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[rastex]

ahh... I got confused with the line numbers, my apologies. And if I can salvage any type of point I was trying to make, 4 of the top 5 are on the PC so that's significant... I think.

element, why do you think people are going to stop using RW now that it's part of EA? I mean people will liscense XNA even though they're competing with MS software, why can't the same situation work with EA?

 

[element]

why do you think people are going to stop using RW now that it's part of EA?

Because there is conflicts of interest.

Take Konami. They use Renderware for the Winning Eleven series. Now that EA owns Renderware, do you think EA is going to give great tech support to their biggest competition against FIFA? Also do you think Konami is comfortable showing a new version of their game to Renderware.
When it comes down to the wire and a developer using Renderware needs on-site support with something, and EA Tiburon is having difficulty with their Renderware intergration because they ship in a couple months as well. Who gets the preference?

It just opens a lot of problems that many developers are willing to pass on and use another middleware provider. I know Epic is getting a lot more business since EA bought Renderware.

 

[Duckhuntdog]

They have been there for years. Sony has made desktop computers for quite awhile. IBM has been in the server and desktop business longer than MS.

Yeah, but we are talking about the long term Cell roll-out here. Intel and MS have to be keeping an eye on IBM and Sony.

 

[rastex]

Because there is conflicts of interest.

Take Konami. They use Renderware for the Winning Eleven series. Now that EA owns Renderware, do you think EA is going to give great tech support to their biggest competition against FIFA? Also do you think Konami is comfortable showing a new version of their game to Renderware.
When it comes down to the wire and a developer using Renderware needs on-site support with something, and EA Tiburon is having difficulty with their Renderware intergration because they ship in a couple months as well. Who gets the preference?

But can't the EXACT same thing be said about the hardware manufacturers? If NCL, Bungie, or Polyphony need support with unknown, XNA and OpenAS respectively who is going to get the preference? And yet people will still use them. Middleware solutions are a very lucrative business and I think will become far more so in the next generation. I think it's entirely within EA's best interest to make Renderware as powerful and marketable as possible so that people actually use it. Support is just another factor of market value, so EA will need to provide strong support if they want people to liscense from them. For these reasons I actually think Renderware is going to be better than it ever could have been under Criterion alone.

 

[GigaDrive]

Microsoft is trying to do what they can to leverage their strength (PC development, OS) against the coming tsunami that is Sony-Toshiba-IBM PS3s and Cell-Computers

PC-XNA-Xbox2 is shaping up to be a robust alternative to keep developers from all flocking to Cell based platforms. it's gonna be a war though

 

[element]

If it was another company then EA I'd agree with you, but EA is dirty. If I was a developer and was showing off my game that was in direct competition with an EA, I'd have some strong reservations.

But can't the EXACT same thing be said about the hardware manufacturers?

Not really. 3rd parties would complain of an unfair advantage. Most developer support staffs fall under the hardware section and not the games divisions. So sharing of information doesn't really happen.

EA bought Renderware/Criterion for their technlogy to use in their own products. EA model is multi-platform in making games and 'We can have you work on any project in the entire company and nothing will change' from an employment standpoint.

 

[krypt0nian]

Zero reason to buy an xbox2 if you have a decent PC...

LOVING this news!

 

[DopeyFish]

Zero reason to buy an xbox2 if you have a decent PC...

LOVING this news!

dumbest post in this thread yet. Xbox 2 to PC will be like Xbox to PC. It's like people are becoming stupid all over again :/

 

[Joe]

people, speculation does NOT equal fact.

 

[rastex]

If it was another company then EA I'd agree with you, but EA is dirty. If I was a developer and was showing off my game that was in direct competition with an EA, I'd have some strong reservations.

can't really argue with that...
BUT!

Not really. 3rd parties would complain of an unfair advantage. Most developer support staffs fall under the hardware section and not the games divisions. So sharing of information doesn't really happen.

The Renderware situation is sort of the same way. The way Criterion was setup before the buyout is that there is Criterion games who make Burnout, etc and then Criterion studio responsible for the Renderware side. I doubt that'll change. Plus, the Renderware guys are really cool! Very nice guys.

EA bought Renderware/Criterion for their technlogy to use in their own products. EA model is multi-platform in making games and 'We can have you work on any project in the entire company and nothing will change' from an employment standpoint.

If this was EA's agenda then why continue to liscense out RW after the current contracts expire? Far too much overhead in terms of legal, support and all of that if liscensing is simply an offshoot of what they want to accomplish. It's definite that developers are initially going to be jumping ship due to intimidation from EA's reputation, but as things stabilize I really want to see how Renderware pans out in the industry. Personally, I think it won't be abandoned entirely and might prove a worthy alternative in the middleware field. If it attains its dominant position it had... well that's probably less likely.

 

[Razoric]

Zero reason to buy an xbox2 if you have a decent PC...

LOVING this news!

 

[shpankey]

Eh, they have to differentiate the two somehow. It just doesn't make good business sense for both the PC and the Xbox to be able to do the same things. If your PC can use Xbox peripherals, run XBL, and play Xbox games, then why buy an Xbox?

They don't care if you buy Xbox 2 as much as them caring about you buying the software. With MS, it's always been about the software.

 

[Joe]

i really doubt MS will give up on the xbox or anything similar to it. they want the livingroom and they know the pc isnt the answer.

 

[Phoenix]

i really doubt MS will give up on the xbox or anything similar to it. they want the livingroom and they know the pc isnt the answer.

Controlling the living room means controlling the APIs, codecs, etc. that run the living room. The hardware can be done by anyone so long as they control the software that makes it work. Software based revenue models are far far far far better than hardware based revenue models. For some reason Apple missed that one during business school

 

[FightyF]

Wouldn't this just be a way for them to get licencing fees for Windows games? AFAIK that doesn't occur nowadays, and never have.

This means MS will make a whole lot of cash...and will leave Sony and Nintendo in the dust.

The PS2's userbase can't compare to the amount of people who own PCs.

 

[krypt0nian]

dumbest post in this thread yet. Xbox 2 to PC will be like Xbox to PC. It's like people are becoming stupid all over again :/

Right...since now xbox live will be on PC and the PC version will be better again.

Keep telling yourself that.

 

[radioheadrule83]

"Xbox 2 peripherals will all work on PC,"

I was reminded today about Nintendo saying Revolution would hook upto PCs. Not a very tangible link, but something else for those MS/Nintendo-alliance conspiracy theorists.

 

[Joe]

vga compatible right out of the box is really cool by nintendo, i hope sony and ms follow their lead on that one.

 

[inpHilltr8r]

"Lester went on to explain other features that Microsoft's Games for Windows group wishes to improve or simply streamline out of existence. One example was the conventional game installation system that requires users to sit through several lengthy loading screens. Lester stated flatly, "we need to make that go away." Ideally, Microsoft would like to make PC game installation as easy as the plug-and-play experience of console games, which can be played the instant a disc is dropped in the drive."

They've been talking about this forever.

 

[Joe]

i was just thinking a little bit and since xbox2 controllers will work on pc's does that mean xbox2 will use usb2.0 for its controllers and peripherals?

 

[Duckhuntdog]

Controlling the living room means controlling the APIs, codecs, etc. that run the living room. The hardware can be done by anyone so long as they control the software that makes it work. Software based revenue models are far far far far better than hardware based revenue models. For some reason Apple missed that one during business school

To paraphrase Reggie: "And the other company doesn't care what you do, just as long as you do it on their operating system."

XNA, looks to be the exit strategy should Xbox 2 not go as planned.

 

[Vark]

" was just thinking a little bit and since xbox2 controllers will work on pc's does that mean xbox2 will use usb2.0 for its controllers and peripherals?"

Probably, Xbox controllers are just USB 1 from what i recall. They just changed the plug around.

 

[seismologist]

it seems like an odd direction for them to go.

It's good news for me. I'll probably end up pulling my PC into the living room and hooking it up to the HDTV and buy an Xbox 2 controller to play games with.

 

[akascream]

"Xbox 2 peripherals will all work on PC," said Lester, clarifying that Xbox controllers, steering wheels, and other console-related peripheral functionality will all be brought into Longhorn's portfolio, as will Xbox Live functionality. For game players, this will make for, if nothing else, an added convenience, since playing a game on their PC or their Xbox will [ideally] come down to little more than unplugging the controller from one, and plugging it into the other. For game developers, Microsoft hopes that the introduction of XNA will help standardize development on both platforms, ideally to an extent that "you won't have to choose between Xbox or PC" to develop games...and ideally, so that players won't have to choose between the two platforms to play them."

I think its a good thing they realize why they were successful with xbox. Instead of trying to seperate themseves from the PC, they are embracing the concept. Will be interesting to see how well the XNA API manages the difference in platform.