Ken Kutaragi replaced as president of Sony's gaming unit

[CrONoS]

Originally posted by Asher

The Xbox 360 XNA Dev kit is free.

But if you want your games to be available on XBLA, it's $99 USD for the Xbox 360 SDK.

And yes, the PS3's SDK price is $50,000 USD and $2,000 USD for the Wii.

Combined with the fact that the Xbox 360 devkit is by far the best out of the bunch, is it any wonder that the 360 is the most supported console by game developers?

Microsoft really want to be the first and they take the decision to be the first !!!

And, I'm betting 10$, that when you are developing on Xbox360, it will be more easy to transfer the game to be run on a PC running DirectX. Than developing on PS3.

[Asher]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6155590.html?page=5

Microsoft unveils 'anybody' XNA
Everyday gamers can get a shot at making cross-platform PC, Xbox 360 games with XNA Game Studio; company envisions user-created games as "fully realized" as Halo 2.
By Patrick Caldwell, GameSpot
Posted Aug 13, 2006 9:01 pm PT

Looming over the game industry are big problems, Microsoft warns.

Stressed game developers are burning out, universities are graduating fewer programmers and game designers, and small-game developers--forced to pay large licensing costs to make games--don't have the time or money to turn their innovative ideas into playable games, the company says. But a new piece of Microsoft's development technology is aiming to wipe those troubles out, all at once.

On the eve of Gamefest, the company's conference for developers in Seattle, Microsoft announced the XNA Game Studio development platform, "a far easier environment" that small developers, game enthusiasts, and students can use to make games. XNA Game Studio is an extension of Microsoft's cross-platform XNA technology, which offers gamemakers a standardized set of tools for both PC and Xbox 360 development.

Anyone can freely download the toolset, available in beta form on August 30 and full form by the end of the year. The toolset comes in two flavors: the entry-level XNA Game Studio Express and the advanced XNA Game Studio Professional. Developing games using Express and releasing them on the PC will be free, but those who want their games available for download on the Xbox 360 must pay $99 a year as part of Microsoft's Creators Club.

In spring 2007, Microsoft will release the professional version, the only way to sell games created using the toolset. The pro version will feature "new capabilities more geared toward professional game developers" and a higher price, said Scott Henson, the director of platform strategy at the Microsoft Game Developer Group. Henson declined to reveal the amount. All the various methods of selling games--digital distribution, Xbox Live Marketplace, and boxed retail games--will probably be available to gamemakers, but the details haven't been decided, he said.

Launching alongside the August 30 beta toolset is a starter kit containing tutorials and basic but "fully realized games" that beginning developers can tinker with to learn the ins and outs of programming.

Ports of classics like Pac-Man and Galaga on Xbox Live Arcade are just the "low end" of what the toolset can create, Henson told GameSpot during a phone conference prior to Gamefest.

"Our ambition is to get a game as fully realized as, maybe, Halo 2," he said. "We don't know if we'll get there...but certainly we envision being able to do that with this technology."

As larger companies focus solely on making guaranteed hits, they often fail to imagine new ideas or genres, Henson said. Counter-Strike--the mod to Valve Software's original Half-Life that became one of the most popular games in history--is one "great example" of ambitious game hobbyists producing something fresh.

"Who's going to be the next Doom? Who's going to be the next Counter-Strike?...All [their developers] were, quote, hobbyists at some point," Henson said. "And that's where the really inspired ideas that really bubble up and create the next phenomenon come from."

More than 10 universities, including the University of Southern California and Georgia Tech, have agreed to use XNA Game Studio Express in their curricula, said Dave Mitchell, the director of marketing at the Microsoft Game Developer Group. In an industry whose developers are only 1 percent female, university-sponsored "boot camps"--where kids, and especially girls, can get an early introduction to programming and game development--are crucial, he said.

Though some criticize best sellers such as The Sims 2 and World of Warcraft for stalling innovation--the two regularly dominate sales charts, pilfering money away from new titles, critics bemoan--people forget that Blizzard's massively multiplayer online role-playing game and EA's virtual-life sim were landmark innovations upon release, Henson said. And it never hurts to usher in new blood.

"All of the dynamics that we've talked about--why we're so excited from an enabling perspective--is why [World of Warcraft] is so popular," he said. "We've got a growing industry in terms of overall dollars, but we don't have a growing audience. And if we're going to grow the audience, we're going to have to see more than the types of games topping the charts."

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Elok
Even making a good Civ2 scenario involves serious work;

Hell, even making a damned civilopedia accurately documenting all the techs for a "big" Civ 2 scenario is a bear. I did that once - Im not planning on doing something like that again for free, at least not anytime soon. OTOH I learned alot, and dont begrudge it.

[CrONoS]

Originally posted by Asher
The pro version will feature "new capabilities more geared toward professional game developers" and a higher price, said Scott Henson, the director of platform strategy at the Microsoft Game Developer Group. Henson declined to reveal the amount

We have to compare things together... Even if our discussion was about small indy games. The professional dev kit will surely cost a lot more than 100$. Maybe being on par with the one of PS3.

But anyway, Sony(gaming division) are doomed!
Evil Microsoft are destroying the competition with good strategic decision!

[Verto]

In other news, EA took over Headgate Studios, and will be turning it into EA Salt Lake, where they will focus solely on the Wii. I don't know of that many EA games that I myself like - they have a lot of sports titles, and I'm just not that big a fan - but it is good to see the Wii getting this kind of support. I imagine that, if the rumors can be believed and a PS3 title needs to sell 500k copies to make a profit (depending on the budget, etc, I suppose) there wil be a lot of developers with a bit of free time on their hands, as they wait for the PS3 to make that many units available :P Let's hope more of them dedicate themselves to the Wii.

[Verto]

Originally posted by Asher

All Nintendo has done is take previous technology pioneered by Microsoft in ~1999 (accelerometer/gyroscope Sidewinder pad) and added an infrared sensor to it, making it the default controller.

It makes gaming fresh from that perspective. It's unfortunate you're not interested in the Xbox Live Arcade, because I think that -- by itself -- is more innovative than the controller. Combined with XNA, users can make their own games VERY easily on the console and have it distributed by XBLA. Small, indy studios can make games faster and cheaper and get them out to a wide audience. Retro games can be relived.

XBLA is getting better and better, and as more indy content becomes available it'll keep going that way. For all of the whining a lot of the people here do about how innovation has gone to the wayside as megastudios churn out formulaic blockbuster-style games, XBLA is the only solution out there to give indy studios a chance. It allows quirky, innovative games to get distribution and to be made with ease.

It's something that actually will impact true gameplay, not just a control mechanism. THAT is innovation, and THAT is "keeping it fresh".

For what it's worth, both Sony and Nintendo are now looking to copy it. But you know it won't be as easy, nor the platform of choice for gamedevs to use.

Maybe you can point me in the direction of these games? I tried Geometry Wars, for example, didn't see the hype - not any different from the kinds of games you can play online.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Verto
In other news, EA took over Headgate Studios, and will be turning it into EA Salt Lake, where they will focus solely on the Wii. I don't know of that many EA games that I myself like - they have a lot of sports titles, and I'm just not that big a fan - but it is good to see the Wii getting this kind of support. I imagine that, if the rumors can be believed and a PS3 title needs to sell 500k copies to make a profit (depending on the budget, etc, I suppose) there wil be a lot of developers with a bit of free time on their hands, as they wait for the PS3 to make that many units available :P Let's hope more of them dedicate themselves to the Wii.

I don't see why Sony doesn't just sell the PS3 on eBay. They'll make a lot more money.

But I agree with Asher on the PS3. I think it's pretty much one mistake after another. Also, Nintendo does have a fairly niche market. The PS2 and the XBox were the two main competitors for the last generation. The game cube wasn't near them, but had it's loyal base, which is fine. But I don't believe that Nintendo is in a position to overtake MS (the could with Sony, if the PS3 turns out to be a bigger fiasco than expected) simply because of the type of games that Nintendo makes. This is great for Nintendo. They have their guaranteed share of the market without getting caught up in the war between Sony and MS.

Now I'm just waiting for Asher when MS enters the portable gaming market.

[Jaakko]

Originally posted by DaShi
Now I'm just waiting for Asher when MS enters the portable gaming market.

Zune for games!

[Elok]

Don't be silly, Asher. I'm not going to research this crap before posting; it's approaching finals week and I've got projects I should be working on. I'm just countering your propaganda as it comes with minimal effort.

I don't buy that "super-easy development tool" stuff. If you create a game within an hour, it's gonna be according to a fairly defined template. And I don't know that it'll be any more impressive than the various Flash games available online. "Harvey Birdman: Stop That Sandwich" FTW!

[Elok]

Hmm. I'm not entirely sure WTF he's talking about, since he speaks in techno-geek, but this article appears to be claiming that the Wii's processor will give it an advantage over the others for the kind of gaming Wii focuses on:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/revolution.ars/4

Something about a larger cache space or something like that, which afaict means "it can keep track of lots of crap at once" or something to that effect. Granted, it's pretty old (they're calling it the Revolution and discussing processors alone as opposed to the whole system), but does this mean something? Anybody know?

EDIT: Looked further into the site. They claim the Wii is fun as all hell, giving it an 8 compared to 6 for the PS3 and X360. They admit it's underpowered, but don't care too much because it's just that fun. I don't know the site at all well--I got there from Wikipedia's article on seventh-generation consoles or some such--but they don't seem biased to me. Also note that the X360 review is from launch a year ago, so current opinion might be a bit different...

[Verto]

I don't know, but any article written that far back, I would read with more than a grain of salt. The 360/PS3 have the Wii beat in every category, as far as specs go.

[Asher]

Elok: That article was written before we knew anything about the Wii CPU and before we knew details of Cell/Xbox 360 CPU.

On the Virtual Console...

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3155418

The Good
By and large, the Virtual Console may well be the finest emulation service to date. And why not? If anyone would know how to create an authentic Nintendo emulator, it's Nintendo.

1. It sports 480p output, meaning anyone with high-end TV is in luck. In fact, for HD set owners, Virtual Console is the only way to get these classic games to look good, since playing an actual NES on an HDTV is pretty painful to look at.
2. The games also lack any sort of filtering or anti-aliasing. Emulators frequently try to smooth old-school graphics, creating a blurry muddled mess; VC's NES games look like they're coming straight from an actual NES that just happens to support a high-quality video signal.
3. If Mario 64 is any indication, N64 software is going to look way better than on an actual N64. Textures look cleaner, sprite objects are sharper, and all that blurry anti-aliasing has been toned down. The result? Crisp, attractive graphics. And finally playing N64 games on a better controller makes the package even better.
4. Most games support a "suspend" feature that allows you to exit out of a game in progress and resume from where you were. It's like having a save state, and for those old NES games that required passwords it's a real boon. Mario 64 noticeably lacks this feature, but since the game data saves every time you collect a Star it's no major issue.

The Bad
Unfortunately, the Virtual Console isn't without its shortcomings. It's an impressive setup... but it has issues, too.

1. Accounts and purchases are tied to machines. Don't expect to go to a friend's house and play your copy of Mario 64 on his console; games can only be played via the specific machine on which they were purchased. Nintendo offers a promise of assistance in the event your machine is terminally damaged, but that's it.
2. Games played on widescreen TVs automatically stretch to fit, which looks pretty bad. Link was always a tubby little guy on NES, but this is ridiculous.
3. Better shell out for a Classic Controller -- otherwise you'll be juggling a Wii remote and GameCube controller depending on the games you want to play.
4. No online multiplayer, unlike most Xbox Live Arcade releases.
5. The Virtual Console currently plays host to a lot of duds and very little in the way of must-have content. Eight bucks for Altered Beast? The Internet has a word for this, and that word is "LOL."
6. The Turbografx emulator feels disappointingly like a second-class citizen. Not only were the first TG16 games delayed, but the emulation quality is well below that of the other consoles.
7. And finally, we ask again: what's with the lack of online multiplayer? It's good enough for 360 retro games -- why not Wii?

Tsk tsk. Automatically stretching to fit a widescreen? Retarded, no other word for it.

Lack of online multiplayer? Pathetic, no other word for it.

[Kuciwalker]

Lack of online multiplayer? Pathetic, no other word for it.

Halo emulated on the 360 doesn't have online multiplayer either. Pathetic.

And re:widescreen, what does the 360 do with Halo?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Halo emulated on the 360 doesn't have online multiplayer either. Pathetic.

Sure it does, just like how it did on the Xbox 1.

The reference is not founded anyway, since we're talking about XBLA vs Virtual Console. Halo is not part of XBLA.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
And re:widescreen, what does the 360 do with Halo?

Runs it in 16:9 mode.

If a game doesn't support 16:9 mode, it runs it in the 4:3 aspect ratio still in the middle of the screen. You know, a "duh" kind ofthing to do.

If people want the image stretched (which annoys the HELL out of me), that's a TV setting they can turn on.