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"What the PS3 (and xb360) doesnt offer"

Consoles started out as a games machine made for one thing. Which is obviously playing games. It stayed this way for years until Sony decided to be smarty pants and make the PS1 using a cd drive and hey presto, you now have a cd player too.

This doesnt seem too impressive now, but at the time I, and most of my friends, didnt have a cd player in our bedrooms. This was a great way of marketing the console with an extra feature. Granted, it was a crap cd player and I didnt use it much but it initially sounded like a decent feature that would appeal to most people. Especially parents who could kill two birds with one stone when buying a present.

The PS2 (and Xbox) did the same thing only with a DVD player. This was a greater sucess and I know of several people who's only DVD player is their games console. Yet another two in one console. You could get two pieces of consumer electronics for the price of one.

This works as a great reason to buy a console. If you wanted a DVD player, why would you buy one when you could get a PS2/Xbox for a similar price?

This "two-for-one" deal seems some what lacking from the new range of consoles. The PS3 will play blu-ray disks, but that doesnt seem like such a big deal to your average customer. We can already get our movies on disk in really good quality and blu-ray isnt exactly being hyped up that much at the moment in the rest of the market compared to the way DVD was. Blu-Ray players arent available and therefore have no price tag.
Only if consumers can see the price of a Blu-Ray machine on the high street and only if they take off and become desirable will they then think to themselves what a good deal buying the console will be.

"It's wireless!"

Ooooohhhhhhh! Aaaaaaaahhhhh!

I reckon they were set to make a big announcement, but when they saw the specs of the PS3 and 360, they thought... "Ah! Get the drawing board out!"

;-p

I hope its soon. I really want to find out what is so revolutionary about its controller.

Go away Ninty, the competitors are talking ! ;-) Seriously though, it would be good to see Nintendo come up with some ideas that take the industry by storm during this next gen of consoles. Hopefully they might pull in some more third party support this time round.

Any news on when they might start announcing some major news on the Revolution ?

Cube has hardly 'flopped' really - it's sold 13 million worldwide, last I saw, and that was a while ago. It's a better console than the other two in terms of games, but that's my (correct) opinion :P

It's strange, in the same figures I saw, the Xbox had hardly sold anymore, yet was getting the support. Fine margins and all that.

I think it's important to remember that when you buy a PS3 game, it's exactly the same as buyin a brand new PS2 game. around £40. So what if it's a diff format? Ur not gonna be complaining that you're PS3 game is a BD-Rom rather than a DVD. And its not like you have to buy Blu-Ray films if you wanna watch movies on your PS3, because the PS3 plays DVDs and DVD-ROMS as well..

I don't think anyone who gets a PS3 will notice any difference, until Blu-Ray takes off, when they will have the upper hand tagainst those with an Xbox 360.

I don't think Sony will suffer at all.

HD is coming, whether we like/need it or not. BluRay will obviously, at the very least, be in every PS3, which means in all likelyhood that massive numbers of people will have a BluRay player, probably before the HD wave hits in any major way. That would make it highly likely that they'll be more likely to buy their movies on that format when they get their HD TV.

Given that Sony are also a major movie publisher, and have several other major studios signed up to the format, BluRay could/should have a major advantage. Last I read, the market share of the movie companies signed up to BluRay meant that the format had over 50% of the movie market.

BluRay also holds significantly more data than HD-DVD. Currently, DVDs with lots of extras need a 2nd disc, or extras are often in low quality 4:3 ratio. With a BluRay disc, all this will be unnecessary, and also potentially cheaper for the studios to produce.

In general, BluRay's capabilities are far beyond that of HD-DVD.

Besides, it's about time Sony won one of these - their developments are always superior. Beta > VHS ... MD > CD ... ATRAC3 > MP3 ... and always the public has chosen the inferior spec. :-)

Geffdof wrote:
> We arent ready for a "new DVD" seen as there is nothing
> wrong with the current DVD. Therefore having it built into the new
> consoles doesnt make it seem like its good value for money because
> you're only wanting the games machine to start with.

Ha ha ha.............

DVDs are interpolated by nature. Soem DVDs will up-scale them to be progressive, the 360 will do this in the hardware, but the new formats will be progressive by nature.

All you need is a High-def TV and you'll see the diffrence.

So, I wouldn't write off the technology until you know what it actually does, and why it's a definate improvement.

We arent ready for a "new DVD" seen as there is nothing wrong with the current DVD. Therefore having it built into the new consoles doesnt make it seem like its good value for money because you're only wanting the games machine to start with.

TO be fair to Nintendo, nobody is talking about them just because they don't release anything for people to talk about. As soon as they reveal all about the Revolution (in approx 10 days), they'll be mentioned alongside the PS3 and 360. Neither of those consoles are out yet, so it's hardly too late.

Anyway, as far as Blu-Ray goes, I really don't think it'll take off as "the new DVD". There is nothing wrong with DVD that means it needs replacing, certainly not here in the UK anyway. In America it may be a different story, because HDTV is up and running there, so BDROM really does offer some advantage over DVD. I still don't think it will be a big success, though, because people will hold off buying their movies on HD-DVD or Blu-Ray until they know which one will be the standard, which means prices will stay high for the discs and the players and so no one will buy it etc etc.

I really think they've moved too early with their new format, and I think Sony in particular will suffer.

Plus Sony aren't exactly an award winner when it comes to making reliable consoles, so going with Blu-ray could lead to this habit going on, because its an untried format. Got sick of Playstation consoles screwing up on me which is part of the reason I stopped buying them.

As for Blu-ray as a whole, I have a feeling it will go the same way as Laser Disc. It might improve a little in picture quality and stuff, but normal DVDs are fine and hold the extras. Plus of course now they tend to be cheaper and people have warmed to them. Overall though it hasn't been a long period of time since everyone has switched to DVD, so I don't think they'll be running out for Blu-ray players. Maybe oneday they will, but I think we'll be well into the following gen of consoles to this upcoming one by the time it does.

I'm interested to see what Nintendo come up with, but I think their too stubborn in their ways to get themselves back into the market. Its not looking good for you when nobody is even mentioning your name as a serious competitor anymore. All you hear is a battle between Microsoft and Sony, with no mention of Nintendo.

At the same time though, if the worst happens and Nintendo end up going the way of Sega, it could well be their games that swing the market in favour of either Microsoft or Sony. Esepcially if they decide to produce games for just one format rather than going multi.