Why is everyone saying the console is expensive ?? Why do people say its expensive at release ??
True, if you havent got £300 then its a lot of money, but I remember the Amigas and Atari ST's, they were £299 when I got my ST. The mega drive was about the same at launch, the PS1 was that price, so was the 1st Xbox and the PS2!!!!
With Inflation, todays consoles should realisticaly be £500, I'm just glad they are not. £299 of todays money is nothin compared to 17 years ago when I got my ST.
so true, but i think the lifecycles have shortend. maybe its just me but my amiga cost £450-£500, the upgraded memory and hardisc was more, the 1084s (cant belive i remember that lol) monitor was more still.
the amiga lasted for me in various states for over 7 years of constant usage where as the xbox in the uk at least because of delays only seemed to be around for 3.5 years in its full strengh and all of a sudden 360 came out. now i know time flys but arent we looking at 4 year life cycles for early adopters per console
also, headsets may not be free on the next models, the ones with the larger hardrives which will be needed next gen even more so than now and with the charge units, new second or third controller, and perhaps camera or fancy keyboard attachment end up costing £500 also. the base models are great VFM considering tech for £300 but as ive said there seems to be about 2.5-3years less life and a desire to charge for the ability to play last gen games that you have already bought !
regarding blueray on xbox 720 ?! its a matter of pride & money, sony will charge microsoft in some way to use the tech and i guess being a rival format and one that has garnered a temporary posistion in the next gen console war for ps3 by virtue of extra console sales for people into BD they wont use it.
i know it sounds mad but MS are all for HD rentals and downloads at 720p/1080p
id wager HD-DVD will be MS`s choice, multilayer with same storage as BD but being an updated spec it may have a faster speed and the ability to play any new formats a BD player cannot. coupled with an almost mandatory need to copy most of the game to a massive HD and download otherbits online also.
there is no need to go BD for MS, the money they save by saving HD-DVD i.e buying the whole tech cheap will allow for once again a more dedicated games machine with more power (and more noise/heat/reliablity issues)
i.e same old same, MS big power, Sony quirky class home hub, nintendo will probably keep the wii 1 and add an expansion unit for better GFX so as not alienate the market they went for, i.e people who dont care about GFX or BD just fun family party games with the option to have better gfx on the same game disc written in by the manufacturers
well thats my imo