Why are Capcom and Konami both bringing exclusives to 360? How did they let GTA slip away? I mean these are alls dev's or games that Sony should have locked down.

I don't see a real good plan, just ride the name and try and nullify XBOX 1's "power" advantage.

I'll give em a break though, it's early.

 

[Bobbler]

To me Sony's strategy basically seems to be to try and out-power MS simply with hardware and then ride their brand-name. That's about it.

Seems like they are not doing much for games, or for online play. Why is Square-Enix developing for 360? Why are Capcom and Konami both bringing exclusives to 360? How did they let GTA slip away? I mean these are alls dev's or games that Sony should have locked down.

I don't see a real good plan, just ride the name and try and nullify XBOX 1's "power" advantage.

I'll give em a break though, it's early.

You are correct -- Sony, so far, has just been trying to out do them with power and brand name.

I think this has to do with the fact that Sony works a bit different than Microsoft.

For example: Sony had the opportunity to essentially control Square, yet they wanted Square to be able to make games wherever they wanted (GBA/GC and even Xbox had MS not been pricks about Live!). Microsoft wants to take over the market by controlling the developers (read: buying them up). Sony isn't concerned with forcing developers to be exclusive to them for eternity -- they figure if they sell the systems the developers will come (which has worked before).

I can't say I'm pleased with the way Microsoft is forcing its way into the game market, but it is a completely 'valid' way of doing things as far as business goes. It has certainly helped MS along to being quite a ferocious competitor in the market place and Xbox360 is actually looking like it'll be worth a purchase this time around.

There are still cards that aren't on the table though (I'm sure even MS has a couple cards left to play) -- as you said, its still early (although I'm not sure if you meant early in the morning or not =o). If by TGS we don't see any real info on an online plan we can basically call it the PS2 online plan. As for non-online stuff, I don't really see anything wrong with their plan that has worked for over 10 years now (release a console with the playstation name on it and developers come and make games for it in droves). SE has so far only announced a port of a game that was on PS2/PC for the Xbox360. SE was actually at the sony conference, so I wouldn't say SE developing for the Xbox360 means a lack of support for Sony. Capcom and Konami will probably still make a majority of their stuff on Sony. GTA hasn't really slipped away either -- rockstar still seems to be putting their cards in Sony's basket. etc. etc. Support for Xbox360 doesn't mean Sony won't have the same support they had previously -- it just means MS' support is catching up to Sony's, which by all accounts is a good thing.

 

[mckmas8808]

To me Sony's strategy basically seems to be to try and out-power MS simply with hardware and then ride their brand-name. That's about it.

Seems like they are not doing much for games, or for online play.

We haven't even seen all of Sony strategy yet. Did you remember Sony is launching later than MS? I guess you missed every tech demo that Sony showed at E3. Well I actually seen it and it amazed me. I suggest you go check it out.

Microsoft wants to take over the market by controlling the developers (read: buying them up). Sony isn't concerned with forcing developers to be exclusive to them for eternity -- they figure if they sell the systems the developers will come (which has worked before).

So why is MS letting devs develop for the PC and X360. If they were anything like you explained it they would have made more games X360 only, instead of saying they will let games go to the PC too.

There are still cards that aren't on the table though (I'm sure even MS has a couple cards left to play) -- as you said, its still early

Believe me Sony will have more cards to play. Sony will have cards to play after the release of the X360. You guys have to remember that.

peace.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Ya the Sony E3 demo amazed me too, for about 2 hours until I realized that what I'd just seen had almost zero actual game content. Like Spiderman and GT? What does that have to do with anything?

As for MS allowing PC games, it's the same as GTA for the PS2. Just because it eventually comes to XBOX, it's still a huge system seller for PS2 because they get it first. PC users will have to wait like 1-2 years to play the same games.

Like said it's early, but all we can do is discuss what information is out there right now.

 

[blakjedi]

To me Sony's strategy basically seems to be to try and out-power MS simply with hardware and then ride their brand-name. That's about it.

Seems like they are not doing much for games, or for online play.

We haven't even seen all of Sony strategy yet. Did you remember Sony is launching later than MS? I guess you missed every tech demo that Sony showed at E3. Well I actually seen it and it amazed me. I suggest you go check it out.

Microsoft wants to take over the market by controlling the developers (read: buying them up). Sony isn't concerned with forcing developers to be exclusive to them for eternity -- they figure if they sell the systems the developers will come (which has worked before).

So why is MS letting devs develop for the PC and X360. If they were anything like you explained it they would have made more games X360 only, instead of saying they will let games go to the PC too.

There are still cards that aren't on the table though (I'm sure even MS has a couple cards left to play) -- as you said, its still early

Believe me Sony will have more cards to play. Sony will have cards to play after the release of the X360. You guys have to remember that.

peace.

honestly the gameplay videos of GoW and CoD2 are "better" than anything available today or in the near future on any system anywhere. They are way more impressive to me than tech demos or prerendered clips.

when ps3 shows me more games like fight night3 in game video then i'll be impressed.

 

[Bobbler]

Microsoft wants to take over the market by controlling the developers (read: buying them up). Sony isn't concerned with forcing developers to be exclusive to them for eternity -- they figure if they sell the systems the developers will come (which has worked before).

So why is MS letting devs develop for the PC and X360. If they were anything like you explained it they would have made more games X360 only, instead of saying they will let games go to the PC too.

You seem to be forgetting that supporting PC games on WINDOWS also helps Microsoft

They might not make money on licensing fees, but it continues to give people reasons to buy Windows based PCs.

What else does the buying of dev houses that MS has been doing over the last couple years mean? It certainly isn't going to stop here. It'll continue to buy up market share until it has an overwhelming slew of developers at its disposal to the point where it won't need to count on anything but itself to sell its consoles. At that point Microsoft wins and hopefully the games will still be fun (because entering the market at that point would be a scary endevour). Maybe I'm wrong, but I see no reason to believe Microsoft won't continue on doing what it has been doing the last few years to better its position in the market. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad there is competition in the market place -- I'm excited for quite a few Xbox360 games also -- I just don't like the very possible future (read: in another 10 years) that may arrive because of this.

 

[mckmas8808]

Ya the Sony E3 demo amazed me too, for about 2 hours until I realized that what I'd just seen had almost zero actual game content. Like Spiderman and GT? What does that have to do with anything?

1. So the Alfred M. demo talking about SSS didn't amaze you at all. The rubber ducky demo that showed the CELL being able to calculate on the fly its physics power. Did you see the bombs tear through the battleship's sail in realtime?

2. Or how about the Getaway demo that displayed HDR lighting using mostly the CELL and not really using the GPU? And there were more things they pointed out in that demo too.

3. How about the gas station demo that showed what kind of physics that the PS3 would have.

4. How about the UE3 demo that showed what a dev can do in a matter of 2 months. I know you liked this demo too right?

5. I'm guessing that you seen the Fight Night demo that show cased what the future of Fight Night will look like on the PS3. Those realistic facial anamations look great to me. And the way the skin moves when a fighter gets punched is amazing.

6. Or how about the real-time demo that showed what a MMO game could do in that forrest demo. It was the demo that had flowers and other plants growing in real-time. That looked pretty good to me.

7. Did you forget the Eyetoy demo that showed what the future of the Eyetoy will bring. People talk about innovation well this is it. Using drinking glasses you can manipulate the water and other things in the game in real-time. Did you see how the glasses on the screen bumped the ducks when he tossed the water. All of that is being calculated in real-time. You don't find that amazing.

8. The Final Fantasy demo was made in two months. WOW!! That in itself is amazing to me.

9. The Nvidia tech demo that showed the SSS abilites in the RSX in another great feature. Its amazing how we will get something great like that in the PS3.

10. The game EYEdentify looked interesting to me too. We will see how it plays out in the future but if the devs do it right it could be the first game in history that actually uses speech recongniztion with a camera that could open the gate to many games follow this trend.

Those are 10 things that were actual game content relation stuff. Again maybe you need to go back a watch it again. And as you can see I didn't even bring up non of the questionable videos that Sony showed either so don't go there.

Did anybody else catch this things in Sony E3 speech or isn't just me that actually noticed it and paid attention?

 

[PC-Engine]

You forgot one,
11. The CGI KZ demo...

 

[Bobbler]

While all those are good and have me excited as well, I think everyone would much rather have actual games -- not just tech demos. Tech demos only give a glimpse as to what is possible, games show the possibility in a form we get to play with. You can't really play tech demos (although, that cup demo would be fun to play with for a bit).

TGS will probably be where we get to see the games.

(that EYEdentify thing looked pretty cool if you ask me, I hope the HDIP Eyetoy really gets some use. And damnit, that FF7 demo made me sad -- if they don't end up making it then I'll be sad, now that I've seen that demo)

 

[Bobbler]

You forgot one,
11. The CGI KZ demo...

Do you ever post anything worthwhile? or were those 6k posts all as pointless as your latest?

Hey mods -- how does someone like PC-Engine manage not to get banned when all he does is troll?

 

[PC-Engine]

Exactly, that's why this Gb ethernet looks like it'll follow the same trend or as Randycat99 would say, "solution looking for a problem"...oh the irony.

No, you have that confused with SACD. Given that your very own benefactor jvd has expressed his own concerns over how easily to saturate the bandwidth of his 100 Mb home network (so maybe you should butt heads with him on that subject...yeah, right), ushering in Gb ethernet for a technology product to own the next half-decade, is really quite justified. You don't have to appreciate it, if you don't see the potentials, but you also don't have to dismiss it just because it won't happen to be in your pet console brand. Honestly...grow-up already.

Well I can guarantee the standard HDD in Xbox 360 will get a lot more use than a Gb ethernet aka "solution looking for a problem".

 

[Bobbler]

Exactly, that's why this Gb ethernet looks like it'll follow the same trend or as Randycat99 would say, "solution looking for a problem"...oh the irony.

No, you have that confused with SACD. Given that your very own benefactor jvd has expressed his own concerns over how easily to saturate the bandwidth of his 100 Mb home network (so maybe you should butt heads with him on that subject...yeah, right), ushering in Gb ethernet for a technology product to own the next half-decade, is really quite justified. You don't have to appreciate it, if you don't see the potentials, but you also don't have to dismiss it just because it won't happen to be in your pet console brand. Honestly...grow-up already.

Well I can guarantee the standard HDD in Xbox 360 will get a lot more use than a Gb ethernet aka "solution looking for a problem".

What does the HDD have to do with GB ethernet?

 

[PC-Engine]

Exactly, that's why this Gb ethernet looks like it'll follow the same trend or as Randycat99 would say, "solution looking for a problem"...oh the irony.

No, you have that confused with SACD. Given that your very own benefactor jvd has expressed his own concerns over how easily to saturate the bandwidth of his 100 Mb home network (so maybe you should butt heads with him on that subject...yeah, right), ushering in Gb ethernet for a technology product to own the next half-decade, is really quite justified. You don't have to appreciate it, if you don't see the potentials, but you also don't have to dismiss it just because it won't happen to be in your pet console brand. Honestly...grow-up already.

Well I can guarantee the standard HDD in Xbox 360 will get a lot more use than a Gb ethernet aka "solution looking for a problem".

What does the HDD have to do with GB ethernet?

Maybe the fact they're both standard features of a console?

Oh btw I doubt PS3 will have GB ethernet.

 

[Bobbler]

Maybe the fact they're both standard features of a console?

Except that doesn't even make sense...

That would be like saying the standard blu-ray drive will get more use than the faceplates. It is a pointless comparison and therefore, once again, offers nothing to further the conversation (which should come as no surprise, I suppose).

 

[Neeyik]

Once again, we have good thread potentially up for closure because certain people refuse to discuss matters without resorting to using snide comments, childish retorts and countless emoticons.

Are people just asking for the console section to be locked up again, just for the sake of having the last word on a completely irrelevant point?