Xbox 360 Availability

[drpepper]

Well I hope you're right! That would be a nice feature. I'd always assumed that you wouldn't be able to leave the dashboard, making the DL in background kinda useless, but if you could do it while in-game that would be great.

I'd imagine a limit would be imposed though if one were ever to be implemented. I think they'd limit a background download and playing games offline. I don't know how much bandwidth online gaming takes but tradeoffs would have to be made if you're downloading a trailer for example, and playing a game online. A download cap perhaps?

But then again, bandwidth is getting wide enough these days that you could accomodate both.

 

[scooby_dooby]

I'd imagine a limit would be imposed though if one were ever to be implemented. I think they'd limit a background download and playing games offline. I don't know how much bandwidth online gaming takes but tradeoffs would have to be made if you're downloading a trailer for example, and playing a game online. A download cap perhaps?

But then again, bandwidth is getting wide enough these days that you could accomodate both.

XBLive only requires 8kb/s up & down, couldn't they just give priority to the online game, and if any 'extra' BW was available continue to DL the item? I'm not sure if that's technically possible.

 

[Bobbler]

XBLive only requires 8kb/s up & down, couldn't they just give priority to the online game, and if any 'extra' BW was available continue to DL the item? I'm not sure if that's technically possible.

It's plenty possible. Many routers and such do that type of stuff already. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be able to prioritize it's bandwidth consumption.

 

[jb]

I'll try it, but I am generally wary of FPS military games on consoles, because frankly, anything less than a mouse sucks. (I want GoW strictly because of the gfx)

I tried the BF2:MC demo today for example and tried to use the sniper gun. In CS or DoD, I can nearly instantly spin, lockon, and track a moving target with sniper rifles. With the controller, this is an exercise in frustration, and not just because I haven't tried, it just doesn't have the accuracy of a mouse.

I am right there with you. I hate consoles for FPS. I remember when my son asked me for help in Halo2 as he knows I am really good with FPS. After about 10 minutes of us trying to clear out one level in Co-op, he said never mind dad as your not helping... Oh the pain!
And I did play some BF2 on this free weekend. Your right on that as well. However after playing a lot of GRAW in SP mode I found myself actually getting better. Not so much that I would want to play all the time on it, but enought were I could actually aim and send my bullets to the general area of the target with some degree of skill. So I think the more you play it, the better you can compensate for the many short cummings... Still I found it very worth with to deal with FPS on a console when its GRAW on a big HDTV with 5.1 sound

 

[Powderkeg]

That doesn´t state the number of units for the global launch, that just mentions the number of units produced per month, as I said. I thought we had a confirmation of the number of units available for launch, but as I expected, there´s none.

You've got to be kidding me. Are you really this dense?

You've got a fixed confirmed number of total production after 6 months.
You've got a fixed number of units being produced per month.

What you are basically telling me is that you won't believe it until someone else does the 2nd grade level math for you. Apparently you can't do it yourself.

Just one note, following this logic, it should be more than 1 million units for launch, since Sony isn´t going to be selling in march the machines they produce that very same month. I´d lean more to 2 million units, assuming large shipments of units once per month. Or at least 1.5 million, in the case of two shipments per month.

They didn't say anything about sales. Just that a total of 6 million systems would be produced by the end of March 2007, at a rate of 1 million per month. That's pretty direct and clear. Not much room for error.

Yet you found a way.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

You've got a fixed confirmed number of total production after 6 months.
You've got a fixed number of units being produced per month.

Actually, I doubt point number 2 is true. There is likely NOT a fixed number of units per month, but a gradual ramping in the production rate as time goes on.

It's a good bet that Sony will be starting production in late August or early September. This will give them 7-8 months to produce the 6 million units...not 6. It may be Sony's plan to be able to produce at a rate of 1 million per month when fully ramped (by the end of March?)

So, Sony's production schedule may look something like this:

Month Production
Aug    150,000
Sep    500,000
Oct    750,000
Nov    800,000
Dec    900,000
Jan    950,000
Feb    950,000
Mar  1,000,000

That's a total of 6 million units through the end of March, with I'd guess somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million units on the shelves for a late November launch.

The question about how much actually available for launch will depend on the same factors as always:

1) When sony will actually be able to start production
2) How fast Sony is actually able to ramp up production, and
3) what Sony's actual production rate target is for March 2007.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

So, Sony's production schedule may look something like this:

Month Production
Aug    150,000
Sep    500,000
Oct    750,000
Nov    800,000
Dec    900,000
Jan    950,000
Feb    950,000
Mar  1,000,000

Does it really have gradual increments like that? Seeing as these things are production lines, i'd have thought some thing more like 100 k first month to test, 500k second month, 1 million or whatever 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th months. I don't see why if Sony are able to produce 950,000 in Jan, they can't manage that extra 50,000 for two months. I'd have thought the production line can handle n thousand units per month peak, with less than that obtained for 'warmup' and availibilty of components. The moment the process is streamlined and supplies stabilized, they should be able to maintain peak. Not that I know a great deal about console production lines!

2) How fast Sony is actually able to ramp up production, and
3) what Sony's actual production rate target is for March 2007.

IIRC we were told they would be producing 1 million a month after launch, and not just that they were aiming for 6 million units by March.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6145972.html

Kutaragi said that the company plans on producing at least 1 million units of the console each month in order to keep the supply channel full.

I understood this to mean production starts a few months before release (could well be started already on some components, but there's no point until all components are available) with lower production rates, a few hundred k per month working up for a while until that peak production line speed is reached.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Does it really have gradual increments like that?

I would imagine so at start up. See MS.

Seeing as these things are production lines, i'd have thought some thing more like 100 k first month to test, 500k second month, 1 million or whatever 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th months.

Well, that is fairly close to the exapmple that I proposed...

I don't see why if Sony are able to produce 950,000 in Jan, they can't manage that extra 50,000 for two months.

Well, then why wouldn't they be able to manage 50,000 more than that? Or just another 50,000....or 50,000 more...

Don't take it so literal...I just massaged it to come out with exactly 6 million units.

I'd have thought the production line can handle n thousand units per month peak, with less than that obtained for 'warmup' and availibilty of components. The moment the process is streamlined and supplies stabilized, they should be able to maintain peak....

That is a very big "should." You are manufacturing / assembling / packaging a brand new, highly complicated piece of equipment. There are probably about 1,000 things that can go wrong. And hand full of them likely will...and then will be ironed out over a period of several months.

IIRC we were told they would be producing 1 million a month after launch, and not just that they were aiming for 6 million units by March.

Here's the relevant quote:

Kutaragi said that the company plans on producing at least 1 million units of the console each month in order to keep the supply channel full. He said the goal was to ship 6 million PS3s worldwide by March 2007.

If production is going to start in August or September as one would suspect (MS started production first week of September for their Nov launch), then the target would be more like 7-8 million shipped by end of March.

The bottom line is, my guess is that Sony is shooting/i] to have 1.5 to 2 million shipped for launch. Whether or not they actually meet that goal is way too early to tell...

 

[scooby_dooby]

My guess is they are aiming for 1million console launch in japan, ~2 weeks later 1million in US, and 3 or 4 weeks later something for EU, if EU doesn't get pushed back entirely.