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.

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Assassin’s Creed Lead Engineer Mathieu Mazerolle was asked the big question; how do the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions stack-up against each other?

Our goal is to ship the two versions of [Assassin’s Creed] to be within 5% or less of difference between each other. That doesn’t mean the PS3 is 5% “better” or “worse”, it’s really just an approximation and a statement that while the two versions are very similar, there will be (as there always is) small, hopefully inperceptible, differences between the two versions within a very small threshold.

He also added:

Both machines are very complex and have very distinct strengths and weaknesses, so it’s almost impossible to quantify these sorts of comparisons - we just want to make the game as good as it can be on both platforms, and owners of both consoles will get the same experience from playing [Assassin’s Creed].

At X07 when asked about the benefit of Blu-Ray versus standard DVD Mathieu told us that even if UbiSoft wanted to add a new piece of content to the Xbox 360 version of Assassin’s Creed the DVD version is already at capacity.

He clarified:

As far as adding extra content, it’s not really an issue: we have all the content we need for the game fitting on a DVD as it is, and the game wouldn’t necessarily be better by just by adding “stuff” on the disk: the biggest limitation for us isn’t disk space, it’s squeezing every last drop of performance out of the processors on both consoles to make the game as cool as possible on the screen!

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EGM has received tons of hate mail since they awarded Halo 3 with the “Best A.I. of E3″ honor and stuck Killzone 2 with ”Worst A.I. of E3.”  There have been the typical cries of bias and fanboyism.  EGM Editor Dan Hsu has fan the fires of this debate on his blog with an FAQ style response.

Microsoft game vs. a Sony game. How convenient.
OK, that wasn’t really a question, but it’s a legit comment. We didn’t pick Halo 3 and Killzone 2 specifically to go against each other or to cause extra controversy. We voted as a staff (including the entire 1UP Network, which includes 1UP.com and GameVideos.com), and we honestly and independently came up with Halo 3 at the top of the list for best A.I. and Killzone 2 at the “top” for worst. We didn’t even think of it as Microsoft vs. Sony thing until we realized that both games won their respective categories.

But is it fair to pick Halo 3 because you guys actually got a chance to play it? Versus Killzone 2, which was only on demo, played by the developers.
Good question, but no…our previous hands-on experience with Halo 3 (for our last cover story) did not factor into the voting. Very few of us actually played single-player Halo 3 when we did our cover story, and when I voted, I kept that game time out of mind for these awards. I based my best/worst A.I. votes purely on what was shown to me at E3…and Halo 3 and Killzone 2 were both on equal grounds there. Both were not playable by us, only played for us by their respective developers, and based on those E3 demos and those demos alone, we voted the way we did. I saw excellent A.I. from Halo 3 specifically from the E3 demo, and I saw an extreme example of bad A.I. from Killzone 2 (see below)…also at E3. That’s why I voted for those two games for those respective categories.

But there’s gotta be some other, lesser-profile games with worse A.I. than Killzone 2.
Based on what we’ve seen and what we voted on, totally fairly, Killzone 2 nabbed the award. Part of the problem is, the Killzone 2 showed some very noticeable flaws. It wasn’t like the enemies were just standing around. Like we mentioned in the write-up, the bad guys were actually jumping out of cover to get *in* the line of fire. It’s like they wanted to get shot. That alone, unfortunately, made Killzone 2 look worse (A.I.-wise) than it probably is.

So you guys hate Killzone 2, huh?
Shut up, you stupid FAQ man. The write-up in EGM greatly compliments Killzone 2 as a whole. We’re just making fun of one specific thing: that whole “jumping out of cover” business.

OK, then you must hate Sony.
Heh, check out how many good awards the company picked up in the same feature. Oh by the way–this should be obvious, but in case you didn’t know, moneyhats are mutually exclusive. You can’t accept one from Microsoft *AND* Sony at the same time. It’s in the contracts.

Oh by the way again–this should be obvious, but in case you didn’t know, I was joking just now.

Isn’t it unfair to compare a game that’s still months away from release (Killzone 2) to a game that’s almost finished (Halo 3)?
Oh, for sure, but that’s part of the problem for any E3 judging…all games are at different points in their development. But we still have E3 awards in EGM. We still have our annual E3 opinionated guide in EGM. The industry even has its own E3 awards. Are all of them fair? No…not if you look at how far along each individual title is in its development. But then again, yes…the companies are putting these products out for the media to see, and as we’ve done many times in the past, we’ll judge them (knowing full well they’re incomplete games). So in the context of these being E3 games and E3 demos, we’re treating them all equally and as fairly as possible.

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On the Halo series page at Wikipedia, an edit originated from Sony Computer Entertainment casts aspersions on Microsoft’s Halo 3. In the Halo 3 section of the Halo page, Sony added “(Halo 3) wont look any better than Halo 2.” (See the first and second story images attached below.) Since then, the Halo page has been corrected and locked from further vandalism.

The WikiScanner discovery is reported on Wired’s ‘Threat Level’. The report and IP address have been checked by Wired senior editor Kevin Poulsen, (i.e., see the third attached image for Poulsen’s comments; “Sony insults Halo 3″ is the second report after the Walmart report.)

Finally, the forth and last image was taken from a ‘Whois’ search at the RIPE.net database for “217.18.23.2″, the IP address recorded by Wikipedia as having edited the Halo page. The query shows that 217.18.23.2 is registered to SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) Liverpool Studios in Great Britain. The result also shows the studio’s physical address, phone number, and email address.

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Diddy Kong has finally made his way into Super Smash Bros.  To celebrate, Nintendo has announced two new special moves for Diddy Kong.

Standard Special Move: Peanut Popgun

It’s Diddy’s peanut shooter.  The peanut will go faster the longer you hold down the button.

Make sure not to hold the button too long.  If you do your gun will explode.

Diddy’s peanut shooter may be the only combination weapon/food source.  If the shell cracks, a peanut will come out.  Eat this for a health boost.

Up Special Move: Rocketbarrel Blast

You can charge up Diddy’s double-barreled jet pack for a longer boost

You can hold the control stick left or right while charging up to boost up at an angle

Be careful!  If you get attacked while using Rocketbarrel Boost, you will lose your barrels and they will crash to the ground.

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Our friends at Teckh.com are reporting that Suprnova.org is back online.  Suprnova was arguably the best torrents search engine until they were shutdown in 2004 due to legal pressure.  The site was donated to what has become the the top general torrents search engine, thepiratebay.com.  The Pirate Bay has reopened suprnova and is officially calling it an open beta. 

This is great news for anyone looking for any easy way to obtain backup copies of media they legally own.

Official Press Release:

Suprnova has been down for some years due to some heavy pressure from the copyright lobby. The former owner sloncek donated suprnova to The Pirate Bay - and as you know, we like to kick ass and bow for noone!

We were going to keep this site a secret until we had finished it, but of course it leaked, that’s how internet works. So now that the word is out, we’re releasing it!

Please consider these first weeks/months as a beta test. Since we love all you guys and gals so much we decided to keep it an open beta test. That means, please behave, don’t complaint to much and if you discover any weird bugs or problems, let us know.

Some of you have also already discovered our new forum, Suprbay! Which is a joint forum for both Suprnova and The Pirate Bay. Discuss movies, music, love and whatever with your fellow pirates.

Finally, some words for non-internet loving companies: This is how it works. Whatever you sink, we build back up. Whomever you sue, ten new pirates are recruited. Wherever you go, we are already ahead of you. You are the past and the forgotten, we are the internet and the future.

y’arr!

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Sorry about being away for so long.  Business trips and laziness have combined to make for some really bad posting.  I want to send out a special apology to Rob.  I know your day was not complete without the latest updates from Lasersharks.

There is an updated confirmed track list for Guitar Hero III.  Check it out here.

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