Report: Microsoft not down with third-party 360 wireless peripherals

In case you haven't been following the virtual rock and roll scene lately, videogame publisher Red Octane recently revealed that there would be no wireless ax for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II -- even though owners of a "last-gen" console, PlayStation 2, will be able to jam out sans tether. Now since the 360 already ships with wireless technology on board, it would seem relatively simple to implement a cable-free controller for this particular deployment. Not so fast, says Red Octane. According to the studio, Microsoft isn't actually allowing third-party manufacturers to make anything using its proprietary wireless standard -- so while the capability is there, the all-important green light from Redmond is not. It's not clear at this point why a year-old system is being stifled by this seemingly arbitrary restriction, but with the PlayStation 3 offering developers Bluetooth out of the box, it seems that Microsoft either needs to change its tune or risk losing the small-but-vocal "rocker wannabe" demographic to the enemy.

[Via Joystiq]

[laxgibuu @ Nov 6th 2006 8:16AM]

To not let any third parties take advantage of existing technology already built into their console is asinine. anyone who's made the transition from wired controllers to wireless knows all too well just how liberating gaming can be without having clumsy wires bogging you down.

[Andir3.0 @ Nov 6th 2006 8:53AM]

"It's not clear at this point why a year-old system is being stifled by this seemingly arbitrary restriction"

Money.

[Todd @ Nov 6th 2006 9:02AM]

What!?!?! Microsoft is using a closed, proprietary standard and not letting anything that even remotely resembles competition have access to those standards? No! I am shocked!

Sarcasm aside, keep this post in mind when you read about their supposed new found affinity for PHP, Linux and their laughable attempt at "openness" with live.com.

Ballmer has zero interest in making paying customers happy. Microsoft's business model has been, is now and always will be to trap users into closed technologies, take their money and offer no upgrade path without paying more money - see the whole PlaysForSure / Zune mess.

[josh @ Nov 6th 2006 9:12AM]

Im a 360 Fanboy but the logic behind this is as asinine!

[Typist @ Nov 6th 2006 9:26AM]

LOL .. lets see what else is proprietary:

- Wireless protocol
- HDD (ps3 takes any laptop drive)
- AV Cable (ps3 uses std. HDMI cables)
- Memory card (wii/ps3 use std flash cards)

Yea, MS just giving you guys more choices... hahaaa..

[Jon @ Nov 6th 2006 9:45AM]

If you want to use the PS3 with anything other than HDMI...you will also have a proprietary cable. The PS3 will not have a VGA cable.

As for the memory cards...the Xbox allows for any USB dveice to be plugged in and the media read off the device. So any digital camera, Music player, portable hard drive, USB thumb drive...can be plugged in and the media read directly off of the device. So your statement is a bit misleading...you actually get more plug and play functionality with the 360 even without the card readers.

The 360 unlike the PS3 is also Plays For Sure Compatible and will pay any WMA and WMV files over the network if you have Windows Media Player 11. It will also play WMA and WMV files off of external hard drives, USB thumb drives and Burned CD's or DVDs.

Now while WMA and WMV are proprietary formats...they cannot be categorized as closed. These formats are available to any company that wants to license them. Including many that do...such as Napster, Yahoo Music, Real Rhapsody, Wal-Mart Music, CinemaNow and the list goes on and on. Most web sites these days also use WMV format for video because of it's superior compression and very good quality at high compression.

[tekdroid @ Nov 6th 2006 1:21PM]

Now while WMA and WMV are proprietary formats...they cannot be categorized as closed. These formats are available to any company that wants to license them.
-------------
Of course. It still doesn't make them open.

Microsoft charges royalties for every WMA/WMV-compatible device manufactured.
Microsoft has strict licensing terms that include supporting their transfer protocol (MTP), their DRM, etc.

One company controls the licensing to the benefit of...themselves. One company changes licensing terms to suit...itself. One company turns on the lock-in to benefit...themselves, their OS, their grand plans.

This is all part of proprietary formats; closed formats. They are only open in the sense that the company licenses them to others, for the sole benefit of ... you guessed it - themselves.

Compare to FLAC http://flac.sourceforge.net and Ogg Vorbis http://www.vorbis.com, which are both not only technically superior, but open source and allow free implementations in any device, on any OS whatsoever, without royalty payments (there are no vested interests in promoting the Windows universe). Also artists/producers are free to sell/stream/whatever their content without restriction (or payment to a third party). No matter what the use.

2 systems: one is open, free. The other is closed, proprietary, with grand plans of collecting a toll on every piece of content produced with its tools in the not-too-distant.

[Jimmie @ Nov 6th 2006 10:17AM]

I agree with Todd. Microsoft doesn't care about what WE want, only the money in our pockets.

[daemoncel @ Nov 6th 2006 10:23AM]

In response to Jimmie,

So does Sony and Nintendo, and for that matter, every company wants the money in our pockets.

[shirizaki @ Nov 6th 2006 10:54AM]

@ Jon

They meant memory cards. Some of us take our saves and travel with them to play on a friend's console. Some of us like to trash talk in person. Xbox forces you to use their memory unit to transfer saves while PS3 and Wii let you use SD or (for PS3) Memory Stick. It wouldn't be Sony unless it supported Memory Stick. I already have a 1GB SD card I bought for $30, why should I have to buy their unit?

And while WMA and WMV are far from prorietory, they are far and away from being standard. No one has held a PS3 yet to see what is actaully supported. And the 360 forces you to either use MCE to stream WMV or to burn WMV to a disc. I don't know about you, but 90% of my files are some form of Divx/Xvid or Mpeg, and converting them to play on a 360 is a hassle.

M$ having a lynch on wireless allows them to charge whatever they want for wireless because you have nowhere else to go. At least Sony is attempting something, offering open bluetooth. I'm sure after awhile some company will offer a wireless pad, and it will be awesome because the battery will be replaceable.

[Tivac @ Nov 6th 2006 11:22AM]

Microsoft allows 3rd parties to license their wireless standard, Red Octane has simply chosen not to do so. It isn't free, but your article (and to be fair, their quote) makes it sound like you can't at all. That simply isn't true.

[Mog @ Nov 6th 2006 11:52AM]

Tivac: Can you show me a third-party wireless Xbox 360 controller?

Didn't think so.

[Pip @ Nov 6th 2006 11:37AM]

Microsoft needs back off on the licensing bit if they want to compete. Period.

I know they were hoping to make some extra money by doing this, but they are not Apple, and the 360 is not an iPod.

They need to get anyone on board that they can, and this game series is very important and popular.

[charlie @ Nov 6th 2006 12:30PM]

Its just a terrible business decision. Microsoft would be able to make as much money as they wanted with a licensing agreement.

[Justin @ Nov 6th 2006 1:28PM]

This is BS, there are tons of 3rd party wireless devices on sale right now. It must be that the guitar hero people simply have some licensing issues they need to work through that they are unhappy with. Boo hoo.

[bjmichae @ Nov 6th 2006 1:43PM]

As a counter argument, most of the bands featured in GH became famous using chorded electric guitars, if the rockers we try to emulate had tethered axes, why shouldn't we?

[shinyhat @ Nov 6th 2006 2:29PM]

Why is Red Octane supporting the Xbox 360 instead of the Wii? Seems like the wrong console for this type of interactive game. I love guitar hero and so do my friends, but none of them will buy a 360 for it (or a PS3). A few might buy the Wii for it only because it's a bit more reasonably priced. I would imagine you could get around this type of proprietary wireless problem (if it also exists with Wii) by just putting the Wiimote into the guitar peripheral.

[Camperton @ Nov 6th 2006 4:42PM]

shirizaki

actually you can save onto a flash drive on the 360, and take your saves with you that way.

[Jason Smith @ Nov 6th 2006 4:59PM]

Red Octane could make a wireless 360 controller just as easily as they're making a wireless PS2 guitar. I have a wireless USB keyboard plugged into my 360 and it works perfectly fine - as far as the 360 is concerned, it might as well be connected with a cable. The only thing they can't do is use the wireless that's built into the console - they'd need to work with MS for that.

Sure, it's not as cool as the built-in wireless of the 360 controllers, but if they're already doing it for the PS2 version it wouldn't be that difficult to do it for the 360 as well.

[Z @ Nov 7th 2006 3:21AM]

Time to wake up, Microsoft!!!

[Eman717 @ Nov 7th 2006 10:36AM]

This is directed at Microsoft. You know, I was really going to get the xbox 360 version because you can download content and play the game with a wireless controller, Which seems to be the major benefactors of owning the xbox 360 version. Now that I know the xbox 360 version won't allow the manufactures of the guitars to make a wireless one, I'm getting the PS2 version because they will have wireless controls and, from what I've been told, can download new songs for free off to a memory card. DO YOU HEAR ME MICROSOFT, You lost out on at least $100 That i was about to spend on your overpriced games with overpriced exclusive content with your overpriced peripherals. I'm no fan of Sony, but if I'm going to pay to get screwed, Sony is a much cheaper whore than Microsoft, especially when they are both offering to give the same amount of pleasure. "Next-Gen" Means Next-Gen, and if you want to dumb down your image by forcing people to play this great game while being teathered to your system, and let Sony come out with a wireless "Next-Gen" Controller for their system, then go right ahead. Obviously your more worried about satisfying your stockholders than making great games.k, Thats my rant.OUt