No key/mouse, no sale.

The interesting thing is that the XBOX360 is supposed to have USB 2.0 ports. I believe they are standard pinout too since I believe Microsoft has a controller coming out which is cross-compatible with the PC. The real key though will be if there are any keyboard and mouse drivers.

With XBOX Live now prominently integrated into XBOX360, I can't believe that Microsoft would expect users to type all those message they are supposed to send to one another using XBOX Live with a gamepad.

This comment was edited on May 24, 23:00.

Consoles, are schwag!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=schwag&r=d

Same here. No key/mouse, no sale.

The big question. Can I get a keyboard and mouse setup for the X-BOX 360. Please MS make it so. There is no way in hell Im using a joystick. If the x-box 360 is really aimed at being a hardcore gaming console, then I want my keyboard and mouse support.


And regarding PC games not being popular. Are you kidding me? Any enthusiast hardcore gamer especially those that play against others online are PC gamers. Multiplay is a whole new arena for the console market. Its only recently that they've caught on as broadband becomes more common. Consoles always focused on watered down, 5 button control single player games. The new consoles aim to change that and they'll be treading into PC gaming territory. If your a true enthusiast, PC gaming is where its at for now.

Yes PC games dont sell in the numbers like consoles because again, PC gaming is for enthusiasts. Telling me PC games arent populkar or very good compared to consoles is analagous to someone telling me AOL is the best internet provider. MS knows we hardcore players are PC gamers, and thats why the X-box is such a beefy machine. They want to try and not only attract joe casual gamer, but the rest of us as well.

SO DAMNIT MS, PROVIDE MOUSE AND KEYBOARD SUPPORT FOR GAMES ON THE X-BOX 360.

This comment was edited on May 24, 21:37.

Your definition of popular is different than mine. Different than reality, I mean. Console games have always sold more than PC. They're not even comparable. What happens is when games such as Diablo and Warcraft do really wll (when PC games are concernded), they figure venturing into consoles is where the big money is. Today the console and PC is considered the same by companies, and that's a big mistake.
Deus Ex, even though it's a great PC game, was still considered a flop. At the time it didn't sell all that well. Look what happened to Ion Storm after they jumped onto the console bandwagon with other PC devs.

The 80's and 90's are like yesterday to me. Hardly anybody paid attention to the PC then. Everything was about NES or SNES while I screwed around with Crystal Caves, Wasteland, and Commander Keen, titles nobody heard of. In the schoolyard few knew what was available. Doom in the early 90's is what sparked the PC craze.

PC gaming has always been a small percentage and always will be. What we think is popular differs from the rest of the world.

This comment was edited on May 24, 21:17.

"PC gaming never was all that popular."

Pass that crackpipe...I think you missed the 80's and nineties

"It peaked with Doom, and again with Starcraft then Counter Strike."

Dude, you are missing a hell of a lot of top selling titles. Frankly, you could list a load of topselling titles here and no matter how exhaustive you were, you'd be bound to miss a few. Diablo, Wing Commander, the Larry's/King's Quest's etc, Warcraft, HL, Deus Ex etc etc etc. The PC has made millions for gamedevs, and still does.


"Few PC games made a real dent in the industry by having sales numbers comparable with console titles."

/sarcasm: few console titles do, either.

"And when that rare developer comes along and gets big, they go out of business real quick."

That's the games biz for you. This applies to PC/consoles, hell, even hardware. Look at Sega.

"I don't think Valve will make it much further, seeing how banking on their Source license has been a big joke."

Engines are a nice secondary income (or primary if your entire business plan is set up for it, as EPIC's is), but Valve has made millions from HL2. Licensing their Steam system will net them more; you know this is gonna happen, too, even if at first just for mods which go commercial.

Personally I do agree with the conclusion: consoles are heading for a bust...but not before the PC gets into a mayor slums first. The PC is being ignored...but publishers will live to regret that, as the PC is /the/ platform on which all the console games are being develloped, where the modders eran their wings and the platform which all households have access to (for word processing/spreadsheets and internet). It's there, and to ignore it is to ignore that much touted 'casual gamer' market. Consoles are by definition not 'casual'.

So, yeah, publishers will ignore PC gaming for a bit (look at what happened with Halo)...but because of the size of the potential market, it can't be ignored. Appart from that, many games can only be played correctly with a keyboard/mouse/joystick/steeringwheel. Until consoles ship with those out of the box, those games will stay on the PC.

Oh, and as for Gears of war...the trailer looked nice (as they always do), but I couldn't find an actual gameplay video. From what I've seen so far, there isn't much innovation going on...just standard run/gun action with a cliche story tacked on. I'm much more excited about Spore

This comment was edited on May 24, 20:59.

Oh i'm sure it was. I just thought that guy was kinda funny. He kept interrupting discussions with the guy next to me to 'soothe my worries' i guess you could say.

even if there was significant tearing and chuggy framerates in some spots.

EA said the same thing so there must be some truth to it.

That is not true. EA was using prototype XBOX360 hardware for its private demos.

And i'm not sure if it counts, but ATI was using an XBox 360 prototype for its high-definition demo. Which was pretty spectacular when they froze and panned around the scene and characters, even if there was significant tearing and chuggy framerates in some spots. The dude running the demo said it was because of prototype hardware, though. I seriously think they just had that guy standing there to say that if anyone complained about it.

It's a shame GoW is a 3rd person game

Actually, the game is better described as a 2nd-person shooter (CliffyB's term not mine) because the view is focused so tightly on the character. The camera is almost in a first-person perspective when firing.

if anything we should be worrying more about the PC

That is a real concern. According to the ESA, PC game revenue as a percentage of the overall market FELL 9% last year. I see that trend accelerating now that all three next-gen consoles prominently feature online play, multimedia integration, high-resolution displays (HDTV), and other features which have been the primary domain of PC's and PC games.

This comment was edited on May 25, 20:45.

What if the next gen consoles flop, which is a good possibility.

LOL! That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I personally hate consoles, but after seeing the next-gen games, I know that the video game consumer will not be able to resist them.

Every one of the Xbox 360 games on E3 was demoed on the PC through dev kit.

That is not true. EA was using prototype XBOX360 hardware for its private demos.

PC gaming never was all that popular. But it depends on your definition of what's popular. It peaked with Doom, and again with Starcraft then Counter Strike. That's what immediately comes to mind with the average gamer. They miss out on so many great things. Few PC games made a real dent in the industry by having sales numbers comparable with console titles. And when that rare developer comes along and gets big, they go out of business real quick. That's where we are now. All the former top PC devs are going out of business or struggling to survive by switching to console. It seems id, Blizzard, and Valve are the only ones to make it this far. I don't think Valve will make it much further, seeing how banking on their Source license has been a big joke.

Things are happening now, but the masses haven't begun to notice it yet. After a couple major companies (EA is at the top my my list) take a nose dive in the following years people will open their eyes slightly.

I'm a PC gamer at heart. Always have been. When it wasn't so popular that's when the really good stuff came out. The present sucks, and will get worse for a couple years, but it'll get better. The cure is gonna be pretty damn painful, though.

Well another selling point for the 360 is that xbox 1 games that do run on 360 are going to have to be recompiled.... and Halo 2 looks to be a shoe in for this proceedure. Question is.... how much better it will look on the 360 after being recompiled. Or any other 'top selling Xbox game' that is being setup to run on the 360.

It's a shame GoW is a 3rd person game then aye

It's a shame indeed. *shrugs* But I also remember a little third-person game that was in development years ago called "Halo". Only time will tell.

Everyone thought the Dreamcast was going to be king shit of the consoles, and look where Sega is now. The most likely situation of the nextgen is Xbox360 will rule the North American market, do ok worldwide; and the PS3 will dominate the Asian market. In the end Microsoft will come on top simply because they aren't lying about everything *cough*Sony*cough*. The Revolution will be the last console by Nintendo and they'll focus entirely on handheld. They're going to follow Sega in their footsteps.

After that, gamers will grow up, tire of the same old shit, and nobody will take their place to buy the tremendous amount of garbage sitting on shelves. By 2009 (at the latest) the industry will scale back significantly. Games will be far too expensive to make, third party developers practically nonexistent outside the PC indie companies, and things will go back to what I consider normal. Handhelds, maybe one dominant console, and PC gaming is our future. Hey, it happened twice before.

That's interesting, because as i remember it, just about everyone in the industry wondered whether the Dreamcast was going to fail or not after the Saturn didn't do so well. The near-elimination of indie/3rd party developers with massive production costs is also just happening now. Never before have giant publishers like EA dominated such large shares of the industry, let alone bought out entire franchises like the NFL to solidify their market strangleholds. The PS1 was a massive success, the PS2 is a massive success, the XBox would be a massive success if Microsoft was actually profiting from it --- what does that tell you about the future? The Revolution is most likely doomed to fail, yes, because the GC is Nintendo's 'Saturn' as it were, but to think that the other two giants are going to give up the ghost anytime soon is a pretty hard sell. In their entire history, consoles in general have only gotten more popular, because they appeal to more of the population, whereas PC gaming is actually starting to become less popular.

It was good to put that little disclaimer that it was what you consider normal, because honestly, it feels like bizzarro world to me.

(the ONLY way FPS should be played, IMNSHO)

It's a shame GoW is a 3rd person game then aye

jaspos
The Great

Heh, if anything we should be worrying more about the PC than about how well the nextgen consoles will do. Less and less publishers are picking up single-platform PC titles these days, and PC game sales have significantly dropped in the last year or so. Admittedly there hasn't been a whole lot of stellar games coming out, and some analysts attribute the lower sales to increased MMORPG subscriptions -- but either way, it hasn't boded well for the rest of the non-MMO games. Not to mention all the MMO's that seem to be going under.

To me, what hurts the most is the fact that many developers are almost forced into making their games multi-platform, and often dumbing them down for the mass console market as a result. There are only a few multi-platform games that i've really enjoyed. KotoR was one of them... and actually, i can't even think of any others off the top of my head right now. Sigh. I hope it's a trend that doesn't continue.

I have very similar thoughts on this subject. I played an MMORPG steady for about the last 9 months and during that time I rarely played anything else. (Doom3, Half-Life 2) But I only started playing it because nothing else interested me. Looking back I don't think I missed much... I bought Half-Life 2 and played that for about a week. Then back to my MMORPG. Doom3 was 4 days I think.

Everyone thought the Dreamcast was going to be king shit of the consoles, and look where Sega is now. The most likely situation of the nextgen is Xbox360 will rule the North American market, do ok worldwide; and the PS3 will dominate the Asian market. In the end Microsoft will come on top simply because they aren't lying about everything *cough*Sony*cough*. The Revolution will be the last console by Nintendo and they'll focus entirely on handheld. They're going to follow Sega in their footsteps.

After that, gamers will grow up, tire of the same old shit, and nobody will take their place to buy the tremendous amount of garbage sitting on shelves. By 2009 (at the latest) the industry will scale back significantly. Games will be far too expensive to make, third party developers practically nonexistent outside the PC indie companies, and things will go back to what I consider normal. Handhelds, maybe one dominant console, and PC gaming is our future. Hey, it happened twice before.