50% of 360 Owners New to Xbox

He's right i guess. I never purchased an xbox, i got a secondhand one much later in its life. 360 I got brand new a year after launch.

The uptake of Live wasn't as great on xbox, but I think new ideas like the achivement points, live digicam and such are getting more 360 owners online that otherwise wouldn't be.

ow no, i can see Bill giving up now...

I don't think so, this is only a UK-based site which he's unlikely to read.

And if he does, he's probably not going to shut down the entire Xbox operation and will probably just respect my right to air my views in a public forum..

..as much as I hate to piss on your party.

yer u've really changed my mind!.... god where was i going wrong thinking xbox live was the best online gaming service avalible!?.... well thanks so much for, as u say, pissing on my party..

You haven’t pissed on anyone’s party other than your own, with such dumb ass statements as
"PS3 is going to be in demand when it launches no matter whan happens"
and
"The market is splitting into two camps and you're left in the middle desperately trying to get back ground."

wha?? Demand for the PS3 has become non existent and with over 10 million 360's in the world I hardly thing they need to get back ground

You are thinking short term. My prediction is that in a few years time, Blu-Ray will become the high capacity DVD standard and PS3 will again be the leading console. Just like the PS2 did after some faltering early stages.

There is no way either of us can prove it right now, so how about you remember your comments for when they're more relevant?

Xbox Live is currently the best online gaming service available.

I am currently too busy going to real life parties to play online, and I occassionally play games with real friends in between.

In a few years neither of the above may be true. But if Microsoft is so confident of it's position, why is it continually trying to whip up fanboys to join the Sony-hating bandwagon?

"There is no way either of us can prove it right now, so how about you remember your comments for when they're more relevant?"

gladly. ow and, funny you should mention Sony fanboy's..

"In a few years neither of the above may be true"
wot that xbox live will still be the best online service or u'll have friends to party with??.. haha.
Come on Sony have had a year (& more) to rip off Live
& they still F**ked it up. problem is Sony still see online gaming as an after thought, 4 me online console gaming is where the Next gen is happening, not better graphic or physiques, but building an online community & expanding your gaming horizons.
And as for mudslinging & bad mouthing, i think all the damage that has been done to the Playstation brand has been done by Sony…. Sorry to piss on your party.

And mine is that Blu-Ray is headed in the same direction as Betamax until Sony allows the porn studios in on it.

I can’t see Blu-Ray "winning" in a 1 on 1 "battle" with HD-DVD

Given the fact that there will be dual players by the end of the though I can see both formats here for the considerable future (even if Sony ends up being the only distributor of Blu-Ray Movies).

Er, yes, both. Did you miss something? I thought I wrote it pretty clearly.

Online gaming is, and always will be except for geeks who think their lives are best spent in made-up worlds, a sideshow.

HD-DVD will do quite well, but Playstation 3 is the trojan horse for Blu-Ray and a very clever tactic it is too.

You can either buy, all other factors being equal:

1) A HD-DVD player which only plays movies
2) An Xbox 360 with three boxes to plug in (the console, the power brick and the HD-DVD add-on)
3) A Playstation 3, which is an entire media centre

Now the PC doesn't count because it hasn't yet made the move to under the TV. So which are you going to choose, as the average consumer?

Don't go throwing cost around, because you'll be thinking about the price of the PS3 at release date, and we all know that manufacturers don't start shipping real numbers until the price comes down.

personally i'd buy a console to play games and a dedicated player to watch movies.

"Online gaming is, and always will be except for geeks who think their lives are best spent in made-up worlds, a sideshow"

It's narrow minded people like urself that unfortunaly keeps gaming & the gaming culture in the place it always seem to be. Regarded as some childish nerdy, geeky past time for spotty sad low lifes.

You obviously never play games online...... that hasn't stopped you being a geek who plays in made-up worlds!

But what you'd personally do isn't the answer, so let's see how it plays out with the masses over the next few years.

No, the people who turn up at HMV at midnight to get an expansion pack dressed up in elf costumes who give gaming a bad name.

I come home and play a bit of Pro Evo against my mates or something like Zelda if it's a rainy day and I fancy the odd marathon gaming session.

Alternatively, if you are spending an even vaguely large amount of time online playing against people the majority of which you don't know, you are escaping from reality into a world which isn't so harsh to you and lets you waste your life for cash.

Online gaming will always be a minority income paid for by people in that last paragraph.

Look if online gaming aint for you then fine, but dont sit there & look down your f**king nose @ me for enjoying it.

The average consumer will probably buy a Wii, if they can find one because:

The X360 and PS3 are still too highly priced as gaming machines (what the average consumer still sees them, not multi-media systems) and HD-DVD is still to uncertain as is Blu-Ray and also too overpriced.

When the X360, PS3, HD-DVD and Blu-ray are below the 300 mark, then we can start talking about the potential choice of the average consumer.

And online gaming is a blast, from a social stanpoint, action standpoint, thrill standpoint and so on. only problem is that recent online games involve too much grinding and/or are to slow making them boring and/or too easy, for me personally then.

But that's me, raised with the doctrine of speed, skill and action of TFC. Damn you brain with your ability to cement raised-with values into my behavorial structure!

Just read this thread and here's my input:

Personally I have had no reason to play games online at the moment. I don't like shoot-em-ups or MMORPGs and these seem to be the main domain of online play. The only games I would consider playing online would be Mario Kart, Smash Bros, maybe some sports games - very casual games. I don't like the idea of the friend code system on the DS, so haven't actually played MK online (I don't have one at the moment).

I certainly will never, ever pay for online play.

At the moment the players for Blu ray and HD-DVD are too expensive, and people like me who aren't really into HD have no reason to upgrade from DVD. I wouldn't buy a stand-alone box for more than £50. I can't see that being reached any time soon. If I bought a PS3 and it comes with a Blu ray player then I might as well use it - so, yes, I do think the PS3 gives Blu ray some kind of advantage. However, a PS3 is a massive investment, and I wouldn't consider spending that much money on any kind of entertainment system - it's just not worth it. Therefore, I could potentially be in the camp of not having any HD player until you can no longer buy DVDs.

I agree with OptimusP that most people will not pay over £300 for any gaming system, in fact my threshold would be £200 - anything beyond that just doesn't justify the investment. That puts PS3 out and leaves the Wii and Xbox360. I personally won't buy anything non-OS from Microsoft, thus I will not get an Xbox360, however I think a 360 would be an attractive purchase for an average consumer, and much more attractive to gamers because it's so established and has a "gamer image".

As for Wii, well, it's all unproven as to if we'll see any quantity of good games on it, however it could be attractive if Nintendo and third parties deliver a stream of high-quality titles. I get the feeling it's a nice idea that will never actually be used the full by anyone. I'm also not sure the controls will work so well in practice, especially after playing Sports (although was impressed with the use of the controls in Zelda, which is a slight improvement over the GC controls, although not enought to be in any way revolutionary).