Ok...so. Hex 168

[schild]

Gamespot is reporting in the rumor control section that Hex 168 (the viral campaign I mention up in that little newsbox in the corner) might be the release of WoW for the 360. I guess that would count as a killer app. AND IT WOULD FUCKING RULE. Why?

They'd have to release a mouth MOUSE and keyboard for the system.

Do I think it's true? Hell no.

[Merusk]

They'd have to release a mouth and keyboard for the system.

Witness Schild's Freudian slip in longing for a functional FU-FME interface.

Seriously, dude, that's a hell of a typo.

Now, in the spirit of remaining on-topic, I've heard "wow will be on the 360" rumors for a month or two now.  I don't believe it any more than the rest of you.  Seems kinda bass ackwards to back Vanguard and then bring your biggest competitor into the scene as well.  Particularly since I don't see Blizzard giving MS any of the monthly fee.

[schild]

Muaha. Mouth and keyboard. That's good. And you all wondered why I never wake up this early.

[Trippy]

Given that they have ample PowerPC experience via their Mac port it's not out of the question, at least technically, and WoW's eminently playable on a GF4 MX-class setup so they wouldn't even need to spend a lot of time tweaking the graphics and CPU performance of the game.

[Margalis]

Wouldn't surprise me if it were true. But I wonder how many copies they would move that way? Part of the point of WoW is that it ran on low-end machines.

I hope it IS true just to fuck everyone who bought the system without the hard drive.

[Yegolev]

Given that they have ample PowerPC experience via their Mac port it's not out of the question, at least technically, and WoW's eminently playable on a GF4 MX-class setup so they wouldn't even need to spend a lot of time tweaking the graphics and CPU performance of the game.

I am going to take a guess that the Power chip in the X360 doesn't exactly match the Mac one, but as I have said before I don't read up on those applications of the architecture.  I just know that there are major differences in the two main versions we use: Power4 and Power5.  Of course, if you use IBM's compilers you shouldn't care too much since it knows the differences.  Isn't XNA supposed to abstract this sort of thing on the 360?

It would explain why the node-loot-bug hasn't been fixed, though.

[stray]

Well, Power shouldn't be confused with PowerPC. I don't know all the details, but basically, it's only based off of Power...And that was over a decade ago. It's got as much to do with Power at this point as x86 does.

As for the X360/Mac differences...360 games and software are being designed on PowerMacs, so I think it's safe to say that they're close enough. I do know that PowerPC's can differ radically even amongst themselves (partly due to Motorola and IBM going their seperate ways on the architecture).

[MrHat]

lol, way to get all the people who aren't already playing.

[AOFanboi]

I am going to take a guess that the Power chip in the X360 doesn't exactly match the Mac one

Weren't the E3 demos running off G5 Macs? I seem to have read that.

[sinij]

Well guys welcome to the next 10 years while everyone clones EQ/WoW. On a positive note, at least it wasn't Sims On Line that hit it big.

[Fabricated]

I would actually be impressed with Microsoft if they pulled this off. It'd take a lot of hand optimizing to assure a reasonable framerate for raids and the like though unless they want to include the ability to change graphic quality on a console.

Casual players without a keyboard and mouse would be at a pretty severe disadvantage, and I doubt MS would be too keen on letting the UI stay moddable due to the potential for system exploits and the like.

[Kail]

Casual players without a keyboard and mouse would be at a pretty severe disadvantage, and I doubt MS would be too keen on letting the UI stay moddable due to the potential for system exploits and the like.

I don't even know how you'd play the game without a keyboard, even without worrying about chatting.  There isn't a class in there that needs fewer than, like, eight hotkeys.  My Shaman's got something like fifty different spells, not counting multiple ranks of most of them, and he's not even at max level.  Are they going to make me wade through menus three layers deep every time I need to hit my ~Fear trinket?  And selecting targets with a joystick would be a mess.  I don't think this is very likely.  Even if the 360 can run the game, I seriously can't think of a workable control scheme that doesn't use a keyboard and mouse.  Which, I agree, would mean that they'd (hopefully) have to develop one.  But since I doubt the crowd who paid $100 extra for the version of the XBox with "Everything" would be too keen on hearing "Oh, wait, you need this keyboard also, U GIEV MOAR MONEY$$$ NOW LOL," it seems unlikely that they'd do that.

[Sky]

I would actually be impressed with Microsoft if they pulled this off. It'd take a lot of hand optimizing to assure a reasonable framerate for raids and the like though unless they want to include the ability to change graphic quality on a console.

I disagree. It's got pretty beefy specs.

As for interface, it could happen. Use triggers to cycle through hotbars, voice chat rather than text chat. Or white/black to cycle through menus and triggers for target cycling (not sure on the 360 controller since I don't read the hype). Hell, it sounds better than the pc version to me...

If true, it would piss off a LOT of people who don't get the hd bundle...

[Miasma]

I guess the viral marketing isn't going so well.

Current-generation Xbox sales have slowed ahead of the launch and Microsoft cautioned that early Xbox 360 sales would not be as high as expected, sparking an initial sell-off in the company's shares.

My favorite part is the spin they are putting on missing their sales numbers, "Selling fewer boxes is better!".

Edit: Oh yeah, as an aside they also threatened to smack around South Korea today. Balls.

[schild]

Is viral marketing working too well? I know a ton of people who, after the recent E3, refused to get an Xbox and said they'd just wait til the 360. By ton I mean maybe 20-30.

[Jain Zar]

Good.  I figure itll get cheaper faster that way so I can play that Namco zombie game where you get to clothesline zombies in malls and such.

Im not hoping for N gage levels of bombdom, but 250 for the full HDrive system a couple months before PS3 launch kind of "failure".

Im an N Gage QD, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Turbo Duo, Dreamcast, and Saturn owner.  I enjoy niche systems.

[stray]

Boy, do I hope it crashes and burns.

Maybe Sega will come back then (and hopefully wise enough to not crash and burn again themselves).

[Rasix]

Maybe Sega will come back then (and hopefully wise enough to not crash and burn again themselves).

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA.  That was good.  Whewww..

[stray]

They still have better games and franchises than anything Microsoft can come up with. And they were more successful at the console game, for a longer period of time, than Microsoft has been. MS hasn't proved much of anything yet. Why not laugh at them instead?

[SurfD]

Sega should stick to makeing Games.  Fewer consoles, more Game developers.  This is a Good Thing.

[HaemishM]

$400 consoles just don't sell too well, no matter how much fruity, shiney shit you put on the front, or how many celebs you get to pimp it.