Shane Bettenhausen (1up) rumours canned 360 project?*
- Thread starter Vic
- Start date
Because there's already a universe of content for it! eg. If you go custom, you'd then need to create your own custom dictionary rather than look up Dictionary.com. You'll need your own Wikipedia. You'll need your own forums and content sharing sites, which then lock you out of other people's experiences. That is, someone sharing photos of their holiday to PC owning friends (and indeed traditional browser friends) would need to go through separate steps to share with XB360 owners iof they have a custom internet system. You've got a funny movie of your cat doing something silly? Share it on YouTube...and have those without a browser missing it.
The architecture for media sharing is in place already and in an incredibly well established standard. Trying to introduce a separate HTTP-lite is kinda like trying to introduce movies on UMD IMO. There's no need for a new format. Sure, create custom sites that are custom-browser friendly, like PSP-targeted sites (which also show how marginalised 'custom' systems are. How many websites bother to cater to PSP browser's dimensions, or provide WAP support?), but do so around the existing systems that are open to the wider community. Unless you're wanting to keep out everyone but your platform owners.
One of the strengths Sony will have if they ever realize their network services is the same system will run on PS3, PSP and PC, all using the same HTTP standard. If they were PS3 specific, they wouldn't have the advantage of both selling to PC owners and in the same process, advertising to them.
Dominik D
Regular
Now I get it. 
Sure it's cool to have a choice. I'm pretty sure though that Microsoft won't go this route. Xbox 360 has an extremely closed architecture. Hardware and software is in hands of MS and there is a reason for that hands-on approach. One thing you get with this model is consistency. Another one is security. The last one is content rating. It's up to your taste if you like it or not, but that's not completely stupid idea to handle things like this.
Sony's open platform is facing some serious problems when it comes to e.g. content control. Why there's no online store if Sony is one of the largest music and movie publisher? Publishers want secure environment because they still believe that complete control over their content limits piracy. Parents want control over what their kids can use. We all want simplicity. Choice is in most cases good only for "advanced" users.
Sure it's cool to have a choice. I'm pretty sure though that Microsoft won't go this route. Xbox 360 has an extremely closed architecture. Hardware and software is in hands of MS and there is a reason for that hands-on approach. One thing you get with this model is consistency. Another one is security. The last one is content rating. It's up to your taste if you like it or not, but that's not completely stupid idea to handle things like this.Sony's open platform is facing some serious problems when it comes to e.g. content control. Why there's no online store if Sony is one of the largest music and movie publisher? Publishers want secure environment because they still believe that complete control over their content limits piracy. Parents want control over what their kids can use. We all want simplicity. Choice is in most cases good only for "advanced" users.
It shouldn't be too difficult with the keyboard add-on for the 360 controller. They could just as easily have a cursor and scrolling controlled by the analog sticks, and have the navigation functions mapped to the other buttons. Bumpers for back and forward, triggers for zooming in and out. A = Enter/click, B = Stop.
And if you want to get fancy, have the analog stick buttons open new tabs or close the current tab, and switch between tabs using X or Y.
I do like the idea of easy access to select web services though. They could have a page for that, and you choose from a number of them to add as quick links. I'm imagining something more in-line with how you can choose the search engine in IE7 where they just have a list of popular engines and you pick the default or the ones you want for quicker access. So the page with all the quick links ends up just being an organized list between Video sites, Picture/Album sites, e-mail sites, forums, RSS...
Ask the MSN/WebTV guys about web on the TV. I think they provide the best experience there, but I'm not sure their market penetration is all that good. Anyway, I don't think accessing standard web content on a browser via a game controller is very desirable. Possible yes. Almost like playing DVD movies with a game controller. I could see Microsoft possibly offering a MSN TV-type subscription service as an add-on for TV and/or broadband providers. "Add $50 to get a wireless keyboard/remote interface and $10 a month to get access to the Internet on your 360." Either way, if and when Microsoft offers the capability I don't see it being without some kind of fee. I'm not sure I'd pay a monthly fee for it. Though I'm open to the idea of a one time fee to download the software module, but I'd prefer free.
Tommy McClain
I can appreciate that. Sounds a lot better to me. I haven't used an MSN TV device before, but it looks like a custom UI for TV no?
Tommy McClain
QFT.
mister slim
Newcomer
It's nice to be able to fire up GameFAQs from the couch. With two consoles with browsers I can even use splitscreen.
and the world yawned....
scooby_dooby
Legend
Still dead wrong about Shane Kim leaving.
