TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

D-Love — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:31:51 GMT

Major, I enjoy your podcasts as I am a subscriber but I have to say on this episode that you two sounded way too much like Microsoft shills in trying to negate Blu-Ray as a factor in the future of Xbox and digital media as well. Digital downloads are good, but NOT true HD. 1080p is true HD, and not a overly compressed version laden with tons of distortion. Some of us have HDTV's bigger than 32 inches in which such flaws are glaringly obvious, especially during fast action scenes. HD downloads simply can't compete with a Blu-Ray movie encoded on a dual layer 50GB disk. Not to mention you can take that disk anywhere you want, unlike a movie downloaded on your hard drive. Digital downloads are here to stay, but optical media isn't going anywhere soon. Both will co-exist. Gotta tell ya something, this rings true for games as well as there is only so much hard drive space available with games like Metal Gear Solid taking up most of a full blu ray disk. I have both systems and downloaded WipeoutHD, great game. I would like to take said game to a friends house but alas it is on my HD. I'm not taking my whole PS3 over there. I'd like to take a tiny disk though, get the idea? ;) The dumbest comment has to be Aaron Greenberg's about lack of content. Really? Every new release is out on Blu and catalog titles are coming from every studio steadily now that everyones on board. Sorry for the rant, but I wanted to put my .02 in on this as I was really shaking my head during this part of the podcast. Looking forward to Gears 2 this fall as well as the new Xbox experience!

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

Squall Tribe — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:35:19 GMT

M$ isn't going to add blu-ray because they want you to overpay for XBL downloadable movies...

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

DeadRabbit4 — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:38:28 GMT

I really want a blu ray and would rather not have to shell out for the PS3, no room in my lounge room

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

player — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:44:18 GMT

Aaron Greenberg will always go down as the guy who said bringing Pac-man CE to Xbox live was some great event of historic importance... It's no wonder they don't let him talk to actual gamers anymore...

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

Med — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:43:22 GMT

Sorry but we want blu ray player, it's inevitable for future

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

PAT2K9 — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:37:59 GMT

Thanks for posting the show Major.

It does sound like we will need bigger & more affordable Xbox 360 drives in the future, but good job overall.

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

Dano — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:17:51 GMT

And why wouldnt the 360 get BR?!?!?!?! Waiting for the next gen of Xbox? I dont get it! Way to go M$!!!!!

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

Kotatsu Neko — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:51:17 GMT

Hey Larry you should have a listen to the second IGN TGS Gamescoop podcast, as it seems the IGN guys saw you and some MS people making something of a fool of yourselves in a Japanese McDonalds... Link - uk.games.ign.com/.../918559p1.html (Roughly halfway through the show)

Firstly, that's bad form to be rude in Japan, and secondly, what on earth were you doing in a McDonalds anyway? Japan has some of the most fantastic restaurants in the world. Last time I was there I had the most amazing sushi, tempura, katsu, raamen, and lots and lots of noodles. Plus eating in a real Japanese restaurant is a great experience in itself, as the staff and surroundings are wonderful.

Oh and as for rubbishing blu-ray, and saying downloads are the way of the future. That's pretty rich given how much you were pimping HD-DVD, and blu-ray looks like it's doing just fine. I was watching some of the very extensive high-def extras on the Indy 4 BD at the week-end, which is something a low quality download won't let me do. Not that here in the UK we'll be getting the Netflix thing anyway, all we get is a paltry selection of Warner Bros and Paramount movies to download.

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

Kyle — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:11:14 GMT

Great conversation :) Is the new Xbox experience as kiddy as it looks?

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

Dancing Dan — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:36:21 GMT

I agree that the future is with digital download content - I enjoyed the 20 minute conversation.

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

CoreOwner — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:11:08 GMT

I just want to know when Microsoft is going to handle us Core and Arcade owners. How are we going to be able to use NXE when they have not announced how they are fixing the storage problem. There is only 38 days left before NXE and nothing has been done yet. Are we going to be left out in the cold? Even if you put a sign-up on the website right now and started shipping this "solution" immediately some people are likely to still be unable to get NXE on Nov 19. Speak up already, when is this getting handled?

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

c0ke — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:24:19 GMT

Aaron Greenberg comes off like a bitter HD DVD fanboy. Blu-ray has a limited number of titles? Really? http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/releasedates.html Seems like every upcoming major studio release is on Blu-ray. Way more titles than on XBL and infinitely more than on Netflix streaming. All in pristine 1080p, most with lossless 7.1 audio. Digital downloads will remain a niche as Blu-ray gradually takes over DVD (10% of the DVD market share so far) where digital downloads will take back seat due to poor quality compared to Blu-ray, excruciatingly long downloads, no physical copy, excessive DRM, lack of portability, metered bandwidth, etc. The strikes against digital downloads keep piling up. Ironic that on the show Greenberg was trying to coin a "Betamax" type term for Blu-ray, when the fact is HD DVD is undoubtedly this generation's Betamax. Heck, Betamax was more successful than HD DVD. Plus VC-1 and all the royalties associated with it as a codec take a backseat to H.264 as Blu-ray gains marketshare. Yeah, if I were a "Group Marketing Manager" at Microsoft I would be poo-pooing Blu-ray too. Bitter tears, Aaron.

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

Anon 4 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:09:27 GMT

re blu-ray: Pretty sure in Australia it's accepted as the new dvd and is advertised as such from many different companies a lot. If xbox brought out a similair blu-ray player to their failed hd-dvd I'd buy it.

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

ahytys — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:06:36 GMT

Nice chat... but seriously... people would like blue ray

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

bart — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:35:28 GMT

OK so if you don't want to make Add on I will get myself stand alone player, i dot see a problem, i can give my money to someone else.

re: TGS 2008: Aaron Greenberg

Christian — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:16:48 GMT

I think MS can release a Blu-Ray addon to X360 which we who got fooled and bought the HD-DVD addon can exchange one for free. :)