Look, if we blind dad, we can play an unnamed by banned game together!
During his presentation of the new parental timer for Xbox 360, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices pointed out that he'd like to bring the price of the 360 down somewhat.
Cnet and ZDnet both report the following:
As obvious a statement as Kaz Hirai's recent nod to Famitsu regarding PS3 pricing? We think so. Actually, we thought that the recent launch of the Xbox 360 Arcade bundle had already flagged Bach's desire for a cheaper console.
Anyway, this parental timer 'addition' to Xbox 360 - which is due for download in December... according to Robbie, "As a leader in interactive entertainment, it's Microsoft's responsibility to provide parents with tools they can use to manage their children's video gaming and online experiences, and we have made that a priority from the very start". Bach continued proudly, "Professionally, I am proud of my division's work in this area, and personally, as a parent of three school-aged children, I know how important it is to be engaged in an ongoing dialogue with my family in order to uphold our household screen time rules."
So, the timer (downloadable next month from Xbox LIVE) can be set on a daily or weekly basis to enable parents to throttle their children... to throttle their children's available Xbox 360 play time.
However, there is also something called "The Family PACT" - which is "available for use today". We went in search of it over at Microsoft's family area. We did this because it's apparently "a comprehensive, proactive approach to setting rules on media use, and asks parents and children to agree on the level of Parental involvement; Access children can have; Content they can play and watch; and the Time they are allowed to spend using media" - see P.A.C.T. Brilliant!
Fortunately for ourselves and the SPOnG children we found it here. To be brutally frank, it doesn't actually look half bad, so we can't find anything to moan about.
If you can, please tell us in the Forum below...
Source: CNet
Cnet and ZDnet both report the following:
"Another thing Microsoft needs to do, Bach said, is find more ways to make the console cheaper to produce. "That's something we need to do over the life cycle to continue to make the business work," he said, "so, over time (we can) bring down prices.""
As obvious a statement as Kaz Hirai's recent nod to Famitsu regarding PS3 pricing? We think so. Actually, we thought that the recent launch of the Xbox 360 Arcade bundle had already flagged Bach's desire for a cheaper console.
Anyway, this parental timer 'addition' to Xbox 360 - which is due for download in December... according to Robbie, "As a leader in interactive entertainment, it's Microsoft's responsibility to provide parents with tools they can use to manage their children's video gaming and online experiences, and we have made that a priority from the very start". Bach continued proudly, "Professionally, I am proud of my division's work in this area, and personally, as a parent of three school-aged children, I know how important it is to be engaged in an ongoing dialogue with my family in order to uphold our household screen time rules."
So, the timer (downloadable next month from Xbox LIVE) can be set on a daily or weekly basis to enable parents to throttle their children... to throttle their children's available Xbox 360 play time.
However, there is also something called "The Family PACT" - which is "available for use today". We went in search of it over at Microsoft's family area. We did this because it's apparently "a comprehensive, proactive approach to setting rules on media use, and asks parents and children to agree on the level of Parental involvement; Access children can have; Content they can play and watch; and the Time they are allowed to spend using media" - see P.A.C.T. Brilliant!
Fortunately for ourselves and the SPOnG children we found it here. To be brutally frank, it doesn't actually look half bad, so we can't find anything to moan about.
If you can, please tell us in the Forum below...
Source: CNet
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Comments
SuperSaiyan4 8 Nov 2007 13:40
1/3
Well what about all the other gamers out there that might want additional functionality? Or is the 360 going to become a console for parents???
How about improvements to HD-DVD?
I remember Microsoft saying they got ATi to 'disable' some pipes on the GPU or something? How about an annoucement to activate them and adding DX10 support or something?
Not all 360 gamers are little kids!
How about improvements to HD-DVD?
I remember Microsoft saying they got ATi to 'disable' some pipes on the GPU or something? How about an annoucement to activate them and adding DX10 support or something?
Not all 360 gamers are little kids!
PreciousRoi 8 Nov 2007 15:04
2/3
OK, so MS offers some new feature, and all you can do it grouse because it doesn't directly affect you?
Gamers are the 360's meat and mead, they aren't going to abandon us, even to please parents. Unlike BC this is something I don't grudge MS the manhours spent to develop it (for one thing it was likely trivial). These kind of features only help the industry as a whole by providing tools to help responsible parents understand and control console usage by their children.
Gamers are the 360's meat and mead, they aren't going to abandon us, even to please parents. Unlike BC this is something I don't grudge MS the manhours spent to develop it (for one thing it was likely trivial). These kind of features only help the industry as a whole by providing tools to help responsible parents understand and control console usage by their children.
deleted 8 Nov 2007 16:45
3/3
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
Well what about all the other gamers out there that might want additional functionality? Or is the 360 going to become a console for parents???
How about improvements to HD-DVD?
I remember Microsoft saying they got ATi to 'disable' some pipes on the GPU or something? How about an annoucement to activate them and adding DX10 support or something?
Not all 360 gamers are little kids!
How about improvements to HD-DVD?
I remember Microsoft saying they got ATi to 'disable' some pipes on the GPU or something? How about an annoucement to activate them and adding DX10 support or something?
Not all 360 gamers are little kids!
No not all 360 gamers are little kids but you obviously are, what a childish and immature thing to state!, that you are unhappy because this improvement of adding parental controls doesnt help you, or doesnt give you a better feature, and what HD-DVD improvements are there to make? and DX10 will neevr be on 360 because the hardware just isnt there for it.. anywhoo isnt time for your bedtime?