$279 360 being released with "family aspect" games

[terry78]

Originally Posted by Gaming Age's Jim Cordeira
Just in time for holiday, Microsoft Corp. today released a new Xbox 360 console that delivers games and content to everyone in the family for an incredible value of $279.99 (U.S. estimated retail price)*. Available in stores beginning today, Xbox 360 Arcade console is the first Xbox 360 console to include five family-friendly games, a wireless controller, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) connection to enable high-definition output if desired and 256 MB of memory useful for storing games and entertainment content. At $279.99, the Xbox 360 Arcade console will include five best-selling games: "PAC-MAN Championship Edition" (NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.), "Uno" (Carbonated Games), "Luxor 2" (MumboJumbo), "Boom Boom Rocket" (Electronic Arts Inc.) and "Feeding Frenzy" (Sprout Games).


"As families gather together this holiday, it's the perfect time to launch a new low-priced, high-value Xbox 360 that plays games, TV shows and music for everyone to enjoy," said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing, Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "In addition to offering an incredible all-in-one package for families to get right into the fun, the Xbox 360 Arcade system features the industry-leading Family Settings, which allow parents to control what their kids are watching and playing — and we know how important that control is to families around the world."

Karen Dodge, senior vice president and chief merchandising officer at Toys "R" Us, added, "We are excited to offer this new gaming experience to our customers — children and families — who can now enjoy the fun of Xbox 360 together. Many of this holiday season's hottest items provide Internet connectivity, and with the online entertainment options available through Xbox LIVE, Xbox 360 Arcade offers families a great mix of online content and traditional gaming in one console."

The news of Xbox 360 Arcade comes as part of a broader initiative by Microsoft to bring the Xbox 360 experience to families everywhere. Microsoft also announced today that it is significantly expanding its catalog of high and standard-definition family fun content that is available on demand direct to the consumer's living room. This includes the addition of everyone's favorite characters such as "Bugs Bunny" and "Daffy Duck" from Warner Bros., which will be delivering the first ever "Looney Tunes" cartoons for download on Xbox 360, starting today. In addition, Nickelodeon is adding three new shows to its already large library of more than 300 episodes of TV shows on Xbox LIVE, Microsoft's premier online gaming and entertainment service, with the inclusion of "Blue's Clues," "The Backyardigans" and "iCarly." "SpongeBob SquarePants Underpants Slam" (THQ Inc.) and "SHREK-N-ROLL" (Activision) games will also be available exclusively on Xbox LIVE Arcade, the place to download games for Xbox 360 over Xbox LIVE, adding more fun for everyone in the family.
Microsoft's commitment to family entertainment is complemented by the largest next-generation library of "E"- and "T"-rated games, more than 200 in all, available at retailers nationwide this holiday, including "BEE MOVIE GAME" (Activision), "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" (Activision), "Naruto: Rise of a Ninja" (UbiSoft Entertainment), "Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action" and "Viva Piñata: Party Animals."

 

[WhatsHisFace]

I guess this is what's replacing the "Core".

Why aren't they including a harddrive standard?

 

[Joker]

I guess this is what's replacing the "Core".

Why aren't they including a harddrive standard?

because then there would be no difference between the Core and Premium, except the Pro would come with 5 arcade games...and be cheaper...

 

[Havok83]

In a way its a smart move for MS. They are trying to appeal to the younger set and casual gamers but ultimately I dont think its going to work as that sector is dominated by Nintendo and the Wii. MS should just focus on what they do best and at this point its the hardcore gamer. I would have just out and canceled the Core instead of replacing it with the Arcade, but cant knock them for trying

 

[TheBat812]

I guess this is what's replacing the "Core".

Why aren't they including a harddrive standard?

they already ****ed themselves by releasing the Core, now they can never take advantage of the hd to improve load times or anything.

 

[Havok83]

they already ****ed themselves by releasing the Core, now they can never take advantage of the hd to improve load times or anything.

thats not necesarily true bc Im sure developers can add that feature for those who have an HD if MS allows it. Plus, there was news a few months back that some future titles will come with a HD required icon on the back of them. Sucks for those without a hard drive but I dont think its impossible to consider

 

[Zenien]

Developers can put in code saying "If the system detects a ahrd drive, create a dynamic caching file of a gig or so" to speed up load times and maybe cut down on framerate issues if it's bound by the read in speed of the Drive, but there's a bit of a difference between "If it's there use it" and being able to design your game around havign a hard drive to rely on.

 

[TheBat812]

Developers can put in code saying "If the system detects a ahrd drive, create a dynamic caching file of a gig or so" to speed up load times and maybe cut down on framerate issues if it's bound by the read in speed of the Drive, but there's a bit of a difference between "If it's there use it" and being able to design your game around havign a hard drive to rely on.

Exactly, they can maybe use it a little bit, but they can't rely on it at all.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Developers can put in code saying "If the system detects a ahrd drive, create a dynamic caching file of a gig or so" to speed up load times and maybe cut down on framerate issues if it's bound by the read in speed of the Drive, but there's a bit of a difference between "If it's there use it" and being able to design your game around havign a hard drive to rely on.

There's not really much you can use a hard-drive for aside from speeding up streaming though. Sure, it's a really nice buffer, but with disk-read speeds on the 360 really high (which is why it can be noisy at times), plenty of RAM and really good compression technology, it's not the big plus it was back in PC gaming circa 1998 where the average amount of RAM was 16mb and you had a 2x CD-ROM drive (streaming was impossible anyway but games in the cache would at least load faster (Half-Life, Deus Ex)) regardless.

Regaining my train of thought, unless you're saving bullet-hole decals from level 1 in case you backtrack, there's no apparent applicable benefit. I think Streaming really is just it (aside from huge, memory-card killing gamesaves).

 

[strikezone89]

kool

 

[Zenien]

There's not really much you can use a hard-drive for aside from speeding up streaming though. Sure, it's a really nice buffer, but with disk-read speeds on the 360 really high (which is why it can be noisy at times), plenty of RAM and really good compression technology, it's not the big plus it was back in PC gaming circa 1998 where the average amount of RAM was 16mb and you had a 2x CD-ROM drive (streaming was impossible anyway but games in the cache would at least load faster (Half-Life, Deus Ex)) regardless.

Regaining my train of thought, unless you're saving bullet-hole decals from level 1 in case you backtrack, there's no apparent applicable benefit. I think Streaming really is just it (aside from huge, memory-card killing gamesaves).

Lol. Final Fantasy XI wouldn't have been possible on the PS2 without a standard hard drive. I can't believe you're trying to spin away the benifits of having a hard drive.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Lol. Final Fantasy XI wouldn't have been possible on the PS2 without a standard hard drive. I can't believe you're trying to spin away the benifits of having a hard drive.

lolololololololol Final Fantasy XI is a MMORPG and Xbox Live requires a HDD so any online multiplayer game on the 360 will therefore require one lololololololol had Final Fantasy XI been a single-player adventure it would need nothing more than the system's RAM and a format reader lolololololololol

 

[Havok83]

lolololololololol Final Fantasy XI is a MMORPG and Xbox Live requires a HDD so any online multiplayer game on the 360 will therefore require one lololololololol had Final Fantasy XI been a single-player adventure it would need nothing more than the system's RAM and a format reader lolololololololol

I think you are missing her point. She didnt mention anything about Xbox live or the Xbox. She was referring to the PS2 and how one game was only possible bc of a HDD. The HDD in this case, wasnt just a convenient option, it was a neccesity

 

[WhatsHisFace]

I think you are missing her point. She didnt mention anything about Xbox live or the Xbox. She was referring to the PS2 and how one game was only possible bc of a HDD. The HDD in this case, wasnt just a convenient option, it was a neccesity

Oh, well now that casual gamers need to buy an HDD to step into the MMO community will really be to tough for them to grasp when the box says "HDD required".

But for the other 99% of 360 games, development can go on as usual.

 

[TheBat812]

lolololololololol Final Fantasy XI is a MMORPG and Xbox Live requires a HDD so any online multiplayer game on the 360 will therefore require one lololololololol had Final Fantasy XI been a single-player adventure it would need nothing more than the system's RAM and a format reader lolololololololol

I swear, you just like to be a ***** for the hell of it. Way to give a smart ass answer without actually addressing anything she actually said.

haha. But honestly, I love how 360 fanboys can't just admit that not having an HD as a standard is detrimental to the system, just as not having Blu-ray is detrimental.
I'll totally admit to PS3's flaws - too expensive, too hard to code for.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

I swear, you just like to be a ***** for the hell of it. Way to give a smart ass answer without actually addressing anything she actually said.

haha. But honestly, I love how 360 fanboys can't just admit that not having an HD as a standard is detrimental to the system, just as not having Blu-ray is detrimental.
I'll totally admit to PS3's flaws - too expensive, too hard to code for.

If you think I didn't address what she said, it's clear you don't know what you're talking about. Hard-Drives 99% of the time are only used for streaming in games. As such, if you've got a fast enough disk-reader and a reasonable buffer of RAM (the 360 has more than enough) a Hard-Drive isn't going to be as beneficial. Remember, the PS2 had excellent streaming in SOTC, POP and others.

And as I made clear earlier, Xbox Live requires a HDD, all online-only games require one too. If Zenien's saying that FFXI requires a HDD, it's really no big argument as to how not having an HDD standard would hinder it's design being as TO PLAY THE GAME YOU WOULD NEED THE HARDDRIVE ANYWAY.

Hope that cleared it up for you.

 

[Purple Prancer]

Don't strain yourself.

 

[Zenien]

If you think I didn't address what she said, it's clear you don't know what you're talking about. Hard-Drives 99% of the time are only used for streaming in games. As such, if you've got a fast enough disk-reader and a reasonable buffer of RAM (the 360 has more than enough) a Hard-Drive isn't going to be as beneficial. Remember, the PS2 had excellent streaming in SOTC, POP and others.

And as I made clear earlier, Xbox Live requires a HDD, all online-only games require one too.

You do realize that the PS2 was ram limited, had crappy compression support, and had a crappy DVD drive, right? How much better a lot of those games would have been from a technical standpoint with a hard rive as standard goes without question.

No actually, Everquest on the PS2 didn't require a hard drive, but then again it had very basic graphics.

If Zenien's saying that FFXI requires a HDD, it's really no big argument as to how not having an HDD standard would hinder it's design being as TO PLAY THE GAME YOU WOULD NEED THE HARDDRIVE ANYWAY.

Hope that cleared it up for you.

To handle that amount of data (not CPU power related) they needed a large hard drive, thanks for agreeing with me. The fact is having a hard drive is beneficial in actual game design by allowing a dynamic caching file, or just loading on large amounts of the data to dual stream.

ALGN: Can you tell us why Uncharted is only possible on the PlayStation 3?


EW: There are a few things. Primarily the whole experience is enabled by the use of the hard drive. If we did not have the hard drive then we could not present the game in the seamless load free way that we are. After you start until you turn the console off and go eat your lunch and come back there is not going to be another load time and you can play the game from start to finish. That was really key to us something that we established with Jak and Daxter and it keeps you immersed in the experience. As soon as you hit those load screens, as soon as you have to take that break, you may put the controller down, you may do something else we really just want to engross you in this experience. So, the hard drive really helped with that. The other thing that we've got going for us is the Blu Ray. We filled that thing up to 24 plus gigs, it was right at the end where we were literally running out of place where we were having to start pulling some stuff out, we ended up fortunately finding this unused cache of audio lines we were able to pull out to save some space so we could get everything in that we wanted to get in. I'm not going to stand here and say it would have been impossible to do on DVD but it would have been a different game, it really would have. It could have looked worse, we would have had to make concessions in terms of our compression. We would have had to spend a lot more developer resources focusing on how to get it on the disk when we could have been creating the game, making it more fun, making it more beautiful. So I'm really happy just to have that. We're still on single layer and this is our first game out of the gates. So I highly suspect that on our future games we'll even go to a double layer and we're going to even start putting more than 24-25 gigs into a single game.

The other important thing for us was the use of the Cell processor and how it enabled our animation system to work. Everybody who is working on the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360 gets this increase in the number of polygons they can use, they get an increase in the fact that now we've got these really cool pixel shaders and we can do these really cool materials like water and leather and put bark on trees. So you're going to get an immediate upgrade for free and you just get it with the hardware. But, what's not going to come for free is your animation and you're animation if you've got these really detailed environments it's not going to mesh. We wanted to put a lot of our engineering effort into making sure that we had an animation system that would allow, what I think are some of the most talented animators in the industry to really create and have their vision come through and be supported by the technology.

Basically, in Jak I we had somewhere in the vicinity of 300-350 animations for Jak and everyone was really happy with the fluidity of his movement and the response. In Uncharted, Drake has got more than 3500 animations and the difference is we're now taking the cell processor and we're taking say two dozen of those animations, like we've got his running animations, flinching animations, reloading animations, rolling animations, just dozens of animations all at once being layered on top of each other and then the cell processor recreates on the fly the single frame of animation that you need to be able to play the game at that moment and the fact we can just dump more and more work on that processor and its SPUs just means we can free up our CPU to do more general purpose tasks.

http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=9225&rss=1&title=Naughty+Dog+Interview+Part+One

 

[WhatsHisFace]

You do realize that the PS2 was ram limited, had crappy compression support, and had a crappy DVD drive, right? How much better a lot of those games would have been from a technical standpoint with a hard rive as standard goes without question.

Not really. With a 32mb overhead there's not a whole lot more the system could do with hard-drive streaming. Everything you see, hear and do in the game has to fit into the RAM. When a game is "loading" it is loading into the RAM so that the system has fast access to it and you will always have that ceiling with a hard-drive or not. The only difference is that loading into the hard-drive is for a faster transfer to RAM than there is if you're loading it from the optical drive, which seems to be a problem on the PS3 due to slow read times (the 360 has a fast read speed hence the console's hum and couple that with 512mb of available RAM and you get a big buffer for streaming) and I promise you Uncharted will do nothing impossible on the Xbox 360 due to having a hard-drive standard.

No actually, Everquest on the PS2 didn't require a hard drive, but then again it had very basic graphics.

I was talking about 360 online games. Dreamcast didn't have a HDD but it still had online. Talking about the Xbox 360 there.

To handle that amount of data (not CPU power related) they needed a large hard drive, thanks for agreeing with me. The fact is having a hard drive is beneficial in actual game design by allowing a dynamic caching file, or just loading on large amounts of the data to dual stream.

In the case of FFXI, yes. Single player games can all be done without hard-drive streaming though. Even on the Xbox, very few developers actually used the HDD, which is one of the reasons Microsoft made it optional this generation.