Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and
Speaker 1: I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Sitting in a crust from me as always the senior writer,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. Now, the way this story ends is that
Speaker 1: they get married and he goes on to become governor
Speaker 1: of the state. Never he gets to Australia, but it
Speaker 1: keeps reading a lot of books about it. I get
Speaker 1: to be sure of this town, and then I go
Speaker 1: on to become one of the most beloved characters in
Speaker 1: Western folklore. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Today we are
Speaker 1: going to have a podcast discussion about a topic that
Speaker 1: comes to us courtesy of a little Facebook feedback you
Speaker 1: And this is from Jackson who says, wondering if you
Speaker 1: guys could do a podcast about the on Live game system.
Speaker 1: Does it work? What kind of games are on it?
Speaker 1: Is it a serious contender and the console market? Thanks?
Speaker 1: I love your podcast, Thanks Jackson, appreciate that. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've talked about on Live a couple of times before.
Speaker 1: But a lot of the discussion we had came before
Speaker 1: the the service actually launched. Yes, you s had at ces,
Speaker 1: did you not? Three three? Yeah? I heard about It
Speaker 1: was E three where I actually got my hands on
Speaker 1: it and I enjoyed the experience. Then, yeah, it was
Speaker 1: kind of neat. The concept is that it's it's Internet
Speaker 1: streamed video games, and not the kind of video games
Speaker 1: that you usually find on the web, like you know,
Speaker 1: Bejeweled or Farmville or any of those sort of things.
Speaker 1: We're talking about the kind of video games that you see,
Speaker 1: like like the hardcore games on PC, Mac and and
Speaker 1: your your video game console systems. Yes, like Slice of
Speaker 1: Death three Assassin's Creed would be a good one, which
Speaker 1: you know, shouldn't might as well be called Slice of
Speaker 1: Death three. I just wanted to say a Slice of Death.
Speaker 1: Slice of Death anyways, that's just making me think of
Speaker 1: a cake or death. I'll take cake alright. So um,
Speaker 1: but but yeah, this is this is a really different
Speaker 1: model for gaming because, um, for the longest time, we've
Speaker 1: been buying games for consoles or computers in which you know,
Speaker 1: you go out, you buy your cartridge or your disk
Speaker 1: or disks. In some cases um, and you pop it
Speaker 1: into the machine. Um. In. In some of the older games,
Speaker 1: you would buy the magazine on the news stand, type
Speaker 1: the code into your machine, have it compile and you
Speaker 1: could run the game. But yeah, I mean you were
Speaker 1: actually buying something and taking it home and plugging it in. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, we have online gaming, We've had it for
Speaker 1: quite some time now, where you buy the game, you
Speaker 1: plug it into your machine, you connect to the internet,
Speaker 1: and you play with other people online. But this is
Speaker 1: a completely different model. It's not even the same as
Speaker 1: buying a game from say Steam and downloading a team machine.
Speaker 1: In this case, the game itself is in the cloud.
Speaker 1: It's in the internet where you are not. You don't
Speaker 1: need to uh put the software on your machine at all. Um.
Speaker 1: In fact, you can run these games on PCs and
Speaker 1: max and also on a little on Live console right
Speaker 1: and then and then the console doesn't require you to
Speaker 1: go out and buy anything either. You This is all
Speaker 1: done online. Yeah. Once you get the console, you just
Speaker 1: hook it up to your router and then you can
Speaker 1: play games. You know, you you hook it up to
Speaker 1: your router, you hook it up to your TV, and
Speaker 1: then you can play these great PC games mostly PC
Speaker 1: games on your television, and uh, it's it's really kind
Speaker 1: of an interesting concept. And here's here's the big draw
Speaker 1: with this concept. The big draw is that the barrier
Speaker 1: to PC gaming in general is that you have to
Speaker 1: keep upgrading your machine in order to stay current with
Speaker 1: the latest games. Well, we've talked about More's laws so
Speaker 1: many times, where the processor speeds continually get faster, and
Speaker 1: in fact they are essentially doubling every months depending on
Speaker 1: upon whom you ask, and uh, game development cycles run
Speaker 1: about actually about that long to years, two to five years.
Speaker 1: So people are developing games and they want to in
Speaker 1: order to sell the living daylights out of a game. Um,
Speaker 1: they want to take advantage of the latest hardware. They
Speaker 1: must on the bleeding edge. Like the idea for most games,
Speaker 1: like we're talking the hardcore games again, is that if
Speaker 1: you turn all the graphics settings all the way up,
Speaker 1: you are going to need the fastest machine that's on
Speaker 1: the market in order to run it when it when
Speaker 1: the game launches, right, So you can still play the game,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to play it at you know,
Speaker 1: you have to dial down the graphics. Most of them
Speaker 1: have settings where you can say all right, Well, my
Speaker 1: processors not as fast as the one that they recommend,
Speaker 1: so I will turn it down now. This this also
Speaker 1: extends the shelf life of those video games, right, because
Speaker 1: it means that you know, three months from now you
Speaker 1: might get the computer that can really run it at
Speaker 1: its at its peak. Yeah. And in my personal experience,
Speaker 1: there is this uh lovely honeymoon right after you buy
Speaker 1: the computer where when you pick up the game box
Speaker 1: in your hand, you look at the system requirements. The
Speaker 1: machine that you just bought beats all those system requirements,
Speaker 1: and you take it home and you have this great
Speaker 1: experience where you get to run everything flat out. And
Speaker 1: then like a year, year and a half, two years later,
Speaker 1: you look at the box like, well, you know, I've
Speaker 1: got the bare bones system requirements. I should be okay,
Speaker 1: and you are okay, but you can't take advantage of it.
Speaker 1: And then you get another year two years later you
Speaker 1: started looking at it like how much do I have
Speaker 1: to turn off in order to play this game? Well, see,
Speaker 1: I think you're being really ambitious with the year to
Speaker 1: a year and a half thing. For me, it felt
Speaker 1: more like three weeks later I suddenly employ the latest games. Well,
Speaker 1: here you know, uh, those of our listeners who are
Speaker 1: long term listeners know that I am primarily a Mac
Speaker 1: person at home, although I have Windows and Linux available
Speaker 1: to me as well. Um, Mac, Mac games and PC
Speaker 1: games are a little bit different because Mac games have
Speaker 1: a lot longer shelf life. Now PC games the the
Speaker 1: If you're a PC gamer, you know that you expect
Speaker 1: to see a game full price for I don't know,
Speaker 1: probably six to eight months really, I would say, and
Speaker 1: then before you know it, it's in the bargain bin
Speaker 1: for ten bucks. Yeah. I mean it makes sense when
Speaker 1: you think about the way the development cycles work, right
Speaker 1: because because Mac computers get updated on a very deliberate pace.
Speaker 1: Yeah they really, it's dictated by Apple. So when you're
Speaker 1: a developer for a video game, you know that, uh,
Speaker 1: at least you have a pretty good idea that you're
Speaker 1: that the hardware is going to remain consistent on Mac
Speaker 1: for a given amount of time. Usually it's a couple
Speaker 1: of years, and really it's probably about two years between
Speaker 1: major updates. So that means that for two years your
Speaker 1: game is gonna run like new on all machines sold
Speaker 1: after a certain date. PCs are like absolute chaos in
Speaker 1: comparison because you have multiple manufacturers, you have multiple UM
Speaker 1: chip manufacturers, so you've got you know, different processors out there. Uh,
Speaker 1: what is going to be the fastest MAC is gonna
Speaker 1: be the fastest MACK for two years. What's gonna be
Speaker 1: the fastest PC is gonna be the fastest PC for
Speaker 1: maybe a month. You know. So with that kind of
Speaker 1: of rush, then you've got the rush to keep up
Speaker 1: in order to play games. We kind of really cut
Speaker 1: off track here, but on Live, well that the thing
Speaker 1: gets around that. Well, yeah, that's the that's the whole thing.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be with on Live. You don't
Speaker 1: have to be caught up in worrying about whether or
Speaker 1: not you have this hardware installed in your machine. You
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about the cost of the game
Speaker 1: on the shelf. Um, what you really need to do
Speaker 1: is worry about the cost of the monthly subscription. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well two things, the monthly subscription in your monthly internet bill.
Speaker 1: That's true because one of the big things about this alright,
Speaker 1: so so online they're worrying about the equipment costs. They're
Speaker 1: worrying about making sure that their machines are going to
Speaker 1: run the latest games at the at the best possible
Speaker 1: UM levels. And then what they do is they're going
Speaker 1: to compress the video that is generated and then shoot
Speaker 1: it to you, the customer. Yeah, that's the trick. That's
Speaker 1: how they do it. They they are compressing the video
Speaker 1: output of these games to improve the compatibility with multiple
Speaker 1: systems and to and cut down on latency issues. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So your your Mac or PC or that little console
Speaker 1: that we talked about, they have within them a decoder
Speaker 1: that will decompress the video as it comes in. Is
Speaker 1: it far Go North decode or um the Uh no, no,
Speaker 1: not that kind of decoder. I'm not that Southern anyway.
Speaker 1: The the the device or the software will decompress this
Speaker 1: video stream so that you can view it theoretically in
Speaker 1: its full glory. And it's based in the framework of
Speaker 1: the interface. Right. So in the case of the PC
Speaker 1: and MAX software, you've got this interface that you use
Speaker 1: to access all these games, and the interface in theory
Speaker 1: will display the game at its highest possible resolution without
Speaker 1: taxing your computer because the real work is being done
Speaker 1: in the cloud. Um, that's not always how it works out,
Speaker 1: because a lot of it depends upon your internet speed,
Speaker 1: your broadband speed, as well as how far away you
Speaker 1: are from the server center that the online server center.
Speaker 1: The further away you are in general, the poorer your uh,
Speaker 1: your experience could be. Now poor is a given, you know,
Speaker 1: that's subjective, right For one person may say if if
Speaker 1: there's even a flicker, like even a hint of an artifact,
Speaker 1: then that the situation is terrible and dire and you
Speaker 1: should never do it and you should just get it.
Speaker 1: You should just spend all the money for a gaming
Speaker 1: PC or a console and stick with that. Other people
Speaker 1: would say, you know what, I'm playing for the experience,
Speaker 1: and an artifactor to every now and then because of
Speaker 1: internet speeds or whatever isn't gonna bother me, and they
Speaker 1: wouldn't call it poor at all. So your your mileage
Speaker 1: may vary, is what I'm getting around to here right now. UM,
Speaker 1: when you were talking about artifact basically, UM, if you've
Speaker 1: watched digital video, UM, I find it true for DVRs
Speaker 1: especially UH and something is moving very quickly on screen
Speaker 1: for example. I'm just saying this as an example, UM,
Speaker 1: but you might see blocky things look blocky or pixelated.
Speaker 1: That's essentially what we're talking about. We're talking about artifacts right,
Speaker 1: that the you would have problems with the images. They
Speaker 1: wouldn't look smooth and crisp. It would look uh, there
Speaker 1: might be some lag time on on the screen. And
Speaker 1: by latency too, I realized I hadn't explained what that means. Um.
Speaker 1: That has to do with your connection, whether or not
Speaker 1: you're making a a fast connection with the servers, if
Speaker 1: the packets of data are being held up on one
Speaker 1: or more of the servers along the route between you
Speaker 1: and the game center. That's what we're talking about latency.
Speaker 1: So um by by compressing the video in the games, basically,
Speaker 1: they're hoping that there will be fewer problems seeing the video.
Speaker 1: The video will look smooth and you won't have a
Speaker 1: lot of issues with the speed of the information because
Speaker 1: a lot of these games that they're they're talking about
Speaker 1: talking about Assassin's creed Um, these are games where being
Speaker 1: behind by just a little bit is going to hamper
Speaker 1: your ability to play the game significantly. Yeah. I've read
Speaker 1: reviews and I have played some online games. I played
Speaker 1: the I played the the PC based ones. Actually I
Speaker 1: think it was a MAC based one was about an
Speaker 1: E three. Uh, they had several stations open and I
Speaker 1: got to try a couple of the things out. Um,
Speaker 1: the lag issue is one that can initially be a
Speaker 1: little irritating. And lag, of course as when we're talking
Speaker 1: about the time between when you tell the computer to
Speaker 1: do something and the time it actually does it. So
Speaker 1: let's say you hit that jump button and there's a
Speaker 1: very short lag. I mean usually the lag is we're
Speaker 1: talking less than a second in most cases. Um. Even
Speaker 1: so we can perceive that that less than a second
Speaker 1: is easily perceptible, and it can throw you off at first.
Speaker 1: But a lot of the reviews I've read have said
Speaker 1: that once you get used to it, it's really not
Speaker 1: that bad, Like you start to adjust for it without
Speaker 1: even thinking about it, So the gameplay doesn't really suffer
Speaker 1: after at least after you've gotten acclimated to it. So
Speaker 1: you can still have a really good gaming session despite
Speaker 1: the fact that there may be a tiny bit of
Speaker 1: lag involved. Um. And I mean I've even played console
Speaker 1: games where controls did not see incredibly responsive. So this
Speaker 1: is not limited to just the cloud. We actually see
Speaker 1: this on native machines sometimes as well, But it's one
Speaker 1: of those things people worry about. Also, you mentioned the
Speaker 1: subscription there there are actually two different models on Live. Uh.
Speaker 1: They call it the play pack plan. Because play pack plan,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be impossible for me to say that it
Speaker 1: is too many ps and els. Okay, so play pack
Speaker 1: plan and the play pass plan, and these two plans
Speaker 1: are one of those subscription based is the play pack
Speaker 1: where it's nine dollars a month to play any of
Speaker 1: the games that are within that play pack library. Yes,
Speaker 1: and and I should also hasten to add that that
Speaker 1: will not be all the games that are actually on
Speaker 1: on Live. It's just gonna be the ones that are
Speaker 1: available in that library. And that's pricing licensing problems there.
Speaker 1: I would imagine that's the big issue because you know,
Speaker 1: keep in mind Online is not making these games, they're
Speaker 1: just making these games available, and they have to license
Speaker 1: these games from the other companies. So you've got that one.
Speaker 1: So you've got the subscription based service nine dollars nine
Speaker 1: nine cents for all you can Eat, But it's from
Speaker 1: like it's kind of like a restaurant all you can eat,
Speaker 1: where the buffet does not have everything that's on the menu,
Speaker 1: but you can eat everything that's in the buffet for
Speaker 1: as much as you want for as long as you're
Speaker 1: there until they throw you out. Now I'm hungry, you've
Speaker 1: been have full hour the the Hey, that's a classic
Speaker 1: comedy routine. The play pass plan is where you purchase
Speaker 1: games and you usually you can purchase them for a
Speaker 1: given amount of time, so three day pass or a
Speaker 1: five day pass, or you can outright purchase the game
Speaker 1: so that every time you lug into your online account,
Speaker 1: you have access to that game. And you may wonder,
Speaker 1: why get a three day pass or a five day pass.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of games out there that have
Speaker 1: a RelA atively short uh a short session involved in
Speaker 1: in completing the game. It doesn't mean that the game
Speaker 1: is bad, it doesn't mean the game is not fun,
Speaker 1: but you can you can get through it within you know,
Speaker 1: ten hour gaming session. Yeah. So let's say that you
Speaker 1: get a long weekend coming up. You may want a
Speaker 1: three day pass to play through that one game and
Speaker 1: just have that experience. And you know it's not going
Speaker 1: to take you all weekend to do it, so there's
Speaker 1: no point in and you know, you know, like maybe
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of replay values to that game,
Speaker 1: so you know, I'll just do this three days. Like
Speaker 1: renting a game, um for others, like you know, really
Speaker 1: really in depth games, you may want a full purchase
Speaker 1: so that you can play it whenever you like. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well it sort of depends on the games to what
Speaker 1: the shorter games the story arcs versus you know, and
Speaker 1: on something like a World of Warcraft which is not available.
Speaker 1: But there are first person shooters that are and first
Speaker 1: person shooters are are some of those games, like especially
Speaker 1: the ones I have online play elements to them. You
Speaker 1: can continually play. There's no end to the game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you may want to you know, maybe a slow afternoon
Speaker 1: and you're like, I want to jump online and and
Speaker 1: you know, snipe some people. So that might be a
Speaker 1: full purchase. So yeah, they've got these these two different plans,
Speaker 1: and not all the games are going to be available
Speaker 1: on each plan, so you're gonna have some overlap where
Speaker 1: games are gonna be available under either and then you're
Speaker 1: gonna have some games that are gonna be unique to
Speaker 1: one plan or the other. So you've got a shop carefully.
Speaker 1: Uh speaking of games, um, the last I read, there
Speaker 1: was something like forty titles available, So that doesn't you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like a whole lot I mean, you've
Speaker 1: got game systems that launched with fewer titles than that,
Speaker 1: But then on Live has been around for a little
Speaker 1: while at least in the PC and Mac. Uh iterations. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, go ahead. I was going to say, if
Speaker 1: you think about it, though, if you compare it to consoles,
Speaker 1: for example, you know, the we the three sixty, the
Speaker 1: Xbox three sixty, or the PlayStation three, I would think
Speaker 1: of these sort of his launch titles for a new
Speaker 1: console system, like it's sort of proving that it works.
Speaker 1: And I have the feeling that as more people sign
Speaker 1: up to the services, that as marketing takes hold and
Speaker 1: more people understand what online is, and uh, they get
Speaker 1: some more reviews in it about because the reviews I've
Speaker 1: read have been generally positive. Um, I think I think
Speaker 1: there may be more titles added to it in the future,
Speaker 1: you know, and they plan on it. They say that
Speaker 1: there are a lot more titles coming already. But um,
Speaker 1: and you make a good point. I mean, forty games
Speaker 1: that launch, especially if if you're looking at the consoles,
Speaker 1: specifically the console online console that just launched out as
Speaker 1: of the recording of this podcast, Um, I mean forty
Speaker 1: titles is is great, especially when you look at some
Speaker 1: of the titles. I mean there there's some big name
Speaker 1: titles in there. There are, um whereas when you look
Speaker 1: at some of the consoles when they launched, sometimes sometimes
Speaker 1: they launched with fewer than twenty titles. And so you know,
Speaker 1: you you buy into it with the knowledge that for
Speaker 1: a little while at least, you're gonna your options are limited. However,
Speaker 1: being said, a lot of those reviews that said positive
Speaker 1: things about Online came with a lot of qualifications. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: For example, it depends very heavily upon the speed of
Speaker 1: your your broadband access. That's true, and we have mentioned
Speaker 1: many times in this podcast that, uh speeds are relative. Um,
Speaker 1: the United States is not a country with the fastest
Speaker 1: broadband speeds in the world. Actually have some figures are yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: According to it depends upon which experts or which which
Speaker 1: company you you look at to see what the average
Speaker 1: speed is. Yeah, and speed we're talking about megabits per
Speaker 1: second here. Uh. Now Online suggests that to play the
Speaker 1: really intense games, the ones that are really graphic intensively,
Speaker 1: you know, Assassin's Creed, that kind of thing, you want
Speaker 1: five megabits per second downstream? Yeah. Uh that's pretty fast.
Speaker 1: That's faster than my internet access. But then I don't
Speaker 1: use my internet access to do online gaming. True for me,
Speaker 1: I could upgrade to a faster service if I wanted to,
Speaker 1: I just don't need it. So, according to net Index,
Speaker 1: the average megabets per second speed in the United States,
Speaker 1: I can't believe this is true. It's ten point oh seven.
Speaker 1: Now at the beginning of two thousands, yes, ten point
Speaker 1: oh seven. The information I've seen from other three point nine.
Speaker 1: That was the beginning of the big the average was
Speaker 1: three point nine eight. But according to now this still
Speaker 1: has the United States ranking thirty second worldwide as far
Speaker 1: as speeds go. And I think the reason why that
Speaker 1: number is so high is because you do have a
Speaker 1: few select markets that have insane data transfer rates, like
Speaker 1: in the fifty megabits per second range. So we're in
Speaker 1: some places megabets per second, which are that's throwing off
Speaker 1: the average because I can tell you that I've never
Speaker 1: seen a speed faster than three megabits per second. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I just get that, I just get three that Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's my maximum. I've never gotten that high, right, I've
Speaker 1: never even gotten to three. My my tests tend to
Speaker 1: be actually tends to be like one point five. But
Speaker 1: there's some regions that get really fast service. Now, that
Speaker 1: was net Index saying ten point oh seven. Uh, speed
Speaker 1: test dot net is slightly different, but not by a
Speaker 1: whole lot nine point eight nine megabits per second. I'm
Speaker 1: living in the wrong neighborhood using the wrong I s P. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and well, while the net Index has the United States
Speaker 1: at the thirty second ranked globally, um speed Test has
Speaker 1: US at thirty three, so we actually drop a place
Speaker 1: in that one the top. Do you want to take
Speaker 1: a wild stab at what the top nation is as
Speaker 1: far as as data transfer rates? Iceland, No, darn would
Speaker 1: have to be South Korea. Then there you go. That's
Speaker 1: it South Korea. I know Iceland is as pretty fast
Speaker 1: broadband too, but yeah, yeah, I mean Latvia is up there.
Speaker 1: So Latvia is smaller than the United States. That is true, Chris,
Speaker 1: thank you for that input. So South Korea, Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that is also true. So at any rate we're talking
Speaker 1: about these these uh, you know, you have to have
Speaker 1: about five megabits per second to have a really good
Speaker 1: experience on online, and according to these figures, there are
Speaker 1: plenty of laces of the United States that do have these.
Speaker 1: It's not US, but some people apparently do. Uh So
Speaker 1: if you do have that high speed broadband and and
Speaker 1: it's it's you know, reliable at at those speeds, like
Speaker 1: you you reliably get five megabits per second downstream or better,
Speaker 1: then this might be a good approach for you. Um yeah.
Speaker 1: I also I think it's interesting when you sign up
Speaker 1: for an account with on live um. There's no fee
Speaker 1: to sign up for an account, and in fact there's
Speaker 1: no contract. So once you sign up for account, then
Speaker 1: you you choose one of these monthly plans or you know,
Speaker 1: for a for a play pass for a few days. Um.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's it's worth trying if you have
Speaker 1: un um an account or a fast enough internet account
Speaker 1: to do that. Now, they're not the only game in town,
Speaker 1: although they have recently secured a patent which was filed
Speaker 1: UM I guess about well actually eight years ago now
Speaker 1: as of when we recording this, it was filed on
Speaker 1: December tenth, two thousand two. Um So you know, they
Speaker 1: they do have a patented process, but there are other
Speaker 1: people who are seeking a piece of this, uh pie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's understandable. I mean again, you're there's there's a
Speaker 1: real appeal here when you don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: upgrading your equipment and someone else is doing all that
Speaker 1: for you and all you have to do is have
Speaker 1: a machine capable of running the interface and that's it,
Speaker 1: plus you know, controllers or whatever. But we're talking about
Speaker 1: you know, their basic equipment. Um, I mean that's really enticing.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they're obviously a lot of other companies are
Speaker 1: gonna want to get into it. And uh and not
Speaker 1: only that, but Online is actually looking into expanding into
Speaker 1: other services that other companies are currently providing. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: when you think about it, um, streaming video. Most of
Speaker 1: the game in this case, that the game that we're
Speaker 1: talking about was um, you know, compressing the video of
Speaker 1: the game. So let's see what other services stream video
Speaker 1: computer or a TV. Yeah. Uh so for services like
Speaker 1: Apple TV, Hulu, um, Netflix, all these different services that
Speaker 1: stream video to devices, computers, handheld devices, all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. Online is taking aim at them, and they're
Speaker 1: planning on delivering video services to customer is as well.
Speaker 1: So you know, they're they're looking beyond just the games.
Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting. I'm wondering how many of the
Speaker 1: video services are looking into getting into games, like do
Speaker 1: it the other way around? Well, of course Netflix is
Speaker 1: available now on the major three current generation consoles, you know,
Speaker 1: the Xbox three, delivering video not not video games, right right,
Speaker 1: So it doesn't seem like it would be a terrible
Speaker 1: stretch for them to be too. They've already got um
Speaker 1: the relationships with the console provider, so it seems somewhat
Speaker 1: logical that they might be interested in doing that since
Speaker 1: they've already got an in row to the game consoles
Speaker 1: and they don't have to develop their own their own hardware.
Speaker 1: Is online has Yeah, I don't know that. I think
Speaker 1: I think it's a lot easier to make the transition
Speaker 1: from video games to video than it is the other
Speaker 1: way around. Oh, I agree with So I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that Netflix has a relationship in place already and I
Speaker 1: and and that may be an attractive outlet for them.
Speaker 1: Of course, there are game rental companies already out there,
Speaker 1: so they might be looking for an opportunity to um
Speaker 1: move into the streaming business themselves on all fronts. It's
Speaker 1: funny how a long time ago we had phone companies
Speaker 1: and cable companies, um, you know, and they all did
Speaker 1: different things, and now all of them are encroaching on
Speaker 1: each other's turf. And it seems like this is the
Speaker 1: same kind of thing that's going on here, where you
Speaker 1: have a company doing something it seems like it may
Speaker 1: not necessarily be in competition with another, and then you know,
Speaker 1: suddenly they are a player in the market. Now, we
Speaker 1: talked a bit about how you know, your devices don't
Speaker 1: need to be state of the art to be able
Speaker 1: to run this kind of a software and access uh
Speaker 1: these games, which uh, I mean, that's my favorite thing.
Speaker 1: That's why I got out of PC gaming, right because
Speaker 1: I got tired of having to worry about updating my
Speaker 1: machine and I went to console gaming because all the
Speaker 1: updates were firmware updates. You didn't have to necessarily worry
Speaker 1: about getting your hardware updated until they came out with
Speaker 1: a new console and then you'd be like, all right, well,
Speaker 1: I'll go and get one of those. Did you see
Speaker 1: what the processor is inside on Live's micro console? Actually
Speaker 1: I did not write that down. What is the processor?
Speaker 1: And it's the Marvel Armada really and it's underclocked underclock. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The reason for underclocking this processor was that uh, the
Speaker 1: on Live said, we don't need a powerful processor, so
Speaker 1: we went with a an affordable processor, and we underclocked
Speaker 1: it so it would generate less heat. So that way
Speaker 1: we didn't need to include a fan inside the micro console.
Speaker 1: So it cut down on the size of the micro
Speaker 1: console even more. And this thing is pretty tiny. I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's um around the size of like cell phones,
Speaker 1: some smartphones rather um and it's bye bye really cutting costs,
Speaker 1: cutting the bones down whatever. You don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about having a bulky system. You don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about making noise because there's no real moving parts there. Um.
Speaker 1: So that that also can be really attractive to gamers. Um.
Speaker 1: Although I should stress that unlike the software that you
Speaker 1: can get for your PC or mac, the console is
Speaker 1: not free. It's to purchase. Yeah, good to know. It's
Speaker 1: it's certainly important to consider when you're making that that leap.
Speaker 1: If you don't have a computer of your own, and
Speaker 1: we're thinking that you just get the console, or you
Speaker 1: want to play on a big screen, you know, and
Speaker 1: you don't have your computer hooked up to your television,
Speaker 1: then this is uh, you know, this is and and
Speaker 1: it also comes with a custom controller that actually kind
Speaker 1: of seems to be like a hybrid of the Xbox
Speaker 1: three sixty and PlayStation three controllers. The the other element
Speaker 1: I would mention about this is that, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's the micro console's brand new. So there are only
Speaker 1: a few review is as of the time that we're
Speaker 1: recording this podcast, but most of the reviews I've seen
Speaker 1: of that have been really positive, including reviews of the controller,
Speaker 1: they say, that's really solid. So, I mean, that's it's
Speaker 1: a really interesting approach, and when you compare it against
Speaker 1: the prices of consoles, it's definitely attractive. Hundred dollars is
Speaker 1: not much when you compare it to other consoles on
Speaker 1: the market, and it's certainly uh, you know, paying month
Speaker 1: to stream games library, right versus the cost of buying
Speaker 1: a new game that you're going to play for you
Speaker 1: know somewhere between twenty and sixty hours. That's something that
Speaker 1: you you would solve, you know where you go, well,
Speaker 1: I've played through the game. Now. You know a lot
Speaker 1: of people I've seen brag on how quickly they can
Speaker 1: solve a game, and I'm thinking, and you just dropped
Speaker 1: sixty bucks on that thing and you've solved it in
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. Their parents drop sixty bucks on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's probably true, but but you know, yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it seems like it's a worthwhile investment. If this is
Speaker 1: if you're a rabid gamer and you really burn through
Speaker 1: titles like this, it's you know, it's certainly worth the cost.
Speaker 1: And if you're a three sixty gamer, then you look
Speaker 1: at this and you think, wait a minute. So for
Speaker 1: for nine dollars and nine cents a month, I can
Speaker 1: play unlimited games and uh that are within this library.
Speaker 1: Keeping in mind that unlimited within the within the realm
Speaker 1: of that library of games, um, and I don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about extra costs. Well with the Xbox three sixty.
Speaker 1: And not only do you have to pay for the games,
Speaker 1: you have to pay for the online online subscription if
Speaker 1: you want to be able to do all all the
Speaker 1: stuff that's on there right right. The thing is, though,
Speaker 1: you're making a trade off if if the the video
Speaker 1: part of the experience, if you're really interested in an
Speaker 1: immersive high definition experience where you've you really enjoy the
Speaker 1: lush graphics and the you know, billions of polygons, um
Speaker 1: this may not be This may not be the service
Speaker 1: for you because it's not the graphics on the online
Speaker 1: the play is the issue. Yeah, yeah, so I mean
Speaker 1: that's it'll be interesting to see if this model really
Speaker 1: takes off, and if it does, it will also be
Speaker 1: interesting to see what the traditional video game consoles due
Speaker 1: to in response to it. If anything. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: the the marketing distribution camps are certainly going to be
Speaker 1: affected by this. I mean, if this becomes the norm, Uh,
Speaker 1: companies that sell video games, retailers will certainly take a
Speaker 1: hit from that, and I would wouldn't be surprised to
Speaker 1: see some pressure coming from them on the video game manufacturers.
Speaker 1: And remember thinking specifically like the embargo on streaming video
Speaker 1: on Netflix, where you can buy a DVD the day
Speaker 1: it's released versus you know, having to wait, you know,
Speaker 1: for a while before it comes out on Netflix. You
Speaker 1: may see something like that, while you can buy the
Speaker 1: game now or you can wait thirty days or sixty
Speaker 1: days and then play it on that But I would
Speaker 1: imagine that online would have real trouble getting first party titles. Indeed,
Speaker 1: so anything that was made from Microsoft Studios, for example,
Speaker 1: it may be really challenging for Online to get that
Speaker 1: on their system, and anything made directly by Sony or
Speaker 1: Nintendo would also be difficult. I was going to say,
Speaker 1: you probably will not see Mario on Online or Sonic
Speaker 1: to be fair. Where also, we really should you know,
Speaker 1: specify we're mostly talking about PC games anyway, so it's
Speaker 1: not like it's the console ones. But these companies console
Speaker 1: or make PC versions of a lot of the games.
Speaker 1: So like, for example, Halo games are available on PC
Speaker 1: as well as on on the Xbox three sixty. Well,
Speaker 1: I would imagine that you would not see that become
Speaker 1: available on on Live because Microsoft has uh ownership of that.
Speaker 1: I p right, And I would argue too that with
Speaker 1: a console. With them offering a console, they're going they're
Speaker 1: interested in the console market as well. So they're probably
Speaker 1: they're probably I think they're interested in the console market.
Speaker 1: But but I think the games P see like, I
Speaker 1: see what you're saying. Yeah, it's going to always be
Speaker 1: the PC version of whatever the game is, Okay. I
Speaker 1: I had just seen that as sort of a characteristic
Speaker 1: of the initial launch releases, and I sort of assumed
Speaker 1: that they might branch out into as many different kinds
Speaker 1: of games as they could. I'm sure that is the case.
Speaker 1: I just I don't know that they actually have. Like
Speaker 1: I think there would be a whole new host of
Speaker 1: problems if they were to try and do actual Xbox,
Speaker 1: PlayStation three and Nintendo games, right, because then you have
Speaker 1: to worry about not just the software but the hardware. Yeah,
Speaker 1: whereas if they're talking about just games that run on computers,
Speaker 1: that part's not that's not an issue, right, So it's
Speaker 1: a fair point. It'll be interesting to see how it
Speaker 1: shakes out. I really hope that, um, that it does well.
Speaker 1: I've you know, I signed up for it immediately as
Speaker 1: soon as it was available, but I have not had
Speaker 1: a chance to take advantage of it because I am
Speaker 1: not one of those people with the five megabits per
Speaker 1: second downstream data transfer rate. So um, I just get
Speaker 1: to look at other people and feel envy. So thanks, um,
Speaker 1: but that thanks is not directed at anyone in particular.
Speaker 1: If I really wanted to, I could change that situation,
Speaker 1: but I just haven't done that. Yeah, when it was announced,
Speaker 1: that was a little skeptical about it, and uh, well
Speaker 1: it has gotten you know, they made a release, they
Speaker 1: have gotten some acclaim. It looks like they are getting
Speaker 1: some customers, so it could definite reasons to be skeptical
Speaker 1: because I mean there was a certain I mean I
Speaker 1: almost a ghost, but maybe a certain phantom that that
Speaker 1: loomed over the whole idea of accessing video games via
Speaker 1: the Internet on a console that left left a sour
Speaker 1: taste in our tech emouves. Um. Yeah, obviously, uh to
Speaker 1: those of us who've been around the video game world
Speaker 1: for a while, the phantom console is the item to
Speaker 1: which Jonathan would be referring if there ever had been
Speaker 1: an actual phantom console and not just a prototype. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the idea itself is not is a variant
Speaker 1: of that. But yeah, I mean it's some it's out.
Speaker 1: It's out for six months now as at the time
Speaker 1: we're recording it's actually seven I guess now. Um, so
Speaker 1: it looks like it will be here to stay at
Speaker 1: least for a little while and may inspire some competition
Speaker 1: and a new model of of electronic gaming. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't see a reason why not to try this,
Speaker 1: at least on a PC or Mac, because you don't
Speaker 1: have an initial investment. You can just play based on subscription,
Speaker 1: and if the service ultimately doesn't work, out. You aren't
Speaker 1: out that the price of that console right like that.
Speaker 1: That's the other big fear is that if the service
Speaker 1: does go under and you the micro console, that micro
Speaker 1: console has now a paper weight. That's true, a very
Speaker 1: small paper weight, but a paper weight on the less Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: they My issues are are also the bandwidth. They don't
Speaker 1: have a connection fast enough to run it. Uh and um,
Speaker 1: the fact that the games that are out now are
Speaker 1: really different from what I'm interested in. I'm more into
Speaker 1: strategy and simulation than there are not a lot of
Speaker 1: those on online, So you'll be looking at things like
Speaker 1: Sieve five. Yes, I would be you know which that
Speaker 1: would be, Like it's been so long since I've really
Speaker 1: updated my PCs that that would be something I'd be
Speaker 1: interested in because I feel like I want to play
Speaker 1: that game, but I'm not really sure my computer can
Speaker 1: handle it. It would certainly be a good way to
Speaker 1: try out games. Oh sure. Yeah, and they've got online
Speaker 1: does have a lot of ways where you can do
Speaker 1: a demo game. Most of the games have a thirty
Speaker 1: minute demo version that you can play for free. Well,
Speaker 1: I think that's a good discussion on on Live. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, we talked about before it
Speaker 1: launched and thought it was a pretty interesting idea, and
Speaker 1: in my opinion has remained that it is an interesting idea.
Speaker 1: Maybe once my broadband gets um sufficient, I will actually
Speaker 1: get to change go from idea to uh to enact. Yes,
Speaker 1: you know, but we'll have to wait. So if any
Speaker 1: of you have any experiences with on live that you'd
Speaker 1: like to share, or perhaps you have a suggestion for
Speaker 1: a topic, or you have any questions, you can let
Speaker 1: us know on Facebook and Twitter are handle there is
Speaker 1: tech stuff h s W or you can send us
Speaker 1: an email that dress is tech stuff at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com and Chris and I will talk to
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