This was supposed to be the “high definition” generation of gaming. That’s what it brought that was new. 16:9, 1080p, all that. But four years on from the release of the 360, we’re anything but.
Sure, you may game on a HD set. I know I do. But in an interview with Eurogamer, Epic’s Mark Rein has revealed that “Over half the users who played Gears of War 2 so far do not have HDTVs”.
That’s, uh, a lot. Millions of people. No wonder these console manufacturers keep banging on about a ten-year lifecycle; it’s going to take that long for people to upgrade to an HDTV.
Epic’s Mark Rein [Eurogamer]
Korwin
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 7:50 AMThat and most games run at 1280×720 (720p) or less and are then upscaled…. and run at a meager 30fps. I stopped using resolutions that low on my PC 6 years ago. An even then I was running the games at the time at 60 fps or greater :P
Steven Bogos
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 8:19 AMWho gives a shit about Lowest Common Denominator casual gamers? Any serious gamer has a HDTV, any gamer that has bought the playstation since PS1 has a HDTV, so stop jerking us around and making us wait because retards who watch ‘So you think you can dance’ and listen to the Jonas Brothers are too stupid to upgrade
paulus
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 9:11 AMI can guess who gives a shit about ‘Lowest Common Denominator’ casual gamers: Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony.
If more than half of the people playing GOW2 are still playing on a set that has CRT-like resolution that’s a massive part of the big three’s market share they have to accommodate for. And, anyway, how does it affect YOU? You still get your high-def graphics.
One last question: stop ‘making us wait’ for what?
Nath
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 9:24 AMAmen to that
Matfei
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 9:27 AMWell if you’re keen on dishing out another 600-700 on a new-model xbox already, you’ve got too much spare dosh.
I only just adopted last December, so I’m perfectly happy with the news that my recent investment still has a fair amount of kick in it. I’d like to see the 360 last until 2012, even.
paulus
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 11:39 AMHell yeah. Look at what was achieved on the PS2 when it was eight, nine, 10 years old.
The only aspect of the 360 I’d like to change is storage limit afforded by the DVD drive. Of course, a change like that starts a whole new debate about upgrades and splitting the market up into ‘have upgraded’ and ‘have not’ . Maybe MS could implement more storage to be used on the HDD, or perhaps on USB drives? A topic for another time.
Sagarat
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 11:53 AMdid you read “Over half the users who played Gears of War 2 so far do not have HDTVs”?
By “Lowest Common denominator”, you actually mean the majority of customers.
and by “Real Games” you actually mean neich clients.
Also, game developers/publisher NEVER look at people as ‘games’. To them, you are simply a minor demographic in their target audience. Life sucks, but then you gow up.
Nath
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 8:29 AMFail on the “I know I do” link
Nath
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 11:28 AM…which has since been fixed, making me look like a fool :p
RUFiO
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 11:45 AMBuying into LCD/Plasma TV’s can be expensive and hard to justify if your current CRT does the job. I’m buying my first HDTV today. KDL40Z5500
who am iiiiii
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 12:15 PMHDTVs make standard def things (eg. PS2, wii) look like crap. CRTs still look fine.
Mark
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 2:57 PMDepends on the quality of the TV. Some will change resolution for standard def inputs so that it looks the same, rather than upscale your image and make it look like crap.
glennc
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 4:27 PMHD plasma is better for SD than HD LCD. Don’t know why, doesn’t make sense to me but that is what i have read. One of the reasons i bought it and it looks fine, no different to my previous 32″ CRT.
the biggest difference for me was going from RCA to component on my old CRT with the wii. i actually changed it back to the RCA cable because the trade off was not worth it. the jagged edges were too much for me. the problem is the wii not the screen… no AA.
Taylor
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 12:40 PMThe massive majority of a brands users will be light users of the brand (people who don’t buy heaps of software or play games heaps for instance). Therefore, Sony and Microsoft have to wait for these consumers before they start locking them off with full HD games.
How ever, i tried playing my ps3 on a SDTV, and it looked like poo. I couldn’t even read any of the in game text it was so bad.
afh1430
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 5:20 PMi dont have a HDTV not for lack of want its just they are expensive as hell
CloneTrooper
Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 1:31 PMYeah I dont have a spare 1 to 2 Grand laying around that I can use to go and buy a brand new TV.
Being a student sucks…so I’m stuck with the 19″ WS LCD Monitor I got 2 years ago when I had a job -.-