Xbone sets new Pre-order record... at Blockbuster?
- Thread starter Zeh Don
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I wonder, how long has Blockbuster been selling hardware? They've pretty much alway sold used movies (mostly ones they were done with), and a few new ones, but it's mostly a rental place, and I've never heard of them actually selling anything but software and snacks. If they've only been taking hardware pre-orders since, say, the WiiU launch, then this isn't saying much.
This is Blockbuster UK, who are separate to the now dead Blockbuster America, but they're circling the drain mighty fine as well.Zeh Don said:
Really this is desperation, Blockbuster are nobodies as far as gaming sales go, not all of their stores even sell hardware and they only got into it right at the death of the PS2 and in time for the PS3 launch. Also, £20 deposit? Nobody else is doing that right now, so maybe they're cleaning up bargain hunters.
If it were Game, Asda, Tesco or Currys reporting records tumbling that would be news, but Blockbuster? That's like saying record sales of your Gran's home made cards because the shop down the road sold ten last week.
Captcha: Harp On... lol
I thought Blockbuster up and died after nobody came to bail them out after they filed for bankruptcy.
Guess someone quietly bought them up.
And if those pre-order numbers are valid and substantial, it's only more fuel for backlash when the Azure Cloud fails or they realize the sudden practical lockdown of the games they bought.
I'm not going to feel sorry for them either. Their ignorance is their fault.
M$ should have stuck with the Infinity.
Guess someone quietly bought them up.
And if those pre-order numbers are valid and substantial, it's only more fuel for backlash when the Azure Cloud fails or they realize the sudden practical lockdown of the games they bought.
I'm not going to feel sorry for them either. Their ignorance is their fault.
It's not so secret if we've been doing it since the day of the reveal.Adam Jensen said:
M$ should have stuck with the Infinity.
Perhaps you're a bit spoiled because of the relativity, but many people are surprised for a good reason. They went bankrupt in 2010 and were pressured by the US government to liquidate most of their assets. Now, 3 years later in 2013, they were bought out by Dish Network and have roughly only 500 stores left in the US. While 500 may be a lot and it's certainly not a Circuit City scenario, it's that much less of presence considering just three years ago there were 3,300 stores, and that most people consider Blockbuster obsolete because of Netflix and Redbox (both of which contributed greatly to Blockbuster's downfall).Exius Xavarus said:
OT: I don't see any numbers, so it hardly matters.
I don't have anything beyond that article, which, while it is true that companies patent things all the time they do not use, they also have to patent things they are going to use, and since the exact nature of how the Kinect will function on the Xbox One is still a mystery, because Microsoft keep responding to everything with we will address this issue later it is still a valid concern at this point. It's fully possible it will be given an off switch that can be activated at any time, but it doesn't look like it, and the worst case is that Microsoft could totally use it to gather brand name recognition data or even key word recognition data, or could even potentially lock a person's profile/game/movie/music to their distinct face recognition, and disable the console if others try to use the game, or are simply present in the room. That is a possibility at this stage, and with the off-the-cuff ability of companies to alter their terms of service conditions to borderline illegal levels this could even become a thing in the future once millions of people have bought them.MrWunderful said:
I'm afraid it's a bit beyond my tech knowledge to say for sure exactly if it is possible or not, but then again Microsoft haven't really been giving us any details, just vague statements.MrWunderful said:
This thread is full of good debates on the subject: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.408989-Jonathan-Blow-Microsofts-Cloud-Server-Claims-Are-Lies?page=3
And the consensus appears to be that you cannot send calculations away to a processing cloud server and have it return in a fast enough time to keep a game at anywhere near a decent framerate.
I'd imagine all the Kinect processing is included in the 3 gigs of RAM that is set aside with the Operating system, so it wouldn't have to be Cloud computed, otherwise yes, having to stream live video to a server and interpret it there, then send it back would actually be impossible for all but the highest internet speeds
Dandark said:
Or because as a home entertainment unit for non-gamers, it's actually really good, and the media are treating it as such?
Well, Microsoft DO have enough money to buy the entire nearly dead company, never mind a few bogus reviews.
I really didn't think these guys still existed, I thought they went the way of the Coin-Op Arcade (Outside of Japan)
I really didn't think these guys still existed, I thought they went the way of the Coin-Op Arcade (Outside of Japan)
Cloud is interesting in that it works as long as everything suffers from the same delay, causing everything to sync up nicely. OnLive, for example, runs the entire game on it's servers, and streams a highly compressed video back to the user - making it kind of ok, but not for a game reliant on reflexes.Bad Jim said:
However, the Xbone runs into the problem of syncing everything up. If I'm running my game at 30FPS on my console, then the Xbone's Cloud Servers need to sync that information 30 times per second with my console - which it physically cannot do due to the bandwidth and speed restrictions.
Unlike OnLive, where everything is calculated on their end, splitting the calculations across two devices basically removes any and all realistic uses for this technology. Anything that's calculated once at run time - hard baked lighting, for example - could be. But, then it can't interact with real-time lighting, meaning it serves no purpose to the gameplay.
It's basically one giant lie, that at best will give you marginally better lighting in some games - however, then you're introducing an Always Online Requirement into that game, or basically no benefit.
Zeh Don said:
Wot. They don't exist in the US anymore, but apparently the UK still uses them? AND they sell consoles that don't exist yet? Weird
I don't think a lot of people hear about the rumors behind it when stuff about the xb1 gets reported on tv. I've seen the escapist referred to as an "Internet gaming tabloid" and that's true to an extent. But how do you think people will react if they find out some of these rumors are true after they bought the console? I imagine people would get pretty pissed. And I could see these things reported on consumer reports which in turn is shown on local news. People will get the whole picture eventually
I agree to an extent. A home theater pc that can be controlled with just your arms? I could see people spending money on it and being excited for its features. Its all the rumors that are scary. 24 hour check-ins (IF Microsoft keeps them) being the big one in addition to the overly complicated install process. The best you can hope for that the system for playing games based on installs works the same as it did with disks but you can never hope this system will ever be as simple as "you have a disk, you can play it"Tom_green_day said:
I guess this is all just to remind us there's a world outside of our geek bubble that either doesn't know or doesn't care about whatever issues the Xbox1 might have, and simply want to buy a new console.
I've been talking to gamers in my extended family, who nicely fit the 'outside the geek bubble' demographic, and with the exception of one cousin who works for Gamestop, there's *no* awareness of the online requirements or used game shenanigans, (about half of them were no longer interested once I told them though, the other half are seriously thrilled for voice and hand gesture remote control).Casual Shinji said:
Wait Blockbuster still exists? Damn, I guess they just said screw Canada then. Which is why I have to buy games now instead of renting them and testing the waters.