Paul Fox of Microsoft Europe Comments by Gestalt
Interview - we talk to Microsoft about the recent Xbox price cut and the console's future
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Moonbender
03/05/02 @ 22:31
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Nothing like a can of strong coffee. Hits you like club. :) Good luck, incidently.
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Jesus: Action Figure
04/05/02 @ 00:21
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"I wish XBox fans would stop going on about the hard disc. It's like those that go on about how many bits their processor is, or how much RAM it's got, except a hard disc is even less likely to make a significant difference. For me the hard disc means I can save ~20 quid on a memory card."
Wrong. While the hard disc hasn't been exploited fully yet, it has the potential to really make a difference to console gaming. One example is Championship Manager on the Xbox. Wouldn't it make more sense to make the game for PS2 because of its installed base? Of course it would. The reason it's on Xbox is because of the hard disc. Not my cup of tea, mind, but it's a real world example of the advantage of having a hard drive. I'm sure we'll see more games that fully exploit the drive at E3. "In fairness, I doubt it's Foxy's decision to excuse the original price in this way. His orders almost undoubtedly come from higher up the chain. I've not met him personally, but like Seamus Blackley, Jay Allard and quite a lot of the other public Xbox figures, I understand he's actually a thoroughly nice bloke..." He IS a thoroughly nice bloke.One of the nicest you could possibly hope to know. |
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Microsoft totally ignored europe, they didn't bother to show up at ects nor did they bother releasing the xbox before christmas, saying that neither did Nintendo, and I can see them both pay the price for not bothering to think about europe at all. All they care about is Microsoft = USA, Nintendo = Japan.
No parent is going to spend money on any of these consoles for their children unless its a very very special birthday present. We will see at christmas who will be there winner from the three companies. Also Summer is the worst time of all in the games industry always have been always will be, people actually go out! in the summer and dont stay in to play consoles. I seriously wonder sometimes who are the brains behind these company decisions. |
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Damn - only 46! And I thought I r00led the typing world! Well I haven't had my cup of tea yet so I'll have another go later...
Edit - Khab will be forty minutes into his test now - that has to qualify as mental cruelty, someone should take Sweden to the International Court of Human Rights...
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most recently on 04/05/02 @ 07:33
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ProjectRadeon
04/05/02 @ 08:16
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Bought an Xbox had it for sometime now.
I've noticed everyone having ago at the quality of games for the XBOX launch, what planet are they on???? Obivously not this one. Project Gotham is great fun, Ralli sport is one of the finest games out there. And Burnout on the Xbox just trounces the Cubes version. This is not just a slanted view, I bought a Jap cube on import, sold that then got a UK one. The launch titles are appauling. Wave Racer (What????? I saw it get 9/10 in one magazine) I'll never know why!!! The only game I keep playing on is the fantastic Monkey ball. Would like a look at blood Roar as well though. Whats all this about the Xbox been a PC. Hol on a mo..... Sony are bringing out a hard drive and broadband adaptor. Oh yerh Xbox have them as standard all for your 199 pounds. Dont have to fork out for a memory card as well!! And at least you can watch DVDs on you Xbox PS2's is appauling Quailty!!! Speaking of quality who made the plastic bulk of the cube. Its so thin and fragile, both my jap one and UK had minor scatches on (they were brand new). Xbox might be slighty bigger but at least is made well!!! Just to recap here: Xbox: Better games!!!! (open to debate true) Hard Drive DVD BroadBand and only 60 pounds more. Well lets hope nintendo fall flat on there arses. Now where did I put that quality N64 (sure right Huhhhh!) LOL. |
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I've said it before and I'll say it again:
An Ethernet port is not Broadband. I've got broadband on this computer: it works via a USB modem. So, does having a USB port on your computer = having broadband? Or even support for broadband? No. It does not. Cube has a port on the bottom for "high speed connecter" or somthing like that. So why do you suppose Xbox has any more support for broadband than the Cube? People, you have to stop beliving everything they tell you in press releases. Sega promised us "up to 5 billion players" online when Dreamcast launched. They didn't deliver. Can MS bring cable or DSL to your house? A DSL connection in the UK will cost you anything up to £150 +monthly subscription. That includes activation and the cost of the modem. DVD remote for xbox is £30? So two of the "built in features" of xbox will cost you another £180 to actually get them working. Judge the consoles on what they can offer you today, or what games they should bring along tomorrow. Don't base your judgements on the promises of hardware support to come - there is a strong chance it won't come at all.
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most recently on 04/05/02 @ 11:20
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As I said in the other thread, the Xbox does not come with DVD playback as standard you still have to pay another £30 or so for it.
Plus as skalmanxl said as well, you still need a cable modem to use broadband, which is an additional expense. Plus the network as of yet is not up. Goodness knows how MS plan to support it in the UK, where about 120,000 people have broadband (the figure is set to triple over the next year but that still is not very many). Edit: Damn brokenkey you beat me to it!
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most recently on 04/05/02 @ 11:23
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Just to recap here:
Xbox: Better games!!!! (open to debate true) Hard Drive DVD BroadBand and only 60 pounds more. Er... in order: Games: As you said... it's all a matter of taste. Hard drive: Yes. DVD: No. You'll have to cough up for that to work. True, you actually CAN use it as a DVD player, but out of the box the XBox is about as good use playing DVD's as the GC is... The PS2 surely would win that point. Besides, which home entertainment interrested person *doesn't* own at least one DVD player nowadays? I have two...:) Broadband: Nope. You'll need a service for that to work, which will cost money - if one isn't interested in paying for things one doesn't know if they'll be of any use, ever, this would be a negative - in my book. The GC has ethernet capability - you'll need an add-on for that, though. They leave the choice to YOU. "Only" 60 pounds more. Yeah. An ethernet adapter costs what, 15 quid? Tops. (You'll get one for 20€ around here, easily.) The fabled 8-gig HD? Well, they don't make drives that small anymore, but I'd say around £40-50, no? Tops. Of course, equal parts for the GC will probably cost more than an ordinary, but I'm just saying that this "GREAT value for the money" doesn't say much. The best reason for buying the XBox (or ANY console) is if you like the games. It's a simple two-step check: *Like 'em? Buy it! *Don't like 'em? Don't buy it! All you need... Edit: Um, why am I making exactly the same point as two people have before me? Sorry, must be these early-morning english tests...
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most recently on 04/05/02 @ 11:38
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An Ethernet port is not Broadband. I've got broadband on this computer: it works via a USB modem. So, does having a USB port on your computer = having broadband? Or even support for broadband? No. It does not.
It does, but only because broadband is a made up word that doesn't mean anything. My computer has a 'broadband' SCSI bus and a 'broadband' parallel port. On the other hand, an Ethernet port is closer to a network connection than a USB port is. It will have packet based handshaking and contention implemented in hardware. Of course you need to hook it up to the wider net still and write a stack to run TCP/IP over it, but in my opinion it's still one step closer to an Internet connection than a simple serial link like USB is. Anyway, on a less combatitive note for a Saturday morning, Jesus:AF you are my saviour. I'd completely forgotten about Champ Manager - it might not sell the console to me, but some people must like the damn game! |
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Mal, you are kind of missing my point - having any range of ports on the back of whatever box you are playing games on does not mean you have broadband, or even to a very large degree support for broadband. Broadband support is either a DSL or cable modem, and the way that plugs into your box, either via USB or ethernet, is neither here nor there.
Broadband = modem and connection. Ethernet port = ethernet port. |
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I thought Burnout was quite fun, but it's no Rallisport.
There is no other like Rallisport. Although, latley I've been swearing in front of Project Gotham Racing and F1 2002 (as opposed to swaring in front of Rallisport), for totally diffrent reasons... Why aren't you lot all playing with your Cubes? Put a sock in it tie-wearer.
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most recently on 04/05/02 @ 13:59
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Max Diablos
04/05/02 @ 14:45
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It does, but only because broadband is a made up word that doesn't mean anything. My computer has a 'broadband' SCSI bus and a 'broadband' parallel port.
I have a broadband mouth! |
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Do not mention that game in my presence! ;)
From the way the sounds...sound in that game, it seems like this guy made the sounds. Is it just me or does ALL the recent EA games have just awful awful sound. I have NBA 2002 and that sure sounded horrible, NHL 2002 wasn't much better and F1 2002...ugh. Not to mention the AWFUL (!!!!!) framerate, how this game could have shipped is beyond me. The damage isn't quite realistic either. Although it isn't a simulator, I expect to NOT be able to bump off Jaguards, Minardis (and other pieces of slow awful crap on a circuit) without getting a dent in the car myself. |
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Did you clear the damage test? You need to do that before bits of your car can fall off, and there's various levels of damage that you can set as well IIRC. Certainly I've lost my nose a few times even on the lower damage settings, but only by punting the car into a barrier.
Not really my kind of game. Arcade mode was quite fun, but not very challenging. The sim mode was a completely different game, felt and handled nothing like the normal mode and didn't suit my driving style at all. And as you said, the slowdown was atrocious. I wouldn't mind, but the game didn't even look half as good as the screenshots EA were putting out before it was released, so god knows what framerate they were running it at... |
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Did you clear the damage test? You need to do that before bits of your car can fall off, and there's various levels of damage that you can set as well IIRC. Certainly I've lost my nose a few times even on the lower damage settings, but only by punting the car into a barrier.
I got an 85 on that one, so stuff fly off, not very realistic though. I'm better off waiting for Geoff Crammond GP 4 to satisfy my realism needs. Let's hope the people doesn't buy the game (or the ports) and lets have EA stop making driving games all together, |
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So far I've downloaded no less than 15 patches to get various programs and the OS itself to work. Add to that the fact that despite using the same modem and ISP, my speed has more than halved, I am not happy.
It's weird how many different results people have gotten with WinXP... I myself LOVE it. My comp has crashed a grand total of two (2) times since I purchased it in early January. I shudder at the sight of 98 and its like nowadays. That said, I imagine Win2k might be even better. Maybe they should have named it the XPox instead, to get some BNR across formats...
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most recently on 05/05/02 @ 02:41
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Personally I think its really sad to see people continually slagging off the xbox because of some misplaced alliegence to sony, when i bought my ps2 for £270 weeks before the price dropped I just wrote it off, same sort of story with my N64, so MS giving me compensation i think is pretty fantastic. and an even better story comes when i bought my import jap psx for £500 quid only to find out a year later that my batch had a faulty disc drive woo-hoo. The funny thing is when did sony stop being the console bad guys? Doesn't anyone see the ps2 for what it is? Since I bought my big ass box i havent touched my ps2 for games, I use it now as a bedroom dvd player, mgs2 is without doubt one of the dullest games ive ever played yet in reviews it gets high scores, the fact it is 80% (generous) cut-scenes is neither here nor there, its like Barry norman reviewing Tetris, i'm not here to bash any console but the standard of ps2 software is appalling. Gamecube cant really be put into the same category as ps2 or Xbox because it has totally no facility for playing dvd's (unlike xbox) I hate the fact that every few years I have to hear the same crap: my NES beats your master system, my atari beats your amiga, my megadrive beats your snes, most of the people on this board seem old enough to drink at least (a few obvious exeptions) get over it, if like me you can afford it then buy them all, but if not enjoy what you have because the prospect of only having one hardware manufacturer in the market means very very bad things ahead.
plus... X-BOX RULZ PS2 BLOWS (sic) |
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"Gamecube cant really be put into the same category as ps2 or Xbox because it has totally no facility for playing dvd's"
This would be a good and valid point if we were comparing the merits of DVD players. But wait, isn't this a games site, and aren't we deciding the merits of GAMES consoles? The benefits of a console of playing DVDs are non existent if 1) you already own a DVD player, or 2) you don't own any dvds, or 3) you own a 14inch TV. |
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I don't understand why we don't get a price cut in North America where we've been loyal to the xbox.
Because the Xbox costed 200$ MORE when it launched in Europe then it did in the US. NOW the console costs just as much (give or take some) in both territories, which is fair. You guys had it "cheap" all the time, so you don't actually deserve a reduction. |
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"I don't understand why we don't get a price cut in North America where we've been loyal to the xbox"
Disloyalty has its rewards. Or to put it another way, this is market forces at work. If everyone stops buying it, the price will come down. I'd day that this is a good excuse for an American consumer campaign to boycott the xbox until the price comes down to $199. Go on - do it. |
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terminalterror
06/05/02 @ 10:17
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With the xbox broadband, how would you get it to work if you already have ADSL, do you have to get your ISP to let you use an Xbox, or will it just work (just curious, I don't have an Xbox, just a GC, but depending on how they pull off their broadband I might get one)
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I'm not sure how ADSL works, but my cable modem only accepts one MAC address at a time, so if you wanted to run your Xbox through it as well as the PC you'd have to set up a server to run them both through or something. Or else unplug your PC and then wait a few hours for the MAC address block to reset. Not exactly plug and play...
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LaundroMat
06/05/02 @ 16:03
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Gestalt, you can always install some internet sharing tool (such as SyGate). The other computer connected to mine passes through it and uses the same configuration as the one connected to the net even without a client running. So, it's completely transparent, which means connecting a console to it might work.
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Eh? Why me?!?
Anyway, yeah, I reckon it's a Eurogamer pun - it's supposed to be "cheap at twice the price" but in the case of the xbox, that would be daft, so now it's "cheap at half the price" (well, two thirds, well, not even that cheap really, but "moderately expensive at a third of the price" would be a CRAP headline...)... Yes and "have your cake and eat it" always bothered me too, how would it be a problem to HAVE your cake, then EAT it? Surely it should be "eat your cake and have it"? Eh well... |
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Anyway, yeah, I reckon it's a Eurogamer pun - it's supposed to be "cheap at twice the price"
Nope it's just yet another English phrase that doesn't make logical sense, I'm sure we invent things like this to confuse foreigners. This site tries to find a proper explanation for it and might just about have a reasonable one. I prefer Confuse-A-Continental... |
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"you can always install some internet sharing tool"
Still not exactly plug and play, and not all PC games work with internet sharing. Just ask anyone who's tried playing Dungeon Siege - a Microsoft game using DirectPlay - with a shared connection. IIRC that doesn't work at all with Win2k / XP. "surely that should be "Cheap at twice the price" - is this a Eurogamer pun" Cheap at half the price is an English saying which, as Otto and Whizzo pointed out, doesn't really make any sense. I always thought it was a northern thing and vaguely sarcastic, but I could be wrong. ;) |
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