Laser Sharks

Bruce from bruceongames.com has an op-ed on how Microsoft has really missed out on an opportunity to make money by cutting the life of the original Xbox short.  He cites Sony’s numerous redesigns of the original Playstation and how they were able to keep manufacturing PSOne until March 2006, just a few months before the launch of the Playstation 3.  Bruce also gives the example of the Playstation 2 and states the fact that it is still outselling the PS3.

He summarizes his point by saying:

To me it looks like they killed off the original Xbox half way through it’s life. They could have re-engineered it to make it far cheaper to manufacture (just as Sony did with the PSOne) and kept on selling it for another 5 years as part of a two product line. They would have sold tens of millions of additional units if the continuing success of the Playstation 2 is anything to go by.

This is a great theory and has been implemented by nearly every successful console manufacturer to date.  Even Nintendo redesigned the NES and sold the cheaper top loading NES 2.

Reduced cost of manufacturing means that the console can sell for less money and the company can still make a profit.  That means Sony or Nintendo can tap into a different market, what I like to call the $99 crowd.  This group may think $300 is much too high for a game console but would gladly pay $99.  Microsoft on the other hand only manufactured and sold the original Xbox from November 2001 to November 2006.  By mid 2006 they wee only exhausting supplies and had no games is serious development. 

Why would Microsoft bail on the Xbox so soon and miss out on all of the potential to make money as Bruce has suggested?  The reason is simple.  Microsoft’s big mistake wasn’t that they quit selling the original Xbox too soon, but rather that they started selling it so soon.  To rush the console to market they licensed many preexisting parts rather than have parts designed specifically for them, as most console manufacturers do.  Microsoft licensed Nvidia chipsets rather than have custom chipsets manufactured.  Microsoft tried to negotiate with NVIDIA to lower the price, but NVIDIA refused to do so.  As a result, Microsoft lost money on every Xbox sold, and was unable to re-manufacture the console at a significantly cheaper price.  Microsoft lost more than $4 million on the original Xbox and wanted to get away from it as quickly as possible.  Had Microsoft taken the time to design a custom chip that they owned, they may have been able to recoop some of that massive loss.

Popularity: 27% [?]

EA announced recently that it will discontinue online services for pretty much any game that doesn’t have ‘07 written at the end of the title. The full list of games losing online support are as follows:

September 1, 2007 Online Service Shutdown
Arena Football (PlayStation 2, Xbox)
FIFA Soccer 06 (Xbox 360, PC)FIFA Soccer 06 (PS2, PSP, PC, Xbox)
Fight Night Round 3 (PSP, Xbox)
Madden NFL 06 (Xbox 360, PC, PS2, PSP, Xbox)
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (PS2, Xbox)
MVP 07 NCAA Baseball (PS2, Xbox)
NASCAR 06 Total Team Control (PS2, Xbox)
NBA Live 06 (Xbox 360, PC, PS2, PSP, Xbox)
NCAA Football 2005 (Xbox)
NCAA Football 2006 (PS2, Xbox)
NCAA March Madness 06 (PS2, Xbox)
NFL Head Coach (PC, Xbox, PS2)
NHL 06 (PC, PS2, Xbox)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 (Xbox 360, Xbox)
November 1, 2007 Online Service Shutdown
Need for Speed Underground 1 (PC, PlayStation 2)
Need for Speed Underground 2 (PC, PlayStation 2)
Burnout Revenge (Xbox, Playstation 2)
Need for Speed Most Wanted (PSP, Xbox)

I highlighted the games that I thought it was most interesting they were canceling service.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Four more Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock tracks have been confirmed as well as eight venues.  There is no word on whether or not this is a complete venue list.

Venues

• Backyard Bash
• Desert Rock Tour
• Kaiju Megadome
• Lou’s Inferno
• Mitch’s Moose Lounge
• Shanker’s Island
• Video Shoot
• Ye Olde Royal Odeon

New Tracks

• Dragon Force - Through the Fire and the Flames (Master Track)
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss (Master Track)
• Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast (Master Track)
• ZZ Top - La Grange (Cover)

Note that of the four tracks, only La Grange is no supposed to be a master track.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Eidos Interactive, publisher of franchises such as Hitman and Tomb Raider for Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, and the PC, has signed a three-year deal with Double Fusion, an in-game advertising specialist, to use in-game marketing in 10 of Eidos’ upcoming titles. Eidos Interactive has issued a press release claiming that:

The deal covers 10 key Eidos titles, all currently in various stages of development. Advertising will be displayed in several formats, ranging from dynamically-served advertisements, which can be rotated or changed after the games’ release, to deep integrations and product placements.

Usual statements from the Eidos and Double Fusion will follow of course:

“This is an exciting and innovative opportunity for Eidos, we’re delighted to be working with Double Fusion and we fully believe that our titles will offer the perfect platform for the right media partners,” commented Jane Cavanagh, chief executive, Eidos Interactive.

Frank Sagnier, Double Fusion’s European managing director said:“We are truly excited about this partnership with Eidos. The quality and breadth of Eidos’ portfolio of games represents an ideal opportunity for advertisers to reach many millions of consumers in an uncluttered and engaging environment. It further strengthens videogames as a primary medium of choice to reach the elusive 18-34 year old audience.”

We have long heard about how in-game advertisement is the future of gaming. A company like McDonald’s might pay to have a video game hero eat Big Macs to regain health. This would be great for everyone involved.  People playing the game will want to buy more Big Macs and the video game studio will have some of the cost of producing a game offset. It is even argued that the gamer will benefit from having an added sense of realism. In theory, the games could be sold for less because they will be paid for by advertising dollars.

However, there is a problem that this causes for gamers. When advertisers give you money, they generally try to dictate how their product is advertised. Do you think that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas could have used the same humor if the Cluckin’ Bell was McDonald’s? Even in genres where in-game advertisement seems like a perfect fit, such as racing games, there are problems. While it is true that in-game advertisements would lend realism to a racing game, some auto manufacturers don’t allow there cars to be shown damaged. The developer would have to make a choice, should I leave the money from this company on the table or remove car damage altogether? Does anyone want to use The Whopper Rifle in the next Hitman? Do you want to search for the lost Beef Gordita in the next Tomb Raider?

Product placement is one thing, but another is dynamically generated ad content. There will be other implications if advertisers can send you dynamic content - and I’m not just talking about behavior monitoring. Will advertisers force developers to require that a game be connected to the internet for play? Will a game not run properly if you try to block the ads from your system?

There is little that the consumer can do to stop this trend. I really do think that most developers will use reason in developing games, but there will always be a temptation. Hopefully developers limit the creative input of advertisers and produce games that aren’t affected by the advertisements and maybe, just maybe, the Warthog won’t be a rental from Enterprise.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Bioware’s space RPG Mass Effect is due to release on November 1, 2007.   It is one of the most anticipated games on the year for the Xbox 360.  GameVideos.com has posted several new videos showing in-game footage from Mass Effect.

Galaxy Map

Conversation

Transmission

Explore

Squad

E3 2007 Trailer

Popularity: 4% [?]

The regional vice president of Xbox EMEA, Chris Lewis, said that the so-called ‘three red light problem’ is cause by a series of errors that could occur, rather than by any single fault, and therefore would only affect certain Xbox 360s.

“There are a number of issues that are related to this problem. It is not a single flaw,” he explained.

“The three red lights come from not just one problem, but the manifestation of a number of issues. It is only when a number of issues collaborate that the fault occurs.”

Microsoft has confirmed that they are extending the warranties on Xbox 360s to three years, but only to cover the problem with the ‘three red lights,’ and that other problems would only be covered by a one year warranty.  This warranty extension is estimated to cost Microsoft over 1 billion dollars.

Full Story can be found here.

Popularity: 4% [?]

 One of my favorite blogs, Teckh.com, linked to our articles on the best and worst five things about the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360.  They commented in their post that

Another point I half agree with is the Xbox360 point about hardcore gamers, the more mature PC crowd latched onto the XBOX fairly well, but then so did the less mature jr high kids.

This made me think.  Why does there seem to be such a high number of annoying people on Xbox Live?  It certainly doesn’t seem quite as bad when I play my PS3, PS2, or PC online.   I considered it and came up with the following solution.  

The Xbox 360 is the console of choice for the hardcore crowd and has definitely managed to convert many of the PC only crowd.  It does also attract a lot of 12 year olds, 40 year olds, and everyone in between.  So does every other game console.  The difference is the near universal access to voice chat.  Nearly all of the problems people experience online with “annoying 12 year olds” stem from voice communication.  Most 360 owners have a headset because the most popular SKU includes a headset.  This is not true of any other gaming platform.  Most of the games I have played online on either Playstation system have been either completely quiet or only a few people have had a headset.  Most PC voice chatting is done through third party software where password protected rooms are the norm and usually the people you chat with are already your friends.  Most PC game communication is through the keyboard.  You can only be so annoying when you are limited to text in a small corner of the screen. 

One of the biggest strengths of Xbox Live is also one of its worst problems - most people have a headset.  If team damage is off, then it is very hard to be annoying through gameplay alone.  Most of the annoying gameplay takes place from smack talk gone horribly wrong.

Friendly Tip: If you find yourself playing on Xbox Live with one of those “annoying 12 year olds,” the best thing to do is to ignore them.  If it continues, then just mute them altogether.  Arguing with them just makes it worse.

Popularity: 7% [?]

What is now known about Halo 3 campaign mode thanks to GamePro:

• The first level , Sierra 117l, takes place in a lush jungle setting.
• The campaign is broken into nine missions and covers from Master Chief’s landfall on Earth to his reprisal of the role of Reclaimer on one of the last remaining Halo superstructures.
• The Arbiter is back and working with Master Chief.
• There is an enhanced co-op mode.  One player controls Master Chief, the other player controls the Arbiter.  Also, and online co-op mode is probable.
• The brutes are very tough and comprise the bulk of the intelligent enemy forces faced in Halo 3.

Summary taken from GamePro.com.  Click here to view the full article.

Popularity: 4% [?]

1. You have to pay to play online
Although Xbox Live offers the most complete online service, you do have to pay $50 a year to play the game that just set you back $60. Although you do not get the same quality of service or all the cool extras, you can play Madden for free on the Playstation Network.

2. They Use Microsoft Points
I understand that allowing $1 at a time credit card transactions are cost prohibitive, but at least give us a currency that isn’t intentionally confusing.  Nintend0 has 100 Points=$1 and Sony’s point system uses the equivalent local currency.  Why then does Microsoft feel the need to make 80 points=$1?  It is simple math and only takes a little bit to figure it out, but we know that the only reason this pricing method is used is to make you think you are paying $5 for something that is actually costing you $6.25.

3.  The Hard Drive Is Not Standard
The original Xbox had the advantage of being the only system to include a hard drive as standard.  This allowed games like Halo to be played through with almost no loading screens.  With the Xbox 360, they decided that it was a good idea to release a cheaper version without a hard drive.  That is fine except this forced developers to not count on the hard drive being there, and as a result, many of the benefits of the hard drive, such as reduced loading screens, are not there either.

4. The Accessories are Overpriced
$100 for a wi-fi adaptor, $100 for a 20 GB hard drive, $170 for a 120 GB hard drive, $40 (now $30) for a 64 MB memory card, $50 for a 512 MB hard drive, $ - well, you get the point.  I should buy a product from Microsoft that costs 2.5 times the cost that somebody off the street will pay for it.

5. One Third of the Systems are Defective
Like the Xbox 360, well there is a good chance that you will have several of them.  I personally know a guy who is on his fourth console.  This guy has had twelve of them.  At lease Microsoft has finally admitted that there is a problem and extended the warranty to three years, as well as changing some of the hardware.  Still, you know it was frustrating to be the kid who opened up his gift on Christmas morning only to have it go out three hours later.

Check out the worst things about the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360
Check out the best things about the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360

Popularity: 7% [?]

Our good friend Lorenzo over at www.commonreview.com has posted “What the Halo Movie Would Have Looked Like.”  It showcases some live action teaser trailers from Neill Blomkamp.  Common Review gives interesting commentary and the backstory behind these trailers.  Anyone who is upset that the Halo movie never came out, or anyone who thought this might be another House of the Dead should check this out.

Full Story Here

Popularity: 5% [?]

One of the weak points of the Xbox 360 is the current headset used to communicate over Xbox Live, which Microsoft cleverly calls the Xbox Live Communicator. The adaptor does not connect very well to the controller and as a result will often cause crackling if bumped even slightly. Furthermore, it has a severe problem with shorting out. Although my original launch day console has never given me any problems, I am on my sixth Xbox Live Communicator for the Xbox 360 -four wired, two wireless. My first three wired headset all shorted out despite me being very careful with all of my console accessories. The two wireless ones were ok, but the voice quality was lower overall and they both had a bad problem of randomly dropping the connection. My current communicator has been going strong for about a year and hopefully will continue this in the future. I guess problems with the headset should be expected from a console that has a 33% failure rate.

Microsoft is releasing its new Xbox 360 Chatpad on September 4th with a price of $29.99 (Thanks to Lorenzo from www.commonreview.com for the heads up on this). Quoted from Xbox.com:

Messenger Kit includes the Xbox 360 Wired Headset for the ultimate communication bundle.

The reason that the folks at Microsoft have lovingly included a headset is because the current headset connector does not fit the chatpad.

The single port (same connector as the one coming out of the puck on the original Xbox) will form a snugger connection between the headset and the controller. It is rumored that the new headset will feature in-line volume and mute controls and will replaced the current headset connector. Check back with Laser Sharks for more info on this in the future.

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There have been doubts as to the nature of this post.  The main criticism is that it was a prototype image.  Here are some more pictures:

       

  

Note: Laser Sharks will be temporarily hosted at www.commonreview.com/lasersharks .  The popularity of the site as made this move necessary.  Thanks for your patience during the move.  Hopefully, this will only be until Friday, on which the site will return to www.lasersharks.com.  Thanks to Lorenzo at www.commonreview.com for the temporary hosting.

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1. The Xbox 360 has Hardcore Gamers.
For Gamers that play a lot, there is no better system than the Xbox 360. It has the best there is to offer for a standard next-gen console and a large user base to utilize it all. Which leads me to my next point…

2. The Xbox 360 has Xbox Live.
Of all the systems, including the granddaddy of connectivity, the PC, Xbox Live is by far the easiest to use connection tool. Other systems have it, other systems have friend codes, other systems are currently free, but Xbox Live does it best. Voice, text, downloadable content, system/game updates, all easily navigable through…

3. The Xbox 360 has Xbox Dashboard.
This is the console’s menu system, and by itself, it is well laid out, easily accessible, and chock full ‘o’ nifty options. They include user set backgrounds and modular, organizational components. And, for people that have been console gaming for years, it means that you can have fun with your console without having a game plugged in.

4. The Xbox 360 has Game Library.
In the past, Xbox hasn’t had the largest library of games…well, good games at least. So far, and with new titles coming all the time, the 360 has the best selection of games. It has even snagged a number of formerly exclusive titles. And yeah, that’s just a by-product of developers and producers needing to pay rent, but what it means to the consumer is that you can play the game you want on the system you want. And right now, those games are debuting on the 360 first.

5. The Xbox 360’s Pricing.
This one is a no brainer. The 360 is smack in the middle of the price scale. And yet it offers more than one competitor and just as much as the other. Even the new Elite version of the 360 is cheaper than competition, and that’s with a twice as large harddrive. 360 is definitely the best bang for your buck when it comes to next-gen gaming.

Check out the worst things about the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360
Check out the best things about the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360

Popularity: 5% [?]