The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
News just in, Nokia have finally done it, the World Wide Web on your TV through a sex little black and silver set top box. You can send emails through it, and there is a remote keyboard (infra-red) to go surfing with, and yes, wait for it...you can play games on it too. Do I think they stand a chance? Er, well, yes, afraid so. You see they will be marketing this at people who don't really want to have a computer at home, so this will be (for some of them) their first taste of gaming and surfing. It will be released sometime next year, so expect to see heavy advertising knocking about from anytime onwards.
I can't see this affecting too much future console sales, who's main selling feature is gaming, not internet, although most of the newly released consoles will have internet connection as a standard option. It will affect future sales of games though, because these people who have the box, and no computer (yes, I agree it's sad, but there are an awful lot of them, circa. 30,000,000 in the UK alone) will be playing their games via their Nokia set top box and therefore will be less inclined to go out and buy a console and therefore have no inclination to buy console games.
Personally, it's not for me, I can get access to the WWW anytime on the PC, and I don't like the thought of the dog walking past my keyboard's line of vision when I'm playing a network game. And I cannot really see (narrow minded bit here) the Nokia making a decent rival bid to the major console players (i.e. Nintendo, Sega, Sony and Microsoft), either now or in the future.
Whether it actually will be a force will depend on two things; price and public perception. This is a major step forwards in technology for the average household, and I'd hate to see it go the way of other set top boxes (video with the VHS/Betamax fiascos, Sky with the many different types of boxes now available etc.) If demand is strong enough, and the public accept this kind of technology as the norm., then what a future we can look forward too. Whether the future will be bright or dark I cannot forsee, perhaps it will be more of a phosphorescent glow?
I can't see this affecting too much future console sales, who's main selling feature is gaming, not internet, although most of the newly released consoles will have internet connection as a standard option. It will affect future sales of games though, because these people who have the box, and no computer (yes, I agree it's sad, but there are an awful lot of them, circa. 30,000,000 in the UK alone) will be playing their games via their Nokia set top box and therefore will be less inclined to go out and buy a console and therefore have no inclination to buy console games.
Personally, it's not for me, I can get access to the WWW anytime on the PC, and I don't like the thought of the dog walking past my keyboard's line of vision when I'm playing a network game. And I cannot really see (narrow minded bit here) the Nokia making a decent rival bid to the major console players (i.e. Nintendo, Sega, Sony and Microsoft), either now or in the future.
Whether it actually will be a force will depend on two things; price and public perception. This is a major step forwards in technology for the average household, and I'd hate to see it go the way of other set top boxes (video with the VHS/Betamax fiascos, Sky with the many different types of boxes now available etc.) If demand is strong enough, and the public accept this kind of technology as the norm., then what a future we can look forward too. Whether the future will be bright or dark I cannot forsee, perhaps it will be more of a phosphorescent glow?
The problem with a set top box that plays games is the audience it is marketed for. Microsoft tried something similar a while ago, and they ended up with egg on their faces and no one buying their hardware. They forgot that people who want games on their TV will more than likely be console owners all ready or, at least, PC owners. The majority of other people could not care either way whether they could play games on their TV. As for email, ON digital and BskyB already seem to have that market sewn up. Consoles are cheap now, people who want simple games will buy a cheap Megadrive, or wait for ON digital's interactive TV to play 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' etc at home.
it does sound like a good idea, but i'm bored with all my mates ending continuous E-Mails on their TV like those stupid TXT messages on their Mobiles, they normally start to surf by digital when a good films on or the Mix championships are on MTV Base! if anyone can access by a little black/silver box then the whole world will eventually be connected by TV and leave their PCs in the dark, I don't know if this is a good idea, I saw an advert in the paper the other day, which was a Ericson mobile phone with an attachable keyboard pad which clips onto the hands free conector at the bottom of the phone, it's a good idea if you want to send messages fast and easily but they're quite big when compared to a small phone, and might break.
News just in, Nokia have finally done it, the World Wide Web on your TV through a sex little black and silver set top box. You can send emails through it, and there is a remote keyboard (infra-red) to go surfing with, and yes, wait for it...you can play games on it too. Do I think they stand a chance? Er, well, yes, afraid so. You see they will be marketing this at people who don't really want to have a computer at home, so this will be (for some of them) their first taste of gaming and surfing. It will be released sometime next year, so expect to see heavy advertising knocking about from anytime onwards.
I can't see this affecting too much future console sales, who's main selling feature is gaming, not internet, although most of the newly released consoles will have internet connection as a standard option. It will affect future sales of games though, because these people who have the box, and no computer (yes, I agree it's sad, but there are an awful lot of them, circa. 30,000,000 in the UK alone) will be playing their games via their Nokia set top box and therefore will be less inclined to go out and buy a console and therefore have no inclination to buy console games.
Personally, it's not for me, I can get access to the WWW anytime on the PC, and I don't like the thought of the dog walking past my keyboard's line of vision when I'm playing a network game. And I cannot really see (narrow minded bit here) the Nokia making a decent rival bid to the major console players (i.e. Nintendo, Sega, Sony and Microsoft), either now or in the future.
Whether it actually will be a force will depend on two things; price and public perception. This is a major step forwards in technology for the average household, and I'd hate to see it go the way of other set top boxes (video with the VHS/Betamax fiascos, Sky with the many different types of boxes now available etc.) If demand is strong enough, and the public accept this kind of technology as the norm., then what a future we can look forward too. Whether the future will be bright or dark I cannot forsee, perhaps it will be more of a phosphorescent glow?
I can't see this affecting too much future console sales, who's main selling feature is gaming, not internet, although most of the newly released consoles will have internet connection as a standard option. It will affect future sales of games though, because these people who have the box, and no computer (yes, I agree it's sad, but there are an awful lot of them, circa. 30,000,000 in the UK alone) will be playing their games via their Nokia set top box and therefore will be less inclined to go out and buy a console and therefore have no inclination to buy console games.
Personally, it's not for me, I can get access to the WWW anytime on the PC, and I don't like the thought of the dog walking past my keyboard's line of vision when I'm playing a network game. And I cannot really see (narrow minded bit here) the Nokia making a decent rival bid to the major console players (i.e. Nintendo, Sega, Sony and Microsoft), either now or in the future.
Whether it actually will be a force will depend on two things; price and public perception. This is a major step forwards in technology for the average household, and I'd hate to see it go the way of other set top boxes (video with the VHS/Betamax fiascos, Sky with the many different types of boxes now available etc.) If demand is strong enough, and the public accept this kind of technology as the norm., then what a future we can look forward too. Whether the future will be bright or dark I cannot forsee, perhaps it will be more of a phosphorescent glow?