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How the hell does Ms and Sony expect the online games industry to be a big player in years to come in the UK when only 7% of the country have taken up broadband and that only 30% of the country is covered anyway. This represents such a small amount of the gaming public problably 2%, is it worth the effort?
I for one have not even been upgraded to digital let alone Broadband and I would certainly not pay an extra £10 a month on top of the already over priced broadband access to get Xbox live.
I am sure they think the UK is like a mini America but it is just not the case 250,000 users is nothing like the figure in US, X-box hoping to have 1mil users by the end of 2003 and when X-box2 comes out in 2005 4mil they are living in dreamland. You would think companies like Sony and MS would be more in touch with the UK consumer.
I think it is a very big gamble and one that is to early for the technology in place in 5years time it might be different, but I wouldn't count on it.
A good judge of this is FF11 which was released in Countries like the US and Japan that have a lot of Broadband coverage and the sales of the game were pathetic compared to the numbers they sold as a stand alone game FF10.
I for one have not even been upgraded to digital let alone Broadband and I would certainly not pay an extra £10 a month on top of the already over priced broadband access to get Xbox live.
I am sure they think the UK is like a mini America but it is just not the case 250,000 users is nothing like the figure in US, X-box hoping to have 1mil users by the end of 2003 and when X-box2 comes out in 2005 4mil they are living in dreamland. You would think companies like Sony and MS would be more in touch with the UK consumer.
I think it is a very big gamble and one that is to early for the technology in place in 5years time it might be different, but I wouldn't count on it.
A good judge of this is FF11 which was released in Countries like the US and Japan that have a lot of Broadband coverage and the sales of the game were pathetic compared to the numbers they sold as a stand alone game FF10.
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I'm just stating that you won't need a 1mb connection to play the game!
You could if you really wanted to, use a modem!
You could if you really wanted to, use a modem!
phi11ip wrote:
> Top score wrote:
>
> That is alright then except for how many parts of the country has
> cable, we will just dig up the whole of the UK then as you need a
> cable to go straight to your house rather than your local exchange.
> We can then all enjoy £15 a month cable DSL which is not the
> same or as fast as ADSL.
>
> What I have got will give you in many cases the same ping as an ADSL
> line!
>
> I can get pings of 20 on Quake and that is probably the best ping you
> will manage to get on any game using most lines!
Thats good, but wont the performance take a hit when lots of people start using the system at the same time. DSL is a LAN type network, which means it gets slower the more people use it.
> Top score wrote:
>
> That is alright then except for how many parts of the country has
> cable, we will just dig up the whole of the UK then as you need a
> cable to go straight to your house rather than your local exchange.
> We can then all enjoy £15 a month cable DSL which is not the
> same or as fast as ADSL.
>
> What I have got will give you in many cases the same ping as an ADSL
> line!
>
> I can get pings of 20 on Quake and that is probably the best ping you
> will manage to get on any game using most lines!
Thats good, but wont the performance take a hit when lots of people start using the system at the same time. DSL is a LAN type network, which means it gets slower the more people use it.
Update2.01 wrote:
> Good point, and that was over normal telephone lines - so everyone
> could get it. But, I think the popularity of the console was more of a
> factor in that story, rather than any online functions.
True, but it still was pretty good. I gave it a go, and the fact that you could browse and send E-mail as well as play the online games (that supported it) was a cool idea. But it never seemed to take off, and that's why I have doubts about the box, Cube and PS2's online intensions.
Because if the Dreamcast had the potential to get online to everyone who owned one, without needed to upgrade your phoneline, buy a modem or pay a monthly fee ... and it didn't take off, why would the next series of consoles be any different?? Especially now you need to upgrade your line and pay out even more??
It's one of those "we'll see" situations, I believe.
> Good point, and that was over normal telephone lines - so everyone
> could get it. But, I think the popularity of the console was more of a
> factor in that story, rather than any online functions.
True, but it still was pretty good. I gave it a go, and the fact that you could browse and send E-mail as well as play the online games (that supported it) was a cool idea. But it never seemed to take off, and that's why I have doubts about the box, Cube and PS2's online intensions.
Because if the Dreamcast had the potential to get online to everyone who owned one, without needed to upgrade your phoneline, buy a modem or pay a monthly fee ... and it didn't take off, why would the next series of consoles be any different?? Especially now you need to upgrade your line and pay out even more??
It's one of those "we'll see" situations, I believe.
Top score wrote:
GT3 would probably take 1mb
> both directions to run at optimum performance.
Not really, the graphics don't need to be transferred down the line!
Only the pos/speed/crashes of the car...
It will work find on a 128k...
GT3 would probably take 1mb
> both directions to run at optimum performance.
Not really, the graphics don't need to be transferred down the line!
Only the pos/speed/crashes of the car...
It will work find on a 128k...
It was the first online game system and potentially had a very large modem user base, but that didn't save it and has anyone really thought about how good online games can really be GT3 would probably take 1mb both directions to run at optimum performance.
Top score wrote:
> That is alright then except for how many parts of the country has
> cable, we will just dig up the whole of the UK then as you need a
> cable to go straight to your house rather than your local exchange.
> We can then all enjoy £15 a month cable DSL which is not the
> same or as fast as ADSL.
What I have got will give you in many cases the same ping as an ADSL line!
I can get pings of 20 on Quake and that is probably the best ping you will manage to get on any game using most lines!
> That is alright then except for how many parts of the country has
> cable, we will just dig up the whole of the UK then as you need a
> cable to go straight to your house rather than your local exchange.
> We can then all enjoy £15 a month cable DSL which is not the
> same or as fast as ADSL.
What I have got will give you in many cases the same ping as an ADSL line!
I can get pings of 20 on Quake and that is probably the best ping you will manage to get on any game using most lines!
cjh wrote:
> Just out of interest, does anyone know how popular the Dreamcast
> online system was??? How much was it used, how many people actually
> used it compaired to how many owned the console, etc??
Good point, and that was over normal telephone lines - so everyone could get it. But, I think the popularity of the console was more of a factor in that story, rather than any online functions.
> Just out of interest, does anyone know how popular the Dreamcast
> online system was??? How much was it used, how many people actually
> used it compaired to how many owned the console, etc??
Good point, and that was over normal telephone lines - so everyone could get it. But, I think the popularity of the console was more of a factor in that story, rather than any online functions.
Just out of interest, does anyone know how popular the Dreamcast online system was??? How much was it used, how many people actually used it compaired to how many owned the console, etc??
Sorry but hype can get you only as far as the shop door when they ask you your postcode the reality is entirely different.
Belldandy wrote:
> On top of that I want to use it for Xbox Live, so;
> £8 for a PCI Belkin NI Card new from Ebay
> £3 for an ehternet cable, again new, from Ebay
Is you idea to get Broadband to the XBox via a PCI card in the PC then. Don't like that idea, although it should work. The PC would be a kinda Broadband server. To use XBox on line, would require to keep the pc on at the same time.
If you only want to connect XBox to Broadband, you can do that without a pc. If you want more than one "device" hooked up you will need to have some kind of "daisy chain" or have a proper network, ie with a router, ehthernet hub, and a wire from each device back to the hub.
> Sony and MS have got it right - Broadband is rolling out faster in the
> UK, and will do even more with the announcements from the conference
> thing today - BT are expected to say they will extend to cover 89% of
> the country.
France and Germany are ahead of us with between 10 and 20% each, but Sweeden has 29% at the moment. If we are to catch up quickly, we will need a lot more money and many more engineers putting upgrades into telephone exchanges. Our Cable firms in the UK are in trouble, so no quick fix for older networks there.
> On top of that I want to use it for Xbox Live, so;
> £8 for a PCI Belkin NI Card new from Ebay
> £3 for an ehternet cable, again new, from Ebay
Is you idea to get Broadband to the XBox via a PCI card in the PC then. Don't like that idea, although it should work. The PC would be a kinda Broadband server. To use XBox on line, would require to keep the pc on at the same time.
If you only want to connect XBox to Broadband, you can do that without a pc. If you want more than one "device" hooked up you will need to have some kind of "daisy chain" or have a proper network, ie with a router, ehthernet hub, and a wire from each device back to the hub.
> Sony and MS have got it right - Broadband is rolling out faster in the
> UK, and will do even more with the announcements from the conference
> thing today - BT are expected to say they will extend to cover 89% of
> the country.
France and Germany are ahead of us with between 10 and 20% each, but Sweeden has 29% at the moment. If we are to catch up quickly, we will need a lot more money and many more engineers putting upgrades into telephone exchanges. Our Cable firms in the UK are in trouble, so no quick fix for older networks there.
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