[Diamond]

Originally Posted by Arqentus

I can answer that on the MS part. Yes, if MS was the 'big chief' it will stop revolutionizing & start to "upgrading".

If there is one clear pathern that any company has, thats they become stagnating when they reach a big marketshare position. MS's last big move was windows 95. Windows 2000 was a minor revolution. All the other OS's have been upgrades. Just like Windows Vista is. Nothing revolutionair, just fixes & some eye candy. Every company has this problem, and Sony is no exeption. I remember a Sony meating i attended where they introduced there new PS2 lineup for 2002 if i remember correctly ( been a few years ). Lots of PR, so much it made me almost sick ( one reason i hate going to distributer meeting ... they expect people to be stupit but then again, almost all meeting are like that But thats offtopic ).

The Xbox360 & the PS3 are both inspired by the fight between the 2 competing company's. Sony seems to have made a lot of bad desissions, and is to confident in its brand name. Its trying to much to ride out using its name & a few none ingame rendered movies, and thats the big mistake. Its rather commen in a big company like Sony etc ... It becomes a burocracy. The MS xbox devision woke up, and takes a big strike at sony now. But in a few years if Sony is out for the count, i expect the rolls to be reversed for the xbox460 / ps4 whatever. It heapons a lot. No big competition, or underestimating the competition, and things like this heapon.

Windows Vista isn't even out yet, please don't come to a conclusion even before any information is released about it.

As for Windows Vista, I'm really excited about this. So far this will be the longest they're spent on creating a new OS, as far as I'm aware. I have Windows XP professional and I love it. Any instability I get is because of all the crap I download and all the third party software I've run. I'm equally impressed with the fact my hardware, for all that makes sence, SHOULDN'T be stable. My CPU core runs on 60-70 degrees Celcius average. When I upgraded it to a Pentium 4 1.6 chip they didn't bother telling me I needed a new fan. The pentium 4 chip is 'supposed' to have at LEAST a 2000 RPM fan... Mine is around 500 RPM. This explains the high temperature. So for all that makes sence, my system should be much more unstable than it is.

I've heard rumors that MS wants to incorporate Xbox 360 Live gaming with Windows Vista gaming. I've heard all over from letting you play eachother in multiplayer games to actually porting the games themselves back and forth. Before you go commenting, note that I've already stated I aknowledge these ARE RUMORS. But I like what I'm hearing so far and if it turns out true, that is only a bonus to me. I'm sure I'll love Windows Vista either way, whether or not this added bonus becomes true.

If anyone's going to technologically impress me in the years to come, I'm sure MS takes canditate.

Edit ~

And about that third paragraph I thought I'd like to add that to me, it seems about Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, even though they are in direct competition, they all seem to appeal to different audiences. Sure the Xbox has some kids games, and sure the Nintendo has some more adult oriented games. But they all seem to target specific audiences. For instance, Nintendo has always aimed for the younger audiences. It would seem Microsoft and Sony are targetting the teen to young adult audiences. But in my opinion, Microsoft is the only one who targets older audiences as well.

For instance. On Xbox Live there are many social communities in games like Mech Assault 2 with clans who are in love with the old school BattleTech universe. Are teens or young adults going to get into that? Possibly, however, I find it more unlikely as it is an 'older' thing that originated from the 80's. I could be wrong, and maybe Nintendo and Sony appeal to all audiences, but as far as I can see, MS the only one who can really appeal to older audiences, and that's why I think they deserve to be up there. Games shouldn't just be for young people.

But what if Microsoft comes out as the Big Chief and Sony faulters down into Sega status? Who knows? Maybe Sony will finally wake up and start giving people what they want. But I just don't see it because they've had this long to show they really care about the gaming experience, not the profit. They could have given their fans more than just 'exclusive' titles. They could have given their fans more stable hardware or more throught-out ideas. Sony didn't start out number 1, but even I found their early PS models to be a bit... How you say 'fragile'... I've always throught of Nintendo's as strong consoles, and especially the Xbox. And believe me, I know Nintendo's were built well. First hand experience But I'm not going to get into that.

If Sony learned not to rely on their fanbase or exclusive titles or 'loyalty' without giving a reason to switch over from something absolutely innovative or appealing rather than the "Sony" brandname (which I do believe they overestimate the value of - the brandname I mean), then perhaps they will turn into the new Nintendo, or new Microsoft. But I DON'T SEE IT HAPPENING, BECAUSE they've had over a decade to prove they were cable of more! They're just too arrogant for their own good and that, I believe, is their downfall.

MS believe in that you should get what you pay for. I'd like to see you write a better OS than Windows. Linux and Unix are no exception. They have their problums too. But I'm not going to argue about that. Microsoft has shown, to me, they are capable of working hard to give people an experience worth the money. Xbox Live is just brilliant. It's definitely worth the money and look what they've done to promote it. Displaying it on game covers, handing out free trials left and right, offering downloadable content and news and integration with MSN (alerts). Now look at the 360's Live. Alright, so it will be argued on forever they only worked this hard to make it more appealing, but against whom? They are in competition with NO ONE as far as online gaming goes, and look what they're doing with it!

So that's why I conclude that MS will be able to keep impressing us. From the beginning they've tried really hard, in my opinion, and I've been impressed with what they've been working to offer us.

Thank you (Whew, I'm lucky I don't have writers crap hahaha)

Edit even more: Oh yeah, and as far as backwards compatibility goes. I give them big thumbs up in their effort to pull it back around. And again, I know this will be an arguement to 'keep up with the competition' however, let me just point out that most of us already realize how unnessesary it really is. Sure it's a bonus, but in my personal opinion. I'd rather they put the resources into developing better software in the new system, or increasing the hardware capabilities. But, despite this, they still put in all the work into designing this emulation software just because so many fans petitioned them over it. I can't imagine how much work it takes breaking down the GPU coding and simulating it for every single game. What a pain.

Now that makes me turn around and think: So would Sony have gone this far if it was them in this position? Or would they have called it Backwards Compatible and designed some 1-for-all type of emulation software into their console? Or would they have just declared 'it's because in order to move on to the best technology you have to make sacrafices that would hold you back'...? My expectation is, no, they probably wouldn't put too much effort into it, as software isn't exactly one of Sony's strong points, unlike MS. Still, putting that aside(since I'm talking about pleasing the gamer here), I just don't see it happening.

I'm not sure how Nintendo managed to work it out, possibly because they make their own GPU's? I'm not sure. Either way, I say good job to them and their Revolution.