Anyhow, signs I'm getting older:

Those Time Life music collections late at night keep looking better and better. I'll even watch them sometimes and sing along with the little song snippets they have because they're songs I remember and like.

Some of the attractive people (women in my case) I find myself admiring and sighing over are in their late 20's at the youngest, and are typically in their mid-30's to mid-40's, and one or two might even be 50-ish.

I've come to realize that I, as a man, do indeed have a biological clock and while not on my forehead there is an expiration date on me. Somewhere.

I realize that Bruce Springsteen was a prophet: 57 channels and nothing on.

More and more of the shows I've grown up are on Nick at Night. Not only do I see Bill Cosby on the Cosby Show, but I recall him doing pudding pops commercials, and I remember eating those things!

More and more stuff I grew up with is being remade. Transformers, Batman, Superman, etc. Hell, they're doing a live action Dragonball movie, even @_@

I'm telling folks the TV is too loud.

I'd five times prefer to NPR than the "kids" music.

I'd ten times rather listen to talk an AM talk radio show than the "kids" music on most FM stations (even if it is just my friends' computer radio show on Saturdays).

I'd a hundred times listen to an oldies or ****c rock station than a "kids" station.

I am unwilling to part with $400 for a game system because I've got real bills and other things to spend them on. And even when I've got the money, I'm thinking I'd better hold on to it, just in case.

I've been introduced as "Uncle (insert my real name) at least once. And the kid would actually be young enough to be a nephew or neice.

I realize that, when all is said and done, I'm not even close to be old yet.

Anyhow - off to get showered and cleaned up; going to go see Lisa Loeb tonight!

Story here.

Just read it. I can't really say any more than they have right now. Its really amazing, if not inspiring, to see one of the most loathed, reviled developers/publishers going back to their roots where the developers were important, were "rock stars."

When some of the best, big independant development companies out there are signing up with EA to distribute their games? That's really saying something. A few years ago this would've been unthinkable.

Or dislikes ads. Or microtransactions. Or subscriptions.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/deering-just-three-ten-games-recover-their-costs

http://www.developmag.com/news/30312/Gaming-audience-will-hit-25bn-by-2011-says-Deering

(Former Sony CEO Chris) Deering said that currently only 3 in 10 games recoup their development budgets. And that trend will continue in a future where an array of companies, such as mobile networking operators, cable, satellite and DSL operators plus TV networks and many others "will be in the competitive array". So developers will have to turn to new revenue sources to cover their losses.

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That's sad. That's really sad. I wonder who's writing off how much every year in losses? I wonder who's having to cut losses as is? I know Midway is having some crappy times right now, for example...

I was looking for something and remembered a little something. Something Sony warned us about. Something that hasn't come to pass, and hopefully won't.

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In a recent interview with US consumer magazine PSM, Hirai was quizzed on the price point for Sony's next-gen software in comparison to the current retail cost of games on Microsoft's Xbox 360.

"Generally speaking, over the past twelve years or so, there has been a consumer expectation that disc based games are maybe US$ 59 on the high end to US$ 39 on the low end," Hirai stated.

"So, what I can say now is, I think it would be a bit of a stretch to think that we could suddenly turn around and say PS3 games now US$ 99.99."

Although there were no direct figures quoted, Hirai went on to say that Sony will be making its next-gen software "as affordable as possible," but suggested costs could rise from what consumers are currently paying.

"If it becomes a bit higher than US$ 59, don't ding me, but, again, I don't expect it to be US$ 100," he concluded.

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http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3151823

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-exec-hints-at-ps3-software-pricing

http://news.spong.com/article/10311?cb=375

So far regular games are no more than $59.99. Anything higher than that? Either you're getting ripped off or buying a Collector's Edition with a lot of cool stuff.

So my question is - what if, and only what if - PS3 games did indeed cost more than the going rate? How much would be "too much" for you? $5 more? $10 more? $15 more? What would be required to make that tolerable? Exclusivity? A vastly superior version compared to other platforms?

I'm just curious, really. I know a lot of folks including myself aren't overly thrilled with $60 games as-is. Yes, they're quite often amazing pieces of work, but a game is a game, after all. I'm sort of wondering if Sony was worred about that this generation, might it happen next generation? Or will the industry have moved to other revenue models rather than risk out-pricing their products? John Riccitiello believes the $60/game pricing model will be obsolete in 10 years. Is he onto something when it comes to consoles? I mean, there are a plethora of revenue models for free and cheap games on the PC after all, but there's still the normal $40-50 retail boxes too...

Two million shipped worldwide after its first week.

While not a sell-through number (ie, actually purchased), this is quite impressive. Why so many? Retailer demand. Had it been only on the PS3 or 360? Go ahead and at least halve that number. Once again - numbers impossible for most titles on only one platform are possible on two.

As a fan of the series, its great to see that the best fighter for the Dreamcast is still going on; its legacy available for everyone to enjoy. Given that VF5 was cross platform, now Soul Caliber is again (SC3 was PS2 only), maybe we'll see Tekken go cross-platform too.

Just read this.

Its a bit old; back from April. You know what? Wow... I knew some of the details concerning Stardock's Impulse platform, but just to have read this? Wow... Very wow. It pretty much wraps up together all the things I like about Stardock as a company, and the things about Impulse that excite me, all in one interview.

Brad Wardell is probably one of the lesser known people out there, but I'm a huge fan of his. Massive fan of his. I'm pretty sure a lot of you know this by now. But I look at this and see a lot of "win" for a lot of people involved in PC gaming, both players and professionals. Great stuff. And Capcom has Stardock lined up as one of their digital distribution partners to boot.

I don't expect Impulse to jump ahead and devour Steam or anything, but simply put? I'm glad they're there for others to look at and improve off of.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/20047

Some things I found interesting:
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The PS3 version of Rage might indeed be the better version, but Carmack isn't thrilled with that. He feels the 360 is the better platform, and people won't realize that they (id) had to work twice as hard to get the PS3 version to be as good as it should be. Because of the disc issue, the PS3 version may end up being the better version and people will likely think the PS3 is the better machine, which is a view that Carmack disagrees with.

Microsoft discourages multi-disc games, and charges an additional royalty for additional discs on top of the basic media fees. This can discourage developers from shipping multi-disc 360 games to have competitive data amounts with Blu-Ray.

Carmack views Blu-Ray as the only real advantage the PS3 has over the 360.

RSX < Xenos (the 360's GPU). Some of that is because RSX is decended from PC hardware "with half its bandwidth cut off."

Given all the time you want, Cell can be better than Xenon. Otherwise, Xenon much easier to work with when time is an issue. Roughly equivalent. Cell (not including the SPE's) is roughly equal to a single core of Xenon. The SPE's and the two other Xenon cores are where things are more interesting.

The PS3's partitioned memory is a bit of pain, and their "system stuff" uses more resources than the 360's. "So memory is much more painful on the PS3."

The PS3 held up the release of Quake Wars, partly because its version was "lagging behind," but also because Sony won't let you release a game on another platform first without enhancing the PS3 version. Hence the 360 version was held back so they could be released at the same time ("political vendor stuff").

Quake Wars was a good lesson on how not to do things for id, and they're taking what they learned to make Rage work out better.

-----------

I like Carmack because he call things as he sees them. On top of that he's a big believer in Open Source - to the point where id releases their old graphics engines as open source! Openess is good - I remember reading once where he found some Linux drivers, found an error, fixed it, and uploaded the revised driver for everyone to use and enjoy. Seriously - the guy really gives back in a way I'd love to see more people and companies emulate.

At anyrate, his talk isn't a win for fanboys of either side, since he pretty much has issues with both the PS3 and 360. A pro for a system has a counter-balancing con with it. For those of us more interested in the industry, how things work, etc., this interview is just plain'ol interesting, I think.

Today I got an email from the local Mac User's Group. Its nice in that they periodically get deals, rebates, etc., and pass the info along to members. One of the specials was for the Mac version of the GeForce 8800 GT for 1st generation Mac Pros, normally selling for $279, but with the referal code would only be $199.

That's great, except:

1. The 8800 GT came out last year.

2. Windows owners can go shopping from a variety of card-makers from a variety of sources, getting the exact same product for a lot less. Newegg has a PNY card that's normally $169, but is selling for $159.

3. 1st generation Mac Pro's don't do SLI. In fact, as far as I can tell neither can the new ones.

So, the normal price of a GeForce 8800 GT for Mac is a horrendous rip-off, and the sale price isn't competitive either, but Mac owners have no real choice in the matter. I use both OSX and Windows, and this is really the main reason I'll never completely convert to Mac hardware, even though I can run Windows on it; no freedom to choose and no competition. If Apple decides I don't need something, I'm not going to get it. The worst thing is I'm sure Nvidia and ATI are perfectly happy with the situation; I'm sure they've got a nice little arrangement with Apple to maintain this duopoly.

Windows is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but at least I can say I can most anything I want. I might not have the total freedom of Linux, or the "perfection" of OS X, but I'm certainly in the sweet spot between the required technical savvy for Linux and the "benevolent dictatorship" of Apple. And unlike those stupid "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads? I know how to keep my Windows machine running trouble free.

Editorial/Rant here.

I'm a Brad Wardell fan. Its no secret. I've quoted him about as often as any major name in the gaming or computing business, and every time its for how to do things right. His company, Stardock, was tapped by Dell to create a dock for their computers. Upon that being revealed the accusations "OMGRIPOFF!" began to fly.

Anyhow, Wardell got wind of that (obviously) and got a leeeeettle peeved. Hence? His editorial/rant above. Its a nice history lesson and a bit of a rant, but I can appreciate it :)

Story here.

*heart attack*

Oh, this thrills me. I might have to fire up Gears' multiplayer soonish now. You know... to get pwnd like the n00b I am. It gives me some faint hope that the 360's Live Silver will get some basic online play, too. Why? I don't know - it was just a gut, knee-jerk bit of hope. But who knows? Microsoft really needs to start building on this and that old concept of "Live Everywhere" that seems to have fallen to the wayside.

I would reeeeaally like to see Sony come up with some similar initiative (ie, a PC/PS3 multiplayer platform), but I sincerely doubt that would happen. Now, some PSN games that could be played online with PS3 and PSN games would be nice. Not everything needs to be in HD or have twitch reflexes like those of a paranoid chihuahua on crack, after all.

For example: could Maplestory be pulled off on the PSP? That'd be cool; PC, PS3 and PSP players all together... or hell, Gametap. Seriously; Sony is never going to kill off homebrewing/pirating on the PSP, so they might as well provide a legal recourse for folks just wanting to play old games. I'm sure Turner won't mind having their market expand, either