Capcoms, Namcos, Midways, and Konamis plus 20-25 titles each = crazy delicious! =) I'm lookin' forward to a whole lot of retro collections coming online for co-op/versus play.

"Big publishers embrace Xbox Live Arcade, promise original titles"

Wait, wait. So both the interviewer and the interviewee are employed my MS?

As much as it is a promising area this interview is 100% biased. And as employees of MS, you can expect chest-beating "my thwang is bigger than yours. we are the greatest ever".

I'd rather hear it from the 3rd parties like Capcom (that SFII news was great), instead of them.

Looks promising but I wonder...

With the big publishers eyeing Xbox Live Arcade, will they saturate the marketplace pushing out the little indie guys were originally suppose to reap the most benefits from Xbox Live Arcade?

I agree. Xbox Live Aracade is truely brilliant and where the industry needs to go with a lot of gaming. Still have the Halo's but have some simple stuff everyone can play.

While this is all fine and dandy, it also foreshadows success for Nintendo's Virutual console. If Nintendo does infact, get Sega and other companies on board, we could be seeing an even more comprehensive Online Arcade. Except this one would have classic Nintendo titles. And people wouldn't have to pay massive amounts of cash to get access it

I personally love the arcade and actually play those titles more than I do my store bought games. Also, I've bought twice as many arcade games as I have at the store or ordered online. It's exciting to see it be of interest to the big wigs as well.

My favorite has to be Wik though. GeomWars is great, but it gets a lil hard to see your guy for my taste. Of course I suck @ it, so that's prolly why....hehe

"people wouldn't have to pay massive amounts of cash to get access it"
and then people wake up from their dream and realize we're talking about Nintendo who is king at nickel and dimeing whenever there is a buck to be made.

Brand new tv. Brand new sound system. Brand new HD game system. And I'm playing Tetris....what went wrong?

"And people wouldn't have to pay massive amounts of cash to get access it"

Why do people consider 50$ a year or *Gasp* 8$ for one month (that would let you download whatever in that time), or dare I say it - the free month trial? to access the arcade

as much as I dont see 50$ a YEAR a "massive amount"

I could agree if you mean the 360 itself.

then again, its not like you dont have to pay for a revolution console as well, albiet cheaper its still a lot of cash, and lord knows how much the games will cost (hopefully the best titles will not go over 10, if so I call blasphemy)

"and then people wake up from their dream and realize we're talking about Nintendo who is king at nickel and dimeing whenever there is a buck to be made."

You must be referring to the FREE online service they started. What? Free? Ever heard of it?

I would rather be nickeled and dimed occasionally by nintendo than be "hundred-dollared" as is usually the case with MS. Like the $100 they are overcharging for their premium bundle, or the $100 for a 13gig harddrive, etc, etc. Get a clue. Nintendo is the bargain console and has been for some time.

I can't wait until they re-open development for NES and SNES and we see new content for download for those platforms on the REV virtual console. Geometry wars is good but it can't hang with classic SNES baby!

"as much as I dont see 50$ a YEAR a "massive amount""

Its not the $50 a year.

Its the $700 for a so-so HDTV, $400 for the console, 5 games at $60 each, and THEN $50 per year. First year of ownership for a 360, assuming you ONLY buy 5 games, no accessories and download nothing? $1450. Yeah, thems some sweet ass nickles and dimes bitches. Nintendo Revolution console $150, 5 games at $40 each, your current TV works just fine and free online service puts your first year of ownership at $350. Oh no, now nintendo charges me $5 to download super mario brothers. I'm still like $1095 ahead. Yeah, nintendo is really ripping us off.

And dont even start with some bullshit about using your 360 on a regular TV. If you use it on a regular TV why even buy it? On a SDTV the graphics aint no better than a current xbox and the games are the same. The new controller aint worth $400.

Psstt ... hey troll, you only need a silver live membership to download games from live arcade. (silver membership is free if you're slow on the uptake)

^ get real man!

150 for the rev? dont make me laugh.

40 dollar games? thats a good one. like nintendo is going to lower the price of games when people like you will pay any amount of money for their games.

5 dollar downloads i can believe, but with nintendos reputation and blind followers, i wouldnt doubt that NES games will be 10 bucks a piece.

As for the topic at hand- I think XBLA is great! I am more than a little worried that the market could get saturated with sub par games, but that is the beauty of the free demos.
If a game is great, why does tech matter? I thought that was nintendos mantra. Why blast MS for delivering great gameplay? hypocrites.

Its not the $50 a year.

Its the $700 for a so-so HDTV, $400 for the console, 5 games at $60 each, and THEN $50 per year. First year of ownership for a 360, assuming you ONLY buy 5 games, no accessories and download nothing? $1450. Yeah, thems some sweet ass nickles and dimes bitches. Nintendo Revolution console $150, 5 games at $40 each, your current TV works just fine and free online service puts your first year of ownership at $350. Oh no, now nintendo charges me $5 to download super mario brothers. I'm still like $1095 ahead. Yeah, nintendo is really ripping us off.

you my friend, are an idiot. HD gaming is very very over rated. I have a both a sdtv and an hdtv. I have played my 360 on both and this is the difference.
SDTV- garphics look next gen in every way. the detail is crazy and you can really see the the fine details of the game. In nba 2k6 i could clearly see the fibers in the players clothes. what also seem impressive for sdtv was the depth of field that was clearly visible.
HDTV- at default the console sets the hd to 720i. at this setting, the picture looks crisp and sharp. the very fine details are visible. by this I mean that in condemned you can see textures in the wall( mold dirt and moisture are clearly visible).
SO if you think that gaming suffers because you can't see dirt and grime on the wall then why buy a nintendo that doesnt even support hd. and why would a next gen revlution game cost the same as a game cube game. the console wont support hd but you must be a fool to think that the graphics wont make a big leap.

xboxless:

How much have you been paid to come and talk up Nintendo? You apparently don't even have an xbox (your name is what gives away your obviously biased ignorance). And just so you know, the 360 and ps3 will both work on "current TV works just fine"

I think xbl arcade will be a great thing for the system.

By the way, I noticed you said the system will cost $150. I was unaware that Nintendo made an announcement of how much the revo will cost. Same with the $40 games. Thanks for letting me know.

They can saturate it with whatever they want as far as I am concerened. You get to try all games before you buy them, so if it isn't good I won't buy it, and what I think is trash someone else may love it and vice versa. Sure Nintendo can do the same thing, and copy microsoft, that is there right and I hope they do, that just means more quality games for me to play.

And to sme of the xbox hater, I have already had HDTV for 3 years, and surround sound, so it didn't cost me 1500 as you suggest.

Actually I paid 3000 for my tv and 500 for surround sound. So I guess Microsoft really screwed me didn't they?

"tickle me xboxless" must always have his computer monitor set to 640x480 rather than something higher since "the graphics aint no better" at higher resolutions. LOL. Even old PC games with the low res textures maps look leagues better at higher resolutions.

"I would rather be nickeled and dimed occasionally by nintendo than be "hundred-dollared" as is usually the case with MS. Like the $100 they are overcharging for their premium bundle, or the $100 for a 13gig harddrive, etc, etc. Get a clue. Nintendo is the bargain console and has been for some time."

hahaha. because for $250 your going to get...a revolution, and a controller. What are you going to save all your virtual console games on? Memory Cards? a 1GB memory card is going to set you back AT LEAST $50 Flash memory is far from cheap when compared to HDD's and it suffers from a slower data transfer rate as well. That's for 1GB. So in order to have as much storage space as the $399 XBOX 360 bundle, you'd have to spend roughly $650 on memory cards. Not to mention the headset for online play, another $30. The DVD player add-on will set you back another $25-30. So in the end to get all the equivalent accessories you get with the 360 premium bundle you will need to spend about $960. Granted yes, the NES and SNES game files will not be very large, but the N64 ones will be for sure. Even if you were to just buy the system, a 1GB memory card, and a headset you've already reached $330, and you can't watch DVD's on it still. Get my point? Sure, we don't know the specifics yet, but i'd say it's a pretty safe bet that accessories will not be included.

The stuff that you get with the 360 premium bundle makes it totally worthwhile. Not to mention your getting far superior graphics, to those who care.

I'm not trashing nintendo, but simply pointing out that the revolution isn't going to be INSANELY cheaper like some of you guys make it out to be. As far as the online service goes...i'll be VERY surprised if nintendo pulls off an online service that runs as smoothly as xbox live. I do give them so much more credit than sony though for making it unified. I wish the best to the revo, and will most likely buy one.

If you bought an HDTV solely for XBOX360, and are complaining that you are "upset" because of the lack of games to play, you have no right to complain, or are VERY picky. You do know that you can watch HDTV on that new TV right? Or perhaps watch movies on that fancy big TV maybe?

You are picky if you are one of these people who "only like racing games" or "only like fighting games" etc. If you only like one type of game and are upset about the lack of your genre on a brand new fucking console, then why did you buy it? Did you think 100 titles for your genre would magically appear on November 23rd? If RPG's is your thing...you knew there would be no RPG's on launch, so once again...why did you buy and not wait? The current line up of games right now is great. Condemned is awesome, PDZ is great fun co-op online, COD2 has an awesome single player, Madden 06 is great for when friends are over, so is DOA4.

This whole "you have to spend $1500 on an HDTV to get the full experience" shit is getting old. First off, 360 works and looks great on standard def. TV's. No you don't need to have a $500 home theater system either. These prices of $1500+ on a TV are coming from people who didn't even bother to research prices because they just want a cheap reason to trash the 360. Here's one for you...HDTV is an inevitable change! Yes, it does look even better on an HDTV. You hardly have to pay $1500 for a decent HDTV though. I bought a 30" Philips HDTV with a built in tuner, HDMI inputs for $600, hell they had a 26" HDTV for $450. A 30" unit is fine unless you like to sit 20 feet away from the the TV while playing games.

If you look at it as "full experience" meaning playing it on a 50" screen, then yes, your going to need $1500, but then technically that would be the case with any console...not just the 360, because you need a big TV for the full experience. The majority of gamers do not play on massive projection sets or plasma/LCD diplays. You play on good ol' Tube TV's. Like I said...30"...pretty big TV...$600, name brand, and they even have a better picture too.

For anyone saying that XBLA is the best thing on the system or even making it a worthwhile add-on, then you're a moron. Why? Because you paid $400 for a system to play flash based games you get on ANY PC for free. You're SUPPOSED to buy a $400 system for the HD games and awesomeness that ensues from amazing graphics and life-like games. XBLA by itself isn't stupid, but for it to actually be the talking point of a $400 system, give me a break.

It's the same as the PSP. The system's best games are Lumines, Midway Arcade Treasures, and now PQ. Games that are so basic they can be played on a GBA. Wow, looks like that $250 investment paid off bigtime to play games that don't require fancy graphics or a widescreen, the main selling points of the system. Don't get me wrong, the system is great for other things than games. Well, emulators are awesome too, just another reason to pay $250 for system, and at least $100 for memory to play games made more than a decade or 2 ago.

These are the same reasons why MS and Sony sometimes don't know what they are doing. They try to push the fancy new crap at you only to find people want the most basic easy thing available.

Everyone just stick to what they do know. Sony make console games, they're great there. PS2 = good.

MS, keep trying to put another PC in front of my TV. It's a great idea, just stop trying to pretend that's not what you're doing. It's a PC for the living room. And the original XBOX still had a lot of life left in it.

And Nintendo, you need to make more games. Their only problem is not doing more. If you don't believe me, how many people would like some more Zelda, or Super Smash, or Metroid, or convince more third parties for more games. That's why the stinking Gamecube is in the toilet. No good new games.

And for the person saying to buy a bunch of 1 GB flash card to equal and XBOX hard drive, you're an idiot too. How much do you think your game saves really take up on the HDD? Or even downloadable content like new maps etc.? It's there for other things besides game saves. So, on a system that only does games, why the hell would you need 20 GB worth of storage? For demos yes, but that is something being done on the PC's for years, just adding to the fact that MS is just putting another PC in your living room.

And how would Nintendo be copying if they announced the virtual console WAY before XBLA?

And for saying you can use the HDTV for other things, how do you like paying for that monthly cable bill to get, wait a minute, how many channels in HD? Wow, you can watch local news in HD, well that's freakin important. HD is important for movies, which are not being broadcast in true HD and won't be truly observable until HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

Yeah, I'm ranting, but some poeple say some things they don't think about before typing.

read my point of vieww of HD+XBOX360

http://gxyz.blogspot.com/

and remember, your old xbox could display exactly the same resolution (europeans I know we couldn't) !!

*edited to appease the joystiq gods*

Art Guy, As usual, your post doesn't make sense. Do me the favor of actually reading mine before you respond please. You made my point for me with your uninformed response.
I said, "And dont even start with some bullshit
about using your 360 on a regular TV. If you use it on a regular TV why even buy it? On a SDTV the graphics aint no better than a current xbox and the games are the same." I never said the graphics aren't better at higher resolutions. Learn to read please.

Of course graphics are better at higher resolutions Art Guy. Is it that you didn't read or that you just autorespond as soon as someone talks bad about your lovely xbox? I said that the 360 graphics on a regular
TV are about the same as the regular xbox on a regular TV. And they are. Anyone who says they are still much better on SDTV, better not bash on the Rev for not supporting HD. Afterall if you get the same
graphical leap on SDTV, then who cares about HD. Why are you always saying silly things?

And dsub, you said, "What are you going
to save all your virtual console games on?" And then you went on a rant about memory cards that was too long and uninformed to
quote

Whats the deal? Are you ignoring the info joystiq posts on the Rev? The rev will have built in flash
memory as STANDARD. You dont have to get a premium bundle, unlike the 360, you won't need to pay extra to save games out of the box.
Its built in, no extra purchase necessary. As for EXTRA memory, if I want to buy a HD for the rev, I can. It has USB ports so I can buy a cheap external harddrive of MY CHOOSING. Unlike the 360s proprietary
drive that costs 10 times too much. MS DOESN"T GIVE YOU A CHOICE people!!!

I can get a nice 80 gig external HD for less than MS charges you for a 20 gig piece of crap. $100 for a 20 gig harddrive, are you crazy?
Even fanboys should see $100 for a harddrive is insane! And you say nintendo nickles and dimes.

And I would like to say I totally
agree with Captain Boosh. I think its hilarious some people paid $400 for a system to can play games like geometry wars in HD. Thats hilarious. Microsoft are genius. $400 so you can play cute little
cell phone style games on a TV. Yeah, the game looks good, but if you're not playing HD COD2, PGR3, Condemned, etc, WTF do you need to
spend $400 for? I mean, you could play geometry wars on the original xbox hardware if they would let you. Please make some sense people. Dont let the MS drones control your mouth as well as your wallets.

Personally I find it amusing that the same people who said "it's all about the gameplay" and "who cares about graphics" are mocking people for playing XLA games and really enjoying them.

I mean, of course I'm looking forward to some HD games. Really. But, I'd think that XLA being able to excite both consumers AND developers with this is huge.

After all, aren't these the same kinds of games we saw demo'd with the Revo controller? I mean BOWLING? C'mon.

"Personally I find it amusing that the same people who said "it's all about the gameplay" and "who cares about graphics" are mocking people for playing XLA games and really enjoying them."

The only people getting mocked are the people who were screaming about how important HD is before the 360 came out and are now having so much fun with these simpler games. These are the people who mocked the idea of the revolution and simpler games to begin with. Its like everyone woke up when they played an original game like geometry wars and said, "Hey, maybe HD versions of last gen games isn't all its cracked up to be, maybe I might like a new game even if its simple and could just as easily be played on almost any system".

So, people aren't ridiculing others for liking simple games, they are ridiculing others for making such a big deal about HD and then realizing that great games can be great whether or not they are HD. Thats all.

Personally, I think any success XLA has will simply vindicate the concept of the revo virtual console. The concepts are very similar and will lead us down much the same path.

I think coincidence is one of those spamming blog posters for some company.

Ignoring all of your other ignorant comments and the ignorant comments of so many others who are posting here, xboxless, I'll point out two flaws in your logic.

1. Where did Nintendo confirm that you could hook up ANY external HD to the Rev? I ask because that's foolish from a technological standpoint; something even Nintendo shouldn't miss. You're just inviting hackers and warez loving kiddies to take your content and mess with it or distribute it if you just use any standard hard drive. They could format it with their own file system, but do you want to format a 100GB drive over USB? Enjoy that.

And before you bring it up, since I know you will, yes it's possible to get access to files on the Xbox 360 HD with a special cable and some specialized tools to read the file system. The point is that with the open "any HD" model, the barrier to entry is far lower - day one access. I doubt Nintendo wants to see their beloved Virtual Console games strewn all over the internet the day after launch.

2. You and a lot of other loving bashers keep going on about "buying a $400 system for free PC games." First off, I bought my 360 because it has games I want - now and in the future - so that's enough to justify the purchase for me. In addition to that, I get access to great mini-games that I can just jump into and have some fun with for a few minutes. Hell, most of the free TRIALS satisfy the arcade urge for me. Not everybody has the time every day to sit down and put a solid 3 hours into the latest multimillion dollar game; some people do have jobs you know.

Speaking of having jobs, paying $100-$150 more for a console doesn't make that console the most expensive electronic on the planet. Let's not even get into all of the features it allows me to have. They're not all gaming related, no; however, that doesn't make them any less useful as features. They're features I like and use and that, for me, justifies any cost over other consoles. You'll see the same thing with the PS3, it's going to be more expensive but some people will buy it and justify the cost because it'll play BR movies - something that's possibly important to them.

Oh, fiddlesticks, I'm going for a #3 too - I'm feelin' risky today.

3. I can play some of the arcade titles on my PC, you're right. However, I have a much more enjoyable experience sitting in my living room on my couch 8ft away from my TV with a wireless controller that feels very comfortable in my hands. Keyboards are awesome for typing emails, chatting, and posting on forums but I've never liked them much for playing games.

Also, did you know that I can play all of Nintendo's Virtual Console games on the PC? Guess what? I can play them on my PS2 and my Xbox as well. That's right; every single one of their games that will cost ($Rev Cost) + $5-$10+ a pop can be played for free on the PC. Does that make those games any less appealing on the Rev when it comes out? Not for me, I'll be buying the Rev and some of my old favorites to play on it - even though they're free on my PC.

Nick

"Its the $700 for a so-so HDTV, $400 for the console, 5 games at $60 each, and THEN $50 per year. First year of ownership for a 360, assuming you ONLY buy 5 games, no accessories and download nothing? $1450."

Or 400$ for the console, you drooling moron. Nothing else is necessary, unless you don't already have an HDTV, and you can use it for other things than the 360.

Seriously, I don't own a 360 and won't until the next Halo release, but you're so desperate to attack the 360 that you're making shit up. It's sad.

Well first off why are people saying that we are playing simple games on our 400$ dollar console, and making it seem like a big deal?

First off, I have a choice.Thats enough right there, but Ill go further.You see when m$ shipped this system, they said they would have intentions of releasing other games in the near future.

Theres your answer , dont be abn idiot!We bought this system for launch titles, but more importantly for new releases!!!But xbox live arcade is just the icing on the cake.Now you get a rev and a backwards catalog.Good.

I will get that(because I will have a rev also) and at the same time get enhanced graphics, plus more titles that you wont see if your just a fanboy!Plus ill get xbla.hmmmmmmmm tastes so good huh?


And to the high school graduate that said something about m$ copying nintendos backwards catalog plan and small games.Remember that there was an xbox arcade before there was a rev whatever it will be called.I really remember playing xbox live arcade games on xbox though.What about the rest of you guys?

Yeah I think I did .astro pop was fun.

Ok, "oh boy", I'll bite. $400 for just the console. And you should assume most people don't already have an HDTV because most people don't. SO, Yes, you could do this. Of course you could buy a toilet without toilet paper too, but my guess is you wont'.

So are you saying its worth $400 to play gauntlet and geometry wars? Wheres the value if you dont buy any games and you dont have upgraded graphics? I'm all ears.

These kind of comments make the Revolution less revolutionary. It's very funny if you ask me. I love how many Xbox haters are on this board, maybe that's why I keep coming back.

The fact of the matter is: I'm playing a real system on a real HDTV, with real games, real controllers and I love it. I'm still looking at concept pictures from the other companies, with no real games, the only solid fact we have from the other consoles is a magic wand of a controller, that will make your arm fall off after 20 minutes of use. It's hilarious how everyone is around here.

i'm not a spammer :)

all i got to say is, i love XLA, and i think its a great feature.. ive played GW a bit and its one of the most addicting games i've ever played.. and Wik, and Bankshot Billiards also solid nice games... and SF2 will be awesome :D :D

"The fact of the matter is: I'm playing a real system on a real HDTV, with real games, real controllers and I love it."

Me too. Its called my gamecube and my xbox.
So what? Yes. thats the point. You spent alot of money that I didn't and what did you get? Well, thats what were discussing here. So your post is pointless really.
So then I ask you the same question you asked yourself, why do you keep coming back?

Ok, Nick here you go,

1. "You're just inviting hackers and warez loving kiddies to take your content and mess with it or distribute it if you just use any standard hard drive."

How is an external harddrive any different than the industry standard SD cards when it comes to hackers and pirates? Either one will allow you to get code onto/off of the machine. Nintendo has confirmed that you will be able to save games and downloads to removable media including SD memory cards. They have also confirmed that the removable media will be able to be used in conjunction with the users home PC for archival and organization of those same downloads. So if they let you take the content off their machine and put it onto yours, I see no reason to assume you couldn't do this with a harddrive. Until they say you can't, its a safe assumption that you can.

2. "You and a lot of other loving bashers keep going on about "buying a $400 system for free PC games."

You miss the point entirely. The reason this is funny is because no one, including you, stood out in the rain for hours to get their grubby mitts on geometry wars. But as it turns out, its about the best the system has to offer right now and everyone knows it. Thats why its funny.
Dont get me wrong, I've played GW and liked it. But I never heard anyone shouting about the "NEXT GEN" debut of geometry wars. Its only once people realized that most of the 360 games are almost exactly the same as the current gen xbox games (which are good I admit) and then all of a sudden gauntlet looks pretty fresh.

3. Your "riskyness" demonstrates again that you don't get it. The point isn't that you are spending $400 to play games you can play for free. The point is that you rush and stand in line to get a console that isn't really very next gen, so then you have to resort to playing joust, which if you really liked it, you would probably already have on your PC/PS2/XBOX. Yes, its a neat side benefit, but its kinda sad that a $400 next gen peice of gaming hardwares most exciting feature has nothing to do with its hardware or game innovation but rather a service that could have been easily implimented on the current gen with no hardware upgrades whatsoever.

The same will be said for the rev when it comes out, (ANd I'll be the first to say it), if all the rev titles are stale and don't offer anything new, (like the 360 titles in my opinion) and the new controller totally sucks, and I'm still on joystiq spouting how awesome the rev is, not because of the new controller, or the new gaming possibilities but rather because of joust, or pac man, then please put me in my place because then I will sound just like the xbox crowd sounds now, you included, and that would be a travesty I couldn't bare.

To #33

The point is, XBLA and Xbox 360 are real and viable. Anything that has been said about the Revolution and PS3 is all conjecture. My point is XBLA is a nail in Nintendo's revolutionary concept. You think Nintendo isn't going to charge consumers for the games? Yeah, and monkey's are going to fly out of my butt. Basically, XBLA is already offering what the supposed Revolution is supposed to offer.

to #34
As for the 360 not being next-gen, get some glasses.

"So are you saying its worth $400 to play gauntlet and geometry wars?"
If you are buying a Revolution JUST to play SMB3 and Duck Hunt, you are wasting your money. People buy systems to play many games, not just one or two. Geometry Wars is awesome, but so are PGR3, COD2, and Condemned. Plus we still have Gears of War, Huxley, Halo 3, and Oblivion to look forward to. At BEST the Revolution will launch with a new Mario, Zelda and Metriod game, but we all know that wont happen. If history teaches us anything, the Nintendo might have one standout title and then a few crap games. I need more to look forward to than three games in a systems total library to be excited about a launch.

" Wheres the value if you dont buy any games and you dont have upgraded graphics? I'm all ears."
Doesn't have upgraded graphics? Compare the graphics DOOM3 on the Xbox to Quake 4 on the 360, both use the same engine, yet the difference in detail is huge even on a standard tv. You won't be getting much of any improvement in graphics on the Revolution due to the crippling small amount of RAM, a mere quarter of the other next-gen systems. From what I can tell the only thing the Revolution has going for it is the controller. Without that controller the system would be dead in the water. Lets just hope it works better than advertised.

Nintendo has been so tight lipped I can't even imagine how anyone could be excited about it. Games? What games? Nintendo has had some great first party games, but they are few are far between now compared to other systems, have less features and aren't better quality. Yawn. I'd rather get a real next gen system with an entire library of games than play the same 3 Nintendo games over and over with a new controller and ever so slightly better graphics. The Nintendo name doesn't mean what it used to, as their current trend is for every console to be less popular than the last and the games just can't compete. Not only that, but Best Buy is the first of many retailers who are no longer taking orders from publishers for GameCube games and are discontinuing it due to dismal sales.

APPLAUSE FOR #26

"And for saying you can use the HDTV for other things, how do you like paying for that monthly cable bill to get, wait a minute, how many channels in HD? Wow, you can watch local news in HD, well that's freakin important. HD is important for movies, which are not being broadcast in true HD and won't be truly observable until HD-DVD or Blu-Ray."

Hmm...that's funny, because I just got done watching ghostbusters on HBO HD, in 1080i, last time I checked that was true HD wasn't it?...not "my local news channel"

My local cable provider's HDTV channel lineup:

-ESPNHD
-DiscoveryHD
-UniversalHD
-HDNET
-HDNETMovies
-CBSHD
-ABCHD
-NBCHD
-FOXHD
-HBOHD
-SHOWTIMEHD
-CinemaxHD

in additon to that, I have HDTV pay-per-view, and HDTV on demand, where I can enjoy HD movies, including new releases and old ones, for the price of a rental at blockbuster. So...no HD movies? You were saying?

Now, onto this $400 to play XBL arcade bullshit that you fanboys are throwing around. No one fucking waited in line to go home and play geometry wars. I just got done playing condemned, and next I may play some DOA4, or some Madden 06, how about some COD2? Or PDZ perhaps? These games are all totally next gen, have amazing graphics, and they just keep getting better...Fight Night Round 3 anyone? It comes out in a few weeks. Then Gears of War, then GRAW, then Oblivion, on top of all the great titles the 360 already has, more and more are about to start coming out. You people can't just expect 100+ quality titles to appear out of thin air a month from launch, it's just not realistic.

You fanboy dipshits pound these pointless arguements like "everyone who owns a 360 is just sitting around playing geometry wars...they wasted there money because I can play games like that on my PC" your arguements are not based on fact, but only your narrow minded fanboy opinions.

I agree the fact that, if 360 owners wasted there money because you can play arcade games on your PC, then what arguement do you have to defend the revolution?

I can go play Punchout with the flick of a wrist right now. The arguement of "you can do that on a PC" is bullshit, because you can FUCKING DO ANYTHING on a PC. It's cool because I can sit and play with my controller on my couch, duh. People are excited about geometry wars, and the XBL arcade, because it is something new, and they are giving praise to it.

"Nintendo has confirmed that you will be able to save games and downloads to removable media including SD memory cards. They have also confirmed that the removable media will be able to be used in conjunction with the users home PC for archival and organization of those same downloads. So if they let you take the content off their machine and put it onto yours, I see no reason to assume you couldn't do this with a harddrive. Until they say you can't, its a safe assumption that you can."

link please? where is this confirmation? just curious. If it is true, the revolution is about to get hacked...real fast. If you can take these games off your card and put them on your PC, then you might as well not even charge for them, unless nintendo has some crazy DRM software that you have to use to store them.

"So are you saying its worth $400 to play gauntlet and geometry wars? Wheres the value if you dont buy any games and you dont have upgraded graphics? I'm all ears."

So are you saying it will be worth $250 to buy a revolution and no games OR accessories? Where's the value? I'm all ears.

I am looking forward to the revo controller, and the virtual console. I'm no XBOX fanboy, but I just don't understand how some of you guys can just be so blatantly ignorant about stuff...it's like you purposely sit around trying to point out the most negative thing about a console and just keep repeating it, completely ignoring the fact that it's positives outweigh it's negatives.

"The point is, XBLA and Xbox 360 are real and viable"

No, thats not the point at all. Thats what YOU want the point to be but that doesn't make it so. It is completely unrelated to the discussion at hand. Nice Try.

"Basically, XBLA is already offering what the supposed Revolution is supposed to offer."

You mean a 20 year back catalog of nintendo games? Um, I think you are wrong there my friend, perhaps you should get the glasses. I doubt we'll be seeing many Nintendo games for download on XBL. Wake up.

"So are you saying it will be worth $250 to buy a revolution and no games OR accessories? Where's the value? I'm all ears."

No!!! I'm not. Not at all. You are agreeing with me and you dont even know it because you aren't paying attention to the thread.

I can't remember who it was now and I dont want to reread every post to find out.
But if you had read the posts in the first place you would know I was responding to someone claiming that you only had to spend $400 to enjoy the 360 and that no other expenses were necessary. My point was that you need to buy some games too for goodness sake.

So of course the same goes for the Revo or any console.

Good Lord, does no one on here read before they respond? Every response to my post has completely ignored the points I was making in order to go into some fanboy rant. If you want to debate, great. Thats the idea, but dont ignore points that are made and then spew the same nonsense we've heard 100 times. It wastes everyones time.

XBLA offers right now beyond what the Revolution talks about, both new and classic games. Sure you will be able to play first party Nintendo games, but what about Karnov? MegaMan? Those very well might end up on XBLA just like Street Fighter, Smash bros, Gauntlet, etc. Will there be any new downloadable games on the Revolution? Who knows, but XBLA has them both right now.

To tickle me xboxless

The point of this whole article was XBLA and how it's a useful tool for developers and how it offers basically what Nintendo is going to offer. I could care less about playing bastardized Nintendo games, Mortal Kombat with no blood? Poor arcade ports, heck back in the days of the NES every game that came out wasn't even close to its arcade counterpart (unless of course it was a Nintendo game). You can play all of that crap if you want, waste your money.

So yes my point is made and it continues to be made. XBLA is viable, and it will be succesful. Probably more so than Nintendo's offering, whatever that may be.

Oh my xboxless, whatever shall we do with you.

1. My point was that it's an unwise business decision to use an "industry standard" anything when it comes to storage mediums. Hard drives are "industry standard" and so are flash memory cards, but it's the way they're connected and preformatted that makes them more difficult to hack. Using a cross platform hard drive or flash memory card (standard connections, standard formatting) to store vital system data and content just doesn't make sense.

Why do you think hooking any HD up to the Xbox 360 only lets you access images, music, and videos? Is it because MS is being mean and wants your money? Sure, they want your money – they're a business; However, while the hard drive is over priced, the primary reason for being proprietary is security. If any hard drive could store content and house executables, a huge security hole is ripped open. It becomes an entry point for hacks and for the content stored to be stolen.

Also, don't forget that hard drives are movable between systems so generally content isn't locked to a specific Xbox 360. This "problem" could be solved by locking to an individual system, but that would anger users who wanted to play games they paid for on some other Xbox 360 via their hard drive (that they own). Locking content to a specific hard drive would likely be trivial to defeat because you would have access to the drive anyway and there are only so many uniquely identifiable pieces of information on a drive.

2. Oh no, I got your point just fine. It's you who did not understand mine. If you had continued reading past the line you quoted, you would note how there are games on the Xbox 360 right now that I enjoy. You would also note that I bought it with the promise of future games I'll enjoy. On top of that you would've read that the arcade is a nice bonus to me because I don't always have hours a day to spend playing the lengthier DVD based games.

Besides the fact that I didn't stand out in the rain (I was smart enough to preorder from 2 stores), you are also wrong in saying Geometry Wars is the best the system has to offer. Who said that? Joystiq did; I did not. They can have their opinion, good for them, but you can't generalize over half a million people based on their opinion. Had I stood out in the rain, I would still feel it was worth purchasing on launch day. I love all the games I've bought for it, both at retail and through XBLA, because they're all fun to me (except DOA4 single player).

The facts of life, however, tell me that I have more time to play XBLA games than I have to play the games I bought at retail. Why is this? Because I get a few occasions during the day where I can sit down and play for 10-20 minutes. When I have more time on the weekend, I can play through CoD2, have bouts online in DOA4, or play some PDZ co-op. So, it isn't that Geometry Wars is the best the system has to offer, it's that XBLA arcade offers quickie convenient fun for a short period of time and requires less dedication to the gameplay.

So from that, we can conclude the situation in your statement isn't "funny" because it's simply not true. For the record, most of the Xbox 360 games I've played have raised my expectations for what console gaming should be. Those games must be doing something right. And before you make the comment, I never had low standards. I expect a lot more from my Xbox 360 as it matures, just as with any console I've ever owned.

3. As I said, I get it. See point number 2 above to see my thoughts on how "worth it" the Xbox 360 is to me today. Seeing as how you like to say so many people don't understand you, have you ever stopped to think that you have articulatory issues? I mean, I understand what you're typing, but if that isn't what you mean then the problem is with you, not I.

No console, in the history of console gaming, has been amazingly "next-gen" on launch day (excluding the move from 2D->3D). PS2 games looked like end-of-life PS1 games, Gamecube launch games looked like end-of-life N64 games. Why should the Xbox 360's relationship to end-of-life Xbox games be any different? If you expected to see end-of-life Xbox 360 games on launch day, then you should watch the Lion King to better understand the circle of life.

Again, you're falling back on the presumption that the XBLA is the only thing the Xbox 360 has going for it. It's a bonus feature, at least to me, and is in the minority of overall Xbox 360 functionality. I didn't spend $400 for XBLA; I spent $400 for retail games, Xbox Live access, XBLA, and media center features. Pretty much in that order too, though XBLA didn't take over media center features until I played a few games through it. The reason everybody's so happy over XBLA is that it was a sleeper feature that we didn't give much credit to until we actually got to using it.

Now before you say it, because I know you will, it wasn't a sleeper hit because people were dissatisfied with retail games. We saw the button, we saw the word "free," and we tried it out to find how much we liked it; people like it because it provides "instant" fun without commitment to the gameplay (no storylines, no complex controls, etc). That's not to say I still don't have a blast with my retail games or that those games don't feel next-gen; as much as I would like to, I just don't have the time to spend playing them as often compared to XBLA arcade titles I can play for a few minutes.

Now you might be saying, "Well that's you, even people that have ‘time' for longer games play XBLA!" Ok, so you're saying that people can't think their retail games are next-gen, enjoy those retail games a lot, AND play XBLA arcade games without doing so because "everything else sucks"? XBLA is a nice "cool down" from long/involved games and is also a great intermission feature to utilize before switching discs to play something else. There are tons of reasons why XBLA is fun, but to say that it's fun because the Xbox 360 has nothing better to offer is just silly.

To say the Xbox 360 hardware isn't very next-gen just goes to show that you're ignorant of what's inside the machine and how it has to be exposed by developers over time. Some games are just scratching the surface of those features and others didn't try to take advantage of the Xbox 360 at all (read: Activision games). See the second paragraph of this section for more information on why the games don't all instantly feel next-gen. If you expect anything better than end-of-life Gamecube games at the Revolution's launch, you will be disappointed.

One last interesting point; I'm buying the Revolution specifically to have access to the old games, that's the major feature of that console to me. Guess that means all the Revolution games are going to suck then, huh? Well, I don't think that, but based on your logic, you do.

Nick

P.S. This post killed one of my jaunts in time, I could've been playing some Geometry Wars :(

1080i? What a joke. That's not truly HD. Until you get a progressive scan 1080, there isn't a large enough leap to truly justify the money you're spending per month, which you didn't mention BTW. 720P is better, but even then it isn't anything to really blow your socks off.

Do you know that 35mm film, which is what you shoot in for a real film, has a resolution of 4096x4096 (it varies). So if you're impressed by 1080i and pay monthly in the $100 range (guessing), you're getting ripped off if you consider it real High Def.

And then you'll say there isn't any sets around that even support that yet (1080P). And I'll say, exactly. Heck, the majority of HDTV owners won't even be able to watch true HD movies when HD-DVD or Blu-Ray comes out because the first few generations of these sets don't have HDMI inputs. And if you try and turn it into analog to use the HD, the resolution bumps down to 25% of a real HD signal.

The people who make this stuff can and will do that sort of stuff so we'll buy whatever is new at the time and then upgrade again when the new thing comes out. Cause when 1080P is becoming mainstream, you'll pony up (or bend over) to get that too.

And I say 1080P because once that is around, there isn't going to be a significant upgrade to TV resolution for a while. Then you're safe with that. You're not being ripped off and you can use that for a long time.

It's like how plasma was a waste until now because of burn-in which has since been taken care of. I'm not saying that new technology is always a waste, but you have to see what you're paying for and if it justifies that dollar amount.

And having the XBLA be the standout of a $400 system doesn't justify that amount. Not taking into consideration the money spent on that HDTV set and home theater audio.

Overall, all I'm saying is you should save some of that money and spend it at a more appropriate time. Case in point, I am not buying an XBOX 360 anytime soon, but I will buy one eventually when there are good enough games out (that utilize the real potential) and I'm not spending an arm and a leg for it.

And yes I can play Nintendo games on my PC too, but it's a big hassle to get emulators that work perfect (lots of audio problems) and trying to hunt down games can be a pain. Plus, only NES and SNES games are good on a PC, all the N64 emulators need a lot of work. They don't work perfect, and if they don't on the Revo, then it will be a waste of money for that feature. Plus it's illegal.

Again, XBLA good, but as a main selling point, lame.

360 good, if you're willing to pony up lots of money , just like PSP.

Revo controller and virtual console, we'll have to wait and see. I am a bit scared by using my arms so much cause it will get tiring, but we'll have to wait and see. Just like the power brick, it was never mentioned until the 360 came out, and then it was an issue. Who knows what issues we'll have with the PS3 or Revo, but there's no point in discussing them now.

I think only tickle me xboxless is the only one that gets it. It's the principal of the matter at hand, not on wether XBLA is actually cool or what the Revo might do.

Whats wrong with you guys?

Just because geometry wars is a favorite among joystiq, doesnt mean that its all said and done.The guy talking about xbla games as a quick fix has the idea.You see not everyone can sit at home on their ass and play games all day.Some of us have professions that actually allow us to buy these systems at launch.

And you know who they are.The one ones that totally play good on xbox live have lots of practice.But I work.I buy my own systems, and play when I want.And what makes you guys think that everyone ran out and bought there hi def tvs' and home theatre systems along with the 360?I already had mine.

Truth be told, whomever thinks that the 360 and xbox games look the same are just plain ignorant.Even the crappy kiosks show different at your local wal mart.They look better than anything the xbox could offer.PGR3 could be done on the xbox, but it wouldnt look as it does now.Or sound as it does.Call of duty, pd0 all of these games look next gen.Its a pooor day in time when people start lying just to seem like they know it all.

Everyone that I meet that actually asks me if the 360 looks better than the xbox, I just go into detail.My friends thought that it would look a little better, but when they saw madden they were floored!!And they are ps2 fanatics.So its official, everyone that states that the 360 doesnt look better or look next gen is classified as a fanboy in my opinion.

Once again xbox live arcade is a good feature.How many copies of geometry wars has been sold?Now look at cod2 sales.And the game costs 60 bucks.Most of my friends on my friends list are playing retail games, not xbox live arcade!

Grow up guys!Buy A 360 AND YOU'LL BE SINGING THE OTHER TUNE LIKE US.