The Gaming Lounge: Beyond - Part 4

[Thread Manager]

This is a continuation thread, the old thread is Here

[Thread Manager]

This is a continuation thread, the old thread is Here

[Master Chief]

Yup, it's pretty rad. It's one of those things that sounds too good to be true though. :o They've got like 5.5 million dollars through kickstarter for it,

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...o-game-console

Hackers welcome.

Have at it: It's easy to root (and rooting won't void your warranty). Everything opens with standard screws. Hardware hackers can create their own peripherals, and connect via USB or Bluetooth. You want our hardware design? Let us know. We might just give it to you. Surprise us!

Specifications:

Tegra3 quad-core processor
1GB RAM
8GB of internal flash storage
HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth LE 4.0
USB 2.0 (one)
Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad
Android 4.0
ETHERNET! (Announced by Muffi 7/18)

I'm hoping it's a success and it stirs up some competition coz the industry really needs it.

[Paroxysm]

I totally agree.

People mod their PC's, why not their consoles right?

[Soapy]

Because that opens it up to all sorts of nefarious bull****.

[Paroxysm]

Originally Posted by Soapy

Because that opens it up to all sorts of nefarious bull****.

No it doesn't. lol

[Spider-Aziz]

Originally Posted by Soapy

Because that opens it up to all sorts of nefarious bull****.

Windows XP days are out
Sometimes that system crashed by installing two or three different games, when it shouldn't

[Havok83]

I think he might be thinking more on the lines of hacking and cheating. The consoles shouldnt be too open for a reason.

[Paroxysm]

I don't see that being a problem.

This is going to be huge for anyone who wants to create their own games.

I'm really hoping this does well.

[Benstamania]

Yup, I think this could be pretty darn good.

[ProjectPat2280]

Originally Posted by Paroxysm

I don't see that being a problem.

How can you possibly not? I mean seriously? What about that is difficult for you to understand?

[Paroxysm]

Originally Posted by ProjectPat2280

How can you possibly not? I mean seriously? What about that is difficult for you to understand?

Why are you so jacked up? There's nothing wrong with making an open console. lol

If you're that scared of hackers and cheaters stick with Xbox and PlayStation. They're really good a stopping the millions of people who hack and cheat every day.

Are you paranoid of this new Android system? Does it keep you up at night?

All I said was you should have the option to mod your console and guess what, pretty soon we can!

[Master Chief]

Originally Posted by Paroxysm

I totally agree.

People mod their PC's, why not their consoles right?

Pretty much. People mod their consoles as well, it's just a pain in the ass going through the process because they use special screws and software. I don't know much about PS3 hacking but for the 360, that software is illegal to have. Plus it's lame that tinkering around with the hardware you bought voids the warranty. Hahah and remember that guy who got sued by Sony for jailbreaking the PS3? Ridiculous.

Originally Posted by Soapy

Because that opens it up to all sorts of nefarious bull****.

Nah. If someone wants to argue that it'll increase piracy, I doubt it. Especially given how open this system is. The easier it is for consumers to acquire something the more likely it is they'll pay rather than pass on it or download it for free. Look at Good Old Games, a shining example of how selling things without insane roadblocks can work. I can easily pirate any game from them PLUS the extras they include. Instead I buy from them whenever I can because I appreciate what they're doing. This system sounds very consumer friendly and I can't see that as anything but a good thing.

Originally Posted by Havok83

I think he might be thinking more on the lines of hacking and cheating. The consoles shouldnt be too open for a reason.

That's a misconception. I don't see many competitive multiplayer games coming out for this thing anyway, although apparently it can run Tribes: Ascend and Blacklight Retribution. Even then, games should have their own anti-cheat systems in place. If I want to crack open my system and have it run a new OS I should be able to because I paid for the damn thing, and making me jump through hoops just because some people might cheat is crazy because that's what people wind up doing anyway.

Tribes: Ascend

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

Blacklight Retribution

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

Plus on the positive side this gives indie developers a platform to get their games onto other than PC. It's tough to get a game approved by Sony and Microsoft but now they have this cheap system that they can develop for. This is why I said it sounds like something too good to be true hahah, it sounds like a dream.

[Spidey-Bat]

Originally Posted by Master Chief

Pretty much. People mod their consoles as well, it's just a pain in the ass going through the process because they use special screws and software. I don't know much about PS3 hacking but for the 360, that software is illegal to have. Plus it's lame that tinkering around with the hardware you bought voids the warranty. Hahah and remember that guy who got sued by Sony for jailbreaking the PS3? Ridiculous.

You own the console but only a license to its software which restricts you from hacking/modding it.

[Master Chief]

Originally Posted by Spidey-Bat

You own the console but only a license to its software which restricts you from hacking/modding it.

Which is silly because they barely do anything extra with the system, and what's worse is they won't let users do anything with it either. Funnily enough this closed/open platform thing is touched on in this interview with Gabe Newell on the future of games.

Gabe Newell, the co-founder and managing director of Valve, the videogame development and online distribution company, made a rare appearance last night at Casual Connect, an annual videogame conference in Seattle.

Newell, who spent 13 years at Microsoft working on Windows, is not well-known outside of the videogame industry, but the company he has built in Bellevue, Wash., cannot be overlooked.
Valve is not only a game developer, producing megahits like Portal 2, it owns and operates Steam, which is the largest consumer-focused digital games distribution platform in the industry. By some measures, it may be valued at $3 billion.

Last night, at a dinner sponsored by Covert & Co., Google Ventures and Perkins Coie, Newell unveiled some of his most quirky and secretive projects in an interview onstage with Ed Fries, former VP of game publishing at Microsoft.
Newell, who has a desk on wheels so he can quickly roll over to his favorite projects within the company, struggled at times to put into words how he sees the industry shaking out as companies like Microsoft and Apple move toward closed ecosystems. At one point, he even lamented that his presentation skills aren’t up to speed because Valve isn’t a public company.
Here are excerpts from the conversation that took place in a packed and noisy room with an under-powered speaker system:

On the future of videogame distribution

“Everything we are doing is not going to matter in the future. … We think about knitting together a platform for productivity, which sounds kind of weird, but what we are interested in is bringing together a platform where people’s actions create value for other people when they play. That’s the reason we hired an economist.

“We think the future is very different [from] successes we’ve had in the past. When you are playing a game, you are trying to think about creating value for other players, so the line between content player and creator is really fuzzy. We have a kid in Kansas making $150,000 a year making [virtual] hats. But that’s just a starting point.

“That causes us to have conversations with Adobe, and we say the next version of Photoshop should look like a free-to-play game, and they say, ‘We have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, but it sounds really bad.’ And, then we say, ‘No, no, no. We think you are going to increase the value being created to your users, and you will create a market for their goods on a worldwide basis.’ But that takes a longer sell.

“This isn’t about videogames; it’s about thinking about goods and services in a digital world.”

On closed versus open platforms

“In order for innovation to happen, a bunch of things that aren’t happening on closed platforms need to occur. Valve wouldn’t exist today without the PC, or Epic, or Zynga, or Google. They all wouldn’t have existed without the openness of the platform. There’s a strong tempation to close the platform, because they look at what they can accomplish when they limit the competitors’ access to the platform, and they say ‘That’s really exciting.’”

“We are looking at the platform and saying, ‘We’ve been a free rider, and we’ve been able to benefit from everything that went into PCs and the Internet, and we have to continue to figure out how there will be open platforms.’”

On Valve’s interest in Linux

“The big problem that is holding back Linux is games. People don’t realize how critical games are in driving consumer purchasing behavior.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well. It’s a hedging strategy. I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that’s true, then it will be good to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality.

On the evolution of touch

“We think touch is short-term. The mouse and keyboard were stable for 25 years, but I think touch will be stable for 10 years. Post-touch will be stable for a really long time, longer than 25 years.

“Post touch, depending on how sci-fi you want to get, is a couple of different technologies combined together. The two problems are input and output. I haven’t had to do any presentations on this because I’m not a public company, so I don’t have any pretty slides.

“There’s some crazy speculative stuff. This is super nerdy, and you can tease us years from now, but as it turns out, your tongue is one of the best mechanical systems to your brain, but it’s disconcerting to have the person sitting next you go blah, blah, blah, blah.

“I don’t think tongue input will happen, but I do think we will have bands on our wrists, and you’ll be doing something with your hands, which are really expressive.”

On wearable computers

“I can go into the room and put on the $70,000 system we’ve built, and I look around the room with the software they’ve written, and they can overlay information on objects regardless of what my head or eyes are doing. Your eyes are troublesome buggers.”

http://allthingsd.com/20120725/valve...ws-8-and-more/

Wearable computer with augmented reality overlay... yes plz.

[Upset Spideyfan]

Just on the whole OUYA thing, I found this an interesting read:

http://penny-arcade.com/report/edito...-should-be-ske

[Paroxysm]

Originally Posted by Master Chief

Which is silly because they barely do anything extra with the system, and what's worse is they won't let users do anything with it either. Funnily enough this closed/open platform thing is touched on in this interview with Gabe Newell on the future of games.



http://allthingsd.com/20120725/valve...ws-8-and-more/

Wearable computer with augmented reality overlay... yes plz.

"You called?"

[Master Chief]

Originally Posted by Upset Spideyfan

Just on the whole OUYA thing, I found this an interesting read:

http://penny-arcade.com/report/edito...-should-be-ske

XBL Indie Games is barely supported by MS which has driven indie developers away. Why write a game for them that will go unadvertised and fade into obscurity when they can just work on a PC and hopefully reach a wider audience? That's why XBLIG is full of s**t.

I do think it's a bit weird that they haven't shown the prototype, or had somebody come up with a prototype of a game that can run on their prototype hahah but the worst thing I got from that article is they would need to delay the launch. I haven't invested in the kickstarter because yeah, I'm skeptical, but if they actually deliver I'd happily pay $100 for a PC I can keep in the living room instead of moving my PC whenever I want to play Genesis games on a TV.

Originally Posted by Paroxysm

"You called?"

I'd seriously wear that everywhere if it actually works.

[Upset Spideyfan]

Totally agreed on the XBLIG stuff.

Originally Posted by Master Chief

I do think it's a bit weird that they haven't shown the prototype, or had somebody come up with a prototype of a game that can run on their prototype hahah but the worst thing I got from that article is they would need to delay the launch. I haven't invested in the kickstarter because yeah, I'm skeptical, but if they actually deliver I'd happily pay $100 for a PC I can keep in the living room instead of moving my PC whenever I want to play Genesis games on a TV.

Heh, I went and hooked everything up to my HDTV 2 years back I can certainly empathize with the hassle of switching and back and forth between television sets.

Regardless, I guess for me I just don't see a real future for this machine (should it actually come out which seems questionable) aside from at best a novelty item. As the article pointed out, indie developers already have a cheap and easy platform to work with on the PC and that brings with it a sizable user base that the OUYA certainly can't hope to replicate.

And at this point with a litany of promises its hard not to think of the OUYA and remember the Phantom:



Though the public funding element makes it feel like there's a lot more on the line - not just for the console itself but kickstarter. I suppose I am just feeling that even if the people behind its production are on the level, the reality of actually producing this thing and making it a viable platform is going to set it.

I guess we'll see what's going on in an year.

[Parker Wayne]

Originally Posted by Master Chief

XBL Indie Games is barely supported by MS which has driven indie developers away. Why write a game for them that will go unadvertised and fade into obscurity when they can just work on a PC and hopefully reach a wider audience? That's why XBLIG is full of s**t.

Agreed. It's a huge advantage Microsoft has over Sony, but (A) They're not pushing it forward, and (B) they put too many restrictions on it. Microsoft needs to ease up on it's restrictions for both this and XBLA. They're restrictions is why an HD remake of Oddworld games won't be released on XBLA.

Funny thing is that it's the same exact two reasons why both versions of the Zune (and it's app market) failed.

[Donut]

Can Sony sue Apple for this ?

http://www.gamerevolution.com/news/a...ntroller-14241

[ProjectPat2280]

not if sony doesnt have any legal hold on it.

[Benstamania]

Apple.. the king of telling something to not do anything remotely like they do.. Now does this.

[ProjectPat2280]

That article hasn't been updated, as its incorrect. The patent isn't for a controller, its to allow 3rd party controllers to work with their devices.

[Benstamania]

Ah.

Still.. Apple annoys me.