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LA Times: Microsoft announces X360 pricing at lollapalooza 2005

dorio

Banned
Rhindle said:
The "Standard" SKU is the $399 one.

Get some sleep, you'll feel better in the morning,
You get some sleep, the cheapest sku is always the standard sku. Which do you think will sell the most?
 

Andvary

Member
TTP said:
Why the fuck "No live"?

And since we dont know yet anything about PS3 SKU(s), I'd cut a copule of points fromn that list just to be sure.

- Less powerful hardware
- No builtin wireless
- No hd dvd playback
- No backwards compat.

These are the real "cons" of the starter 360 SKU compared to an hypotecial starter PS3 SKU. Not a big deal IMO.


Less developer support

That is still true
 

Borys

Banned
The Faceless Master said:
looks like the only advantage they have left is their launch window

oh, and changeable faceplates!

They should really put those faceplates in LE of games. But knowing the accessory market they will retail for $19.99 :/
 

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
pilonv1 said:
I dont think he ever intended it to be, just that some people realise what's happening to the market and can accept it without whining like little children who've had their ball taken away.


i guess. im just not happy with where the market is going .. and i dont think people should just accept it.
 

TTP

Have a fun! Enjoy!
Mupepe said:
Because there's no memory unit out of the box for 299

Right. But now that I think of it, we still dont know if the MC is even necessary. I mean, I can play online with my PSP even without a memory stick in it.

/staring at his image in the mirror: "WTF are you trying to defend Microsoft you stupid Sony fanboy?!"
 

Rhindle

Member
dorio said:
You get some sleep, the cheapest sku is always the standard sku. Which do you think will sell the most?
The $399 one, by a fairly wide margin. In any event, if you're going to make a comparison to PS3, compare similarly priced packages.
 
pilonv1 said:
I dont think he ever intended it to be, just that some people realise what's happening to the market and can accept it without whining like little children who've had their ball taken away.
we have the right to tell them their $299 and $399 balls are hot and sweaty... you can buy their hot sweaty balls if you like...
 

Mupepe

Banned
TTP said:
Right. But now that I think of it, we still dont know if the MC is even necessary. I mean, I can play online with my PSP even without a memory stick in it.

/staring at his image in the mirror: "WTF are you trying to defend Microsoft you stupid Sony fanboy?!"
:lol Well, they stated that either an HDD or MC would be REQUIRED for xbox live, but then again, I'm keeping my mouth shut because I don't want to end up like Barnimal/Juice :p
 
TTP said:
Right. But now that I think of it, we still dont know if the MC is even necessary. I mean, I can play online with my PSP even without a memory stick in it.

/staring at his image in the mirror: "WTF are you trying to defend Microsoft you stupid Sony fanboy?!"

Solid said:
wtf? i cant use live if i buy the standard pack? what kind of shit is that?
hey, maybe they lied about needing a memory card or hdd to get on live... who knows, i mean, it's not like the truth is too important to them... or as they say in business, their plans are ever evolving...
 

Mupepe

Banned
golem said:
you cant save games either zomg! :p
haha, and that's what I consider a step back. At least with xbox, you could save your games out of the box. This sucks

BTW, I have the most posts in the thread! w00t!
 

element

Member
Custom Soundtrack, BC, and Storage were big selling points to me (as well has the little bit of hope that I had that some devs. might still take advantage of the HD).
Custom Soundtracks are a requirement, and storage is what you want. Use your freaking PSP for game saves or to stream music from.

LIVE requires either a hdd or memory card to be present.

the base model comes with neither.
We actually don't know what comes with the basic model, other then a controller and box. MS knows that a memory card is need for XBL. As I said earlier, i think they might include one. Much like Sony did for PSP.
we still dont know if the MC is even necessary.
It is. A memory card or HDD.
 

Sho Nuff

Banned
Will Halo 3 require the HDD?

Or will it have massive loadtimes instead?

:mad:

I really, REALLY hate MS's "nobody used the hard drive anyway." BULLSHIT! The best games on the Xbox used the HDD to great effect, and even the shitty ones that I worked on used it to all but eliminate load times.
 

neptunes

Member
I don't think they'll package the memory card, they'd easily make a few bucks just selling it seperately.

Sorry if this has been asked, but... Won't the HDD probably also be required for backwards compatibility?
yes
 

dorio

Banned
quadriplegicjon said:
i guess. im just not happy with where the market is going .. and i dont think people should just accept it.
I agree if these guys screw themselves with underpowered(according to developers) high priced machines, we might be seeing the 2nd videogames crash. None of the big 3 are delivering that must have machine that you usually get every gen. MS games look meh and they've grossly mislead me in terms of what they would deliver, sony wants you to get a extra job to afford something that will aid them in their next format war and Nintendo doesn't even seem like they want to do anything besides talk about nintendogs.
 

Mupepe

Banned
Hyoushi said:
Sorry if this has been asked, but... Won't the HDD probably also be required for backwards compatibility?
Yep. Limited BC

Neptunes said:
I don't think they'll package the memory card, they'd easily make a few bucks just selling it seperately.
Me neither. Apparently they're philosophy is "If you don't include it standard and overprice it, the sheep will still buy it" Dammit I'll be picking one up :(
 

TTP

Have a fun! Enjoy!
CabbageRed said:
No, but it is a bit odd to ask every Xbox owner to forget that they *didn't*.

yeah, that's the point. It sure looks like a step backward to them. Not "next" generation at all.
 
>: (
$299 + HDD or no sale, I don't care if its 8GB/2GB whatever. Not including it from the start means devs won't use it for anything, in that case I might as well wait for PS3.
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
This begs the question:

Will Blinx 3 work without the HDD?
After all Blinx was impossible on other systems since they had no HDD

And with that, i'm out for the night. Have fun folks
 

element

Member
Or will it have massive loadtimes instead?
Go play God of War or Jak 1,2,3 and tell me if they have long loadtimes without a HDD. A developer builds a game around the HDD. If the game can't require a HDD, then they build it accordingly. Not to say that some developers won't add things like performance increase or features (photo mode in GT4) if the user has a HDD.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Chittagong said:
Did everyone magically forget that every single owner of PS2, GC and PS1 had to buy a memory card?
You're forgetting:

#1: Wireless controllers were supposed to be the standard next gen. That MS is bundling a wired controller, not a wireless one, with the basic package suggests they're falling behind times.
#2: The Hard Drive was a huge part of the Xbox. HUGE. Devs used it to cache game data to allow for better loading, and the hard drive also allowed for further technical advantages on Xbox games (Ninja Gaiden, for instance.) Not to mention the fact that you no longer needed to buy cards for storage, which was a plus for the Xbox.
#3: No headset or ethernet cable included? So much for the free Xbox Live for everyone!
 
element said:
Go play God of War or Jak 1,2,3 and tell me if they have long loadtimes without a HDD. A developer builds a game around the HDD. If the game can't require a HDD, then they build it accordingly. Not to say that some developers won't add things like performance increase or features (photo mode in GT4) if the user has a HDD.

Still probably not as fast as GOW/Jak1/2/3 on HDLoader.
 

pilonv1

Member
The Faceless Master said:
we have the right to tell them their $299 and $399 balls are hot and sweaty... you can buy their hot sweaty balls if you like...

Then I hope you'll vote with your wallet and not buy one if you don't agree with it.

But it's got nothing to do with this $299 and $399 right now. Everyone who bought a memory card, a network adapter, a PS2 hard drive, logitech wireless controlers, GB Players. You spent money on something that wasn't mandatory to play 99.9% of games, manufacturers and publishers realised it and this is the result. PSP value pack was the first step, this is the second.

To me $100 is reasonable for the wireless controller, the hard drive, the headset, the component cables and whatever else they're going to throw in. I doubt you'd be able to buy them seperately for that price later. I'd prefer to buy a value pack like this than a forced bundle (and you know EB and Gamestop are going to be pushing those).
 
why force developers to put custom soundtracks in every game if not everyone is gonna have a hard drive to make use of it?

assuming the developer decides to use XNA, will it atleast making adding a custom soundtrack feature as easy as a click of a button?

even if there is multiple versions at launch, the no HDD really seems to go against everything xbox is all about.
 

Sho Nuff

Banned
element said:
Go play God of War or Jak 1,2,3 and tell me if they have long loadtimes without a HDD. A developer builds a game around the HDD. If the game can't require a HDD, then they build it accordingly. Not to say that some developers won't add things like performance increase or features (photo mode in GT4) if the user has a HDD.

Yeah, but GoW and Jak's environments don't have as much persistent shit in them, and I'd argue that Halo 2's overall density in terms of geometry and texture is way, way higher than those PS2 games.

Look, I'm just saying that as an Xbox 1 developer the HDD was awesome, it was like a gig of scratch space you could throw all your crucial shit onto for insta-loads, and it's a major step back if that's no longer taken for granted.

BTW, optimizing for disc streaming takes a fuck-ton more effort that would be better spent on making the game better. Not all of us have Jason Rubin or John Carmack engines to play with.
 

dorio

Banned
The Faceless Master said:
the one that they ship the most of...
Demand will determine which one they ship the most if not during the holidays, shortly afterward. No way are they going to manage to keep customers from buying the cheapest model when there is enough inventory in the channel. Retailers won't allow it.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
I'll pick one up... when I get my HDTV. Probably the expensive package just to save on the cost of memory card, plus there's a swank remote controller in there.

As for the games...

Ridge Racer 6, Oblivion, PGR3, Odyssey, Blue Dragon, NNN... it should be a good day when I get all that.

Seriously though, it'll be a crime if this thread isn't archived. In 5 years when this iteration of this board is still around hopefully, we'll be able to pull it up and have a good laugh.
 
Ridiculous. Hard drive should be in every 360. The only current gen console I own is an Xbox, and if the 360 came standard with a hard drive I was leaning toward getting it over the PS3, but now I'll be taking a wait and see approach. If Oblivion is announced for PS3 I'll be very tempted to skip the 360...
 
Izzy said:
Yeah, WTF was that for? <$1 saved???
shit, after the whole TWO FRONT USB PORTS thing instead of 4, skimming $1 on an ethernet cable is nothing... NO PENNY TOO SMALL TO BE PINCHED!!!

do you really want these guys to be the 1 coneole in your future?
 

element

Member
why force developers to put custom soundtracks in every game if not everyone is gonna have a hard drive to make use of it?
Because you can stream music from almost any device you can think of. I'm actually looking forward to custom soundtracks even more, because I'm just going to point it to my PC HDD with my 11k songs. Instead of burning, then ripping, burning them ripping. I think I did that like twice and said F that.
BTW, optimizing for disc streaming takes a fuck-ton more effort that would be better spent on making the game better.
Oh I know, I'm having to deal with it right now. While I agree that disc streaming it a bitch, I'm hoping devs really think about streaming this time, compared to Xbox where devs just said 'fuck it, just put it on the HDD'. I remember working on games and devs wouldn't even give two shits about disc layout or disc streaming because they could just 'dump' to the HDD.
 

Izzy

Banned
GaimeGuy said:
Way to dodge the rest of my post.

Alright..... :lol


GaimeGuy said:
#1: Wireless controllers were supposed to be the standard next gen. That MS is bundling a wired controller, not a wireless one, with the basic package suggests they're falling behind times.

Agreed.

GaimeGuy said:
#2: The Hard Drive was a huge part of the Xbox. HUGE. Devs used it to cache game data to allow for better loading, and the hard drive also allowed for further technical advantages on Xbox games (Ninja Gaiden, for instance.) Not to mention the fact that you no longer needed to buy cards for storage, which was a plus for the Xbox.

Agreed. :)
 

ParkPace

Member
There are going to have be some STELLAR fucking reviews of the launch games to even get me to flinch my wallet towards this DOA POS* now.


*DOA on my wishlist, as of this thread. Next-gen can wait.
 

_Angelus_

Banned
What does this news say for Oblivion?


I really find it hard to believe that Oblivion can be played without the hard drive. Constant loading will be a major pain in the ass for a game this size. And if it did require the hard drive then the game will take one hell of a hit in lost sales here. Not that I care,but I'm sure developers do.
 

element

Member
I'm pretty sure that games got to run without a HDD. Considering it is a port of a PC game, it probably will just load a little more often :p
 

Mupepe

Banned
Angelus said:
What does this news say for Oblivion?


I really find it hard to believe that Oblivion can be played without the hard drive. Constant loading will be a major pain in the ass for a game this size. And if it did require the hard drive then the game will take one hell of a hit in lost sales here. Not that I care,but I'm sure developers do.
Probably just going to load a bit more. I doubt that any titles beyond MMO's will required the HDD.
 
Im disapointed with the responses to this thread. Has "The J" taught us nothing?

bio_allard.jpg


"Its about Software and Services man."
 
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