Microsoft Tidbytes From CES

Of all the game companies out there, Microsoft has easily had the biggest presence at CES this year. We saw what Robbie Bach had to say about Kodu, Halo Wars, and Primetime during the keynote, though the folks at Microsoft apparently had more to say once they were off the stage.

• Tech site TechFlash sat down with Robbie Bach to discuss a number of things, from the effect of the economy on Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division to that whole Zune 30GB Y2K9 snafu. The real point of interest here for me is Bach's response to the notion of adding Blu-ray support to the 360, which he shoots down fairly authoritatively. I agree that it doesn't make a lick of sense for the 360, though I'll be curious to see what Microsoft's position on Blu-ray is like once the next hardware generation rolls around and there's still not the usage or infrastructure to support a pure digital distribution model.

• The folks at Joystiq chatted with Xbox Live's Aaron Greenberg, who revealed that Microsoft is looking into upping the current limit on the number of friends you can have on your Xbox Live account beyond the current 100. While he gives no timeframe, he does say that it's “on the list.”

• Apparently Greenberg is a real Chatty Cathy at CES, as he also talked to Michael McWhertor over at Kotaku about Sony's console-comparison spreadsheet. His comments are mostly civil, company-line stuff, though I do believe that Sony would do well to adopt the philosophy behind Greenberg's statement that he "would rather talk about why you should buy our console than why you shouldn't buy the competitor's system." The PlayStation 3 is actually a phenomenally kick-ass piece of hardware already. Sony should be capitalizing on that rather than trying to push the other dudes down.

Of all the game companies out there, Microsoft has easily had the biggest presence at CES this year. We saw what Robbie Bach had to say about Kodu, Halo Wars, and Primetime during the keynote, though the folks at Microsoft apparently had more to say once they were off the stage.

• Tech site TechFlash sat down with Robbie Bach to discuss a number of things, from the effect of the economy on Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division to that whole Zune 30GB Y2K9 snafu. The real point of interest here for me is Bach's response to the notion of adding Blu-ray support to the 360, which he shoots down fairly authoritatively. I agree that it doesn't make a lick of sense for the 360, though I'll be curious to see what Microsoft's position on Blu-ray is like once the next hardware generation rolls around and there's still not the usage or infrastructure to support a pure digital distribution model.

• The folks at Joystiq chatted with Xbox Live's Aaron Greenberg, who revealed that Microsoft is looking into upping the current limit on the number of friends you can have on your Xbox Live account beyond the current 100. While he gives no timeframe, he does say that it's “on the list.”

• Apparently Greenberg is a real Chatty Cathy at CES, as he also talked to Michael McWhertor over at Kotaku about Sony's console-comparison spreadsheet. His comments are mostly civil, company-line stuff, though I do believe that Sony would do well to adopt the philosophy behind Greenberg's statement that he "would rather talk about why you should buy our console than why you shouldn't buy the competitor's system." The PlayStation 3 is actually a phenomenally kick-ass piece of hardware already. Sony should be capitalizing on that rather than trying to push the other dudes down.

"The PlayStation 3 is actually a phenomenally kick-ass piece of hardware already. Sony should be capitalizing on that rather than trying to push the other dudes down."

Precisely.

That is one civil response. Smooth talker.

It does seem strange that Sony is still relying on the name calling strategy this late in the game, they have a lot to talk about on the PS3 but all I ever heard is Blu-Ray player which frankly I don't care about.  Put more focus on the PS Arcade, the XBLA is actually a big draw for those who have seen it, I know more than one person that's bought a 360 on the (occassional) strength of the Arcade releases.

Seems like all that Sony will achieve with this new strategy is to add more fuel to the battle of the fan boys rather than convincing people to buy their system.

To be fair, Microsoft are the worst when it comes to name calling. They've spent the past few years sniping at Sony over price, games library, exclusive deals, etc, even though they were already "winning".

I think the reason that Sony are currently finding themselves in last place in the console wars is down to the fact that they used name calling tactics like this when previewing the ps3, and built up massive amounts of hype for how much more powerful it would be, but meanwhile while they were doing that MS released the 360 first and as a result everything new (with the exception of blu-ray) that we've seen this generation appeared first on the 360. The ps3 launched several months later and was simply doing what the 360 had already been doing (in terms of games) only to a lesser quality in the case of most multi-platform titles.

There's no doubt that the PS3 has a lot of potential and there are some amazing games on the machine too (I'm currently replaying MGS4 and have completed Resistance and Uncharted multiple times). This is what Sony needs to realise. This is what their customers want - great games.

Aaron Greenburg's comments should be read and understood by the Sony execs. Maybe then we can all just play the great games that are on PS3/360 and enjoy them for what they are.

I'm just saying...

"Oh oh oh, you're not buying a game's console you're buying raw potential - I don't give a.. I don't give a damn. Show me some goooood news!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Old HotSpot rox

A bit is an 8th of a byte. Not a 1024th.

Sony has been trying too hard, just like Microsoft defining the three types of gamers from , I don't know, E3 few years back .

Microsoft keynote was a Yawn Festival in Yawn town. their Wii version of Little Big Planet where you pick up rocks was a Bore Festival on planet Boredia. that Google Earth touch screen thing was cool. then they had the gall to show off the Mac-lookin Windows 7 like Windows XP doesn't suck. punk ass Halo trailers from 1920. old ass Bill Gates crutchin his ass on stage. ol' cheesy ass corny ass 1 vs 100 waste of my life minutes. Microsoft keynote sucked!

Sony keynote was only slightly better. Tom Hanks fuckin assier than the assiest asshole upset that he got cornholed in his cornhole to do the Sony pitch spent the whole time whinin about bein forced to do it. what an embarassment. spent the rest of the time dissin failed Sony products and dissin the new products. wish i could be backstage to watch his contracts being ripped up. tiny Electric car drivin mark, still pissed they lost their sorry ass "Actors shouldn't have to advertise Pespi" court case. fuckin Usher dancin naked on stage in front of a crowd with 95% of 40 year old married men. Pixar president swingin from Blu Ray's pubic hair. wish i coulda seen the GTA5 3D business though. the fact that nobody from the crowd yelled "holy fuckin shit!" proves to me that the 3D ain't all that stunning.

fuckin random health tips by Dr. Oz, Hoprah's new ho. Reggie Jackson babblin on about the past like a senior citizen. tiny laptop and the bendable paper-like TV screen was cool. and no mention of any new games what so ever. Sony keynote sucked!

Kodu isn't trying to be LBP, and the picking up rocks thing was only a demonstration.  It's basically a game maker, along the lines of something like RPG Maker, and I think it has the potiential to be pretty cool.  I certainly don't see how all those who've been praising LBP can be ripping into it so hard, it's just hypocrisy.

True that reponse.

I hope the friend's list thing happens soon. I will send a request to Jeff as soon as it is enacted (just kidding.......maybe).

Ryan is a true and tried Xbox fanboy

Fuck the huge display of InFamous and the demos of Killzone 2

But hooray for 360's Halo Wars release date

Ever sinse you appeared on the Bonus Round, he showed his true skin

@

More than 100 friends is a must for the next update

BlackWaterCO: are you one of those people who yell 'fanboyzzaaarrgghhh' at anyone who says anything bad about their fav company?

My friend got a blu-ray player, and it really is nothing special.  Especially when you consider you're paying like $300 for a standalone blu-ray player only to increase the quality from 1080i to 1080p.  In my opinion, there is a difference, but blu-ray is only slightly better from what I can tell, and I've seen like 10 blu-ray movies already.  Plus, it might just be this particular player, but the blu-rays read incredibly slowly...there shouldn't be fucking load times on movies, and yes, there was like a 10 second load time just to get to the main menu on many of them...certain ones actually had a screen (much like a videogame load screen) to verify that it was in fact taking this long to load.  I've heard about that before, blu-rays hold more data but read more slowly.  In my experience with playing several games on both PS3 and Xbox, I can say that PS3 looks slightly better in some cases, but most of the time runs like shit.  I have nothing against PS3, but there's really only like 2 games I'd want to play...and it's not enough to make me go out and pay $400 (or whatever, I stopped keeping track of the price) for it.

 Also, I won't feel the need to play blu-rays until they're so widespread that they're almost mandatory, and that's when the players will become like $50 anyway.

But whatever, Sony can do whatever the hell they want...god knows they need the help, especially in the US.  The funny thing is that everyone already knows that the PS3 is technically "better" overall than the 360.  Even people who know nothing about the two except the prices can probably jump to that conclusion.

And fuck being a "fanboy" for anything, Microsoft has made better moves in my opinion, but I can't completely follow what any single company does all the time.  They're all  fucking evil in their own ways...I'm just more pissed off at Sony because of the price of the PS3.  I can admit that I'd really like to have one, but it's just not plausible right now.

No, one tidbyte is equal to eight tidbits.

You have to get it right, Giant Bomb, you're my go-to source for computer jargon related games humor.

I can see BD staying alive for a few years for mainly gaming purposes.