HomeWeekly News Roundup (20 July 2008)
E3 just ended in the US, and no surprise then that most of the stories this week are to do with gaming. And just luck would have it, the NPD June figures were released this week, meaning more stories about gaming. The lucky thing for a video website such as this is that gaming and video are now a lot closely related thanks to the PS3’s Blu-ray and to a lesser extent, the Xbox 360’s ill fated support of the HD DVD format. Plus I like video games so that’s my excuse for covering video game content on a website that’s not about video games.
But there are still some non gaming news first, so let’s get through that. Starting with copyright news, Blu-ray might get a new copy protection system dubbed X-Protect Blue. Blu-ray piracy is not a big thing yet, since while ripping the discs are possible, storing it is impractical (considering blank Blu-ray media costs) and uploading and downloading is time and bandwidth consuming (25 GB for a movie? No thanks). Plus, hardly anybody has a Blu-ray player, so the pirated contents aren’t all that popular. Blu-ray really has these “natural” copy protection barriers, so I’m not sure if it needs any more.
Reloaded - Helping tech support everywhere
But perhaps it needs a bit of piracy, because there is evidence that the most pirated shows are the ones that win the most awards. I’m not sure I agree with that completely, as wouldn’t a good show automatically mean more piracy anyway, rather than more piracy leading to a good show? I do agree that piracy opens up the shows to a wider array of people, some of which won’t have had access to the show previously (for example, people in other countries). And this kind of “mass-piracy” leads to mass online interest and discussions, which will help the show. So yes, piracy definitely has its advantages … it helped Microsoft to dominate the operating system market, helped game consoles to sell more hardware, so why not TV and movies as well?
And how’s this for an interesting story. Game publisher Ubisoft recently had to turn to a rather strange source to solve a problem. The Ubisoft tech support team posted a NO-CD crack from notorious piracy group Reloaded to solve a DRM related problem. Just goes to show that sometimes DRM does more harm than good, and that piracy can help sometimes too.
In HD news, at the SinoCES, there was a range of Chinese Blu-ray players on show. We won’t see many of these players being released in the west just yet, I don’t think, as the last thing Sony and co. wants is cheap players stealing their market before they’ve even started to exploit it.
Netflix on the Xbox 360
While not strictly HD news, but important in that it could become a rival to Blu-ray, is the news that both Microsoft and Sony are investing heavily into movie streaming services for their game consoles. Sony launched their movie download service during E3, and Microsoft teamed up with online video rental giant Netflix to deliver free movies to Xbox Live Gold users (presumably US users only). Microsoft also signed a deal with NBC-Universal to deliver their content through Xbox Live Video Marketplace. I don’t think movie downloads will dominate this generation, but you can see where things are headed even when Sony, Mr. Blu-ray, is backing video downloads for the future.
And of course the gaming news mostly lead by stories coming out of the E3. Microsoft started the ball rolling by officially dropping the price of the Xbox 360 20 GB model which is to be discontinued and replaced by a new 60 GB one. Nobody should be surprised at this one if they’ve been following the WNR. What did surprise, and the headlining news of the E3, was the 360 getting Final Fantasy XIII. The previously PS3 exclusive is exclusive no longer, at least in the United States. It makes sense though for publisher Square Enix, because with the 360, they can reach more US users who perhaps were not into the FF series before. Sony weren’t please, obviously, and I can understand why.
Final Fantasy XIII coming to a Xbox 360 near you
I’ve talked to a lot of people about their choice of consoles, and the ones choosing PS3 almost always mentions FF exclusivity as a reason, perhaps *the* reason. This won’t help the Xbox 360 too much, and they do need help if you read our June NPD sales figure analysis, but it won’t hurt either. But wait, there’s more! There was also Lips, the Xbox 360 Karaoke/Dance game with included motion sensing microphone. And a re-design of the Xbox dashboard to make it more Wii-like, complete with customisable Mii-type characters. Overall, Microsoft has had a good E3, probably the best out of the console publishers, but perhaps it’s too little too late.
Nintendo came out with Wii MotionPlus, which adds increased sensitivity and accuracy to the WIi-mote. There will also be a new musical game called Wii Music (how original), which will allow you to control an entire orchestra. Think of it as a more family-friendly version of Guitar Hero.
The PS3, on the other hand, had only as few major announcements. One includes the ending of the 80 GB line, and a price drop as a result. The PS3 lineup will now only feature a single model. Now would be a good time to get the 80 GB, especially if you still need PS2 compatibility. I personally wouldn’t rule out PS2 emulation coming back on a later model, as manufacturing prices drop for the PS3. The message coming out of Sony seems to be “more of the same”, since the PS3’s popularity is growing and all without having to offer any price cuts. Adding more features to add more value, rather than decreasing price to do the same, seems to be Sony’s strategy, in the short to mid term at least.
Fallout 3 banned in Australia
And while the hoopla was going on in the US, Australian gamers suffers yet again with Fallout 3 being banned due to simulated drug use. GTA IV, on the other hand, was not banned here and was offered with minor cuts, even though drug use is prominent in the game (but not by the main character, who only shoots cops and innocent people, as well as commit acts of terror with an RPG). Drugs are bad, mmmkay. And to add insult to injury (or in GTA IV terms, to get run over after being shot 78 times by cops), we pay more for censored games than pretty much anybody else in the world. Twice as much, for most game releases. Thank goodness for region-free games and stores like Play-Asia that take care of Australian gamers with discounts and cheap-ish shipping.
Let me check, yep, I think that’s it for this week. Join me next week for a less gaming oriented WNR. I will probably take some time in mid-week to follow up on that CPU story I wrote on the blog last week, as I’ve been running mega CPU poll on the site for a few weeks now with some interesting results. The poll is still open, so make sure you get your vote in. See you next week.