Overall Xbox 360 outlook for the holiday season: mediocre.
Overall Nintendo Wii outlook for the holiday season: strong.
Overall Sony Playstation 3 outlook: moderate to strong.
Mediocre is clearly so much worse than moderate.
"Merry Christmas little Timmy, we got you a new Xbox 360 and a copy of Mass Effect. What the hell? There are three red lights on the system and nothing's on the screen, Christmas is ruined!!!!"
It's a very real scenario that no doubt has people afraid for their lives. Microsoft has even set up online and phone based grief counseling at 1-800-4MY-XBOX, just ask for Max, he's the experienced one.
With the Wii being 'bigger than Jesus', it seems logical that a $400 sense of security is much better than a $350 or $450 headache. Halo 3 was awesome, but in the fast world of gaming it's old news compared to the "greatest holiday lineup in history."
Showing posts with label Xbox 360. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xbox 360. Show all posts
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
Major Nelson asks "What's wrong with Us?"
Major Nelson, everyone's favorite corporate shill who we love for telling us which new jpegs we can buy has said that we can ask questions and he might maybe, but probably won't tell the higher ups about them.
The fact that they even have to ask shows how out of touch with reality they are. Or just willfully ignorant.
- The system still breaks, even that new, ugly, overpriced Halo system
- The 'tard' pack is inhibiting games from reaching their full potential and is ass-backwards, anyway you try to spin it.
- The DRM on Xbox Live means that the games you pay for won't be playable for all users when your system breaks and you're sent a replacement. You have to be signed into Xbox Live with the gamertag that purchased them or else they're reverted to trials. MS says "thanks for the money, chumps"
- Where are all the dedicated servers? What is the cost of Live going to again?
- Stop nickel and diming us you jerks.
- Why does it scratch discs?
- The locked down nature of the system, including wireless means that Rock Band's $170 bundle will only be wireless for PS3, not 360. More issues that can be fixed easily, but you're so hard-headed, you refuse to.
- Xbox Live costs money and yet is strewn with ads for non-gaming content. $50/year to see McDonald's and Sprite ads? This is the worst direction gaming can take.
- Why are you selling content that's already on the disc?
- Keyboard/mouse support isn't allowed even for OFFLINE gaming, requiring more stupid, inefficient workarounds. I completely understand why they don't let it online, but if I want to play 4/5 single-player games on The Orange Box with a superior method of control, I can't? Make the only online game of the pack require controllers, but why the hell aren't we allowed the CHOICE for offline games? Don't even get me started on RTS's; as far as I'm concerned, LOTR: BFME2, C&C3 and World in Conflict are PC only.
- Did I mention the system is still a defective piece of shit? Two years later and it's barely safer even with all the band-aids they toss at it, it's still a turd.
Sometimes I just wonder where all those dead 360s go after you send the coffin back....
The fact that they even have to ask shows how out of touch with reality they are. Or just willfully ignorant.
- The system still breaks, even that new, ugly, overpriced Halo system
- The 'tard' pack is inhibiting games from reaching their full potential and is ass-backwards, anyway you try to spin it.
- The DRM on Xbox Live means that the games you pay for won't be playable for all users when your system breaks and you're sent a replacement. You have to be signed into Xbox Live with the gamertag that purchased them or else they're reverted to trials. MS says "thanks for the money, chumps"
- Where are all the dedicated servers? What is the cost of Live going to again?
- Stop nickel and diming us you jerks.
- Why does it scratch discs?
- The locked down nature of the system, including wireless means that Rock Band's $170 bundle will only be wireless for PS3, not 360. More issues that can be fixed easily, but you're so hard-headed, you refuse to.
- Xbox Live costs money and yet is strewn with ads for non-gaming content. $50/year to see McDonald's and Sprite ads? This is the worst direction gaming can take.
- Why are you selling content that's already on the disc?
- Keyboard/mouse support isn't allowed even for OFFLINE gaming, requiring more stupid, inefficient workarounds. I completely understand why they don't let it online, but if I want to play 4/5 single-player games on The Orange Box with a superior method of control, I can't? Make the only online game of the pack require controllers, but why the hell aren't we allowed the CHOICE for offline games? Don't even get me started on RTS's; as far as I'm concerned, LOTR: BFME2, C&C3 and World in Conflict are PC only.
- Did I mention the system is still a defective piece of shit? Two years later and it's barely safer even with all the band-aids they toss at it, it's still a turd.
Sometimes I just wonder where all those dead 360s go after you send the coffin back....
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Free pictures? Not so fast!
As if paying for pictures on XBLM wasn't stupid enough...
MS is charging 37 cents for a picture.
A picture that's free on PSN and something Capcom even said would be free.
It's also something you could download to a USB stick and put on your 360 for free.
MS is charging 37 cents for a picture.
A picture that's free on PSN and something Capcom even said would be free.
It's also something you could download to a USB stick and put on your 360 for free.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
360 gets $100 price cut, in a way
If you buy both systems and the tard pack.
Looking to top Sony's stupid pricing, MS somehow does with this nonsensical bit, cutting $20, $30 and $50 off the tard, Elite and Premium systems, respectively.
In a way, it shows arrogance, but with Halo 3 coming in in less than two months, they can afford to. MS is just biding their time and raking in as much money as they can until the 360 returns from it's post-Halo 3 sales to its regular, average half-Wii sales.
Who knows when the 65nm/HDMI/functional? systems will be out? I'm hoping before Halo 3.
Looking to top Sony's stupid pricing, MS somehow does with this nonsensical bit, cutting $20, $30 and $50 off the tard, Elite and Premium systems, respectively.
In a way, it shows arrogance, but with Halo 3 coming in in less than two months, they can afford to. MS is just biding their time and raking in as much money as they can until the 360 returns from it's post-Halo 3 sales to its regular, average half-Wii sales.
Who knows when the 65nm/HDMI/functional? systems will be out? I'm hoping before Halo 3.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Newsflash: DVD too small
Also, water is wet.
For night racing, please insert disc 2.
According to a a staff who is believed to be on the developing over at the official Project Gotham 4 Racing forums, they are having problems Fitting all the data of the tracks which was unveiled at today into the game.
He writes: "You won't see different times of day per city because this involves recreating all the textures again (one for day and one for night). Whilst this wasn't a problem for our dev team, it was a problem fitting all this data onto a single DVD. So we've worked around the problem by providing different lighting models per city. For example, Macau is always in the daytime, but if you play it during a storm everything looks darker and more foreboding. If you play during a blizzard then things are slightly tinged blue and everything seems more frozen. Of course, playing this track in sunshine will make everything appear bright and yellowy."
It's just common sense that it's too small. It was near capacity last-gen with RalliSport Challenge 2 taking up a whopping 6.4GB and the Xbox 360's DVD9 disc has 7.05GB (after security) of available space, which isn't all that much. Say what you will about Blu-ray, but it's got 50GB of space, which by my count is a lot more and with technology, more (not moore) is always better.
For night racing, please insert disc 2.
According to a a staff who is believed to be on the developing over at the official Project Gotham 4 Racing forums, they are having problems Fitting all the data of the tracks which was unveiled at today into the game.
He writes: "You won't see different times of day per city because this involves recreating all the textures again (one for day and one for night). Whilst this wasn't a problem for our dev team, it was a problem fitting all this data onto a single DVD. So we've worked around the problem by providing different lighting models per city. For example, Macau is always in the daytime, but if you play it during a storm everything looks darker and more foreboding. If you play during a blizzard then things are slightly tinged blue and everything seems more frozen. Of course, playing this track in sunshine will make everything appear bright and yellowy."
It's just common sense that it's too small. It was near capacity last-gen with RalliSport Challenge 2 taking up a whopping 6.4GB and the Xbox 360's DVD9 disc has 7.05GB (after security) of available space, which isn't all that much. Say what you will about Blu-ray, but it's got 50GB of space, which by my count is a lot more and with technology, more (not moore) is always better.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Sony won E3
Killzone 2 (stole the show)
Uncharted\
Infamous
Heavenly Sword
Haze
UT3 (mouse/keyboard,mods!)
LittleBigPlanet
GT5
Folklore
Ratchet
Echochrome (an interactive optical illusion, fuck yeah!)
SOCOM
Warhawk
Home
Free online
MGS4!
MS just continues to show they don't know their market. They're trying to increase marketshare that's already gone to the Wii for casual gaming, but they're alienating their current marketshare, which will head to the PS3. Aside from Halo 3 and Bioshock, who cares anymore? I'm sick of dealing with broken systems, cheaped, gimped hardware, paying for pictures, paying for P2P online, a locked down system, I just don't care anymore.
Sony shows they care more about gaming by what they've shown. As a gamer, that's the most interesting and most enticing. Being able to play games in the best way possible, without silly things like mouse/keyboard lockouts, restriction of mods, lack of a standard HDD, smaller disc space.
Kudos Sony, you deserved to win.
Uncharted\
Infamous
Heavenly Sword
Haze
UT3 (mouse/keyboard,mods!)
LittleBigPlanet
GT5
Folklore
Ratchet
Echochrome (an interactive optical illusion, fuck yeah!)
SOCOM
Warhawk
Home
Free online
MGS4!
MS just continues to show they don't know their market. They're trying to increase marketshare that's already gone to the Wii for casual gaming, but they're alienating their current marketshare, which will head to the PS3. Aside from Halo 3 and Bioshock, who cares anymore? I'm sick of dealing with broken systems, cheaped, gimped hardware, paying for pictures, paying for P2P online, a locked down system, I just don't care anymore.
Sony shows they care more about gaming by what they've shown. As a gamer, that's the most interesting and most enticing. Being able to play games in the best way possible, without silly things like mouse/keyboard lockouts, restriction of mods, lack of a standard HDD, smaller disc space.
Kudos Sony, you deserved to win.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Why the 360 failed (I could've told you that)
The 360 failed because it's cheap, no shit Sherlock
"Asian Xbox 360 manufacturers are blaming poor console design, cheap components and a lack of testing coupled with a manic obsession by Microsoft to beat Sony as the reasons for the Xbox 360 "Red Ring Of Death" problems."
Wow, a system rushed out of the gate in 2005 with a tard pack, cheap components, $6 manufacturing cost, a jet engine inside it and cheap plastic on the outside isn't the best piece of hardware out there? I'm not surprised. The Xbox was a surprisingly stable piece of hardware last-gen, but then again, they had a lot to prove. The people in charge of the first Xbox were a lot smarter and more idealistic. They didn't want it to be like the PS2, something that kept breaking down and was unreliable.
So when MS wanted to try and win this generation, they copied the PS2 to a T. I guess they missed the memo where it said they shouldn't have copied the shitty hardware. Oh well, let MS do what they always do, ignore, deny and patch, patch, patch!
"Asian Xbox 360 manufacturers are blaming poor console design, cheap components and a lack of testing coupled with a manic obsession by Microsoft to beat Sony as the reasons for the Xbox 360 "Red Ring Of Death" problems."
Wow, a system rushed out of the gate in 2005 with a tard pack, cheap components, $6 manufacturing cost, a jet engine inside it and cheap plastic on the outside isn't the best piece of hardware out there? I'm not surprised. The Xbox was a surprisingly stable piece of hardware last-gen, but then again, they had a lot to prove. The people in charge of the first Xbox were a lot smarter and more idealistic. They didn't want it to be like the PS2, something that kept breaking down and was unreliable.
So when MS wanted to try and win this generation, they copied the PS2 to a T. I guess they missed the memo where it said they shouldn't have copied the shitty hardware. Oh well, let MS do what they always do, ignore, deny and patch, patch, patch!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Todd Halmdahl Dodgy Interview
Here's another piece of shit at Microsoft demonstrating poor business ethics, spitting in customers faces.
Bullshit interview with Todd Halmdahl
Now, a 'professional' response to this genuine 'great' guy:
"...Q: I’m sure you’ve seen some of these complaints that we’ve written about from the guy who went through seven machines. There are a lot of people posting on the blog saying they still have problems. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that the quality of the Xbox 360 isn’t there. How can you paint the bigger picture for me there?
A: We’re very proud of the box. We think the vast majority of people are having just a great experience. You look at the number of games they are buying, the number of accessories they are buying, the Live attach. They love the box. They continue to buy the box. That said, we take any customer issue very seriously. We continue to look into these things very deeply. You have seen we have made some changes to our customer service policy.
Q: Do you still say that is a normal return rate for the console?
A: We continue to say the vast majority of the people are really happy with it."
He dodges questions with elegance and finesse, no wonder they picked him, after all, he does have all the answers.
"...Q: I’ve heard varying accounts of what is considered a normal return rate. Some people say that 2 percent is normal. Sometimes 3 percent to 5 percent is considered normal. Back to that question, can you address whether you are within those rates or within a normal rate.
A: We don’t disclose the actual number.
Q: Do you still say that is a normal return rate for the console?
A: We continue to say the vast majority of the people are really happy with it.
Q: I’ve heard varying accounts of what is considered a normal return rate. Some people say that 2 percent is normal. Sometimes 3 percent to 5 percent is considered normal. Back to that question, can you address whether you are within those rates or within a normal rate.
A: We don’t disclose the actual number.
Q: Normal compared to the Xbox?
A: We don’t comment on that.
Thanks Todd, thanks for addressing my concerns as a (former?!) paying customer! Please, spew more shit at me.
"Q: What explains this anecodotal evidence that it’s out of whack, compared to the Wii or the PlayStation 3 or other consoles.
A: I would go back and say the vast majority of people love their experience. We continue to go back and address all of these issues on a case by case basis. There is a vocal minority out there. We go off and try to address their issues as quickly and as pain free as possible.
Q: There were some folks, who are not totally guessing, who said that when you had three million consoles in the market, you have a bone pile of bad ones. That seems to suggest a pretty high defect rate as far as the yield goes. Can you address that?
A: We don’t talk about our production.
Q: Can you say anything about the yield? Do you have a good yield? Can you say anything about the yield?
A: The important thing here is that each product that comes out of the factory is rigorously tested. To ensure highest quality for our customer."
Like Petey essentially said, it's not about about making a quality product. It wasn't about that, not to mention it's too late for that, now it's just damage control. When a 360 fucks up, lots of them are replaced for free, the three dead ones I was involved with were. However, some are charged up to $170 for repairs, for another shitty, unreliable unit, I sure as hell wouldn't pay that.
You know the problem is real bad when MS is running short on boxes (aka coffins) for the dead systems.
It took MS 8 days to get me my most recent coffin, compared to the complete 12~ days the entire process took last time. I'm not even XBL Gold anymore (another MS screwup), but I feel for the people who are paying to play online (another 360-only 'feature')and are without a console this long, just throwing money away. It's pretty re-goddamn-diculous.
Bullshit interview with Todd Halmdahl
Now, a 'professional' response to this genuine 'great' guy:
"...Q: I’m sure you’ve seen some of these complaints that we’ve written about from the guy who went through seven machines. There are a lot of people posting on the blog saying they still have problems. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that the quality of the Xbox 360 isn’t there. How can you paint the bigger picture for me there?
A: We’re very proud of the box. We think the vast majority of people are having just a great experience. You look at the number of games they are buying, the number of accessories they are buying, the Live attach. They love the box. They continue to buy the box. That said, we take any customer issue very seriously. We continue to look into these things very deeply. You have seen we have made some changes to our customer service policy.
Q: Do you still say that is a normal return rate for the console?
A: We continue to say the vast majority of the people are really happy with it."
He dodges questions with elegance and finesse, no wonder they picked him, after all, he does have all the answers.
"...Q: I’ve heard varying accounts of what is considered a normal return rate. Some people say that 2 percent is normal. Sometimes 3 percent to 5 percent is considered normal. Back to that question, can you address whether you are within those rates or within a normal rate.
A: We don’t disclose the actual number.
Q: Do you still say that is a normal return rate for the console?
A: We continue to say the vast majority of the people are really happy with it.
Q: I’ve heard varying accounts of what is considered a normal return rate. Some people say that 2 percent is normal. Sometimes 3 percent to 5 percent is considered normal. Back to that question, can you address whether you are within those rates or within a normal rate.
A: We don’t disclose the actual number.
Q: Normal compared to the Xbox?
A: We don’t comment on that.
Thanks Todd, thanks for addressing my concerns as a (former?!) paying customer! Please, spew more shit at me.
"Q: What explains this anecodotal evidence that it’s out of whack, compared to the Wii or the PlayStation 3 or other consoles.
A: I would go back and say the vast majority of people love their experience. We continue to go back and address all of these issues on a case by case basis. There is a vocal minority out there. We go off and try to address their issues as quickly and as pain free as possible.
Q: There were some folks, who are not totally guessing, who said that when you had three million consoles in the market, you have a bone pile of bad ones. That seems to suggest a pretty high defect rate as far as the yield goes. Can you address that?
A: We don’t talk about our production.
Q: Can you say anything about the yield? Do you have a good yield? Can you say anything about the yield?
A: The important thing here is that each product that comes out of the factory is rigorously tested. To ensure highest quality for our customer."
Like Petey essentially said, it's not about about making a quality product. It wasn't about that, not to mention it's too late for that, now it's just damage control. When a 360 fucks up, lots of them are replaced for free, the three dead ones I was involved with were. However, some are charged up to $170 for repairs, for another shitty, unreliable unit, I sure as hell wouldn't pay that.
You know the problem is real bad when MS is running short on boxes (aka coffins) for the dead systems.
It took MS 8 days to get me my most recent coffin, compared to the complete 12~ days the entire process took last time. I'm not even XBL Gold anymore (another MS screwup), but I feel for the people who are paying to play online (another 360-only 'feature')and are without a console this long, just throwing money away. It's pretty re-goddamn-diculous.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Y'know, Things Break
Thanks for the comforting statement, jackass...
"I can't comment on failure rates, because it's just not something - it's a moving target. What this consumer should worry about is the way that we've treated him. Y'know, things break, and if we've treated him well and fixed his problem, that's something that we're focused on right now. I'm not going to comment on individual failure rates because I'm shipping in 36 countries and it's a complex business." - Peter Moore
Wow. What an explanation, way to reassure your customer base. You've treated him well if you mean lubing up with spit before going in with a fuckin' cactus. This is unethical, stupid, condescending and just plain ignorant. You know there's a problem, the gaming community knows there's a problem and if you don't act now, the amount of people who know will increase just as fast as the faith in the Xbox brand decreases.
Peter Moore is a piece of shit.
Thumbs up to you, Petey!
"I can't comment on failure rates, because it's just not something - it's a moving target. What this consumer should worry about is the way that we've treated him. Y'know, things break, and if we've treated him well and fixed his problem, that's something that we're focused on right now. I'm not going to comment on individual failure rates because I'm shipping in 36 countries and it's a complex business." - Peter Moore
Wow. What an explanation, way to reassure your customer base. You've treated him well if you mean lubing up with spit before going in with a fuckin' cactus. This is unethical, stupid, condescending and just plain ignorant. You know there's a problem, the gaming community knows there's a problem and if you don't act now, the amount of people who know will increase just as fast as the faith in the Xbox brand decreases.
Peter Moore is a piece of shit.
Thumbs up to you, Petey!
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