Seppli

Isn't that dependent on the game you get out of the box? If it's a great game, then why would I care about DLC? In the rare case that I do care, I'm glad that there is more content coming. For example, I had a great time with Battlefield 3's Season Pass. BF Premium kept me well entertained for over a year, and it was a great value.

It's pretty simple. I care about what I get, not about stuff I don't get. Not having something doesn't ruin the thing you have, unless it's integral to it. As far as I'm concerned, that's never happend to me. The shadiest it's ever gotten was Mass Effect 3's Leviathan DLC (albeit I don't quite see its ending redeeming quality like Brad does). I'm putting that whole mess down to bad writing, rather than nefarious planning anyways. I didn't buy it either and I don't care. The ending was shit, and it would have been shit with Leviathan as well. As far as I'm concerned, ME3's ending was mechanically lacking - by not offering Suicide Mission-like *Commander Moments* in the context of the *Galaxy at War* effort. The whole Deus-Ex-Machina thing was as expected, as it was wholly underwhelming in execution, and to the detriment of the entire Mass Effect fiction.

Regardless - for the most parts, I find the dislike of DLC irrational. There's good and there's bad DLC. It depends what it is, what it's for, and what it costs. DLC is not inherently evil. If you see DLC and the likes as such, I think you should reflect on that, because it's not that clearcut black and white.

I'm no expert, but isn't that the kind of thing a 5$ adapter can fix? But yeah, for being seemingly so focused on being the next global standard in set top boxes, that omission is rather odd. Sideways as you say, assbackwards even.

I fully expect these boxes to be capable of replacing the cable box entirely. They're like 1000x more powerful than whatever hardware cable providers distribute these days, and are set-up out of the gate for firmware updates and all that jazz.

Funny, I am being bombarded by advertisments and telemarketing for digital TV solutions. And whenever I tune into German TV or German sites, it's one of the most prevalent subjects of advertisment. As far as digital TV goes, Europe is a development market - so there obviously is an opportunity there. Streaming services akin to Netflix are pretty much non-existent at this point outside of grey-area illegality, and those that do exist legally offer an extremely limited catalogue, and all of it outdated, and at a way too high pricepoint - no wonder nobody cares (yet).

Again - both the digital TV and streaming markets are in an early development stage. Europe, due to the legal and social complications of being clustered into many different countries with non-unified laws, and speaking many different languages, is classically roughly a decade behind the US in matters such these. This being the situation, there is a market here to be exploited, even if it first has to be created - and that's exactly what's happening right now.

If it's going to work is the other question. As far as I am concerned it won't. But what do I know? For that matter, what makes you the expert on European markets? Your own opinion?

P.S. Those soccer and F1 fans that want multiangle HD premium live coverage? They all have a set top box at home. They won't complain if that set top box is a free Xbox One or PS4 in the future.

Doesn't change the fact that these providers do try to get into our livingrooms. There is a major push for digital TV currently on-going in Europe, and while it's not for internet savy people like us, there still are enough barely internet literate consumers out there, that such an initiative can be successful. For many, it's just better TV, and now's the time to get with the times - so why not get a Xbox One or PS4 with my new digital TV dataplan. It's like a free bluray player. Yay!

We are not representative of the market at large. Not everybody does know better. A majority likely doesn't.

For my sensibilities, it's got to be GTA IV (respectively GTA V, when it's out and actually running in a playable fashion). I care more about the scope and scale and density of interactivity of gameworlds, rather than minute fidelity such as shadow and texture resolution and aliasing.

So it's either a Rage Engine (Rockstar) or a Frostbite Engine (EA/DICE) game.

Live gameplay demos of great games. SKUs, pricing, subsidizing plans laid bare. Done.

Outside of the US, the set top box market is only just developing now. Seeing how both the Xbox One and PS4 can serve as a set top box, respectively media streaming hub, they really could penetrate the market way beyond what it is now. It all comes down to co-marketing with cable service providers, distributing heavily subsidized boxes to the broad public. 800$ smartphones are being distributed for *free*, if the consumer binds himself to a lenghty and expensive dataplan.

Expect many Xbox One and PS4 boxes being offered *gratis*, or at least dirtcheap, together with expensive dataplans. Hey - I might double down on my dataplan if I get a free box out of it.