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nostromo
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Montréal, Québec
Mar 2002
time: 00:36
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Ninja Gaiden designer talks about the 360. He thinks the standard DVD will be restrictive. And I thought 9 GB was more than enough.
quote:
Itagaki talks Xbox 360
Team Ninja guru also further confirms that Microsoft will make a major announcement in Japan later this month.
In an interview published in the latest issue of Famitsu Xbox Magazine, Tecmo producer and Team Ninja head honcho Tomonobu Itagaki talked more about his impressions of the Xbox 360. When asked about the console's triple-core IBM PowerPC processor design, Itagaki called it a "buffed-up Sega Saturn," as the old console was also multiprocessor, coming with two 32-bit CPUs. He said that a single-CPU machine is easier for programming, but multicore structures have become the recent trend.
"The Xbox 360 is said to be a machine that's easy to develop for, but that's because it has a good lineup of middleware and infrastructure. So it should be easy to create something that's up to a certain level [of quality]. But if you try to take advantage of the Xbox 360's full hardware specs, you'll find out about the difficulty in programming for a multicore machine," said Itagaki.
"The Xbox 360 has enough power without all the cores going into use. Even if just a single core is used for a game, it will still be several more times powerful than machines up until now. But we aren't satisfied at that kind of a level. Our programmers are having fun playing around with the machine. They're swinging around all the cores and making a game that shows the powers of the Xbox 360."
Itagaki said that the Xbox 360's 512MB of main memory is more than enough for games, but he feels that the machine's media might bring up some problems. He said he would have preferred Microsoft to adopt the high-capacity HD-DVD format, but he said that, given the next-gen disc format wars, he could live with Microsoft's decision.
"Another reason why [Microsoft] went with the 9GB DVD format (dual-layered DVDs can contain up to 9.4 GB) is that American and European developers tend to use real-time rendered cutscenes. But Japanese developers use a lot of prerendered cutscenes, so the DVD format brings a bit of an anxiety. The screen resolution for Xbox 360 games will be in high definition, so the prerendered movies are going to be pretty large. If we encoded the Dead or Alive 4 trailer from E3 in high definition in a quality acceptable to us, it will easily be about 2GB. With DOA4, we'll be using the disc's capacity to its full extent. We started development on DOA4 pretty early, and we didn't know what disc format the Xbox 360 was going to adopt. So when we learned about it, we were really knocked out."
Itagaki also revealed that the DOA4 demo trailer shown during the Electronic Entertainment Expo was actually done with an alpha development kit for the Xbox 360. He said that his team received Xbox 360 beta kits very recently and was having fun with them.
The Team Ninja head also further confirmed that Microsoft is planning a major announcement in Japan this month. "We're currently thinking of whether we should create a new trailer for the upcoming Xbox 360 announcement in July, or if we should go straight ahead to work on the completion of the game," he said. "We'll play around with the beta kit for a little bit more and decide."
When Famitsu Xbox said to Itakagi that fans were afraid that Team Ninja could end up abandoning the Xbox 360 after the release of Sony's PlayStation 3, he commented, "Team Ninja will not disappoint their fans." Itagaki added, "To be honest, we're too busy on the development of DOA4 to think about anything else."
When asked for his opinion on the PlayStation 3, Itagaki commented that he respects the fact that Sony is trying to "create a computer that comes from Japan." However, he also added that he hopes Sony will make a machine that actually runs according to its listed hardware specs. "A machine that doesn't run according to its promised CPU frequency is out of the question," he said. |
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nostromo
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Montréal, Québec
Mar 2002
time: 00:36
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quote:
Originally posted by Asher
What's the point of FMV anymore? It's annoying to me when games use it more often than not, game engines (especially next-gen) should be more than capable of doing it in real-time. It's more immersive and it uses WAY less space.
It made sense in the PSX days...but not PS3/XB360. |
Its true, real-time rendered cutscenes tend to be more immersive and they definitely use less space. But I assume prerendered cutscenes have their advantages. Even if your using the game engine. Suppose you're doing a kick-ass cutscene using the game engine, like the opening scene in Revenge of the Sith for example, but the 360 can only render it in real-time at 5fps. A solution would be to do a prerendered cutscene. That way, you would have your kick-ass cutscene at 60 fps.
Btw, I heard that's what happened with the Killzone 2 demo at E3. They rendered it in real-time on Alpha dev kits, but at 5 fps. They took that, accelerated it at 60 fps. Voilà, you've got a kick-ass "demo".
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nostromo
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Montréal, Québec
Mar 2002
time: 00:36
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I thought the issue was PC versus console, not high-end PC versus console. Consoles are not good at strategy games. Anyway, Age of Empires 3 will probably require a pretty decent machine.
Last edited by nostromo on 03-07-2005 at 08:00
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Asher
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Calgary, Alberta
Nov 1999
time: 22:36
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http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24592
An interview with Robbie Bach of MS.
quote:
2:30
Gold = Current Live.
Silver New level under Gold.
3:15
Silver does not include multiplayer gaming.
Gold for gaming and same price as Xbox Live now.
3:45
Paid tournaments.
4:00
Approachability... basically non-expert gamers will have the game dumb down automatically, supposedly will crank up for expert gamers.
4:30
Camera and video chat go hand and hand with gaming.
Music plays a MORE important role now.
5:00
6 EA launch games, 25 EA games in development
5:30
160 games in development
5:45
Launch windows = Calander 2005
15 day 1 titles (+/-)
More titles will trickle in after day 1
7:00
No 1st party Xbox 1 titles left (although lists a slew of front line 3rd party games)
7:20
MS needs to lead the charge on the 360 platform.
7:30
Live is central to the 360.
Silver members will get to SAMPLE/TRY Gold level
8:00
Media center access through 360. 360 is extender/client -- out of box. Can access TV shows, music, etc... from your PC (Media Center?), hook up Digital Camera, etc...
8:45
Consoles pricing question... question about NOTHING above $299 has succeeded. Answer: MS understands price points, history, and customer preference and will factor all those in on their pricing front.
No final decision yet. Still doing consumer research.
9:45
Big support on wireless...
If you want a wireless controller they will sell you one.
Wired controller will work on PC and 360.
10:15
Asked about Xbox adapter... he says good Q, but does not have the answer to that.
10:45
Not merging PC platform and 360 platform, just trying to leverage the controller pluses so developers easily have a standard on the PC.
11:15
Will there be KB support for the 360? Technically possible, no decision on that as of yet.
11:30
When questioner asks about Square-Enix comment about SE saying "First game for 360" he asks if that means there will be more... Bach says you will need to ask SE, but notes "that is what he said"
12:00
Remote... Live TV button. The button is not for TiVo... Media Center button for Media Center Interface.
To be used as an extender. Basically a unification of access/uniformity.
14:45
2 ports like the PS2 for wired
But base skew has 4 wireless also, plus you can have multitap like adapters. They believe most will go wireless.
15:20
PACKING IS WIRELESS
15:30
HDD is removable. No news on SKU front.
15:45
Headset, remote, wireless controller, and HDD are in base SKU.
17:15
Bungie guys manage the Halo franchise.
MS's approach to 1st party software... has gone from a "bulk" producer to a company desiring to push content that drives the platform, meaning LESS titles, carefully timed and planned to offer features what they are doing with their platform.
Basically more strategic / development time on their titles.
18:30
1st party studios will do less games, but more quality AAA games.
3rd parties are doing a good job of covering genres, that MS is looking to use 1st party for AAA titles.
20:20
"Magic" 25% performance number of Alphas...
20:45
Spends a lot of time, yet again, praising not only MS games but ALSO 3rd party games. Bach seems to mention a LOT of 3rd party games.
21:30
Gives some time to Japanese developers.
22:00
Pricing appropriate for each market. They do not do math based on exchange rates. MS prices for local currency and expectations.
23:30
Always a shortage of consoles... question about redirecting units... notes how PSP [at the intervierw time] was not in Europe; their goal is to launch so people in every territory can have some access and then ship more units every week just keep ship more units, every week to every area, until demand is met.
24:45
In 5 years MS sees themselves as the leader in the video game space.
10-15 years out is very hard to project because MS expects the market to be VERY VERY different from today. Expects an evolution, social and community aspects will be more important. Content for more than just gamers. Music, Movies, and Games are now thought in different ways NOW but wont be true in 10-15 years in the future.
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Most important part is confirmation that the base console will come with the console, a controller, a remote (for DVD, etc), harddrive, and headset, and that there are 160 games in development so far for Xbox 360.
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flash9286
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Man i was going to buy a PS3, but it looks like Sony is pricing themselves out of the market, and no harddrive shipping with it thats just stupid.
Asher- what kind of screenshots are those, ingame or like cutscences.
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Asher
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Calgary, Alberta
Nov 1999
time: 22:36
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http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/xbox360_inside.asp
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcas...0_inside_02.asp
Great interviews, lots of good information. 
This part was especially cool:
quote:
Jeff: Sharing music and sharing photos is cool ... if you have access to music and photos. And if you've got them all on your PC and you've got a home network, that's great. Many people have their photos and music these days. But not everyone has the home network. And that's still a barrier for a lot of people.
[Jeff picks up a Rio Carbon, which is a small portable MP3 player.]
Xbox 360 has fixed that by adding really simple, fast, fun device connectivity to the console platform. It's never existed before on any console. You'll be able to take your digital audio players--like the Rio Carbon I have here or an iRiver, or an iPod, or even a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP)--put music and photos on it, bring it over to your Xbox 360, navigate over to the Media Blade, connect that device via USB 2.0 to the 360, and stream it all over in real time to the 360. In the Media Blade, we scroll down to portable devices, and it will give me a list of all the music that's on this device.
[Jeff scrolls through the list of artists on the Carbon.]
Do you have a favorite artist that's on this list?
Paul: Do I? Um. Coldplay is fine.
Jeff: OK, pick a song and ... [music begins playing] Yes. This music is actually being streamed from the device in real time, through the Xbox 360, and into my home theater with its HDTV and surround-sound system. And I can do anything with this music that I can do with music I've ripped directly to the Xbox. If I want to share that music with friends, I can do it. If I want to use that music as a custom game soundtrack, like we did earlier, I can do that.
Paul: Now you can play that music and then go back and do other stuff, right?
Jeff: You can start a game while the music is playing, you can start an audio chat while the music is playing...
Paul: It's not happening in isolation.
Jeff: No, it's not.
The other trick I'd like to perform, if you don't mind me snapping a picture of you, and I promise I won't publish this, I can take this picture ... [he snaps a picture of me with a digital camera] and plug the camera directly into the Xbox 360, navigate to the Media Blade, same way, via USB...
[I notice some icons at the top of the Media Blade screen.]
Paul: What do you have there? You have media sources...
Jeff: Media Center PC, a mass storage USB device, a Memory Unit, an iPod or other portable audio player, a digital camera source.
So I go into Pictures, and this will show me my pictures library, locally or on networked PCs. I might have a USB drive with a photo library. In this case, I just click the camera icon. [The pictures on the camera come up onscreen]. I can go through these one by one, or I can view them as a screensaver, or I can share this photo album with friends online. In this case, I'll just view a slideshow. And this actually gives me a high definition view of the photos directly off the camera.
[The photos stream off the camera using Media Center-style transitions between each photo, which is a wonderful effect. I ask about this.]
Yeah, we've got lots of transitions and they're customizable. You can select fades or wipes or whatever. You can also do some effects like black and white or sepia. It's all pretty simple, playback-oriented kind of stuff, but it looks really cool in high-def. [The picture he took of me comes up.] That's a keeper right there. That I will publish.
[Laughter]
That's how easy it's become to get digital photos directly from your camera to your high-def television set. For people that don't have a home network, or just want the pure convenience of being able to just walk up and plug something in, and get it on the TV with surround sound, Xbox 360 is going to make that easier than it's ever been before.
That's the stuff I'm really excited about.
[Jeff suddenly and accidentally drops the Xbox 360 controller onto the concrete floor.]
That's only a $60,000 prototype. I'm sure they'll appreciate me breaking this. [The controller is OK.] |
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02-07-2005 06:44
@ the graphics!
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