WEBVTT - How Video Game Systems Work

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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<v Speaker 1>tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hey there,

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<v Speaker 1>and welcome to the podcast. This is Jonathan Strickland, I'm

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<v Speaker 1>a writer for how Stuff Works, and with me is

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<v Speaker 1>Chris Pollett, Editor extraordinaire either and we're gonna give you

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<v Speaker 1>a quick update on some of the video game systems

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<v Speaker 1>that are out right now. Because of the Electronic Entertainment

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<v Speaker 1>Expo that's going on, there's been a lot of announcements,

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<v Speaker 1>so we want to catch you up on what's going on. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>this year's E three is It's known is UH scaled

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<v Speaker 1>down a bit from years past where the public was invited.

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<v Speaker 1>It's more of a UM press and industry only event.

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<v Speaker 1>But this year's big story is that there's really no

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<v Speaker 1>big story. New new consoles to UH to announce, no

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<v Speaker 1>new game with some kind of massive new controller that

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<v Speaker 1>you have to buy. It seems like a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>things are improved UM Sony and UH and Mike Usoft

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<v Speaker 1>both announced larger hard drives in new models UM. But

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<v Speaker 1>other than that, the consoles seem to UH to have

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<v Speaker 1>legs they're they're going on the way they have been,

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<v Speaker 1>just with brand new titles and enhanced versions of older titles. Right,

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<v Speaker 1>It's it's really all about incremental improvement this year. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>And of course, all three giants we're talking about, Microsoft,

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<v Speaker 1>Sony and Nintendo here are all claiming that they are

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<v Speaker 1>going to dominate this year. But I mean, what else

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<v Speaker 1>are you going to do at a press event? Of course,

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<v Speaker 1>So let's talk a little bit about some of these improvements.

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<v Speaker 1>So well, we'll start over with the Microsoft's Xbox, So

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<v Speaker 1>the Xbox three sixty. A lot of the improvements they mentioned,

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<v Speaker 1>uh refer back to Xbox Live, which is their online

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<v Speaker 1>portion of the their console system. Um. That includes things

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<v Speaker 1>like you can now go online using the web and

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<v Speaker 1>and shop at the Xbox Marketplace and buy games and

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<v Speaker 1>other applications and download them directly to your console. It's

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<v Speaker 1>kind of like a TiVo thing where you would log

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<v Speaker 1>in and and and shop around for for television shows

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<v Speaker 1>and tell your vote to record the same sort of thing.

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<v Speaker 1>You don't have to be at your Xbox to do

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<v Speaker 1>it anymore. Yeah, and um, now they have a partnership

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<v Speaker 1>with Netflix, So if you have an Xbox Live Gold membership.

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<v Speaker 1>You can stream movies directly through your Xbox three sixty,

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<v Speaker 1>which is a nice feature, although you can't you know,

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<v Speaker 1>download them directly to your hardware. That's true. Although there

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<v Speaker 1>is one other kind of cool feature. You can now

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<v Speaker 1>play games from your hard drive. You can actually uh

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<v Speaker 1>copy games onto the hard drive, which decreases load times.

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<v Speaker 1>You still have to have the disc in the in

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<v Speaker 1>the game system to play it, but it means that

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<v Speaker 1>your load times are much shorter. But let's let's move

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<v Speaker 1>on to one of the others. Let's talk about Nintendo

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<v Speaker 1>for a little bit. Yeah, Nintendo, of course has been

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<v Speaker 1>selling like hotcakes there. WE has been flying off the

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<v Speaker 1>store shelves. You can them anywhere, you know. Now, they're

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<v Speaker 1>very very hard to find still and um, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>I think people expect them to come out with some

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<v Speaker 1>brand new uh feature or or device like the balance

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<v Speaker 1>board that came with WE Fit. But this year, um,

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<v Speaker 1>they're coming out with two new games. The announced WE

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<v Speaker 1>Sports Resort, which has a WE Motion plus plugs into

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<v Speaker 1>the back of the Wi Remote and gives it some

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<v Speaker 1>added functionality regarding motion and how it detects what you're doing. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>They also have WE Music with more than fifty instruments

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<v Speaker 1>that you can play. You know, the music games Rock

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<v Speaker 1>Band and Guitar Hero still very popular, so that's We's

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<v Speaker 1>unique entry into that market, right. And then there's also

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<v Speaker 1>the We Speak, which is a microphone application that will

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<v Speaker 1>specifically work with an animal crossing game that's coming out

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<v Speaker 1>for the Wei, but hopefully we'll be used in other

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<v Speaker 1>games and applications further down the road. And and just

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<v Speaker 1>for you guys to know, my most anticipated game announcement

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<v Speaker 1>is the Clone Wars because I want to play with lightsabers.

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<v Speaker 1>But let's move on to uh to the third biggie

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<v Speaker 1>Sony Now Sony. Sony's big announcement was mainly the the

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<v Speaker 1>new model that's going to replace the forty gigabyte model.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a it's an eighty gigabyte model, will cost about

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<v Speaker 1>four hundred dollars that will come out later this year.

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<v Speaker 1>But they had some other interesting information. Um, by the way,

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<v Speaker 1>people who are waiting for Sony Home, you're still going

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<v Speaker 1>to be waiting a while. We don't have any date

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<v Speaker 1>on when that's gonna come out, but it is still

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<v Speaker 1>in development, so it should be coming. I just hope

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<v Speaker 1>that the price decreases enough where I can buy a

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<v Speaker 1>PlayStation three and get a Blu ray Player and get

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<v Speaker 1>to play my Ratchet and Clank games that I used

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<v Speaker 1>to plan on. They announced a new Ratchet and Clank

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<v Speaker 1>title with a pirate theme, yes, Quest for Booty, So

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<v Speaker 1>I'm excited about that, right, And there's going to be

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<v Speaker 1>a whole slew of downloadable games. Actually, downloadable content is

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<v Speaker 1>gonna be big for PlayStation uh. They They are also

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<v Speaker 1>going to allow users to download movies and television shows

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<v Speaker 1>from a certain group of of providers and producers. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>but you get to actually download those, it's you get

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<v Speaker 1>to store them on your PlayStation and watch them whenever

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<v Speaker 1>you like. You can you can purchase movies and television shows,

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<v Speaker 1>unlike the Xbox version where you're dreaming. Yeah, I bet

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<v Speaker 1>the Sony fans were really excited about the new Final

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<v Speaker 1>Fantasy game. Oh, I'm sure they were, especially when they

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<v Speaker 1>heard it's also premiering on the Xbox. I hope you

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<v Speaker 1>guys can sleep at night. Well that about wraps it

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<v Speaker 1>up for this podcast. We have tons of video game

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<v Speaker 1>articles on the site, but to to get started, if

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<v Speaker 1>you're really interested in learning more about some of these

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<v Speaker 1>consoles and games. You can read how video game systems work.

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<v Speaker 1>That's available right now at how stuff works dot com

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<v Speaker 1>for moral this, and thousands of other topics. Does it

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<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think.

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<v Speaker 1>Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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