"Warhawk, Sony's latest PlayStation 3 game, is available now from the PS3's digital download store. But gamers hoping to share the $40 game with their friends should know that Warhawk is for them alone.

 

While every other PlayStation 3 downloadable game can be shared with up to five PS3 machines, the online-only Warhawk doesn't have this feature. There's a warning in the game's description on the store that says it will only be playable through the PlayStation Network account that purchased the game, and only on one machine in any 24-hour period."

SOURCE: Wired.com

 

"Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three blu-ray owners, they were pissed about no Transformers Blu-ray and I drank the kool aid hook line and sinker. So at 1:30 in the morning I posted - nothing good ever comes out of early am posts mind you - I over reacted. I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard.

 

As a director, I'm all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision.

 

So today I saw 300 on HD, it rocks!

 

So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!"

Source: HighDefDigest.com

 

"I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!"

Source: Engadget

   

    - Jay

Paramount to drop Blu-ray high-def DVDs

"Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NYSE:DWA) will offer next-generation DVDs in the HD DVD format and drop support for Blu-ray, further complicating the race between the competing technologies.

Monday's announcement affects the upcoming DVD release of the blockbuster 'Shrek the Third' and all movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, as well as movies from DreamWorks Animation, which are distributed exclusively by Paramount Home Entertainment.

Paramount previously released movies in both formats."

Source:  CNN Money

   

    - Jay

Before I begin, allow me to preface this entire blog entry with a few things.
I’ve been called a “Fanboy” on numerous occasions; I believe this is mainly due to the fact that I’ve been quite a vocal advocate of Microsoft consoles. In my opinion most Fanboys will flame all ‘other’ console owners while they blidly accept any misleading information, console defect, lame service policy, etc. without question. I’m quite the opposite. I have no reason to ‘justify’ any of the console purchasees I’ve made, nor do I feel the need to bash someone because they don’t agree that “MY” console is superior. I’m happy with every console purchase I’ve made, and if I’m not satisfied, I’ll sell the it and continue to support the one I get the most enjoyment out of. I consider myself a hard core video game fanatic, and like many of you, I spend a good amount of my hard earned mony to ensure I get the most out of my console gaming experience.

In February of 2006 my wife and I decided to join the world of High Definition. In October of 2006, the Fall Dashboard Update was released for the Xbox 360. (The fall update enabled 1080p video output.) My wife and I we were excited by the idea that we may finally be able to experience “True HD” (1080p) for the first time. After all, purchasing an Xbox 360 was the nudge we needed to make the big TV purchase. Heck, we even picked up the HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 to get the most out of our HDTV. Anyway, back to the story! The moment I heard about the dashboard update, I fired up the Xbox 360 and approved the update. When the console rebooted, I excitedly fumbled my way through each blade of the Xbox 360 dashboard in search of the display options; there it was.. “HDTV Settings.”

When I highlighted the 1080p option and pressed the A button, my HDTV began to have what could only be described as a small seizure. There were colors and lines scrolling in all directions across the screen at high speeds. [Sigh] Not to worry, this happened before and it wasn’t entirely the Xbox 360’s fault. The TV we purchased was sold to us as a 1080p HD TV; however this was not the case. The TV merely up converted video signals so that they would appear 1080p. To make a long story short, I ended up convincing the store to exchange the 50” 1080i HDTV (SONY KDS-R50XBR1) for the 60” 1080p HDTV (SONY KDS-R60XBR2).

Now that I had a “True HD” 1080p high definition television, it was time to connect the Xbox 360, the HD DVD player, and see if 1080p was worth all of the trouble. “Ok, find the System blade... Now choose Console Settings… Display... HDTV Settings... 1080p...” The new HD TV had the exact same problem the first one did!!! Instead of freaking out, I decided to look for the paperwork that came with the TV and RTFM. (Read The **** Manual). Sure enough, in plain English, it stated that the TV would only accept a TrueHD 1080p signal via one of its three HDMI ports. I shortly came to grips with the fact that I may never experience my Xbox 360 games in 1080p; that is, unless Microsoft released their “HDMI Solution”.

IGN: Could Microsoft theoretically release an HDMI dongle-cable like the various other cables already available for the console? Is the current 360 hardware able to output a digital signal, or is it restricted to analog?

Microsoft: Xbox 360 supports HD Component video output, which is compatible with nearly every HD ready TV on the market today. That's not yet true for HDMI. We are watching the market closely and will continue to evaluate our solution, in the face of consumer demand.

[source: gear.ign.com]

This statement regarding an “HDMI solution”, along with other comments previously made by Microsoft reps, led many of us to believe that an HDMI cable would be a possibility in the near future. As we all learned a bit later on, an HDMI cable /adaptor for current Xbox 360 owners was an absolute impossibility. (The Xbox 360 audio / video out isn’t capable of two-way digital communication required by HDMI.) So what was Microsoft’s solution to the HDMI issue that all of the “First Generation” Xbox 360 owners faced? Drop another $480 for an Xbox 360 Elite, or go out and buy a different HD TV; one that would allow 1080p via component or VGA input... Sorry Mr. Gates, many of us already spent $3000+ on a ‘True HD” television and we’re not about to blow another few grand on something else; $479.99 on a new Xbox 360 seems far easier to swallow. It’s not fair; however, we’ll at least be able to trade in our old Xbox 360’s towards the purchase the new HDMI enabled Xbox 360 ‘Elite’.

AFTERTHOUGHT: If HDMI isn't necessary for 1080p, and Microsoft reps have been blowing it off as 'not a big deal', then why is HDMI our being added to each of the Xbox 360 consoles currently in production?!?

Shortly after the Xbox 360 Elite was ‘officially’ announced, Larry Hyrb ("Major Nelson") posted a video on his website called “120 GB HDD and Elite Migration How To Video”. In this video he and his colleague Albert Pinello discuss the method of migrating all of the content on a 20Gig hard drive over to a new 120Gig drive. They explain how the new 120Gig drive (stand alone) comes with a ‘data migration cable’, software, and how simple the process is. They’re even kind enough to walk us through each step of the process when upgrading to a larger hard drive; the explaination of migrating a 20 to 120Gig hard drive was clear and concise. The only part that wasn’t quite so clear was the migration of data from an original Xbox 360 console HDD to a new Xbox 360 Elite 120 Gig HDD.

"It's a one time only thing. When you copy that data over from your 20 Gig to your 120, you only do it once. You’re gonna move that data over, you can't move it back." He then states that there’s a 'slight difference' in how content is accessed.”

Mr. Pinello then goes on to explain, in a dismissive manner, that licensed content is attached to your gamer tag as well as your console ID. When content from a 20Gig drive that was originally attached to one console is migrated over to a 120Gig HDD of the Xbox 360 Elite, you now have a different console ID. According to Mr. Pinello; "In order to access that licensed content, you're gonna need to be logged into Live." While he's making this comment, a message appears at the bottom of the video "Make sure you are connected to Xbox Live." This is where things became a tad confusing. When I heard that comment being made, and how it was presented, I thought being logged into Xbox Live during the migration process would reassign the content to the new console ID. I wasn’t entirely sure that it woud work this way, but I thought that Microsoft knew what they were doing; I suppose I was feeling a bit optimistic at the time. After all, Microsoft wouldn’t lock people out of the Xbox Live Arcade games and content that they legitimately purchased; would they?

On April 29, 2007 the Xbox 360 Elite hit store shelves. I arrived at my local EB Games at 4:00 AM and slept in my car until the store opened at 11. Call me crazy, but I wanted to be absolutely sure I’d get my hands on an HDMI enabled 360. I never really cared about the 120Gig hard drive; I just looked at it as an added bonus. (The HDMI out and finally seeing my games run in 1080p were the only things I cared about.) When the stored opened, I was the 1st person in line, with only 3 others behind me. Luckily there were just enough Elite consoles to go around.

When I got the Xbox 360 Elite home, I left the controller, 120Gig hard drive and AV cable in the box, but immediately connected the console to my TV via HDMI port and popped my 20Gig hard drive onto the system. I can now play every one of my Xbox 360 games in full 1080p high definition, and that’s exactly what I did all day!

The following day, April 30th, GameSpot ran an article about customer complaints and how the “Migration Kit” was now being given away for free to any current Xbox 360 owner who also purchased an Xbox 360 Elite. The authorization form could be downloaded from Xbox.com, filled out with both console serial numbers, date of purchase, and sent to off to Microsoft for your free kit. Since the authorization form required the serial number from both consoles, I again assumed that Microsoft had a plan to fix the digital rights management issues for downloadable content and Xbox Live Arcade titles. I thought that the information requested on the form would enable them to send a disc that was tailored to each customer. If this were true, the software could patch existing content during the migration process and tie it to the console ID of the new system. (Again, I was being quite an optimist.)

When my migration kit finally arrived, I followed the instructions exactly and I made sure I was connected to Xbox Live before I began the entire process. When the migration was complete I had my profile, all of my save data, themes, Live Arcade games, gamer pics, etc. on the 120Gig hard drive of my new “Elite”, and the 20Gig drive from my old “Premium” console was completely blank. I was excited by the possibility of my downloadable content being ‘fixed’, however, optimism seldom pays off.

When anyone in my household tried to play any of the Xbox Live Arcade titles, or access any content, like extra levels or characters, that had been migrated, nothing worked. Xbox Live Arcade titles were merely demos, and the extra content wasn’t accessible. The only time ANY of that content can be accessed is when I’m signed in with my gamer tag and connected to Xbox Live. This is absolutely absurd, and I’ll tell you why. First of all, having to connect to Xbox Live just to access the games and content that I’ve already paid for means that I’m forced to pay an additional $40+ per month for high speed internet access for the rest of the time I own this Xbox 360. Second, I live in Florida. During hurricane season, our internet connection is FAR from reliable during storms. (I wasn’t able to get a steady connection to live for nearly a week and a half due to a small storm in our area.) Finally, my wife, son, and whoever I invite into my home should be able to play the games I paid for; without the need to log in with MY Xbox Live gamer tag. I don’t want my son on Xbox Live unless I’m playing online WITH him, so he does not have access to my gamer tag. This means he’s now unable to play Frogger, Dig Dug, Joust, Cloning Clyde, or any other Xbox Live Arcade title with his own profile. The same thing is true for my wife. She can no longer play Zuma or Jewel Quest and earn achievements with her own profile; she’s now forced to use mine. What’s the point of everyone having their own gamer tag / profile if everyone has to use mine? It’s complete GARBAGE! So, the bottom line is that by providing both serial numbers on the authorization form merely provided Microsoft with proof that I did indeed own both a Premium and Elite Xbox 360; nothing more.

As you can imagine, the entire situation has me unbelievably frustrated. I even called 1-800-4-MY-XBOX during the week my high speed internet connection was down. The first person I spoke to explained how the content was tied to my gamer tag and original Xbox 360 console ID, so I’d have to download all of that content again on the new Elite console. I asked if the problem would be resolved if I did this, and he assured me it would. (He even said that I wouldn’t have to delete the original content because it would just overwrite it and essentially ‘patch’ it all to work on my new system.) I decided to wait until the following day so that I could take my Xbox 360 somewhere that had a functional internet connection. After downloading everything to my Xbox 360 again, the following day at work, I unplugged the Ethernet cable from the back of the console and tried to play one of the Live Arcade games; it didn’t work. I then deleted all of the original arcade games and content from the hard drive and tried again. (40+ arcade titles and several games worth of extra in-game content took me roughly an hour and a half to remove and re-download.) After all was said and done, I tried a second time to access the content while disconnected from Xbox Live and nothing worked. [big surprise, eh?] At this point there wasn’t much I could do, so I decided to call 1-800-4-MY-XBOX when I returned home that evening to see if they had any more bright ideas.

Upon arriving home, I dialed the number, navigated the phone menus and after two or three minutes on hold, I was finally speaking with a live person. Of course I had to explain the entire situation a second time because apparently I was supposed to have asked for a reference number when I spoke with the last support agent. This gentleman explained to me, again, that all of the content was tied to my gamer tag and original Xbox 360 console ID. He explained how I’d have to be connected to Xbox Live to use this content, but I quickly killed that idea by explaining how I had no way of connecting to Xbox Live because my internet connection was down. He put me on hold to see if there was a possible solution to the problem. When he returned he told me that when my internet connection was back up and running that I’d have to purchase all of the content again so I’d be able to use it without being connected to Live. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that because the Xbox Live Market place already knows I paid for the content and will not allow me to purchase it a second time; besides why the hell should I have to pay for something I already purchased?!!?!? Before he had a chance to respond I calmed myself down and politely asked to speak with a supervisor to see if they could help me.

Roughly five or ten minutes later a supervisor was on the line and I had to go through the ‘highlights’ of my situation. She calmly explained to me that I’d need to fax them a receipt proving that I’ve traded in my original Premium Xbox 360 console before she could ‘escalate’ the issue to the “points department”. Once the “points department” reviewed and approved the request, they’d refund all of the points I used to purchase the Xbox Live Arcade titles and content so that I could create a second account and download all of the content to the Elite console and have it attached to the new console ID. There’s one small exception though; if a game was purchased over a year ago it’s against Microsoft policy to refund the points. What?!? It’s been three months since I purchased the Elite console and I’m 90% sure I don’t have the original receipt. Why does anyone have to prove that they no longer own one Xbox 360 just to get the games & content they’ve legitimately purchased to function on a new one? Third, why are games / content that was purchased over one year ago not elligable for credit? None of my other video games for any of the consoles I own “expire” after a year, or are any less important to me. Also, I don’t want to create another profile! My son has one, my wife has one, and I have one; that’s all we need. I don’t understand the rationality behind this entire process. I don’t want you to give me ‘free’ Microsoft Points, I don’t want a refund, I don’t want to give anyone else the content that I’ve purchased, I just want to have the ability to use everything that I’ve already purchased... There was nothing more they could do for me, so she told me to have a nice day and the call was ended.

AFTERTHOUGHT: I have absolutely no reason to "con" Microsoft into giving me my points back. I have plenty of Microsoft points to replace many of the games, but that's not the point. I just want to play the games, and use the content, that I've already paid for. 

So, now I'm sitting here trying to figure out what the hell to do. Sure, I've written a blog about the entire situation, but what good does that do? I got to vent my frustrations, so I should feel a bit better now; right?… nope… I’m just as upset now as I was when I sat down in front of my keyboard. Maybe I'll get really lucky and Maxconsole, GameSpot or some other site will write a news story about how Microsoft blew off another complaint about their Xbox 360, or how Xbox Live Marketplace DRM issues have yet to be addressed. What can we, the Xbox 360 community, do to have the ability to freely use the content we purchased? Who do we call? (Not 1-800-4-My-Xbox, that’s for sure.) Who do we write to? Something needs to change, and I belive that WE are the only ones that can make it happen.

Hopefully someone out there reads this, agrees with me, or has experienced the same problem, then passes it along. I honestly don’t believe the problem will ever be resolved if we all just let it go. Look at the Red Lights of Death problem. Microsoft could have continued to blow it off, but they couldn’t. People kept talking about it, the stories of Xbox 360 consoles locking up and flashing the three red lights popped up on various websites on a weekly basis, and look what happened there. Microsoft did the right thing and they will repair / replace the defective units for free, refund money to the folks who had to pay for the repairs, as well as extended the current warranty policy to three years! Now they’re changing heat sinks, memory, and the processor in the currently manufactured Xbox 360’s to reduce the risk of overheating / red lights of death. AMAZING!

Just look at it this way... Let's say you went to the store and bought a movie.  Now let's say you wanted to upgrade to a new 1080p upscaling DVD player with an HDMI output a few months later. What would you do if the DVD would only play the first chapter of the movie unless you were connected to the internet and were the only person watching it? You'd be a little upset to say the least. It's still a DVD player... It will play the movie; you just have to access the content in a slightly different way. Do you think you should have to provide the movie studio with a receipt saying you traded in your old DVD player, just to watch the movie you paid good momeny for? What if you wanted to watch that DVD in a different room, should you have to unhook the 1st DVD player and bring it into another room to watch it, or would it make more sense to just pop it into the other DVD player that's already set up in the other room? I know, it sounds rediculous, but that's EXACTLY what Microsoft doing with downloadable content from the Xbox Live Marketplace, and nobody seems to be addressing the issue.

So, what must we do to have our voices heard? Do we contact the Better Business Bureau, file a class action lawsuit, or continue to beg Microsoft for a solution? I'm even open to providing Microsoft with possible solutions to the while Xbox Live Marketplace / DRM problem; if only someone would listen.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:

1. The iTunes Solution - Allow users to authorize / deauthorize multiple consoles.
   (Maximum authorizations: 5. After that you must deauthorize all consoles and start over)
2. The Serial Number Solution - Allow users to fully re-download content to another Xbox 360 console so that it may be attached to another console ID. The number of "re-downlaods" could be limited to the number of valid serial numbers registered to an Xbox Live account. If a user registers two Xbox 360's and you can download, and attach, Xbox Live Marketplace content to two different Xbox 360 consoles; if more consoles are purchased and registered, that number of downloads is added to the Xbox Live account.
3. The Dashboard Live Migration Solution - Add a feature to the Xbox 360 Dashboard that would allow the owner of Xbox Live Marketplace content to send / reattach that content to a new Xbox 360 over Xbox Live. Once it's been received by the other console, the previous console will no longer have full rights to that content.
4. The Backup Solution - Allow users to purchase a backup disc containing all Xbox Live Marketplace content purchased. (Charge no more than $5.00, and allow only 1 authorized backup disc to be sent per year.) All previously purchased content could be accessed on any new console via the backup disc.
5. The Code Solution - If someone purchases a new Xbox 360 console, or receives a replacement Xbox 360, allow them to call 1-800-4-MY-XBOX (or xbox.com) to receive a code for for each piece of content they've purchased. Each code would be unique, and would only be good for a single download to the new console.
6. The Disc Solution - If a user purchases a new Xbox 360 console, or receives a replacement Xbox 360, allow them to contact support or go to Xbox.com to provide the new console serial number. A unique disc could then be produced by Microsoft specific to the new Xbox 360 console, then mailed off to the customer. If the user logs into Xbox Live and inserts the dsic, the software could then patch all of the appropriate content migrated to the new console

Wow, look at that.... SIX possible solutions in a single blog entry!. If only someone that was actually on the Microsoft payroll would come up with a solution and make it happen.

Spread the word and Digg This or Slashdot It!  

   

    - Jay

Here's the current list of Xbox Live Arcade titles I've purchased, how many points I've spent on each, and which console I purchased them on... this does NOT include any content I've purchased / downloaded for any of the Xbox 360 titles I own.  Anything purchased on the Xbox 360 Premium console is unplayable by anyone other than me, and I must be connected to Xbox Live to play the full version. Anything purchased on the Xbox 360 Elite console can be fully accessed by anyone who uses my Xbox 360, regardless of gamer tag or Xbox Live connection. I've spent roughly $327 in Microsoft Points, but only $20 of that is made up of fully functional games... $307 worth of Microsoft points were spent on games that are completely unusable by anyone other than me (plus some of the downloaded 'free' titles).

As you can see, I'm a loyal Xbox / Xbox 360 Customer.

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