mr2mike said:
Actually, MS are selling an OS platform too, wich in it's next iteration, is making (or at least trying to) make great strides in streamlining and standardising PC games. And keep in mind that as X360 starts it's life cycle, Longhorn will be in full rolout fanfare. It's not a matter of "who cares" if the controllers work with longhorn, it's a fact that is as hard as granite that's been confirmed again and again, so unless part of the longhorn system requirements is an RF receiver for controllers, they WILL be wired USB2 controllers, because that's what's on a PC and that's what's on an X360, But provisions most likely WILL be available at launch for wireless.
Longhorn will sell b/c there is no alternative out there. Packing-in a wired controller has fuck all to do with Longhorn and everything to do with razor blades. If they give away a wireless controller, a lot of single-player gamers like myself might completely forgo buying another controller. So MS loses out on peripheral sales. In the grand scheme of things, the controller compat with Longhorn will mean absolutely nothing. The most popular PC game genres don't even work well with joysticks anyway. If that's a selling point, then someone at MS is on crack.
I stand by my assertion, they are selling a goddamn console, not an OS. Maybe when some actual competition comes along in the OS market, I'll buy the line about them wanting compat, but I don't see how it makes a lick of difference for the 360.
It only makes no sense if your mind is warped. a wired controller versus a wireless will be: 1) *completely* maintenance free. 2) cheaper 3) have higher performance feedback devices that dont affect power source life 4) lighter (for the lack of batteries) 5) smaller (for the lack of a battery compartment) 6) can afford to have faster response time (as in amount of polling per second) as refreshing controller inputs doesn't require powering an RF emitter each time. 7) etc etc etc.
1) Wired controllers are equally succeptible to failure as wireless ones. If the "maintenance" you speak of it changing batts, then I already mentioned how little times it takes. Besides which, I also mentioned the alternatives, like making the pads rechargeable.
2) Cheaper means nothing. We're paying asking price, not manufacturing price. If packing in a wired pad is one of the areas they're skimping on, then they're really scraping for profits. Differences in materials costs between a wired and wireless pad can me measured in dollars. A few dollars. The only expensive part is getting UEL(?) certification for the transmitter.
3) Rechargeable pads eliminate the problems with force feedback. Battery life shouldn't be a concern.
4) Marginally lighter. NiMH batts are light, LiPo are even lighter.
5) Again, the Wavebird demonstrated that the increase in heft doesn't have to be a problem. My Wavebird is still damn small and light even with two 2200mAh batts in it.
6) 900MHz transmitters totally kicked this argument to the curb. Bluetooth is 2.4GHz AFAIK. Response time is not an issue. Again, my Wavebird eats other pads alive and asks for seconds.
Shipping with a packed in wireless is actually the option that doesn't make any goddamn sene: 1) it's a lot more expense in the box, wich will already be sold much under cost, especially at launch. 2) People that demand wireless are a minority 3) giving the "deluxe" option out of the box robs MS of the income it would generate at retail, that's the memory card effect: why put one in the box when you can sell 'em for 300% profit? Something that is especially crucial at launch when you're taking a dive on hardware cost.
Whatever. I can only hope Nintendo and Sony capitalize on that (*if* MS does go ahead with wired pads packed-in). The only argument has been cost. The manufacturers want to sell periphs. It's why Sony might well go with shitty memory cards instead of memory sticks. And why MS probably won't support any compact storage format for its memory cards too. But I will not defend that line of action after having had my Wavebird as my primary controller for over a year. I have lots of bad stuff to say about Nintendo, but they proved that you can make a wireless pad as good, if not better than the stock wired pad. And you don't have to suffer any of the negatives except maybe the lack of FF. And that's something that I haven't really missed.
This gen, we have better battery tech, and better miniaturization. This is like car companies that still don't have power doors and windows standard, and no A/C standard. The arguments about cost are dead....DEAD. It's about trying to make more money off the end-user, and they can kiss my black ass. Hopefully someone this gen has the sack to go wireless out the gate, and I have a feeling Nintendo is definitely on that list since they're business model is more efficient than Sony and MS's. PEACE.
