E3: Microsoft's John Schappert Comments by Oli Welsh

That man talks corporate very well, others could learn. However it doesnt really ever tell you anything new sadly.

Sonic the Hedgehog... a classic title?!? Has the guy ever played the game? :O

I'm calling bullshit on one point there:

"I think there will be people who buy [Xbox 360] to enjoy Sky in the UK."

I'm pretty sure that's a load of rubbish right there. The people who want Sky will take a deal direct through Sky, maybe getting a phone or net connection bundled in. You wouldn't buy a £160 machine for a cut-down Sky service, you'd have to be some sort of moron, surely?

Feel free to correct me if anyone disagrees!

Also, for anyone who hasn't already played Ass Creed or Bioshock, for example, what's the need to buy through GoD? You can probably get these for about £10-£15 second hand in Game/Gamestation (thats a guess, sorry), and you can sell those on for a tiny bit of cash when you're done with them.

I'm pretty sure GoD wil be more expensive than that, and the only advantage is that you don't have to pop to the shops? It just doesn't sound like a very good idea imo, and I don't think it's gonna topple the second hand market anytime soon.

Let me buy things with a debit card!

I dont know the specifics on the sky deal (in fact I was about to have a look) but if I can use my existing subscription to watch Sky on a xbox (or maybe pay slightly more) then I am off down the shops.

Yes! Torres!!

We're gonna win the title next year, just you wait :P

lennon:

Is that as a non-360 owner currently? So you'd basically be using it to avoid Sky's (frankly ridiculous) multi-room £10 monthly charge?

Two additional points: I'd rather have Netflix than Sky ANY DAY. Secondly, the only thing people want to know from Microsoft atm is how much Natal will be, and a rough idea of when it'll be out.

I am a sky customer at the moment but my main sky box is in another room which during children waking hours is not ideal for watching things. In paticular football. Having the ability to use another xbox in the kids room would be perfect.

Oh and to answer your question it would be a second xbox.

Duh duh de duh de duh de TORRES TORRES

@ ALiRay.

Not everyone can get sky. People who live in listed buildings or flats are not allowed to have dishes on the walls, so left really with rubbish slow Virgin. So might get a few people to join sky through their 360's

i think its been mentioned already (could be wrong) that to use the sky service you will have to have an existing multi-room contract with them...

Great interview, pity about the picture of the ladyboy though.

You know, all I wonder about is whether you can use last fm the same as music on yr hdd, listen to it while you're gaming instead of the crappy music with the game (yeah I'm talking to you pes)

the sky deal will only work if you can buy per match for a small price. Imagine just incurring one charge for wanting to watch a top premiership game. This will encourage people to adopt sky first then maybe buy a whole package later, without alieanating the current install base. I think thats Skys plan, but i could be wrong.

lol!. 1080p streaming. I'd like to see EG's digital foundry rip that to shreads. The bit-rate will be a fucking mess.

@Spydy, "I'd like to see EG's digital foundry rip that to shreads."

Strange that you haven't looked to see it already

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/check-...

@Spydy, "I'd like to see EG's digital foundry rip that to shreads."

Strange that you haven't looked to see it already

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/check-...

Soooo, I'm right. The bitrate is poor and will continue to be until 20mbps connections are standard.

I thank you.

Facebook [blah] we're adding Twitter
Soo... You're basically saying that you're giving access to a couple of sites instead of the full internet browser that is available for free with the PS3 and for a small charge with the Wii? Yep. That's the future right there, Microsoft.

but now we've got a Video Marketplace, in the US we have Netflix, we have Sky, we're adding Last.fm
It's still a lot faster to download a movie on a PC and then transfer it to your preferred machine.

The addition of Last.fm is great... Except now all they need to do is reduce the system fan noise and I might start using the 360 as a media centre, until then I'll stick with the whisper-quiet PS3 for my music. I do wish the PS3's browser supported the Last.fm code for streaming audio, I tried to get this working a few months ago, but unless it's deliberately blocked by Microsoft (which is possible) I suspect it's only a matter of time before this begins working. I'm really not sure how this exclusivity deal is supposed to work when the PS3 browses through an internet interface. Will they block PS3 browsers from the site? I certainly hope not, but that does seem possible.

When we talked about the New Xbox Experience last year, we talked about reinventing the console through the magic of software
Is anyone else finding an increasing slowdown when starting their 360? With the NXE I used to get near-immediate access to my dashboard (and therefore my gams), but now I seem to have to wait ten seconds while it downloads the latest adverts (that I don't want to see). I'm worried that we're slowly trudging back to the bad old days of the last dashboard where everything took too long to do because of the adverts that had to be downloaded before you could access the functionality of your own machine.

I feel like the 360 is constantly being torn in two directions, one is towards a great, integrated online media and games centre, the other is towards a laggy, unfocused base camp for recruiting people to more expensive subscription systems. It seems like advertisers look at the 360 and say 'these people are prepared to pay for online services that are free elsewhere, I wonder what else they'll pay for?'. I feel like the functionality of my console is being compromised by the business greed of Microsoft: I want to play my game, but I have to look at their adverts first? Why? I've paid for my machine, so bugger off and let me use it without waiting for yor spam to download.

I hope like hell that the Last.fm access is free for Silver Live members!

Sorry but the system fan noise is a non-issue.

Everyone knows that 90% of the noise comes from the DVD drive, and the system fan noise is totally unnoticable if you are playing Music.

As for NXE slowdown, I used to get that - then I set my router up properly.

The facebook thing is far from ground breaking, both my PS3 and IPhone do it for free. Howe ever, if this Sky TV thing works well i'll sign up straight away. Just wondering, would the SkyTV be in HD, SD or simply upscalled to 1080p?
ISmoke

@Spydy
"Soooo, I'm right. The bitrate is poor and will continue to be until 20mbps connections are standard.
I thank you. "

Did u even check the link they gave you out? Its capped at 5Mbps connections. Ive had a 15Mbps connection for about 3 years now... Two posts and you are pointless even if they do waste their time to offer you info and links. At least do it right Spydyboy...

We thank you. have a good one :)