The Xbox is doomed!

[WinterSnowblind]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6143976.html

Or not. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Release Halo 2 for the PC, builds up hype for Halo 3 which is released around the same time which you have to buy a 360 for. Also the way Halo 2 ends pretty much forces you to buy it's sequel anyway. You also NEED Vista in order to play it. I thought this was a terrible move by Microsoft at first, but on closer expection, it's a pretty good marketing move. This'll make a lot of people get the new OS and want to buy a 360.

 

[Alchemist]

I'm going to stick with 10.5 Leopard for now and upgrade virtual pc so windows runs nearly native... This also shows how greedy MS is, one way or another. :/

 

[Eileen]

Well, Computer games seems to be more addictive and have more features than XBOX games since you can extend it with additional content and you have additional controls...

But it's expensive... but forcing a OS upgrade is not right at all.

 

[The Battousai]

I have a question, does Vista require you to have an HD-DVD drive in your computer. I'm planning on getting a new computer anyway so it doesn't really matter to me (my computer is so crappy that it has problems running mineweeper (I'm being figurative if you didn't pick up on it, I'm just stating that my computer is slow)). It's mainly for school but I'm planning to use it as my next-gen console as well (My brother will be getting PS3 and I'll have a powerful PC. Revolution and 360 are to shaky for me to put money on and that just means more money saved for a computer). BTW Latios how much does Windows Vista ultimate retail for.

 

[Alchemist]

I have a question, does Vista require you to have an HD-DVD drive in your computer. I'm planning on getting a new computer anyway so it doesn't really matter to me (my computer is so crappy that it has problems running mineweeper (I'm being figurative if you didn't pick up on it, I'm just stating that my computer is slow)). It's mainly for school but I'm planning to use it as my next-gen console as well (My brother will be getting PS3 and I'll have a powerful PC. Revolution and 360 are to shaky for me to put money on and that just means more money saved for a computer). BTW Latios how much does Windows Vista ultimate retail for.

Probably $150+....

Computers probably won't require HD-DVD drives for a while, or even if the format is successful.

 

[WinterSnowblind]

But then again, this just proves that Microsoft is willing to bet that their ace in the hole will reep more benefits to bring it to another platform. To me this means if Halo 2 is going to be out for PC, I have reason to believe Halo 3 will, and so on.

I'm pretty sure Vista Home upgrade will cost $99 (XP Home upgrade in 2001 when released was $99. XP Pro upgrade now costs $99, OEM versions cost $150), and for a $60 game, that's half the price of a 360, which I'm not interested in right now. But then again, I'm not interested in Vista Home (I'm setting my eyes on Vista Ultimate), and I don't care about Halo anymore.

Oh, and Microsoft underestimates hackers. The games that comes with Vista got ripped from the beta versions can be played on XP using specialized DLL files. With that note, you don't even need Vista to run Halo 2.

Although they're porting it over to the PC, I'd hardly say they're screwing the Xbox over or anything. It's more than two years after the Xbox release. I'm pretty sure everyone who wanted to play it already has, or at least know's the entire story. And even if they do decide to release Halo 3 for it in a couple more years, that's quite a long time to wait, especially considering how Halo 2 ends. In the same way I could say, why bother buying Diamond and Pearl, a year or two after a better version will be out. But how many Pokemon fans are really going to be willing to wait for that?

 

[Paradox]

Good move by Microsoft, although it can and will be inteperated by the haters of Microsoft as the evil corporation forcing you to get a new OS. I still get ****** off that Microsoft are letting XBox "exclusives" onto the PC, it's the Japanese developers that actually keep them exclusive, seeing as how PC's are nowhere near as popular

Vista's a crap name BTW

 

[The Battousai]

Just a quick deviation from the topic to answer your questions

1. You do not need an HD-DVD drive to run Vista. In fact, Vista was originally sought out to push the 64-bit computing market out, but since a majority of PC users are still in 32-bit ( Give or take 25% of PC users use an Athlon 64, the rest is either Athlon XP or Pentium 4 without EM64T support). You probably will need a DVD drive at least, since ISO's leaked everywhere report the installation disk being some 2GB, and I don't think Microsoft will want to push out 3 CD's. I'm pretty sure they learned their lesson by putting Windows 95 out on 20 some floppies.

2. Vista Ultimate I'm guessing would be $300, but probably $200. Vista Ultimate is supposed to incorporate everything in Professional plus additional enthusiast applications.

Thanks, it's not too much money, about the same as a video game console. I just have one question, do you have to be a "proffesional" to understand how to use the software, or do you just have to read the instruction booklet (Which I'm used to doing BTW. I read all the instruction booklets that come with the hardware and software I purchase)? If you require computer knowledge, could you post links containing information relative to understanding computers.

BTW I thought that 64 bit computers were mainstream as of now. Are you sure Vista will be published for 32 bit processors? If so then I can hold off on buying a new computer until next year.

 

[Alchemist]

What do you mean professional to use Vista? If you can use Win XP home without any difficulty, it's the same except with the features. Professional has stuff in it not available in Home because some users just want more.

 

[Paradox]

But like I said, hackers will make DLL files to get you around it. They did that for the Vista games. It will seem like you need a new OS, but you won't in actuality.

But will the average person know or even want to do that?

 

[The Battousai]

Vista will be published in 32-bit edition. And that figure of 25% was probably lower than it should be. But according to the Steam survey, 47% of people use AMD, 52% use Intel (the 1% is anything else). Considering that the majority of Intel users are int the 2.3Ghz-3.4Ghz range, they are not using processors with EM64T support. Almost all AMD chips you can buy are 64-bit, but none the less, there are still people who use XP or Sempron without 64-bit support. Taking this into account, about 40% of the people who are in this survey use 64-bit PC's. 64-bit isn't mainstream, but Intel and AMD are pushing it to be.

And the difference between XP Home and XP Pro is that professional allows for better remote PC working, network adminstration options, and the ability to set up a workstation network.

Other than that, it runs exactly like XP Home.

Thanks, working with XP home was quite easy, so I don't think I'll have a problem with the proffesional version.

 

[Eileen]

I only use the Professional version of Windows since i'm a power user. Home Edition seems to be limited with my computer use, but my computer is capible of having a EM64T processor, but my current processor does not support 64-bit. So if Microsoft switches to 64-bit in the future, I would need to upgrade my processor to make it work.

*cough*