The Tale of M and S

[JenSeven]

Oh, Mister Micro and Mister Soft. I get it! (/sarcasm)

That's a mighty elaborate story you have going there, Mister Y. Can you/we/whoever get back to predicting/writing about the future now?

You do realize its Mr. Microsoft and Mr. Sony right? Or is intentionally missing the entire great big obvious point part of the sarcasm?

 

[Juan Regular]

Well if I pay £40 for a good game, say, Bioshock Infinite, I feel that the price I payed was well worth it for the experience I got. If my console lasts me 8 years, for example, that's a lot of games, and if the majority of those were worth playing, the price of the PS4 will have more than payed itself off in the enjoyment I got from the games. In the end, I buy a gaming platform to play games. The experience I get from playing them on PC is marginally better, but not to an extent that it dramatically affects my enjoyment at all, since consoles still perform highly and I'm having a good time either way. Also, next gen games cost the same on consoles as PC, so I'm not sure what you're trying to say with your last point.

That's not entirely accurate. Yeah, a lot of games cost the same initially on PC but prices go down much faster and there are amazing sales of recent games every day. You will eventually save a lot of money on PC. Bioshock Infinite is actually a wonderful example: For around 50$ you could purchase the game for PC on GMG and you got 3 other titles for free (good ones too) and 15$ dollar credit on your next purchase. This kind of stuff just doesn't happen on consoles.
But you're right with the initial price: 400$ doesn't cut it for a next gen PC. I paid around 700 Euros for my new rig and that's without monitor, keyboard and mouse and some other small stuff. But still: In the long run, it's cheaper if you're smart about your game purchases.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Very interesting read. I wouldn't really mind if this conspiracy theory was true.

 

[Talvrae]

Only problem so far the X-Box One still have his most toxic feature.... the Kinnect being forced on to you and it's ability to spy on us... as long as i can't turn that shit off shile still playing i wont buy a X-Box One.... I hav enough of the NSA spying on me don't need to add Microsoft

 

[TheEvilCheese]

Of course it's a false conspiracy but holy hell if I wouldn't read any book that Yahtzee wrote. I mean, wow, that cat can write.

He's got two books out so far, Mogworld and Jam both published by Dark Horse. I'd certainly recommend checking them out.

OT: Really enjoyed that read, can't say I haven't had thoughts along these lines over the last few weeks. I mean, Mr S. didn't do anything significant besides upgrade the hardware and everyone was rejoicing. And Mr M. has had such bad PR I can't accept that they didn't have SOME idea of the backlash.

 

[The Random One]

I already believe Microsoft knew about the RROD and let it go, just so when it went public it could set itself up as a transparent company that went above and beyond the call of duty and owned up to its errors. So this is, to me, super believable.

 

[Agent357]

I feel like this needs a short film to go along with it.

 

[praetor_alpha]

Oh, Mister Micro and Mister Soft. I get it! (/sarcasm)

That's a mighty elaborate story you have going there, Mister Y. Can you/we/whoever get back to predicting/writing about the future now?

You do realize its Mr. Microsoft and Mr. Sony right? Or is intentionally missing the entire great big obvious point part of the sarcasm?

Yes, and yes.

When I first saw the title to the story, Sony never crossed my very wrong mind.

 

[Sledgimus]

I already believe Microsoft knew about the RROD and let it go, just so when it went public it could set itself up as a transparent company that went above and beyond the call of duty and owned up to its errors. So this is, to me, super believable.

It went above and beyond the call of duty by being legally forced to fix things that were it's own fault?

 

[QUINTIX]

This is the kind of weary caution Advanced Micro Devices suffered for the past decade.

Spoiler

Oh wait! That's it!

 

[Mahoshonen]

You know, I read Extra Punctuation to get some extra insight on the gaming industry and culture that I may not have considered.

I do not read it for bad fanfiction regarding a news-story almost two weeks old and hasn't been updated in any significant way.

Easily the worst Extra Punctuation.

 

[RA92]

...And then Mr. N walked by and crop dusted both of them as they sat there wondering why their sandwiches tasted like farts.

... and an hour later, Mulder is standing over the crime scene.

 

[Orekoya]

I dunno, arguing about price always rang hollow. I mean at least say you're too lazy to spend a half hour building your own.

These $400 machines are practically a lie. I've seen some super efficient ones but often times there's a significant catch.

Saying 'X is "practically" Y' is pointless. It only serves the purpose of implying something (usually insidious) with no real conviction of just outright saying it. Example: You're practically a monkey.

Please bear in mind while reading the following that I do have a very new and powerful machine that I built myself and that I am a computer hardware and software tech.
With consoles:

1. You KNOW that the games will be playable on them because they're the standard.
a. There is no driver incompatibilities
b. There is no unsupported video cards.
c. No need to worry about minium RAM or CPU which will go up for the pc but remain the same for the consoles.

Okay tech man. Quick: Name a major video card chip maker that isn't nvidia or radeon.
Name a major cpu chip maker that isn't intel or amd.

The worry of driver incompatibilities or unsupported tech is antiquated. As far as pc today is concerned: install provided drivers, have DirectX. More than likely, you'll never experience this problem. Sometimes and rarely you might need to update the drivers for a specific game to run but that's still a relatively painless experience, most times it doesn't even require a reboot. Certainly less painful than how Sony handled firmware updates this generation. Min requirements do go up (at a snail's pace) for pc but that's because developers are not outright forced to adhere to the locked tech specs of consoles. Even though the min requirements do go, it's nothing so absurd as to what you're implying should be a concern, I mean here are Skyrim's minimum system requirements:
OS: Windows 7/Vista/XP (32 or 64 bit)
CPU: dual core 2GHz
RAM: 2GB
HDD: 6GB hard disk space
GFX: DX9c video card with 512MB RAM
OTHER: Internet Access for Steam activation

The newest technology on this list? Video card circa 2005.

2. The console is ideal for living room gaming.
a. It handles multiple players, something pcs still aren't good at.
b. It's usually quieter than a comparably priced pc.
c. The boxes are usually much smaller than comparable pcs and fit around your computer just like a cable box does.

PCs have their advantages and I enjoy mine. But I spent extra and built a machine that will be great for the next 5 years rather than a $400 machine that will be outdated in 2 years.

That's pretty much consoles sole benefit by design: it's plug and play tech. So yea, it's going to be more ideal for a no-effort living room gaming set up. The benefit of size stems from being a mass produced lump of plastic and not from any conscious design beyond saving money on the materials. As far as multiple players: that requires extra controllers for the consoles. Most pc games will also recognize extra controller input for those that support local multi-player too. The noise of running the machine goes that varies from tech to tech and I honestly haven't bothered to listen to "comparably priced" pc but the hum is unlikely to be heard over any game being played at more than 25% volume.

Going back to touch on size and living room gaming. Here's the size difference between the mini-tower in that first video's example, 360 and PS3:
Mini-tower: 16.5 x 6.8 x 13.9
360: 12.5 x 3.27 x 10.15
PS3: 12.8 x 3.8 x 10.8

The difference in shelf space is about three inches on each side, not that big of a difference. The video card from that first example also has hdmi output. Just slap a wireless keyboard and mouse on that rig and you can comfortably have that comp for a gaming pc on your living room tv just as easily as you would with a 360 provided you have a good lap tray for said keyboard and mouse. Or use big picture mode from steam with a wireless controller.

Here are the points I would've brought up: the time and effort required to set all this up counting the install time of software, minimum skill and understanding needed to actually assemble and maintain a PC (this isn't IKEA furniture and even the best pcs require a monthly maintenance routine), DRM and other software conflicts(usually stemming from firewalls or anti-virus software), overall smaller online gaming community, manufacturer warranty issues and the typically horrible port jobs of console games that pcs tend to get.

EDIT: Before the rest of the smarmy forum-goers come by looking to cherry pick this post for my error in wording to act smug about, yes I understand the mathematics of volume. Shut it.

 

[Two-A]

Sorry Yahtzee but wasting your novelist experience dressing up yet another PC elitist load of BS like the last 3 times does not magically excuse for well making another PC elitist load of BS.

How was that PC elitist? He was just addressing the PR disaster that was the Xbone launch, and how easy it left the road for Sony. There was nothing in the column that said PC was better.

 

[gamegod25]

Conspiracy theory, much?

No it's just a short story.

A fun little story indeed. While I suppose it's possible that they had plans to repeal the DRM later to make them look like good guys, honestly I can't see them being that clever. They aren't evil geniuses, just greedy and idiots.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

It... actually wouldn't surprise me if this was the entire plan all along.

Dammit, Sony, Microsoft, you magnificent bastards! We wouldn't never expected you to destroy one of the two in order to keep these senseless console wars going!

 

[Mr Companion]

Jeez I wish this were true. I wish there was some intelligent design behind all this but Microsoft really are as anti-consumer and idiotic as they seem. We only have to look at Games For Windows Live to see that.

 

[Impossibilium]

In light of recent events, I think Yahtzee needs to edit the story to add in the part where Mr. M explains to Mr. S that to add to the drama, and get back some goodwill, the company that takes the fall will have to sacrifice one of their top executives (and subsequently find him a job in another company that already has PR problems and can handle the extra baggage the fallout from the whole fiasco will bring). Fits into the story quite nicely.

 

[General Vagueness]

well, whatever you think about Yahtzee, I think this shows he can write, he can *really* write