Sony vs Microsoft: HD-DVD To Die Soon

kinda of have a point i love my 360 through and through and i agree on most points there but the one i see time and time again is the ps3 is a ten year machine!, well what happens in another 4-5 years when the xbox 720 is launched? where will the ps3 stand then graphically it wont compete microsoft learn by there mistakes, its all well and good saying its a 10 year console but the competition wont wait around for ten years to see who wins they will ahve moved on and sony you will be stuck in the past i suggest you begin work on a ps4 now.

Yeah, fair points, but you can criticise the competition as much as you like, but that isn't what makes your own product better.

How about this issue: most games are the same between consoles, but for one you're paying £400, for the other you're paying £200. XBox 360 is here, now, with games, with XBox Live, PS3 is still catching up, with no compensation or incentive to make people switch.

One more issue: no one gives a flying **** about Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD except the manufacturers, because they're relying on it to sell their GAMES console. It's an added feature, not the main feature! On the other hand, arguing against the XBox is futile because their HD-DVD player is optional, and they could release a Blu-Ray player if they wanted.

Just pointing that out.

there's only so long microsoft shareholders will stand by an unprofitable product line and I think, unless 360 starts to make some serious profits (Which I can't see happening with these never ending faults )then I don't think there will ever be an xbox 720

your joking yes???, just because the xbox isnt profitable doesnt mean microsoft isnt, take one of the million other products and theres where there profit is, it takes time and hard money to build a brand, windows is in the vast vast vast majority of pcs out there, office is even more so with the fact its avalible through mac as well, softy will never abandon the xbox they have put far too much into it, kind of like how sony has with bluray, so there deffo will be a xbox 720 unless transformers arrive before its launched then were all doomed anyway! and i beleive sony should be more worried about there shareholders, because they have the movie industry to please and games industry to please softy doesnt have to please anyone its pockets are far deeper than any other competing company and they will please themselfs, xbox 720-deffo, ps4-maybe???

"well what happens in another 4-5 years when the xbox 720 is launched? where will the ps3 stand then graphically it wont compete "


i dont think this is much of an issue. remember, the graffical leap between generations is closing, the main reason they look different from the last generation, is because of the leap to hd, so everything is less jagged. but there wont be that leap in the next generation. hd will have become standard definition. ( just like it has before). so i dont see what kind of jump will be made in the next generation.

btw, i cant beleive we are talking about the next generation... didnt the ps3 just come out.

honestly?, i dont care about MS sharholders, or if MS are making any money with the 360, i have an amazing games console that has a superb online gaming service & has the best next gen games & what coming up in the next years or 2 from what i've seen from E3 im loving the future of my console. Thats it, i dont think about 4-5 years down the line, if HD-DVD fails?..... so what i never bought the add on & if i had i'd still got a high definition player 4 100 pounds.
The rate that electronics change in 5 years games on the PC will look mind blowing, look at Crysis already!?...

Honestly, Microsoft shareholders are more important than you or I in this case. This is because of corporate governance and the basic fact of modern capital which is to "increase shareholder value".

All the talk of "games as art" and "games as a cultural force" is subsumed by "increasing shareholder value".

Now, the Xbox family may well be a loss-leader to get Microsoft products and services into the home. But there is only so much loss that an annual general meeting full of financial institutions will bear.

it would be sad if MS in the future pulled the plug on the 360 & being part of the gaming console world. But i'm not gonna lose any sleep over it. End of the day gaming is a business, & i agree with you somewhere @ some point MS have got to turn this around, but i dont think MS are gonna be going anywhere for a while, having just put down a billion dollars to back the faults & extend the warranty of all 360's. MS are gonna be in this for the long run & i really hope they do.

I certainly hope that Microsoft is in the 'game' for the long haul as well. The more the merrier when it comes to successful platform holders.

Competition is good for us all, the better Sony do the more MS improve there services, & the more innovation that Nintendo bring to gaming the more MS & Sony have to think outside their comfort zones. I love all forms of gaming & cant wait to see what the future holds, just think how far games has come in my gaming life time (25 yrs)!? its gone from playing Combat with your mate on the Atari 2600 to playing Call of Duty 3 on line with 24 people from all over the world!, its amazing.

Can I add another fold to that? :-)

End of generation games are always miles better than start of same generation games. This is because the new hardware is still having its power tapped by developers whereas at the end of the generation, devs are fully up to speed with the consoles.

Just look at the PS2 games that have come out recently, God of War, Okami, Shadow of the Colossus - those games looked really good because the devs have had the time to get to grips with the hardware.

If you want a fair comparison, compare first run games on each generation. Then you are seeing the hardware difference.

I disagree, the difference between first gen games is only that, the difference between first gen games.

*gen here being within a console, as opposed to console generation

a fair comparison within a console generation would consist either of comparisons of exceptional multiplatform titles where the devs spent an equal amount of tiime optimizing it for each console OR a comparisons of first party or exclusive titles from a similar time period, well into the development of all consoles considered in the comparison(2nd gen or better).

The reason why last-gen PS2 games looked so good has more to do with very well applied art-design then anything technological. Knowing the system so you can apply such great art does help offcourse, but more tapping in the technology took a backseat when it came to those last-gen PS2-games.

The reason why some say the leap isn't as big is because a lot of developers are too focused on churning out what they call "realistic" graphics while everything looks like it's made out of plastic.

I like Mario Galaxy's look a lot more then Cysis look to be fair. You can feel the energy and love they put in all that stuff while with Crysis the "nice...you made a 3D-world based on photographs...how....uterlly uninspiring" feeling is very huge.
Artdesign can do wonders, trowing bloom-effects around wihout some artistic goal just looks like crap, no matter how much CPU-power it takes to do it.

For these reasons i will adhere from reviewing game that have so-called realistic graphics. Because i will stamp the game as bland, boring-looking, uninspiing and more.

Now whre is my matue anime-based cel-shaded Zelda-movie goddamnit!

i completly agree with this, sure i love gears of war and it looks `f**king yeah!` but it has its place and to see a game like mario galaxy with love, attention and real passion for design is great, its why i prefer windwaker to twilight princess, its about time that we got more fantasy worlds with stylised graphics and great gameplay than another FPS with totally photo realistic graphics, dont get me wrong they need to be there with great graphics and gameplay but devs need to take a step back and get some of these so called kiddy games put back where they stood up high on megadrive/snes where platform games ruled, and why arent we seeing these imaginations from the 8-16 bit era recreated in glorous passion on next gen/current gen consoles? rehashed sonics and hundreds of rayman and crash bandicoot clones ports and general crap dont cut it, we need those games dreamt from nothing more than a crazy japanese designers mind put back into consoles, too many film-game franchises have spoilt the genres that we loved as kiddys, and our dads would sit and watch us play secretly enjoying the crazyiness of mario, or ghouls and ghosts, or alex kidd, and kid camelion i miss the excitment of a new game with a new adventure and i want some dev to stand up and take a risk at bringing this genre/style back into games.