Episode 5, is now live. Feedback?

[Kamshaft]

Give us some feedback!

[Variation-XBA]

0/10 for not having Variation be the star or even invited!

Ok... 2/10 for mentioning me.....twice

[Justin Bailey]

enjoyed the podcast, however I disagree with your assesment of the Halo Reach 360 console not being a good value at $400. If you take into consideration that the slims are 300 now, for $100 more you get Halo Reach ($60) and 2 wireless controllers ($50 a piece) so really its a pretty good deal if you're in the market for these items.

Also, this is the 3rd Summer of Arcade, so its actually been around longer than half the 360's lifespan. Microsoft obviously does this as it helps bring attention to these games during what is generally considered a "drought" for retail new releases.

Onto the next xbox that you guys touched on, MS themselves have said that the are basically launching a new system with Kinect that will extend the lifespan of the 360. I can almost guarentee that MS won't have a new console by 2012 either. They are spending way too much money trying to launch the Kinect as a new platform.

Both Sony and MS have both made statements saying that this generation will easily last the longest and not to expect new consoles till 2014-2015 possibly.This is mainly because neither has hit that mass market penetration that the PS2, Wii, NDS have achieved. The Wii has shown that graphics =/= sales anymore, which is exactly why both MS and Sony are now playing catch up with Nintendo by releasing motion controlled gaming. They are hungry for that market and plan on using the new slim combined with kinect to essentially rebrand the system to the "casuals".

[Variation-XBA]

enjoyed the podcast, however I disagree with your assesment of the Halo Reach 360 console not being a good value at $400. If you take into consideration that the slims are 300 now, for $100 more you get Halo Reach ($60) and 2 wireless controllers ($50 a piece) so really its a pretty good deal if you're in the market for these items.

Also, this is the 3rd Summer of Arcade, so its actually been around longer than half the 360's lifespan. Microsoft obviously does this as it helps bring attention to these games during what is generally considered a "drought" for retail new releases.

Onto the next xbox that you guys touched on, MS themselves have said that the are basically launching a new system with Kinect that will extend the lifespan of the 360. I can almost guarentee that MS won't have a new console by 2012 either. They are spending way too much money trying to launch the Kinect as a new platform.

Both Sony and MS have both made statements saying that this generation will easily last the longest and not to expect new consoles till 2014-2015 possibly.This is mainly because neither has hit that mass market penetration that the PS2, Wii, NDS have achieved. The Wii has shown that graphics =/= sales anymore, which is exactly why both MS and Sony are now playing catch up with Nintendo by releasing motion controlled gaming. They are hungry for that market and plan on using the new slim combined with kinect to essentially rebrand the system to the "casuals".

So basically what you are saying is.....you were sad I wasn't on the podcast right? I woulda put them in their place

[Justin Bailey]

Oh and another thought, I agree that I want devs of MMO's to bring these to the consoles, but it appears that MS is the culprit in many cases. MMO's make their money by monthly fees or micro-transactions and they don't want MS to charge the 50$ on top of thier fees.

MS also has to review all updates and that takes TIME as we all know and updates are very important to MMOs and many times on a time sensitive basis (spring festivals for example). On PC's they update on the fly when they are ready, so this also creates a barrier between console version and PC version.

Final Fantasy is the only true MMO to bypass this feature and I truly believe it was only due to MS being desperate for a popular japanese title to appear on the system. Many MMo's have been announced for the 360 but fail to ever see the light of day ala Age of Conan, Huxley, Champions Online, APB.

Then you have the final barrier (and most important IMO) not having a keyboard and mouse REALLY limits the experience and playability of any good MMO (World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online etc) This is obviously the easiest to fix, but so far MS hasn't announced anything regarding mouse support. Keyboard is supported but I believe only for chat. (I've not played FF11, but I've read that it only works for chat in that game as well perhaps someone who knows will chime in)

[Alx1138]

Oh and another thought, I agree that I want devs of MMO's to bring these to the consoles, but it appears that MS is the culprit in many cases. MMO's make their money by monthly fees or micro-transactions and they don't want MS to charge the 50$ on top of thier fees.

MS also has to review all updates and that takes TIME as we all know and updates are very important to MMOs and many times on a time sensitive basis (spring festivals for example). On PC's they update on the fly when they are ready, so this also creates a barrier between console version and PC version.

Final Fantasy is the only true MMO to bypass this feature and I truly believe it was only due to MS being desperate for a popular japanese title to appear on the system. Many MMo's have been announced for the 360 but fail to ever see the light of day ala Age of Conan, Huxley, Champions Online, APB.

Then you have the final barrier (and most important IMO) not having a keyboard and mouse REALLY limits the experience and playability of any good MMO (World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online etc) This is obviously the easiest to fix, but so far MS hasn't announced anything regarding mouse support. Keyboard is supported but I believe only for chat. (I've not played FF11, but I've read that it only works for chat in that game as well perhaps someone who knows will chime in)

okay...okay....we'll make sure that Variation is back on the next podcast...

Wow your fans are hardcore Var....

thanks very much for the insight justin.....glad to see it sparking some conversation

[Ainokeatoo]

Final Fantasy is the only true MMO to bypass this feature and I truly believe it was only due to MS being desperate for a popular japanese title to appear on the system. Many MMo's have been announced for the 360 but fail to ever see the light of day ala Age of Conan, Huxley, Champions Online, APB.

Then you have the final barrier (and most important IMO) not having a keyboard and mouse REALLY limits the experience and playability of any good MMO (World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online etc) This is obviously the easiest to fix, but so far MS hasn't announced anything regarding mouse support. Keyboard is supported but I believe only for chat. (I've not played FF11, but I've read that it only works for chat in that game as well perhaps someone who knows will chime in)

Don't forget PSU, granted the game wasn't a persistent world, it was Massively Multiplayer. Also, to be honest, AoC and CO both failed miserably, CO was a CoH and CoV clone and not a very popular/good one at that. AoC just failed to grab enough people interested in it's game. Huxley Dev's are just failing left and right, and I don't think the 360 could handle APB (just a thought not entirely sure).

Keyboard only works for chat in FF11, but to be very frank, FF11 wasn't that great of an MMO to begin with. But you won't find many MMO companies scrambling for the consoles ANY time soon. Companies that produce actual P2P games, and are popular at the same time, are either Sony, or they're making good money with PC users to the point where there is really no real need to shift to PC AND Consoles. Blizzard for instance.

SE is making it's MMO for the PS3 and the PC because of Sony, and DC Universe is coming out for the PS3, well, because of Sony. So it seems the only MMO companies that would be able to do this, don't seem really interested in actually doing it, the only ones actually doing it is Sony, and the rest are F2P MMO's with small companies that make their money off of in game Cash shops. Do I see any real MMO's coming out that aren't specifically for PS3 or are from Sony? Not for a while no.

[Justin Bailey]

okay...okay....we'll make sure that Variation is back on the next podcast...

Wow your fans are hardcore Var....

thanks very much for the insight justin.....glad to see it sparking some conversation

well that's what we're all here for, right? As far as being a fan of Variation, I can't say I fall into that category. I'm a fan of myself

[Justin Bailey]

Don't forget PSU, granted the game wasn't a persistent world, it was Massively Multiplayer. Also, to be honest, AoC and CO both failed miserably, CO was a CoH and CoV clone and not a very popular/good one at that. AoC just failed to grab enough people interested in it's game. Huxley Dev's are just failing left and right, and I don't think the 360 could handle APB (just a thought not entirely sure).

Keyboard only works for chat in FF11, but to be very frank, FF11 wasn't that great of an MMO to begin with. But you won't find many MMO companies scrambling for the consoles ANY time soon. Companies that produce actual P2P games, and are popular at the same time, are either Sony, or they're making good money with PC users to the point where there is really no real need to shift to PC AND Consoles. Blizzard for instance.

SE is making it's MMO for the PS3 and the PC because of Sony, and DC Universe is coming out for the PS3, well, because of Sony. So it seems the only MMO companies that would be able to do this, don't seem really interested in actually doing it, the only ones actually doing it is Sony, and the rest are F2P MMO's with small companies that make their money off of in game Cash shops. Do I see any real MMO's coming out that aren't specifically for PS3 or are from Sony? Not for a while no.

PSU was NOT massively multiplayer. only 4 people could play together at once and the levels are extremely small.

As far as all those MMO's, I agree that we aren't missing much with some of them (huxley, age of conan) however they were at one point announced as being worked on for the 360, but later cancelled. At this point I would say that MMOs won't be happening anytime soon on the 360 unless MS has a huge change in philosophy (ala Sony allowing steam on PS3)

[Variation-XBA]

As far as being a fan of Variation, I can't say I fall into that category.

...... you made THE LIST!

[Justin Bailey]

...... you made THE LIST!

[Ainokeatoo]

PSU was NOT massively multiplayer. only 4 people could play together at once and the levels are extremely small.

As far as all those MMO's, I agree that we aren't missing much with some of them (huxley, age of conan) however they were at one point announced as being worked on for the 360, but later cancelled. At this point I would say that MMOs won't be happening anytime soon on the 360 unless MS has a huge change in philosophy (ala Sony allowing steam on PS3)

PSU was an Instanced Lobby Based MMORPG, quite a few F2P MMO's do the same thing PSU did, but more in depth with lobby areas. It isn't a persistent world though.

Yes they were, but Huxley (lol which is STILL in production, I had so many hopes for this game.) is still in development for the 360, it hasn't been canceled yet, which is in all honesty, very surprising. AoC I don't know where that went wrong but. But yes, there won't be any real MMO's on the microsoft console, for years or until large independent companies like Blizzard, decide to take the risk.

[Justin Bailey]

PSU was an Instanced Lobby Based MMORPG, quite a few F2P MMO's do the same thing PSU did, but more in depth with lobby areas. It isn't a persistent world though.

Yes they were, but Huxley (lol which is STILL in production, I had so many hopes for this game.) is still in development for the 360, it hasn't been canceled yet, which is in all honesty, very surprising. AoC I don't know where that went wrong but. But yes, there won't be any real MMO's on the microsoft console, for years or until large independent companies like Blizzard, decide to take the risk.

yes I've played PSU, however I would still classify it as an instanced online action-RPG and not a true MMO by any stretch. Still though, you'd think by the fact that they charge 9.99$ a month still, its amazing that game has a community still playing (and paying)

In the case of Huxley, its still in development for PC, however the x360 version is on "indefinite hold", which is basically code for "its not happening" lol.

In the case of Blizzard, they have NO interest in doing WOW on consoles. They already have a large fanbase and complete control of the servers and content. Trying to port the game to the 360 serves them no purpose and would ultimately waste time that they could use towards new content for WOW or most importantly......... FINISH UP Diablo 3!!!!!

[Ainokeatoo]

In the case of Blizzard, they have NO interest in doing WOW on consoles. They already have a large fanbase and complete control of the servers and content. Trying to port the game to the 360 serves them no purpose and would ultimately waste time that they could use towards new content for WOW or most importantly......... FINISH UP Diablo 3!!!!!

No not porting, I mean, if they do take the risk, their next large MMO would be for consoles. But I really don't see any MMO's for years to come on consoles. Unless MS and Sony band together and attack nintendo.

[Repo Man 360]

Great show! Love the product info. I feel like an idiot for buying the CoD console now that there is a slim version. The 250 Hard drive was the deal maker for me and now it's standard . Also the (official) death of the faceplate saddens me. At least this site leads the way in making your own customs and "the soul still burns" as it were. Keep the episodes coming and more Variations are welcome.

[Variation-XBA]

Keep the episodes coming and more Variations are welcome.

you mean me?