Microsoft’s CES Keynote was a major snooze
Greetings Readers!
As I am sure many of you are aware, last night was Microsoft's CES 2010 keynote and if you watched it, you know that the most exciting thing that came out of the keynote was the power failure that delayed it close to 30 minutes (We live blogged it here). As I stated last night, I would give my thoughts, both good and bad right here (Disclosure: I am a Microsoft Student Insider), so here we go.
I was rather surprised at the lack of announcements coming out of the keynote compared to years past. For those hoping for a big announcement regarding the rumored new features behind Ford's Sync, you are out of luck. Those are apparently being saved until Ford's keynote. Hoping for a major announcement about the Zune HD? Nope, nothing here either. Windows 8? Wishful thinking. A portable version of the Xbox? This will remain every gamers fantasy. What was announced? Ballmer really didn't announce much. He gave some lines about Windows 7 being the fastest selling OS of all time and some analyst speculation that PC sales will increase considerably this year but I don't really call those announcements. Steve announced that the HTC HD 2 running Windows Mobile will be coming to T-mobile but I am not sure anybody cares since we are talking Windows Mobile after all and T-mobile doesn't help either. Steve said they would talk more about the future of Windows Mobile at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona next month. Ballmer did show off some prototype "Slate PCs" that will hopefully combat anything Apple announces later this month. The one he really demonstrated was an HP prototype that was running Windows 7 and the Kindle PC software to demonstrate how good of an e-book reader it could be and it looked to be about the same size as the Kindle 2. Sounds nice and I will definitely buy one, but if you are going to try to compete with Apple, you need to show something that will come out a little sooner rather than some prototype. Wait, you really wanted to know what was announced? Ok.
As far as REAL announcements go, there are a couple fairly minor announcements. Bing is now going to be the default home page and search engine for all HP computers. Excited yet? They also demonstrated what a Cable Card and a pc in your tv could do and said that with it, you can record 4 HD channels simultaneously which was probably the most impressive thing from they keynote. They talked a bit about Media Room and some partnership with AT&T's U-verse that I still don't understand and finally they had a couple interesting Xbox announcements. Besides all of the interesting number like units sold and games sold, Robby Bach announced that Project Natal will ship as an attachment to existing Xbox 360 systems in time for Christmas 2010. No price although I would expect that around E3. There was also no demo which was kind of disappointing. They also teased a new Halo game only to have it turn out to be a trailer for Halo Reach which was announced back at E3. I was rather disappointed but the audience seemed to love it since they could see the trailer and everybody watching the stream could not. The big Xbox 360 announcement was Game Room.
What is Game Room? Game Room seems to be a virtual space similar to the PS3's Home where you can run around a giant arcade as your avatar and buy and play old arcade games that look like the arcade units you would spend tons of quarters on in years gone by. Over 1000 games are planned for the next year that will be released in weekly batches that you will have to purchase. The coolest part is that this will be not only for the Xbox 360 but for PCs too! How much are these games going to cost you ask? If you want to play an arcade game on both platforms, you will be paying 400 Microsoft points aka $5. To get it on one platform, it is 240 points or $3. If you really want the old school experience, you can pay 40 points or $.50 and get two quarters worth of playing time on the old machines. The games can be played with other people, in 1080p and there are cross-platform leaderboards and achievements. This is coming in the Spring update to Xbox Live. Personally, I am really looking forward to this because lately I have had the urge to start buying old arcade machines and turning my basement into a small arcade but now I will be able to do it virtually instead of having to completely redo the basement. This was the only real announcement with any cool factor to it other than the HD recording. If you would like to see the demo that the people watching the live stream couldn't watch, you can check it out here.
That was pretty much about it. It was a very boring keynote and ended kind of out of nowhere. It certainly doesn't make me super excited about Microsoft this year but hopefully that will change. What did you think about the Microsoft CES 2010 keynote? Good? Bad? Boring? Exciting? Let us know!
The PlayStation Network Terms of Service: Revisited!
Greetings Readers!
After the huge response I have received from my post yesterday about Sony's updated Terms of Service/User Agreement for the PlayStation Network, I have decided that I should write a follow-up post addressing some of the points that have been brought up. I was trying to get in contact with somebody at Sony who could respond, but like Gamespot, I have not had any luck. Before I get into this post, I would like to thank everybody that shared the link for yesterday's post as it is now the third most viewed post on the Global Geek News Blog behind the Twitter Etiquette and Twitter Etiquette 2 posts. OK, here we go.
Probably the biggest comment I have received so far is in regards to the protection of children from online predators. This is certainly a valid point, which lead to Sony adding the following statement to the new Terms of Service.
You may not provide anyone with your name or any other personally identifying information other than your own Online ID, or the name, password or personally identifying information of any other person or business through any means, including messaging, chat or any other form of PSN communication.
While I agree with the purpose behind this statement, I think it goes a bit too far. I think giving this information should be up to the users and their own personal judgment or that of their guardians. I have met countless people online, and if I was restricted by this rule, I would not have many of the great friends I have today. I also play online with friends, and I don't to risk banning because I refer to somebody by their actual name rather than their Online ID. Protecting the children is a honorable goal, but restricting everybody to protect a few is going too far.
Another popular opinion that I have seen is that this Terms of Service is no worse than most of them that are out there. When I am bored, I am known to read Terms of Service type documents, so I know this is not the case. While I will agree that many Terms of Service are overly restrictive and often rarely enforced, to say this is no worse than others is just plain wrong. When Google did something very similar when they launched Chrome, trying to say that everything created through their browser was essentially theirs, they were immediately called out on it and they backed off. That is what needs to happen here. It is time that Terms of Service are not so one sided, and many such documents are beginning to reflect that as technology becomes more open. I know that my legal section for this site is nowhere near as ugly as this terms of service. In the interest of fairness and to show that I am not out to destroy Sony, I will be reviewing the ToS of the other consoles and writing about them later this week.
Another hot button topic seems to be the giving of information to third parties. From what I have read, many people seem to be against it, especially when they realize that it is personal information that is being given. Personally, I generally don't much care if companies gather anonymous usage statistics on things I do. As long as no personally identifying information about me is not sent, especially in an insecure manner, I don't mind contributing to make a product better by allowing companies to see how I am using a product for future improvements or what bugs I am running into that need fixed. When my personal information is sent, especially to third parties who can also distribute it to whomever they choose, that is when I have a problem. It is even worse when there is no way to opt out of such a policy. With the way it stands now, if I don't agree, I don't get to use my PS3 or PSP, and that is that. Giving personal information out in such a manner is a huge security and privacy problem. The more people that have your information, the higher your chances of identity theft. Also, such information transfer is illegal in some places.
The last major point that has been made that I want to talk about is that these are just meant to cover Sony's butt if somebody decides they want to sue them. While I will agree with that, I believe they went much farther than that, especially when they refuse to do anything about lost data purchased from the PlayStation Store, even when they are the one to have caused the problem. As I stated before, protecting children and stupid people in general is certainly an admirable goal, but there are better ways to go about it than doing something like this. Courts have thrown out Terms of Service in the past because they are overly restrictive and just plain bad that no reasonable person would accept them, something that could very easily happen in this case. A balance must be struck between Sony protecting its hardware, network, and contracts and the consumer and allowing them to use their system in the way that they choose.
Don't forget to check back later this week as I will talk bout the Terms of Service that come with the other consoles and the possibility of comment from Sony on this issue! I am also likely to talk about this on the next Global Geek News Podcast, so keep an eye on that! Like always, follow me on Twitter or Friendfeed if you want to be notified of when new posts go up. Until next time, don't forget to comment (And be a constructive commenter)!
-Jeremy "pcnerd37" Bray
Microsoft Looking for Exclusive Content for Zune, Spins Wheels
Greetings Readers!
As most all of you are aware, the Zune has never lived up to anybody's expectations in terms of sales. In a far distant second place, Microsoft sells as many Zune players in a year as Apple sells iPods in a month. While it is a competent media device, there is nothing that really makes to Zune stand out as a must have device over the iPod with the exception of getting more GB for the price. Before I go any further, I should say that I am a Zune owner and will gladly point out its good points and bad when asked as I have no loyalty to a device or its manufacture. I merely purchased it because I got the 30GB version for $100 last Black Friday. Anyway, with a third version Zune still a ways away, Microsoft is trying to find any possible way it can to gain ground in the portable media marketplace.
Microsoft's latest move to try to gain market share is around exclusive content. They are trying to take the idea behind the game console market and apply it to the portable media market. While the model of having exclusive content to sell the platform would likely work if it had a larger presence in the portable media player market, I don't think it has much of a chance of working right now. Since Microsoft waited so long to get into the portable media player market, it is in a position where it has almost no chance of unseating Apple as the king of the portable media market. When you are in that kind of position, if you have any hope of gaining a reasonable amount of market share, you must have a product that is 50% or 100% better than your competitor. Microsoft didn't do this and it has hurt them. There is nothing that separates the Zune from the iPod in terms of functionality. Without some kind of big distinction, they will have a hard time promoting themselves as something other than a cheaper alternative that doesn't have the special things like the App Store. Microsoft must improve the base functionality that ships with the unit before exclusive content can make a real difference.
When you look at the gaming console market, the exclusive content model works great and always has, as demonstrated when consoles come bundled with games whether its the PS3 coming with Metal Gear Solid 4 or the NES coming with Mario Brothers. The reason that this model works here is because no console ever got to the truely dominant position or where one system tried to come out after another one already had 90% of the market. When a new generation of consoles is released, its around the same time, with similar technical specs (the Wii is a special case here as Nintendo went in another direction) so the software, the exclusive content is what really drives the sales of the consoles. Even though the Xbox 360 has similar performance to the PS3, if it wasn't for exclusives like Halo, it would not be where it is today.
Microsoft is trying to do the same thing with the Zune, get outside media companies to make shows or other kinds of content exclusive for the Zune. While this is a perk for existing Zune users, its going to have little affect on the adoption rate of the Zune or its position in the portable media player marketplace because its not on an even playing field where it is just looking for something to set itself apart.
At this point, Microsoft almost has to wait for the next release of the Zune to have any hopes of competing with the iPod. Sure, firmware updates will get you a long way, but the hardware must be more capapble before it can be a real threat to the iPod. At this point, Microsoft is just spinning their wheels with this unless they are using it as a launching platform for the third version of the Zune. If they can create a base of existing exclusive content to complement a vastly improved third version of the Zune, they might have a chance, but exclusive content on its own in this market situation is just a case of throwing money at a situation that isnt improving.
-Jeremy "pcnerd37" Bray
E3, Another Year of Disappointment
Greetings readers!
In case you have been on vacation or just hiding under a rock, this week was the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 convention in LA. The convention is where a majority of the major gaming announcements for the year are unveiled. While there were some interesting announcements this year, the event ended up being another big disappointment.
For those that missed the press conferences, here is a quick rundown. Microsoft showed off Fallout 2, Gears of War 2, a new Xbox Dashboard, and had two major announcements. Microsoft has partnered with Netflix to bring streaming movies to the 360 by way of your Netflix subscription, and they announced that Final Fantasy XIII will be coming to the 360. Next, Nintendo did their announcements which included a Shawn White snowboarding game using the Wii balance board, the Wii Motion Plus attachment, Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music. Last was Sony. Sony didnt have much in the way of interesting game announcements other than one of my personal favorites, a new God of War game. They showed off two new Resistance games but nothing that spectacular that hasnt been shown before. They also showed off Little Big Planet and Playstation Home. Sony's bombshell announcements (outside of God of War 3) were the unveiling of a new video store on the Playstation 3 and a new PS3 with a $100 price cut.
Lets start with Microsoft. I will admit that Fallout 3 looks awesome, especially with the Fat Man gun and the ability to target individual body parts and shoot people with teddy bears. Gears of War 2 and Final Fantasy 13 looked impressive but not in an 'I need to change my pants' kind of way. The real announcement here was the changes to the Xbox and Xbox Live itself. The new Dashboard interface looks very simple and clean compared to the current version. This is nice but im not sure its something that really matters. With this, they also introduced Avatars. Avatars are the Mii's better looking cousin. I can't give Microsoft credit for originallity here, but at least they are better looking and more human like than Nintendo's Mii characters. I will admit the whole Party concept is great, especially with the ability to watch your friends Netflix movies. Speaking of Netflix, that announcement didn't suprise me in the least. Such a deal has been known to be in the works for many months and while I am glad there is finally an announcement, it didn't have any unknown suprises with it.
Nintendo on the other hand, was a complete snooze. Much like Microsoft, there was a bunch of boring sales data that, while interesting interesting in the past, has lost much of its meaning with monthly NPD data being released to the public. Being a Shawn White fan, I will admit it was cool to see him. Being a fan of snowboarding games since 1080 for the N64, I think this looks interesting although I'm not sure it will make me want to buy the Wii Balance Board. Wii Sports Resort looked interesting when coupled with the Wii Motion Plus, but seemed to lack the really fun games that were apart of the original Wii Sports. Wii Music on the other hand just looked terrible. Not only is it ugly and look strange, there seems to be no skill involved in the game and seems to be about as involved as playing the air guitar. I dont see this game selling very well at all. The most disappointing part of the whole Nintendo event was that they said that the Mario and Zelda teams were working on something, but said nothing more.
Finally, we come to Sony. This was probably the best event out of all of them. While they didnt have any shocker announcements like Microsoft announing Final Fantasy XIII, it was a solid confernece. Unlike the boring data that Nintendo and Microsoft had, Sony talked about their stats and Greatest Hits games using Little Big Planet, an idea that was absolutely brilliant! The movie store was a great announcement as they went directly to the movie studios rather than through Netflix in a move that I see as a huge Screw You! to Microsoft and Netflix. The pricing feels about right for the movies and even feels like a bargain when you find out you are now able to put a copy of the movie on your PSP to take with you anywhere while still having a copy on your PS3. A God of War 3 Trailer was shown off, which made me scream with joy. No ship date though. Finally, their major hardware announcement was a new, 80GB PS3 with the same features as the 40GB PS3 for the same price as the 40GB PS3. Essentailly the 80GB PS3 will now be available again outside of the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle and for $100 less. What is still unclear to me is that if it has the same features as the 40GB, I assume that means that there is no PS2 backward compatibility that has previously existed in the 80GB PS3 units. While I would like some clarification on this, this is still a big announcement and the only major hardware announcement of the event (Microsoft made their announcemnt a day early, so im not counting that).
While there were some decent announcements and solid game demos, compared to years past, there seemed to be a major lack of excitement with the conference. There were very few major game announcements, and the major Halo announcement that everybody was expecting was pulled at the last minute. Hopefully there will be some better game announcements at other shows or this could turn out to be a very disappointing holiday season for gamers.
-Jeremy "pcnerd37" Bray
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