Prediction: The Xbox won't age well as a console.

[Gamevet]

I think that the Xbox holds up as well as the Gamecube, despite a lot of games also being on PC.

I dusted off mine just a couple of weeks ago to play a little bit of Outrun 2, Panzer Dragoon Orta, DOA 2 Ultimate and Project Gotham Racing 2. I’ve been meaning to play Conker’s Bad Fur Day soon.

[jdc]

I like all 3 equally, I guess. Xbox for Halo and Forza and the RPGs that were only on Xbox. Cube AND Xbox for way too many hours of PSO. Cube for the exclusives and especially PN03 and for it's controller design, which I love. PS2 for hours and hours of Gran Turismo 3 and 4 as well as the crapload of RPGs. Warm fuzzies all around for this generation.

[YoshiM]

Like others mentioned, the Cube got play from me mainly due to the Nintendo-made exclusives. The Xbox did get a majority of my attention during its generation until the Wii came along followed by the Xbox 360. I remember all the hub bub about "Super Mario Galaxy" with the 3D gravity puzzles like it was some new thang, which I just shook my head and fired up "Psychonauts", which already had such things. Other big things it got me into like nothing else was online gaming. Xbox Live added a whole taped section of geography on the existing map of online, and that section was prominently called "CONSOLES" (or "Consolvania"?). It was easy, quick and I had a blast with it. Memories of poor 12 year old pre-pubescent boys' characters getting blown away while flying away in a helicopter in the demo of "Battlefield 2:Modern Combat" by their friend who got mad that they were left behind. Doing somersaults dodging psychic blasts from an online opponent in "Phantom Dust" while my attacker is laughing their ass off screaming "WILL YOU JUST DIE ALREADY!!" at me as I was waiting for SOMETHING offensive to fight back with (didn't happen).

I am attempting to get into a Xbox revival these days on our gaming family video game days. One of my step sons feels that "Star Wars: Battlefront" is the "definitive Battlefront experience" (his words). My daughter sometimes will do Karaoke Revolution Party with me, though I have to get a new microphone for duets.

[Gamevet]

I used to play the snot out of Battlefield 2. I loved the map layouts of that game, where could choose to be a run and gunner or hide in a rock as a sniper. I remember one matchup of capture the flag, where the 2 flag carriers met in the middle of the map and proceeded to Merle each other. Everyone in the area started hollering as the battle had drawn out. It was hilarious.

I also remember getting home early from work and had decided to play a little Burnout 3 online. I ended up playing against a bunch of Europeans and have a good ribbing with each other.

[Zap!]

Slightly off-topic but I believe that the Xbox 360 didn't hold up. It's very slow and sluggish, with no updates, and YouTube is unwatchable. Contrast to the PS3, where I watch YouTube flawlessly in the extra bedroom when I'm in it. The PS3 still gets updates too, with the last one being around the Summer.

[Greg2600]

Slightly off-topic but I believe that the Xbox 360 didn't hold up. It's very slow and sluggish, with no updates, and YouTube is unwatchable. Contrast to the PS3, where I watch YouTube flawlessly in the extra bedroom when I'm in it. The PS3 still gets updates too, with the last one being around the Summer.

One of the reasons for PS3 updates though is likely to keep Bluray movie support (a Sony license) up and running. The 360 never had that drive. If your bluray player is not updated, newer releases will not be watchable.

[gbpxl]

One of the reasons for PS3 updates though is likely to keep Bluray movie support (a Sony license) up and running. The 360 never had that drive. If your bluray player is not updated, newer releases will not be watchable.

why would updates be needed for Blu Ray support on the PS3? I have never updated my standalone BluRay player since I bought it like 7 years ago and it seems to be working just fine.

[Gameguy]

why would updates be needed for Blu Ray support on the PS3? I have never updated my standalone BluRay player since I bought it like 7 years ago and it seems to be working just fine.

The few times I've tried playing blurays on my PS3 I was asked to update the system as it wouldn't allow me to play these discs on it. It's why I'm not bothering to collect blurays as that's a headache I'd rather avoid dealing with. The updates would be on the disc though, I didn't connect my PS3 to the internet. The updates are related to copy protection.

[Gamevet]

We have an older Vizio BR player that won’t play any modern discs. It has online functionality, but for some reason Vizio stopped supplying updates for it over 7-8 years ago.

[Greg2600]

why would updates be needed for Blu Ray support on the PS3? I have never updated my standalone BluRay player since I bought it like 7 years ago and it seems to be working just fine.

Try playing a newly released Blu-Ray on there. The encryption changes regularly to combat piracy, and your player needs to be updated with new firmware. My PC's drive stopped being supported and I could no longer play new movies on there.

[Gameguy]

We have an older Vizio BR player that won’t play any modern discs. It has online functionality, but for some reason Vizio stopped supplying updates for it over 7-8 years ago.

Try playing a newly released Blu-Ray on there. The encryption changes regularly to combat piracy, and your player needs to be updated with new firmware. My PC's drive stopped being supported and I could no longer play new movies on there.

So it's not just with the PS3, but actual dedicated players have compatibility issues as well? Makes me extra glad I haven't bothered with the format, having to buy a new player every few years isn't something I want to bother with.

A bit ironic as it seems to just affect legitimate buyers, people who pirate would be able to find the media online without any restrictions in place that would affect playback.

[Greg2600]

So it's not just with the PS3, but actual dedicated players have compatibility issues as well? Makes me extra glad I haven't bothered with the format, having to buy a new player every few years isn't something I want to bother with.

A bit ironic as it seems to just affect legitimate buyers, people who pirate would be able to find the media online without any restrictions in place that would affect playback.

Well they only can control "legit" hardware/applications. But technically even a stand alone BRD player would be rendered obsolete without (typically wi-fi generated firmware updates). DVD never had such controls. I actually had to buy one back when I was using RedBox and my PC drive was no longer supported. Even if I had updated playback software, the hardware on the drive was considered to have faults and they stopped certifying it.

[Gameguy]

Well they only can control "legit" hardware/applications. But technically even a stand alone BRD player would be rendered obsolete without (typically wi-fi generated firmware updates). DVD never had such controls. I actually had to buy one back when I was using RedBox and my PC drive was no longer supported. Even if I had updated playback software, the hardware on the drive was considered to have faults and they stopped certifying it.

Honestly that's pretty terrible. To have a standardized format not be playable on all standardized players is ridiculous. I know plenty of formats had upgraded players with additional features, but these upgraded types of media were still playable on older players in limited ways at least(to the best of my knowledge). With CDs, even the newer ones with CD-Text are still compatible with the earliest of CD players. And these types of upgrades were usually to add features in some way, not simply to enhance piracy protections.

[Rickstilwell1]

The Xbox has some games that are becoming highly collectible now. The price for Otogi 2 is very surprising.

[Leo_A]

Some misconceptions here about Blu-Ray.

Firmware updates are to combat piracy. The Blu-Ray Disc Association from time to time will require newer discs to mandate a particular firmware to be present on a specific model of player as a way to force the customer to update. These firmware updates aren't on the disc and must be downloaded either directly or by downloading the firmware update to a USB drive and plugging it into a USB port on the player.

An annoyance, but non-existent updates are never mandated. So when the plug is pulled for support and the latest firmware release for Player A was say V3.6, there will never be a Blu-Ray video disc that mandates a newer level of firmware to be present on that player than V3.6. The only issue is if you one day can't access that firmware to upgrade a long out of production 2nd hand player that was on older firmware.

But thankfully obsolete patches and firmware are fairly widely distributed on the internet and updates are typically allowed via USB (Even on the PS3 you can update your PS3 firmware and what Sony terms your Blu-Ray "encryption key" via a firmware file on a thumb drive; Direct updating via the internet is just present for convenience). So hopefully it won't ever be a significant issue down the road (I have a pair of older dedicated players that ceased to receive updates years ago that still play my latest purchases from Warner Archive, Kino Lorber, etc. ).

Unsure how newer game consoles handle it, but USB updating is at least an option on PS4 as well and always seems to be a feature on dedicated Blu-Ray players. It wouldn't surprise me if updating via thumb drive is something Microsoft shied away from with the Xbox One with Sony following suit with the PS5, but with how tied to the internet these are in general, I suspect playing our Blu-Ray collection will be the least of our worries when the plug is eventually pulled years from now.

And as long as your firmware was up to date when the pull is plugged, Blu-Ray playback will probably be one of the most intact features for these platform's future offline life.