Microsoft’s Regional Director Rips Blu-Ray Questions Sony's Strategy

[Qroach]

That is a valid point. who does BC really appeal to? Does it appeal to hardcore gamers? Does it appeal to casuals?

Imo backwards compatability appeals to the casual gamers and people that have to sell thire previous console before buying a new one. I think hardcore games tend to have multiple consoles, or at least keep the last gen box sitting around for those games they want to play.

I don't think a 600 dollar price tage is going to appeal to the people that can really make use of that feature.

 

[Magnum PI]

I can see to a certain degree those that would use ps3 as a kind of status symbol (as sad as that is).

yes we shouln't undesrestimate the number of people like that, their existence has something to do with the success LCD/plasme enjoy.

 

[London Geezer]

yes we shouln't undesrestimate the number of people like that, their existence has something to do with the success LCD/plasme enjoy.

Dear God let this not be the first in a series of People-who-buy-LCD/Plasma-only-do-it-cause-flat-screen-TVs-look-'cool'-in-front-of-your-friends-cause-CRT-still-has-the-best-IQ posts.

 

[Magnum PI]

That is a valid point. who does BC really appeal to? Does it appeal to hardcore gamers? Does it appeal to casuals?

Imo backwards compatability appeals to the casual gamers and people that have to sell thire previous console before buying a new one.

i see BC as a comfort, if i want to play an old game i won't have to keep my old console around, plug it etc... and i can give the old console it to some family member.
in fact even if there is no BC i won't keep the old console, rather give it, let it live a second live, and maybe enjoy old classics when i visit

i guess this isn't that important to hardcore gamers who will play the new games on the new consoles, not looking backwards.


i think i don't qualify as hardcore.

 

[TheChefO]

yes we shouln't undesrestimate the number of people like that, their existence has something to do with the success LCD/plasme enjoy.

I agree there are people who bought plasma etc because of the cool factor. But a videogame system is different in that it is not yet a device which everyone can relate to, where as tv is.

To non-gamers they see it as a toy. In the case of a ps3 owner, an expensive toy (where have I heard that?).

 

[Magnum PI]

Dear God let this not be the first in a series of People-who-buy-LCD/Plasma-only-do-it-cause-flat-screen-TVs-look-'cool'-in-front-of-your-friends-cause-CRT-still-has-the-best-IQ posts.

no, some of them only.

LCD/Plasma have their qualities as they use less room, and it can be an enough reason (and an objective one) to choose them over CRT. and some prefer their aesthetics over CRT, and it's their main criterium.. why not ? i won't criticize them for that.

i think most of LCD/plasma buyer aren't just as concerned about image quality as I am.

and LCD/Plasma aren't nearly as bad as some years ago, when they costed much more. IMO most of the early adopters were more after prestige than anything else. they bought 15000 $ plasma which were crap image-wise and lacked serious durability were

maybe some buy CRT for the only motive of showing how they are more smart than the CRT/plasma masses.

 

[rabidrabbit]

So "retro" is not "hardcore" of today, though it was that yesterday.

 

[Magnum PI]

I agree there are people who bought plasma etc because of the cool factor. But a videogame system is different in that it is not yet a device which everyone can relate to, where as tv is.

but if most of the people you frequent are sensible to the coolness of the gaming device ?

ie: if you are a student or young adult with essentially friends like you, who share the same culture, who for the most play games, the cool factor will be as effective or even more as if you bought a TV. you won't care if grandpa and grandma don't see the coolness.

and if the device double as a blue-ray player it's even better.. you'll able to show your cool HD setup to your non-gaming friends.

 

[Magnum PI]

So "retro" is not "hardcore" of today, though it was that yesterday.

what is an hardcore gamer ?

for me it's someone who devotes a big part of his free time to videogames.

 

[TheChefO]

but if most of the people you frequent are sensible to the coolness of the gaming device ?

ie: if you are a student or young adult with essentially friends like you, who share the same culture, who for the most play games, the cool factor will be as effective or even more as if you bought a TV. you won't care if grandpa and grandma don't see the coolness.

and if the device double as a blue-ray player it's even better.. you'll able to show your cool HD setup to your non-gaming friends.

Agreed but then you are talking about gamers. And if impressing them is the goal then spending the extra cash on ps3 over 360 will not get you the "props" you're so desperately looking for. The cash would be better spent on some next gen games to go along with the system and perhaps an extra controller or two.

Thinking back to the neogeo days if you were in the game to impress then one of these arcade/home units would do the trick as it was not only expensive, but it was clearly a significant step up from everything else on the home market that the cost was "justified" and held in high esteem to other gamers. This "justification" to gamers is what is missing in Sony's plan.

WRT hd content - good point but hd tv is pretty prevelant so while movies will get you that wow factor, so would any free tv station broadcasting via hd antenna which can be had for $30 at any radioshack.

To gamers the games will be what impresses and come this xmas, I think that game will be owned by MS.

 

[Magnum PI]

WRT hd content - good point but hd tv is pretty prevelant so while movies will get you that wow factor, so would any free tv station broadcasting via hd antenna which can be had for $30 at any radioshack.

here HD broadcast is just entering a very limited deployement which only covers the main cities. it started less than two weeks ago.

i forgot how much HD was commoditized in some other parts of the world

 

[Arwin]

here HD broadcast is just entering a very limited deployement which only covers the main cities. it started less than two weeks ago.

i forgot how much HD was commoditized in some other parts of the world

In Europe you're also seeing sales of new TVs more than double due to people getting a new set to watch the World Cup on. It's crazy. A recent article here detailed that they now estimate about 900.000 HD sets would be sold by the end of the year. With 16.500.000 people in our country, that covers a fair number of households already by the time the other two-thirds of next-gen hit the stores

The thing is although you can get HD here and there (most cable providers are now going full-on digital for all subscribers), people really just tend to spend a fixed amount of money on a new TV. It seems to be about $1000, and these days, that tends to include 768p support.

 

[SMOKE]

BC is a + in my book for any system especially since the 360 launched so early games like Black and PoP havent had time to really shine for me because of the lack of BC at the time. I for the first time had to sell my xbox to get credit to purchase a few games for a 360 just incase I had to ebay it. The PS3 is going to be "PHENOMENOL" this holiday and through out 07' FFXII is bc'd out the gate at PS3 launch and so will GoW2 when its released. I havent heard anyone praise how flippin close to the E3 05 trailer Motorstorm has come to nor HS in this thread. I remember during and after E3 how some if not most of you doubted the power and authenticity of those trailers if they were system sellers for you or not. Warhawk is long overdue for a sequel (I enjoyed the PS1 version alot) HS is just an amazing (even if it is a hack'n'slasher) game, my only letdown was not being able to see an actual build of Killzone too actually see if it indeed can live up to the E3 trailer like Motorstorm and HS. But to be honest I like and am eagerly anticipating whatever game comes to the PS3 launch and BR. If any of you are gonna miss out cuz of the price and lack of games, you sure didnt mind taking advantage of the 360 launch and ebaying them damn systems for profit. $600 is not bad considering what most paid for them on ebay and still didnt have games worth paying that much for a system anyways. I feel the price point is irrelevant considering whats coming down the pipe and what a MS exec has or not has to say. I cant wait and yes there are folks that come in to EBGS asking to take preorders of more than 1 system.

 

[Magnum PI]

that tends to include 768p support.

there is no such thing as 768p in HDTV resolutions.

too bad a lot of these 900 000 tv sets, despite being labelled "HD Ready", won't able to correctly render HD content.

like the LCD with 1366 x 768 matrixes, where for 720p content (1280x720), you'll have to leave black borders around the picture, or to scale it up, which has inconvenients.

what a scam.

 

[TheChefO]

there is no such think as 768p in HDTV resolutions.

too bad a lot of these 900 000 tv sets, despite being labelled "HD Ready", won't able to correctly render HD content.

like the LCD with 1366 x 768 matrixes, where for 720p content (1280x720), you'll have to leave black borders around the picture, or to scale it up, which has inconvenients.

what a scam.

Agreed - lcd/plasma resolutions at the moment are not ideal. I don't know how they got to the point where they're at now with these oddball resolutions but from what I understand the next upgrade will be to 1080p standard. So for those wanting 720p lcd/plasmas you'll have to either get projection or live with 1080p (weh.)

 

[Arwin]

there is no such thing as 768p in HDTV resolutions.

too bad a lot of these 900 000 tv sets, despite being labelled "HD Ready", won't able to correctly render HD content.

like the LCD with 1366 x 768 matrixes, where for 720p content (1280x720), you'll have to leave black borders around the picture, or to scale it up, which has inconvenients.

what a scam.

720p is ok for NTSC upscaling, but for PAL upscaling 768p is better. Basically, it is the original PAL resolution x 1.5, just like 720p is 480x1.5. Which is why you see the latter more in Europe, and the former more in the U.S. So sure, 720p is an official resolution and from that perspective there is no such thing as 768p, but TVs include the extra scanlines for this reason.

You're right about the HD Ready thing though, many aren't really. The most you can give them is that they can take the signal and not output garbage, but many tvs don't really support it, something which consumer organisations are currently successfully taking on (forcing tv manufacturors to remove the HD Ready labels from some of their models).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Agreed - lcd/plasma resolutions at the moment are not ideal. I don't know how they got to the point where they're at now with these oddball resolutions but from what I understand the next upgrade will be to 1080p standard.

All the new 1080p sets seem to be 1080 native, so that looks to me to be the 'real' HD standard as it were, rather than the 720p 'standard' with lots of non-native displays. I also dont expect 1080p to be superceded any time soon. The next res might well be 2k but we'll need cameras that record that to begin with...

 

[Tahir2]

no, some of them only.

i think most of LCD/plasma buyer aren't just as concerned about image quality as I am.

and LCD/Plasma aren't nearly as bad as some years ago, when they costed much more. IMO most of the early adopters were more after prestige than anything else. they bought 15000 $ plasma which were crap image-wise and lacked serious durability were

maybe some buy CRT for the only motive of showing how they are more smart than the CRT/plasma masses.

I bought a Panasonic TH42PX60 and I had a JVC HDTV (on component 1080i) before that.

The only place where the JVC beats my new Panasonic is black levels - and even then the Panasonic has one of the best black levels on the Plasma market.

Everything else is better than the JVC CRT I had in my opinion. My primary concern was image quality and screen size. I don't recall seeing a 42" CRT in the shops (they probably exist in some niche market somewhere with horrendous geometry and power consumption issues).

In fact my wife hates the bezel on the Panasonin THxxPX60 series and she is not alone.. it looks cheap but she was eventually won over by the image quality.. it really cleans up a bad feed surprisingly.

Anyway.. where were we?

 

[Magnum PI]

here consumers happily buy these "hd ready" tv sets, and consumers association seems not to be concerned about that problem, when they do not take part in the scam.

it's not that surprising with the mentality here where most people are'nt only technologically illerate but are proud of it.

politicians still live in the industrial age, civil movements are at war against research...

a lot of people i know are reasonning like if our country wasn't part of the world, the think at a local scale when they should think global. they'll dreaming and still think about the past glory like if was still a reality, which sadly isn't.

i don't know the english term, in french it's "ringard", like a has-been who think he's a star

i live in ringardland.

 

[Tahir2]

Hah.. you ain't seen Balamory and Max and Ruby until you seen it on a good quality Plasma.