Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[MerrickG]

BTW Jeff,

Have you finished Alan Wake yet? I must say that anyone who has a 360 really should give that game a try. Its creepy and keeps you wanting to play just to see what happens next. Its truly a Stephen King novel video game.

A lot of people are complaining about it being short, but thats only if you rush through it instead of try and experience it.

My real only gripe is that Alan Wake must have asthma because he runs out of energy way too soon. Another gripe is the pointless coffee collection. What purpose did that serve?

[Jeff Kleist]

I wasn't defending MS, just saying that they never hit these heights

Nevertheless, you have to give Apple props for convincing the world that they were the good guys and the underdog.

No, that's called being an unethical. How many movies have we watched were the generous philanthropist is actually a supervillain? Well in this case the philanthropist is a megalomanical brat who isn't a philanthropist, and his stranglehold on an entire industry because people buy his cutesy crippled products has prevented a lot of progress? Want to know where managed copy is? It sits in Steve Jobs' pissy little palm. Everyone knows it'll bomb without Apple DRM, and he won't play with the other children.

The greatest trick Steve Jobs ever pulled was convincing people that Gates is the bad one. And now he's going to be a victim of his own success. No one cares when you have 5% marketshare if you want to be a little dictator, but with 70%+ of digital media sales and 80%+ of portable media players, yeah, can't be ignored any more.

I personally can't wait to see the temper tantrum he throws when someone makes a nice thick sturdy iPod clone with a user replaceable battery and a MicroSD slot in it, stocked with legal Blu-ray managed copies and other material purchased from a non-iTunes retailer but using his DRM. I also can't wait to go to some of the parties around the entertainment industry in celebration

[Jeff Kleist]

Played the first 2 chapters, then I got Red Dead, which I beat and am mopping up on. Just under 90%

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I personally can't wait to see the temper tantrum he throws when someone makes a nice thick sturdy iPod clone with a user replaceable battery and a MicroSD slot in it, stocked with legal Blu-ray managed copies and other material purchased from a non-iTunes retailer but using his DRM. I also can't wait to go to some of the parties around the entertainment industry in celebration

Zune is actually a better product in many ways than the Ipod, but yet it hasnt had anywhere near that success.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Played the first 2 chapters, then I got Red Dead, which I beat and am mopping up on. Just under 90%

I plan on starting red dead, but i might start galaxy 2 first.

[J.Cornelius]

Jeff just saw on the Bits that Escape From NY is being released in the US in August, safe to assume this is the same transfer as the UK version currently available?

[MerrickG]

Hey Jeff,

Here is a gaming trivia question for you:

Why is May 22 1998 such an important date in the history of gaming?

What happened on this day that began something that so many games now use for their foundation?

[Jeff Kleist]

Unreal came out. Still wasn't a good game, but I like the stuff on its engine

And yes I'd guess so on Escape

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Unreal came out. Still wasn't a good game, but I like the stuff on its engine

And yes I'd guess so on Escape

Yes, the original Unreal came out and I very much beg to differ on it not being a good game. It is to this day one of my alltime favorite games. Back when it came out the graphics and atmosphere just absolutely sucked me in. I was one of the few people to have a good ole 3Dfx graphics card that gave the game all its visual flair. Not to mention the awesome soundtrack it had.

I played it not too long ago, using Unreal Tournament tech that gave it slightly less outdated graphics and I was still able to get into it like I did back in the day. Nostalgia can be very powerful at times.

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by J.Cornelius

Jeff just saw on the Bits that Escape From NY is being released in the US in August, safe to assume this is the same transfer as the UK version currently available?

I don't know about that (I certainly hope not at least). The UK disc is pretty terrible, and I've seen comparison pics from an HDTV broadcast version that blow it away. The disc was put out by Optimum in the UK, not MGM/Fox, so there isn't necessarily any correlation between the transfers the companies own - it's not like when a disc is put out by the same company in both the US and UK. With any luck, the master the US disc is based off is more closely related to the US HD broadcast version, than whatever master the UK one came from.

[Jeff Kleist]

Yeah, I played it on 3DFX

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Zune is actually a better product in many ways than the Ipod, but yet it hasnt had anywhere near that success.

The biggest issue with the Zune is that it isn't a "Plays for Sure" device so you can't put digital copies on the device. In order to place a movie on it you have to break the copyright (and the law). I ended up buying an iTouch in order to watch movies on airplanes without having to kill my laptop battery in the process. The funnies thing about this is I've had the iTouch since Christmas and I've watched all of one movie on it! I guess I should have bought a Zune after all.

[Jeff Kleist]

The biggest issue with the Zune is that it isn't a "Plays for Sure" device so you can't put digital copies on the device. In order to place a movie on it you have to break the copyright (and the law). I ended up buying an iTouch in order to watch movies on airplanes without having to kill my laptop battery in the process. The funnies thing about this is I've had the iTouch since Christmas and I've watched all of one movie on it! I guess I should have bought a Zune after all.

Still trying to figure out why it doesn't support their own internal DRM

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Still trying to figure out why it doesn't support their own internal DRM

According to Leo Laport (The Tech Guy) it's because Microsoft didn't communicate within its own company about how to handle DRM (right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing) and so they ended up having two different strategies that weren't compatible. I own an older Zune and like the software (especially on my Windows PC) and I almost returned the iTouch because it screwed up Win 7 64-bit making all my drives disappear! I eventually fixed that with a reinstall of Win 7 (gave me a reason to get a SSD drive). I do like the Touch though...it's a slick little machine.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by DenonCI

According to Leo Laport (The Tech Guy) it's because Microsoft didn't communicate within its own company about how to handle DRM (right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing) and so they ended up having two different strategies that weren't compatible. I own an older Zune and like the software (especially on my Windows PC) and I almost returned the iTouch because it screwed up Win 7 64-bit making all my drives disappear! I eventually fixed that with a reinstall of Win 7 (gave me a reason to get a SSD drive). I do like the Touch though...it's a slick little machine.

I wont ever criticize apples products, most of the time they are good. But I will criticize their prices. $849 for a 64GB Ipad. Seriously?!!

Ill tell you one area that if Apple were to have success, they would probably make the shareholders at MS just go absolutely batshit crazy and suicidal:

If Apple were to make its own game console and it were able to beat out the next gen xbox. I do wonder if Apple has ever considered entering that market.


Btw, that brings up a good question:
Has MS finally gotten the xbox to the point that its actually making money for the company?

If not, how much longer are the shareholders going to allow them to sink money into it, cuz I cant ever recall a quarter where they actually made a profit?

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by merrick97

I wont ever criticize apples products, most of the time they are good. But I will criticize their prices. $849 for a 64GB Ipad. Seriously?!!

Ill tell you one area that if Apple were to have success, they would probably make the shareholders at MS just go absolutely batshit crazy and suicidal:

If Apple were to make its own game console and it were able to beat out the next gen xbox. I do wonder if Apple has ever considered entering that market.


Btw, that brings up a good question:
Has MS finally gotten the xbox to the point that its actually making money for the company?

If not, how much longer are the shareholders going to allow them to sink money into it, cuz I cant ever recall a quarter where they actually made a profit?

Yes...for a couple of years now according to this site:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/24/th...urns-a-profit/

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/25/th...-profit-again/

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/acti...ml?sid=6237794

It looks like they are making a pretty good run of profits on the platform.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by DenonCI

Yes...for a couple of years now according to this site:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/24/th...urns-a-profit/

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/25/th...-profit-again/

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/acti...ml?sid=6237794

It looks like they are making a pretty good run of profits on the platform.

That always seems to happen whenever Halo is released.

Im just wondering if they are now at a point where they are making a steady profit out of it.

Of course, one could ask that about the PS3.

[Jeff Kleist]

I wont ever criticize apples products, most of the time they are good. But I will criticize their prices. $849 for a 64GB Ipad. Seriously?!!

with an almost $500 profit per unit. And no one tell me R&D, it's a big iPod touch. Apple, like all designer labels relies on style over substance and taking advantage of people with too much money. There have been times in the past, even today, that you could buy 3 PCs, part for part for the same price as a Mac desktop. The non remiveable battery thing is not because it can't be thin, nut because they're hoping you'll just buy a new one, and worse comes to worse they'll make $50 spending 10 minutes replacing a $5 battery. I do it for people all the time for $20-30 including parts and labor dependng in how much the batteries are right now and whether I need a new cracking tool.

The good news us that there's no way at this point that faced with having to licence and collect royalties that Jobs can stomp his foot and just pull the plug. He's going to be a victim of his own success, and the shareholders will benefit from billions in licensing and royalties, safe in the knowlege that there are still plenty if people willing to drop $100 for $8 worth of flash memory

[Jeff Kleist]

Im just wondering if they are now at a point where they are making a steady profit out of it.

They have been, for 2 years now. Xbox Live does mad bank and PS3 owners are still not buying software at nearly the rate on average that 360 people do. Especially when you gave a download title, 3 to one is typical. That's why so many PS3 versions are later

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by merrick97

If Apple were to make its own game console and it were able to beat out the next gen xbox. I do wonder if Apple has ever considered entering that market.

The Wii is basically an Apple-like game console.

Doesn't support HD, because who needs it?

Sold more on owning the "hot" item, then gathers dust due to limited functionality.

White.

Limited software selection, biggest "apps" are from first party.