Does the 360 Need a Tutorial?

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.torontosun.com/Entertainment/VideoGames/2007/09/02/4464928-sun.html' target='_blank'>http://www.torontosun.com/Entertainment/VideoGames/2007/09/02/4464928-sun.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>""We just got data back that one-third of all Xbox 360 owners don't know that it plays DVDs," said Jeff Bell, corporate vice-president of global marketing for Microsoft's interactive entertainment division, during an interview at the X07 Canada event this week in Toronto. "Seventy percent didn't know there's a USB door in the front, they found the USB port in the back. They didn't know what the (Xbox Guide) button did to the controller. People didn't know how to hook up to Xbox Live." In an effort to take new users by the hand and gently guide them through the 360's garden of delights, Microsoft will begin shipping new Xbox 360s with a welcome video installed directly on the hard drive (or on a DVD-ROM, in the case of the stripped-down Xbox 360 Core), which will automatically play the first time the console is powered on."</i><br /><br />OK, show of hands, who else finds it extremely scary that 1/3 of 360 owners don't know that it plays DVD? Otherwise, I think this is a great idea as long as they let you skip it if you don't want to watch it. My recent 360 setup went pretty smoothly, although I found the Live registration to be kind of convoluted.

[possmann]

seriously - I believe that people really under-utilize the power of the 360 - especially when you are combining it with a Vista PC so you can now use the 360 to stream music, videos and pictures over a TV. The Media Connector feature with Vista is really a big seller for me.
Not to mention everything you can do with Live - WOW!.

[Felix Torres]

Scary?
Not quite.
In a way its sort of a validation of Microsoft's plans to take XBOX mainstream while holding on to the hard core gamers that made the original XBOX a viable platform. (In fact, as of early this year, MS found that 50% of current 360 owners never had an XBOX at all.) What the DVD playback number tells us is that there really are folks buying the 360 just because of the games. No research, no analysis, no nothing. 8)
Just buying it and sticking BioShock in it.
That is not a bad thing at all; as Sony has proven, on a console, the games *have* to come first.

That said, a tutorial should be a good thing, especially delivered on DVD, as with the Core. 'Cause MS needs to get more people aware of the *value* to be found on LIVE; both in the video section and the demos; there are several hundred hours worth of *free* entertainment in the Arcade demos alone. For XBOX to truly succeed it needs to get folks used to the online connectivity and to making the 360 a cornerstone of their entertainmet menu. There was a column in the Official XBOX Magazine a couple of months back where the commentator pointed out that with the 360 he had changed his gaming habits; before, he had to decide what game he was in the mood for before turning on the console. With 360, he found himself turning the 360 on by default and *then* deciding what game to play (if any); whether something from Arcade or from a disk. And often, he ended up not playing at all but instead watching a movie to TV show.

That is where MS has to take 360; making it the default entertainment delivery vehicle in the living room. Folks with home networks and MCE PCs are there already; now they need to get the word out to the people who aren't yet MCE-ready.

A tutorial, if done right, is a good first step.
Step two, though, requires expanding the online media offerings in two directions: on-demand streaming and online music channels.
So far, all we have on the latter two fronts is just rumors...

Would be nice if they got that going before Sony and (maybe) Apple make their next moves.

(I'm keeping an eye on Apple's escalating war with Hollywood; that one is starting to get nasty.)

[Felix Torres]

Hmm, not looking to hijack the thread or anything, but inquiring minds want to know...

1- How much media usage do you guys get out of your 360s?
2- What (kinds of) games (if any) do you guys play on 360?

Me, I'm partial to western RPGs: Oblivion, Morrowind, Jade Empire, KOTOR have all seen time in my 360; a lot, in fact. :oops:
Also, strategic action games like Kameo and Overlord, and more casual stuff like, yes, UNO, plus CATAN, Carcassonne, Zuma, and Bejeweled.

On the video side, I think I've rented maybe two movies on DVD this year, but I'm averaging a bit more than one HD movie download a month from Video Marketplace.

I know I'm hardly typical, but I do wonder how players round these parts differ from the typical 360 owner in gameplay (which is pretty well documented through the best seller lists) and media usage.

Any volunteers?

[Jeremy Charette]

Primarily, I play games on my 360. I do use it play music on my surround sound setup, and lately I've been buying tv shows and renting movies. However, it's about to become a major part of my digital home strategy. I'm ripping every DVD I own to my Vista box in 480p WMV, so I can play them on my HDTV via the 360. I've also ripped the WMV HD files from my IMAX collection, and these look FANTASTIC on the 360.

I'll be using my Vista box as a home media server (w/ media center and 4 tv tuners), and using the 360 for playback in the living room. Every DVD I own will be on the server. I'll get new movies via. Netflix and XBLVM. TV shows on the networks will come OTA via 4 antennas on the roof. Anything not on the networks will come via iTunes, XBLVM, or BitTorrent (when absolutely necessary...ie BBC content such as Top Gear).

Time Warner Cable, kiss my a$$ goodbye.

[Felix Torres]

Time Warner Cable, kiss my a$$ goodbye.

Are their prices that high? Or is the service/quality that bad?

TWC just took over cable in my area (ex-Adelphia) and so far the changes are minimal. While the original service was neither cheap nor praiseworthy, it wasn't annoyingly so. And while I only watch about 10 hours of TV in a typical week, I'm not sure I can go the route you're going just yet.
What I *am* doing is keeping an eye on DirecTV's much hyped but never seen new MPEG4-based HD service and, since I live in AT&amp;T territory, waiting to see how soon U-Verse materializes. At that point, I could conceivable find myself getting all my entertainment from the XBOX...

[possmann]

My 360 is the Media Hub for my family room:
• I use the media extender to my Vista PC and stream slides I have scanned in as well as Photo Albums (I wish they had a more customizable slide show feature) so they display on the HD large screen TV for all to see.
• I watch videos – again streaming from the Vista PC
• I listen to music streamed from my PC to the entertainment center I have in the family room
• I play games – usually FPS (Ghost Recon, Gears, Halo, Call of Duty etc…) – solo and on Xbox Live
• Watch DVD movies – almost every other day
• Downloaded Demo games from Live as well as a couple of TV shows and a Movie – finally the Family Guy is available for Xbox Live!
So I view myself as someone that is a very heavy user of the 360 as a media hub. IN fact my “entertainment system” consists of the 360, a Yamaha Receiver, Bose Surround around speakers and sub-woofer and a Panasonic HD TV – 51 inch DLP. With the Logitech 360 remote everything is a breeze to use.

I hope that the next Xbox system includes the HD DVD (as well as increases the processors and graphics card inside) – I wish that was what the Elite did (sigh).

[Jeremy Charette]

Are their prices that high? Or is the service/quality that bad?

The prices are high and the service/quality are spotty. Better since I finally got a decent service tech to come in and replace all the coax and connectors going into the and in the house, but still not great (in my opinion). For cable service with HD DVR, and Road Runner, I'm paying $128 a month. That's obscene to me, considering I watch maybe 6-10 hours of TV a week.

They also offer cable internet through Earthlink for $30 a month, so I'm going that route, and cancelling my cable tv service. The only things I currently watch that I won't be able to get in real time are Formula 1 (on Speed TV), Battlestar Galactica, and some programs on Discovery, Food, and HGTV. Most of those are reruns anyway, and I can get them on DVD. Everything else I can get OTA or via. XBLVM or iTunes. I'll use BitTorrent for F1 races and Top Gear on BBC.

Admittedly OTA is more convenient for me than most, living just miles from Manhattan, land of the HD broadcasters.

Even purchasing my favorite shows and renting a few movies, I'll surely spend less than $1000 a year. I'd rather spend that grand on a new TV, or a bigger home media server (I'm approaching a terabyte, but I'd like two, or maybe four terabytes of storage).

What's holding you back Felix?

***long quote trimmed by mod JD***

[Felix Torres]

What's holding you back Felix?
Local MLB games; over 90% of the games are solely on cable or satellite.
Only one or two a month show up on OTA and last year not even that.

I don't watch every game but in the summer its a good source of background ambiance while I read. Not that there's anything else worth watching other than the few summer SF shows out there (4400, Dead Zone, KYLE XY); I get a good chance to catch up on my reading (or gaming) in the summer. Right now I'm working my way through TWO WORLDS.

[Felix Torres]

So I view myself as someone that is a very heavy user of the 360 as a media hub. IN fact my “entertainment system” consists of the 360, a Yamaha Receiver, Bose Surround around speakers and sub-woofer and a Panasonic HD TV – 51 inch DLP.

Somewhere out there Shane Kim is doing a bunny-hop dance. :lol:

I hope that the next Xbox system includes the HD DVD (as well as increases the processors and graphics card inside) – I wish that was what the Elite did (sigh).

Don't hold your breath. ;-)
Barring a "homestation"-style 360 box or a quick demise of BD, I don't think MS is going to commit to HD-DVD that strongly any time soon. Not when their primary opposition is Nintendo and not Sony.

There have been rumors of an "Ultimate 360" SKU with an onboard HD-DVD drive instead of a DVD drive, but I doubt it. If nothing else, because the current HD-DVD drive doesn't appear to read CDs and ripping CDs is necessary for custom soundtracks. Also, I don't think HD-DVD drives can't spin DVDs as fast as the 12x drive now in use. Anything less impacts gameplay.

Even if there were new generation drives that read CDs and spun fast enough, they'd have to kill the 20GB Pro SKU, slide the Elite closer to the Core, say $299, and then intro the "ultimate" around $400. That is at least one, possibly two years from being feasible. The Elite would have to drop at least $100, maybe $150, first.

Sorry.

[Jeremy Charette]

Local MLB games; over 90% of the games are solely on cable or satellite.
Only one or two a month show up on OTA and last year not even that.

Yeah, I'm not big on sports, so I don't have a pressing need for cable or satellite. And I'm not willing to pay $80-90 a month to watch F1 for seven months out of the year. Not when I DVR most of the races and watch them later anyway. For that, BitTorrent works fine. And most of the european feeds are in HD, which the US feeds aren't.

A friend of mine is a huge Rangers fan (season tickets etc), and doesn't have cable. He decided the money he would have spent on cable (to watch the away games) will be put to better use at the local sports bar. :D

[Felix Torres]

A friend of mine is a huge Rangers fan (season tickets etc), and doesn't have cable. He decided the money he would have spent on cable (to watch the away games) will be put to better use at the local sports bar. :D

Ooohhhh! Beee-errr! 8O
(With no apologies whatsoever to Homer Simpson.)
Could be deadly to the waistline, though. :wink:

Anyway, I'm not a sports fan in the conventional sense.
As far as I'm concerned, there is but one true Sport and its name is baseball.
Everything else is just "reality TV" of and not particularly enthralling.
I will admit that pro volleyball on TV can be quite enthralling, though not for the gameplay. :lol:
What I'm really waiting for is for MLB to get their act in gear and finally launch the Baseball channel; real sport 24x365. 8)