old_skool • Comments

  • This is how Xbox One game trade-ins will work, apparently

  • old_skool 24/05/2013

    Next up, Kinect will scan who plays the game to make sure it's one user per game to cut out the sneaky bastards sharing the same account. Reply +6

  • Spec Analysis: Xbox One

  • old_skool 22/05/2013

    Microsoft confirmed that external hardrives are supported onEngadget
    Hard drives in the Xbox One are non-user-serviceable, but Penello confirmed that the USB 3.0 port is there for external storage, which can be used for everything the internal storage can be used for. That includes game installs and downloads.
     Reply +1

  • old_skool 22/05/2013

    BUT BUT...What if I have a cold, will it still recognize me??? Reply +7

  • Hands-on with Xbox One

  • old_skool 22/05/2013

    Microsoft confirmed that external hardrives are supported on [link url=http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/xbox-one-hard-drive/Engadget[/link]
    Hard drives in the Xbox One are non-user-serviceable, but Penello confirmed that the USB 3.0 port is there for external storage, which can be used for everything the internal storage can be used for. That includes game installs and downloads.
     Reply 0

  • old_skool 22/05/2013

    Not to rain on the Skype parade or Kinect tech but I wouldn't trust Microsoft (or any other corporation) with regards to privacy. Ars Technica has already proven that Microsoft logs every single Skype chat and with the potential to have 24/7 surveillance in my home that just creeps me out. People should be aware of the dangers as there's a huge potential for abuse. Reply +26

  • Tomb Raider has sold 3.4 million copies, failed to hit expectations

  • old_skool 26/03/2013

    I think the unrealistic sales projections have alot to do with the situation SquareEnix finds itself in. They needed to make up the numbers to go in the black and of course the blockbuster titles just had to hit those numbers for that to happen. Now they find themselves making a loss and alot of analysis will be done. At the end of it all they will be forced to scale back operations and cut staff.

    Why SquareEnix finds itself in this situation is open to debate, there might be multiple reasons. As someone that does project management in IT I can say that labour costs most of the time account for the biggest portion of costs. If you look at the credits of a AAA game the amount of people involved is simply staggering. Fundamentally with the rising cost of labour it will become unsustainable. They will be forced to become more efficient by either cutting staff, streamlining their business processes, relook at how they make games, cut down on development time (which I honestly think is their archilles heel), maybe outsourcing certain tasks. Either that or increase the amount of games they produce but that in itself might be problematic because the console market might not sustain many AAAs or increase game prices and risk pricing themselves out of the market. It doesnt look good.     Reply +2

  • old_skool 26/03/2013

    I think some executive has been over estimating the sales projections. This happens quite often in many companies i.e. upper management making impossible sales figures, impossible timelines, impossibly low budgets. They then base their potential revenue for the year on this unrealistic projection of sales so that they can reach their target of x-billion dollars/euros and prop up the share price. The fallout of this lower sales is of course that they have to report lower profits which hits the share price. And to think of it they could have avoided this rollercoaster effect if they had more realistic expectations. Reply +17

  • Tech Analysis: Killzone: Shadow Fall demo

  • old_skool 25/02/2013

    With the reveal of Killzone: Shadow Fall we have our first glimpse at real-time next-generation gameplay, giving us some idea of what to expect from a technical perspective from Sony's brand new hardware.
    OK, all of this is completely just wrong, this above quote complete with the rest of the article. The game is designed on a developer machine that most likely doesn't have the specs announced last week. The launch is +9 months away and the game code is not even optimised!!! FFS the devs didn't even know the machine will be spec with 8GB of GDDR5, which IMO was only a reaction from Sony when they heard Durango was shipping with 8GB of GDDR3.

    I think this is just wrong to analyse and be critical of something not yet in existence. DF, best wait a few months when the games launch to have a tech analysis.     Reply +3

  • Sony buying Gaikai: "It's certainly a move for PlayStation 4"

  • old_skool 03/07/2012

    With Gaikai, they could stream to ANYTHING that has an Internet connection and a screen, i.e. pc, console, tv, tablet, phone. I still think the tech is ahead of its time though... Reply 0

  • The Rise and Collapse of Yoshinori Ono

  • old_skool 11/06/2012

    You could say my health bar was on the dot

    Classic comment, just what else can you expect a die hard Street Fighter fan to say     Reply +2

  • Battlefield 3 Review

  • old_skool 25/10/2011

    Can anyone confirm if this game has playstation move support? Reply -2

  • Saturday Soapbox: Pay Up or Shut Up

  • old_skool 13/08/2011

    And the new trick they do is to withhold the PC release by a month to make sure they can get maximum return on consoles.

    Just google "PC release delayed"     Reply +13

  • old_skool 13/08/2011

    EXCUSE ME, but Quake came out in 1996 Id Software didn't deem it that we should pay for online play. And guess what, they're still around!

    Games prices stayed the same as the 1990's cause the flippin cartridge was so expensive, when the format changed to CDROM that offset the cost of development. There are more developers now, there are more games to play, and the market is much bigger, the cost should in theory have BECOME MUCH LESS today due to those factors.

    Publishers are becoming more and more greedy as they seek to maximize profit not in as much the cost of development but due to MORE COMPETITION amongst themselves. There a self imposed limit amongst publishers that they won't sell a new game on release (doesn't matter how crap it is) for less that 40 pounds, somebody might just faintly whisper cartel.

    Activision is the worst of the lot. Starcraft sold 10 million copies and yet they had the audacity to take lan multiplayer out of starcraft 2. And you know why? Because they want to control the way you play and the way you pay. They basically killed Guitar Hero brand with all those yearly updates , DLC just wasn't enough. Activision made Q2 Net revenues of 1.1 billion dollars, but nooo they will tell you that they need to charge because of x y z.

    [link url=http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=596540
    ]http://investor.activision.com/releasede...[/link]

    The fact is Publishers are out to make money, and the more they can make the better. And if they can sell you some horse armour or make you pay for extra items/online play/microransactions they sure as hell will.


     Reply +29

  • Kinect "most accurate" analogue input

  • old_skool 25/07/2011

    I'd like to have some of that stuff they're smoking at Microsoft, some of the comments have been so unbelievable no sane person would make them. Reply +2

  • Microsoft: give NUads a chance

  • old_skool 24/06/2011

    FAT CHANCE IN HELL Reply +11

  • Sony dismisses mobile threat to Vita

  • old_skool 24/06/2011

    I just step off a hour and a half flight, god bless my PSP, I would go crazy with just Angry Birds to keep me busy Reply +2

  • Live Microsoft E3 Xbox conference

  • old_skool 06/06/2011

    I think I'm gonna throw up Reply 0

  • Sony asks PSP devs for download titles

  • old_skool 29/01/2011

    I was a bit worried what would happen to my PSP game downloads once the PSP went the way of the dodo, but this really is great news as another piece of hardware can now play them. Reply +2

  • NGP "unlikely to hit the mass market"

  • old_skool 27/01/2011

    OK, wait just a sec, let us scrutinize their analyses objectively.

    "While clearly differentiated from the more casual games that have made the iPhone a phenomenal success as a video game platform, it remains unclear whether there is mass market potential for high-end portable games. We note that Sony’s PSP did not meet initial sales expectations despite offering the highest quality graphics on a portable device at that time."

    What was the initial sales expectations? They don't specify it, but we can say that 64 million for a dedicated gaming device and being Sony's first entry into the portable gamin market, a market that couldn't be cracked by the NEO GEO Pocket, Wonderswann and Sega Gamegear, can be classed as a failure? I think not.

    "However, we suspect Sony's NGP will face considerable market competition from smartphones, tablets and Nintendo's 3D's gaming handheld"Hickey told us. "We believe Sony's PSP and PSP Go failed to resonate with today's mobile gamers; and view the NGP as an evolution not a revolution from the aforementioned. The mobile gaming market moved aggressively away from Sony's interpretation of a mobile game experience, and it's not clear to us that the NGP is mapping to that new market."

    The device clearly targets the core gamer. That's why they have Xperia Play and the rest of the Playstation Suite to tackle the casual market.

    "I suppose it will sell incredibly well for the first year (would bet 15 million or so), and then it will succeed or slow based upon the availability of software, much like the original PSP. I think it's a huge step up on the PSP, and think that the memory card-based games (a la DS) make a lot of sense."

    The above comment from Michael Pachter probably makes the most logical assessment, after the first year it will fail or succeed based on software availability. Taking into account comments from developers that had access to the NGP it would seem that developing games would be much easier, so that already removes a huge barrier and bodes well for software availability.     Reply +2

  • old_skool 27/01/2011

    64 million is considered a failure, good grief Reply +20

  • old_skool 27/01/2011

    Yes, and my crystal ball says it's now snowing on jupiter Reply +4

  • Digital Foundry Sony NGP analysis

  • old_skool 27/01/2011

    This is a brilliant move from Sony. In Rob Fahey's previous blog I said that the PSP2 aka NGP can happily co-exist with Xperia Play. But the brilliance is:
    1)They cover both extremesof the market, the quick bite sized gaming for casuals and the deeper longer gaming for the hardcore
    2)that (from what I can gather) is that games made for the android phones can happily play on the NGP
    3)Playstation Suite gives them access to hundreds of millions of android phones and tablets instantly
    4)Game accessories can be sold for other android devices enhancing the experience and filling Sony's and 3rd parties pockets
    ---but i think this is the really brilliant part and if this isn't Sony's plan then they should consider it---
    5) It uses ARM, eventually mobile phones and tablets will eventually use the same chips, and if NGP is really using android it makes it possible for those future phones to play todays games

    I really see a winner here.
     Reply +2

  • Second Coming

  • old_skool 15/01/2011

    I think the Xperia Play and PSP2 are catering to two very different market segments and can happily co-exist. The IPhone has virtually created a market for small, cheap , quick byte sized gaming and the Xperia Play will address this market. The PSP2 is geared at a more deeper and longer gaming experience, believe it or not there is still alot of devs and publishers that want to cater for that market because there's still an audience.

    I don't think this two devices is an indication of divisions within Sony because of the above reasons.     Reply +7

  • Digital Foundry vs. HDMI video

  • old_skool 08/01/2011

    @lockload

    I'm not sure what the max cable length is for HDMI but I have a ten metre cable connected between my TV and PS3 and it works fine, and it's a cheap cable     Reply +6

  • old_skool 08/01/2011

    Thanks DF, nice to know the facts from the marketing nonsense. Reply +30