tanman

Actually I meant the financial aspects of it. But I also would rather pay for flash memory that is much more permanent then save on a HD. The downloadable content is, no doubt, a worthy reason to keep it the HD. They just really need to bring the price down or boost the memory up on the flash cards. (What happened to the SD adapter Nintendo?) $20 for double the capacity of the N251s would be more reasonable.

Anyone else think it is interesting how game memory cards are made in Japan whereas even the "good" memory is made in Taiwan or China. Perhaps that is why they are much cheaper.

young

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content...e=dev&aid=2897

Trigger

^ that article kinda ticks me off. Basically, they wanna make money off memory cards. Grrr... I'll remain hopeful that MS will change the specs after hearing that Sony intends to include a HD for sure in their PS3. I don't know - no HD, no sale for me.

young

that's pretty much why i can't stand the little buggers. memory cards are such a rip off.

i really hope ms doesn't go that route.

spainlinx0

That's an unsettling article. Damnit MS don't get rid of the hard drive.

Fatman

One of the main reasone I purchased the xbox is because of the hard drive. If they are excluding this feature from their 2nd installment then I will have to say I will not be purchasing the machine. Even if it is setup as a future add on you can buy. I will pass.

darkside

The problems with my Xbox were hard drive related, but I still don't think they should downgrade their next console. Not making it backswards compatible would be a horrible move. Same goes for Nintendo.

The increase in load times alone were a good reason for the HD. Hope for Microsoft's sake these rumors are untrue or you can go ahead and give the PS3 the win in the next round of consoles.

al_bundy

MS bought out a company called Connectix or something like that. They make an app called Virtual PC to emulate other OS's. Rumor on slashdot is that they will use this tech to emulate X-Box in X-Box 2.

joshd2012

It is more than just that. You would also have to emulate a nVidia graphics card which means you would need to pay royalties to nVidia. Do you actually think that MS is going to pay more money to nVidia after the price disputes they had with them during production?

msdmoney

Is the PS3 gauranteed to be backwards compatible? With all the difficulties Microsoft would have making XBOX Next backwards compatible wouldn't Sony have some of the same. They are researching the "cell" technology or whatever, maybe that won't be backward compatible either.

darkside

Sony seems dedicated to backwards compatibility. I would be shocked if the PS3 wasn't (maybe not PSone). Sony doesn't have the problems with other companies making their hardware components MS and Nintendo has.

Trigger

One home console is backwards compatable in the last 25 years and it's all of a sudden the industry standard? I'm fine with the idea that xbox 2 won't be backwards compatable. I can understand them not wanting to pay large amounts of money to nVidia anymore. As I understand though, Xbox 3 will be backwards compatable with xbox 2 (if they stay in the market that long - that's their plan as of now).

Trigger

PS3 will be backward compatable with both PS1 and PS2 games as I understand it.

joshd2012

As I understand it, the PS3 will only be backwards compatable with PS2. Some controversy about that one, but the compatability with the PS2 is said, while compatability with the PS1 is implied at best.

funkyryno

Why does it matter what video card Microsoft uses? Why can computer software run on different video cards but it will be impossible for Xbox games to run on a different graphics card? Is it because Xbox games are specifically coded for the nVidia card?

I imagine there's a logical tech explanation for this. Can someone tell me what it is?

flashburn

Technically, there could be nVidia specific graphic's code on SOME games, but I doubt all of them would. Especially ports from other systems.

CreatureX

It is interesting to note that PlayStation 2 and Gameboy Advance, currently the two best selling systems, both feature backwards compatability.

joshd2012

The beauty about consoles, is that all games adhere to the same standards. With PC games, the games have to be able to accept almost all graphic cards on the market. With Xbox, they only needed it to work with nVidia, so they specifically programmed the games to use the nVidia chipset. I don't think the games will run on anything but an nVidea chipset, though, I'm not completely sure as I haven't programmed on Xbox.

flashburn

So you honestly think that for all of the multi-console games they totally reprogram the graphics code? Like I said before, I doubt any of the 3rd party multi-platform games have nVidia specific graphics code, however I wouldn't be surprised if some first party or Xbox exclusive titles do.

joshd2012

They have to; especially for the PS2. The PS2 is such a unique way of processing data (hense the high FLOPS output for low MHz). The games a specifically programmed for each console. There is no console game that you could take from one system and use the same graphics code to run it on another system (even if the game is one both consoles). There is no way it would work the way you are thinking it would.

Trigger

They got PS1 and PS2 down to one chip... why wouldn't they go backward compatable when it's already built in? They spent the time making it on one chip so they could include it in the PS3. Perhaps their plans have changed in the last year or so, but that was the plan at one point.

Trigger

Games on different consoles are completely different in terms of programming. Not just in terms of graphics, but they have to program differently for the different environments (the operating system that the console runs). Multi-console titles that all release at the same time are developed simultaneously. Sometimes, it's a simple port (and a port isn't as simple as it sounds) requiring only minimal blanket reprogramming of certain things. Some cases, many aspects of the games programming have to change.

PC games do require some special instructions for different video cards, but it's not nearly as complicated as it is to program for different consoles - sometimes a patch that fixes a graphics glitch will make the game perform better on one graphics chipset and cause a new graphics glitch on another chipset. Thankfully, graphics card makers release new drivers often and they are constantly tweaking their drivers to ensure that the latest games and patches for those games run well on their cards. PC game developers don't have to think about it much because they mainly program for the environment and the graphics standard that comes with it - directx. Five or six years ago, games had to carry multiple sets of instructions with them to ensure that they would run on your system whatever card you had. One guy would have a voodoo and another guy would have an nvidia and they were as different as an xbox and a ps2 in terms of programming for them.

joshd2012

I forgot to mention that the backwards compatability will be done through software emulation. The Emotion Engine (the chip used in the PS2) will not be included in the PS3. All processing of PS2 data will be done through software.

flashburn

That is true with some things due to the VU0 and VU1 in the PS2, however, I think that because the Xbox is very PC like, the rendering code might not be nVidia specific.

Trigger

I hadn't heard that... all my info on this is over a year old though, so I'm sure I could be wrong.