Nintendo, Sony + Microsoft....online

[Jordanv78 20]

So what are you guy's opinion on what each needs to do to keep you interested in online play? I will break down a few things that I have learned....that you may or may not already know.

 

From the beginning, Microsoft made the online space a key differentiating factor between it and competitors Sony(which was late and unfocused to the online party) and Nintendo which ignored it altogether on the gamecube. Even though Sony and Nintendo have significant online strategies planned for the PS3, and Wii systems respectively, it is the 360 that is percieved by the gaming public as the system to get if you like to play games online. Is this justified? Between Xbox live arcade, the downloads, and the online Halo 2 sessions that most love, nobody is going to argue that live is not a fun place to hang out. But is it all it could be? Or what Microsoft itself promised it would be?

People wish that there were more games available. Since the release of the 360 last November and through the summer, the number of arcade titles Microsoft has promised has always been a moving target that they just couldn't hit.

Looking around at other aspects of Live, you start to see how Microsofts promises remain frustratingly unfulfilled. The company's promise that the service would be an entertainment hub for your living room has yet to come to fruition. Playable demos for titles such as Fight Night Round 3 and Prey have excited fans, but haven't always been smooth affairs.

Some take a long ass time to download, while others, like Prey's multiplayer demo, have been nearly unplayable.

Live has lots of bugs, which confuses fans of the original xbox because that service had very few problems. Microsoft's spring patch made using Live more bearable, and the company says a fall patch is in the works :P .

Even with Trailers of movies and wallpapers (of already released movies...LOL) do not constitute entertainment in my mind. There are no direct downloads of movies, TV, or music. Although you can hook up your ipod or mp3....but the music store that J allard promised has not surfaced. Microsoft and MTV struck a deal in 05, for a Windows media player service named Urge, but it has yet to be unveiled.

The potential is there to merge these devices and services into Live, but intergrating them won't be as easy as flicking a switch where one day you don't have them, and the next day you do. And what level of Live membership will you have to have?

Whether or not these promises come to pass or not, perhaps the biggest hurdle the 360 has to face in fulfilling its capabilities is represented by the console itself. With only a 20 GB hard drive, as it stands the system is ill-equipped at best to actually house all of those demos, music, Marketplace items, and other media available....even the stuff thats online now...How many peoples harddrives are full? Imagine how fast the harddrive would fill up then? (which actually only comes with 13 GB free out of the box)

Experts have asked if a bigger capacity drive would become available but Microsoft does not want to answer those questions now.

Furthermore, some of 360's media capabilities, such as viewing pictures and video files, require that you have a Windows XP or Media Center PC. Microsoft says that these features will be enabled through its new Vista operating system (whenever that really comes out). However, the fact still remains that it is your PC that is the real entertainment Hub in the equation because it does all the heavy lifting and media storing, while your 360 is simply a remote node hooked up to your TV. Microsoft says that this setup is based on "consumer feedback" but the cynical person would say it's just an excuse to force you to buy a better PC. Which is exactly what it is in my opinion.

Regardless of what they have yet to accomplish, Microsoft promises that it has not even scratched the surface of what they intend to do with live...I hope they don't take TOO long.

Not suprisingly, Sony isn't sitting back and letting rival Microsoft hog the online limelight. The company has started what is called ED-i, or Electronic Distribution Initiative in order to compete with the Live arcade. Unlike Microsoft, Sony says that it will be providing first-party titles to ED-i as well as helping third parties. According to Sony, some of the games already created for the program due to their design and hardware requirements wouldn't be possible on the 360. Sheer boasting? Maybe not. Whaoo Games/Ninja Bee pres. Steve Taylor says that Microsoft puts a 50MB cap on Live games with a recommended size of 25mb. They do this because they want it to fit on the 64 MB memory card...??? That I do not understand. Sony will not have such restrictions to their ED-i games.

Nintendo, meanwhile is offering gamers the chance to dig into a slew of classic titles from its old library via its Virtual Console app. Reminicent of the old Sega cable (which I loved) Which to some is the only reason they want to purchase it.