Xbox and the future of games distribution
Read on the Inquirer that the new Xbox may feature downloadable games from day 1. I was thinking therefore how they could achieve a total removal of shops from the sales process - other than for the console itself. Valve with Steam have demonstrated that the principle of fully online distributed games can work - albeit a little shakily for the first few months. The Valve boys were also ex-microsoft, which makes me wonder if they are still friendly enough to be consulted/sell MS the tech.
No that MS couldn't do it itself of course. Windows Update has shown they know how to distribute large quantities of data to huge numbers of people from a (vaguely) centralized point, without much fuss.
The Inq suggests in the article that the XBox 2 is going to download demos only, so maybe this is premptive, but I am sure they will want to do either games. Copy protect can become stronger as the games will all be registered at the central source, even only sending important bits of code down the wire on demand later on if reliability of the network permits.
And game service updates will become the norm. Already there are rumblings about the complexity of game development. I suspect console games may well get a little buggier when updates can easily be achieved - after all PC games have gone that way. The more complexity is added to the system, the more its likely to need fixing after release. Doubly so if its easy I reckon.
One big hole I see in all this talk is the harddrive on the XBox either needs to be huge, or it will need a DVD burner in it. Otherwise your content will have to be downloaded on-demand from MS. Putting a DVD burner in it may be a good option for the first time. Normally the idea of putting something that could be used to pirate things in a console would be a receipe for disaster, but assuming the above model was used, it could be a shrewd move. In addition to writing out games content (*not* playable on anything else), it could be used to burn video DVDs of TV.
I expect this may be an optional upgrade, as the cheapest version could merely redownload your bought games when the HD runs out of space. The interface to all this tech is going to be the killer: can MS make it friendly enough for pissed up bloke from the pub to use? The Xbox is pretty good, but it follows the existing PS model - switch on and insert DVD. As soon as you try to manage save games etc the interface starts to become a lot more clunky. This may be the idea's Achillies Heel.
What of the PS3? I wonder if MS isn't moving the goal posts faster than Sony can keep up. Introducing an interesting sounding new chip was the PS2's claim to fame. The PS3 has merely repeated that model from what I can see. Until Sony gets clarity on its personality crisis - are we content or hardware, its lining up for a fall. Sony's version of XBox Live is weak, the PS2 hard to develop for and its platform is inferior. The PS3 has quite a bit to put right to keep its title as the preferred platform for the living room.
No that MS couldn't do it itself of course. Windows Update has shown they know how to distribute large quantities of data to huge numbers of people from a (vaguely) centralized point, without much fuss.
The Inq suggests in the article that the XBox 2 is going to download demos only, so maybe this is premptive, but I am sure they will want to do either games. Copy protect can become stronger as the games will all be registered at the central source, even only sending important bits of code down the wire on demand later on if reliability of the network permits.
And game service updates will become the norm. Already there are rumblings about the complexity of game development. I suspect console games may well get a little buggier when updates can easily be achieved - after all PC games have gone that way. The more complexity is added to the system, the more its likely to need fixing after release. Doubly so if its easy I reckon.
One big hole I see in all this talk is the harddrive on the XBox either needs to be huge, or it will need a DVD burner in it. Otherwise your content will have to be downloaded on-demand from MS. Putting a DVD burner in it may be a good option for the first time. Normally the idea of putting something that could be used to pirate things in a console would be a receipe for disaster, but assuming the above model was used, it could be a shrewd move. In addition to writing out games content (*not* playable on anything else), it could be used to burn video DVDs of TV.
I expect this may be an optional upgrade, as the cheapest version could merely redownload your bought games when the HD runs out of space. The interface to all this tech is going to be the killer: can MS make it friendly enough for pissed up bloke from the pub to use? The Xbox is pretty good, but it follows the existing PS model - switch on and insert DVD. As soon as you try to manage save games etc the interface starts to become a lot more clunky. This may be the idea's Achillies Heel.
What of the PS3? I wonder if MS isn't moving the goal posts faster than Sony can keep up. Introducing an interesting sounding new chip was the PS2's claim to fame. The PS3 has merely repeated that model from what I can see. Until Sony gets clarity on its personality crisis - are we content or hardware, its lining up for a fall. Sony's version of XBox Live is weak, the PS2 hard to develop for and its platform is inferior. The PS3 has quite a bit to put right to keep its title as the preferred platform for the living room.
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