Next Gen Consoles

For all the nerd rage about the X-Bone reveal, let's make no mistake; this console will be a massive success. The 360 has a dedicated following and was considered the better console of this generation (I would agree with that anyway). In reality, the casual-gaming 360-owner will jump over to the X-Bone without a thought. If sales are slow then the price drop will come quicker than usual. Microsoft will make sure this thing sells and then recoup the losses elsewhere.

Only Nintendo can make a profit on consoles these days, and looking at their 'generation behind' hardware, it's easy to see why.
 
Carl said:
...I have a massive backlog of games to work through, and that normally only gets bigger...
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Same with me. And on a TV from about 3 or 4 metres away, most of the current games look good enough for me. Unless there's a game I really like that won't be released on Xbox 360, I will be waiting until at least next year before I look at one of the new machines. Have enough games to keep me busy for a long time...
 
My guess is that MS will enter into agreement with retailers about second hand games so stores will register their second hand games with MS and MS and developers will either get a get on second hand copies sold or consumer will have to pay a small fee for running the game (5-10) + money spent for buying the game.

But if u try to buy a second hand game from a fellow gamer or through non official retailers then u will have to pay a substantial fee for running the game (30-40).

MS is probably still negotiating the biz model with the retailers, i think they have no intentions to piss them off, they really want to block person 2 person second hand copies.
 
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I've heard weird stuff about the xbox one monitoring you 24h/7d, is that true? If so, what a major way for Microsoft to shoot themselves in the foot. No way am I going to let a spying machine into my home.

Not to talk about all the nonesense of having to register games and having to pay full price for unlocking used games, and stopping movies from being played when too many people are watching. They've got to be kidding. Xbox-one is so dead for me.:FAIL:

I hope PS4 won't copy some of those stunts, otherwise Sony can kiss my money goodbye as well.
 
EatonTJ said:
Xbox One:

My opinion of the reveal is that the console has some amazing potential, but the presentation, in terms of addressing specific issues amongst hardcore gamers, was poor. Instead of addressing the 2 main issues (1. Always on/Internet 2. Used games) from the gaming community with a clear message during the main presentation, Microsoft found themselves giving inconsistent answers from different Microsoft reps to different media outlets after the presentation... leading to a PR disaster amongst the hardcore gaming community.

What I've cobbled together:
1. Always on/Internet - The Xbox One will be in some low power state when not in use. With no information as to exactly how much power this state will draw it's hard to have an opinion either way. But, everywhere I look in my house I already have devices that do this (clocks, computers in sleep mode, anything with an led light, etc.) so I'm not really concerned about the power issue. And I'm choosing to ignore any privacy concerns about the Kinect camera being always "on" for the time being.
As for the internet requirement. I'm still not sure what this means. I have a Directv subscription for satellite tv that also "requires" a daily internet connection, but has never been hooked up to the internet since acquiring it years ago. It means I can never use the pay-per-view movie feature, but watching tv programming has never been interrupted. So will the Xbox One require daily internet access to just play games? Or will not having internet just disable non-gaming features? Microsoft did not present enough information.

2. Used games - After listening to publishers and console makers decry the rise in used games over the last 15 years or so (billions of dollars lost to a secondary market every year) I'm not surprised at steps being taken to bring that money back to the publishers and console makers. The news so far is that a license fee would be required to play any game. New copies include the license, whereas used copies would require a purchase of a license. If the license fee is high (like the cost of a new game), then this essentially eliminates any value in a used game.
Good news for the developers of games, they'll no longer be missing out on profits lost to used games sales. Possibly bad news for consumers as there will be little or no opportunity to trade-in games as used games may have no value without a "new" license. (I did read that friends can still borrow games amongst each other with no license to be paid as long as you are willing to let your friend have your account details to play the game.)
Overall, it gives game developers and Microsoft a more direct relationship with the consumer which I think will be a good thing if done right.


Now, outside of these unknowns, I'm surprised by how poorly the gaming community received the console hardware itself. To me, it looked pretty awesome. Pushing the transition away from the physical medium is the way to go. And I can imagine how terrific the Xbox One can be a few years from now when Microsoft has developed the content partnerships to allow everyone to use one seamless interface for all games/music/movies/TV/internet/etc.

Overall, I was really happy with what Microsoft showed. The controllers look to be improved exactly as I wanted (fixed D-pad, removal of stupid giant guide button) and got some extras I didn't know I wanted (individual trigger feedback, better balance/weight). Kinect 2.0 looks to be a great improvement over the original which gets used a lot in my house, although mostly by the kids or for watching video. I use it for games where it's more subtly implemented (Skyrim, Mass Effect, Fifa) and I really enjoy it when it works so I have high hopes.

I'm glad Microsoft ditched showing a bunch of stupid game trailers and focused on the console itself, I'm tired of console reveals being nothing but CG trailers. I only want to see gameplay, or at least in-engine trailers. Whatever game announcements can wait until E3 when I can hear from the developers directly about their vision. Console exclusivity has gone the way of the dodo for major developers so I don't expect to hear any major 3rd party exclusives for either console (outside of silly timed exclusives).

Overall, it looks like there will be the same 3 choices for high-end gaming as there were the last time... Xbox, Playstation, and PC. (Sadly, I have no interest in the WiiU). We all know that the PC will have a clear hardware advantage a year after both consoles launch in terms of graphic fidelity and access to most of the AAA titles available on the consoles. Nothing new for the PC gamer there. So if you want to own a console, your choices are either PS4 or Xbox One.

I assume that by the time either console is actually available to purchase, we will all know about some key exclusives to either console, and how exactly the new control devices for each console will shape our enjoyment of gameplay. Until then, I'm not going to get really worked up over which console is "better" because there just isn't enough information.

I will say, that I highly doubt Sony will be able to match Microsoft's ambitions for the console OS itself. Microsoft certainly knows how to make an operating system and has a huge experience advantage over Sony in terms of existing partnerships with other entertainment mediums. Sony is no slouch, but I would be shocked if Sony isn't playing catch-up in that area. The Xbox One certainly looked a pretty sweet "toy" beyond just gaming.
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When it comes to os. Ms are shit.just look at what a flop windows 8 is.
 
henrys hand said:
I've heard weird stuff about the xbox one monitoring you 24h/7d, is that true? If so, what a major way for Microsoft to shoot themselves in the foot. No way am I going to let a spying machine into my home.

Not to talk about all the nonesense of having to register games and having to pay full price for unlocking used games, and stopping movies from being played when too many people are watching. They've got to be kidding. Xbox-one is so dead for me.:FAIL:

I hope PS4 won't copy some of those stunts, otherwise Sony can kiss my money goodbye as well.
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I think what you've been hearing is the internet taking things to their hyperbolic extreme.

Microsoft IS ambitiously forcing higher system requirements onto users (internet connection, Kinect setup, mandatory installs) which will simultaneously better the overall console gaming experience while also cutting out a significant amount of users who either can't afford/acquire broadband internet or just don't want to play along with Microsoft (at least at first.)

As someone who uses Kinect frequently in traditional games (Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, and FIFA 13) I think it adds a cool extra immersion factor. Developers knowing that everyone will a Kinect 2.0 will mean I will get more of those immersive features in more games. Developers knowing that everyone will be installing the games to a much more accessible storage device (the hard drive instead of Blu-Ray) will mean they won't have to make sure games work for those without storage. Developers knowing that everyone has internet access means it's worth spending money on cloud processing to better their games.

So just like the Xbox 360 left gamers behind that didn't adopt to HD televisions, the Xbox One will leave gamers behind that don't have broadband internet. Not a big deal to me, as I have a fast and stable internet connection. I certainly understand the frustration for those who don't.
 
EatonTJ said:
Xbox One:

...
2. Used games - After listening to publishers and console makers decry the rise in used games over the last 15 years or so (billions of dollars lost to a secondary market every year) I'm not surprised at steps being taken to bring that money back to the publishers and console makers. The news so far is that a license fee would be required to play any game. New copies include the license, whereas used copies would require a purchase of a license. If the license fee is high (like the cost of a new game), then this essentially eliminates any value in a used game.
Good news for the developers of games, they'll no longer be missing out on profits lost to used games sales. ...
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I don't think so. The industry won't make a single dollar more when the used market is gone. It's a zero-sum-game. People that buy new games at full price, they do so because they can sell it a month or two later with say at a loss of 20-50%. So in fact they pay 20%-50% of a game's full price.

What would happen, if they can't sell it on afterwards? They will buy less. Why? Because the money they earn and need for getting over a month is pretty much spread out on things like food, clothing, living-fees, cars, smartphone, cinema... and other stuff.

And those that bought let's say one used game a month, will buy one every three months or less at full price.

Of course there are those that would buy a game at full price on first day and never sell on, but those would buy the same way and use the same money in the new and old world, so they don't change the equation.

The change is only regarding those buying at full price and selling later on and those buying used games. They form a sort of symbiose and can't really be seen as two customers, they are in fact one, the one finances the other. Breaking up that symbiose won't change the money available at all, it will just change the amount of games being purchased at any given time, ie. it will slow down the speed at which games are bought, that's all.
 
Lami said:
:LOL:

Also check out this guy's reaction to fish moving out the way @ 16:10:

YouTube - Xbox One Reveal: Angry Rant


:LOL:

His whole video made me laugh though. He stayed up all night to the morning to watch the reveal so he might've gone a bit OTT, but his reactions were funny.
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Joe's amazing. The EA part had me cracking up. Catch his other reviews out too if you ever get the chance :)
 
EatonTJ said:
If you think Microsoft are terrible at making operating systems then we share different metrics on judging OS.
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Exactly, 8 is a superb OS, easily the fastest, most stable, quickest launching, best driver supporting OS I've ever used, and don't give me all that "it's built for a touch screen, mosaic is shit" I never see Mosaic, I boot straight to the old fashioned desktop and I have an old fashioned start menu.
 
Placebo said:
Exactly, 8 is a superb OS, easily the fastest, most stable, quickest launching, best driver supporting OS I've ever used, and don't give me all that "it's built for a touch screen, mosaic is shit" I never see Mosaic, I boot straight to the old fashioned desktop and I have an old fashioned start menu.
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Maybe all u use Win 8 is for running MS paint :APPLAUD:

i do more then just that. Win 8 is unstable(i almost lost all my holiday photos due to win 8 deciding to fuck itself over by crashing as soon as you enter file explorer)

certain games running like shit ie bioshock infinit which runs superb on older windows OS's

Bullshit touchscreen crap, Unresponsive web pages when it has more then one javascript/flash/animation happening on a webpage. piss poor support for software coders etc etc the list goes on
 
henrys hand said:
I don't think so. The industry won't make a single dollar more when the used market is gone. It's a zero-sum-game. People that buy new games at full price, they do so because they can sell it a month or two later with say at a loss of 20-50%. So in fact they pay 20%-50% of a game's full price.

What would happen, if they can't sell it on afterwards? They will buy less. Why? Because the money they earn and need for getting over a month is pretty much spread out on things like food, clothing, living-fees, cars, smartphone, cinema... and other stuff.

And those that bought let's say one used game a month, will buy one every three months or less at full price.

Of course there are those that would buy a game at full price on first day and never sell on, but those would buy the same way and use the same money in the new and old world, so they don't change the equation.

The change is only regarding those buying at full price and selling later on and those buying used games. They form a sort of symbiose and can't really be seen as two customers, they are in fact one, the one finances the other. Breaking up that symbiose won't change the money available at all, it will just change the amount of games being purchased at any given time, ie. it will slow down the speed at which games are bought, that's all.
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Microsoft's new position (or clarification of their old position) is that the used games market will still exist, only that now Microsoft and games' publishers/developers will be getting some piece of the pie. How exactly this will change the used games market at this point is still unknown.

However, if you look to PC gaming or to Cell Phone gaming where there isn't much of a used games market I don't think gamers are buying any less... so I certainly hope that Microsoft can/has come up with a system that will take money out of the hands of stores like Gamestop and into the hands of game publishers and designers without raising the overall cost of gaming for the consumer.
 
jonneymendoza said:
Maybe all u use Win 8 is for running MS paint :APPLAUD:

i do more then just that. Win 8 is unstable(i almost lost all my holiday photos due to win 8 deciding to fuck itself over by crashing as soon as you enter file explorer)

certain games running like shit ie bioshock infinit which runs superb on older windows OS's

Bullshit touchscreen crap, Unresponsive web pages when it has more then one javascript/flash/animation happening on a webpage. piss poor support for software coders etc etc the list goes on
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I don't have any of those problems, and Bioshock Infinite ran perfectly smooth for me at 1080p with everything maxed out.
 
windows 8 here no problems on PC. no different to any other OS. works well enough

windows surface pro / few crashes

servers in work all use windows and are on 24/7 and are stable.
 
i prefer OSX now and thats coming from someone who only started using it a while ago and have previously been a massive windows user since 3.1
 
My only problem with Windows 8 was the new UI and that was rectified within half an hour by installing Classic Shell and making a few other adjustments. Now it looks and feels like Windows 7.

Other than the terrible UI it's been a very good OS so far. No problems here.
 
Xbox One has “CPU and storage equivalent of three consoles on the cloud”
Xbox One will support cloud technology and according to Xbox incubation and prototyping group manager Jeff Henshaw, the cloud will provide developers with the CPU and storage equivalent of three extra consoles.

Speaking with OXM, Henshaw said this will allow developers to create larger, persistent worlds for Xbox One users.

“We’re provisioning for developers for every physical Xbox One we build, we’re provisioning the CPU and storage equivalent of three Xbox Ones on the cloud,” he said. “We’re doing that flat out so that any game developer can assume that there’s roughly three times the resources immediately available to their game, so they can build bigger, persistent levels that are more inclusive for players.

“They can do that out of the gate.”

Furthermore, over on Stevivor, Xbox Australia spokesperson Adam Pollington told the site Xbox One would be “40 times greater than the Xbox 360 in terms of processing capabilities” when using the cloud.

“Xbox One is ten times more powerful than the Xbox 360, so we’re effectively 40 times greater than the Xbox 360 in terms of processing capabilities [using the cloud],” said Pollington. “If you look to the cloud as something that is no doubt going to evolve and grow over time, it really spells out that there’s no limit to where the processing power of Xbox One can go.

“I think that’s a very exciting proposition, not only for Australians, but anyone else who’s going to pick up the Xbox One console.”


Can anyone with a brain explain that too me as I don't really get it?
 
Maybe your computer just isn't good enough jonney :SMUG:


Jotagrim: That's why it's always online, every game can (will?) be built like SimCity.
 
jaygrim said:
Xbox One has “CPU and storage equivalent of three consoles on the cloud”
Xbox One will support cloud technology and according to Xbox incubation and prototyping group manager Jeff Henshaw, the cloud will provide developers with the CPU and storage equivalent of three extra consoles.

Snip.


Can anyone with a brain explain that too me as I don't really get it?
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I think, theyre saying the cloud can do some of the tasks for the console. So like it could do something and send that to your game for you. Errr

Right like this. The cloud could do its magic and make your games look better. So say in 4 years they upgrade the servers with new graphics card, your Xbox could ignore the card in the box and use the cloud instead meaning you get an upgraded look.

They looked at it on Eurogamer the other day and I think concluded its years away from being much use.
 
The cloud is essentially a streaming service so the perennial problem of slow internet connections will limit its usefulness for many years to come.
 
jaygrim said:
Xbox One has “CPU and storage equivalent of three consoles on the cloud”
Xbox One will support cloud technology and according to Xbox incubation and prototyping group manager Jeff Henshaw, the cloud will provide developers with the CPU and storage equivalent of three extra consoles.

Speaking with OXM, Henshaw said this will allow developers to create larger, persistent worlds for Xbox One users.

“We’re provisioning for developers for every physical Xbox One we build, we’re provisioning the CPU and storage equivalent of three Xbox Ones on the cloud,” he said. “We’re doing that flat out so that any game developer can assume that there’s roughly three times the resources immediately available to their game, so they can build bigger, persistent levels that are more inclusive for players.

“They can do that out of the gate.”

Furthermore, over on Stevivor, Xbox Australia spokesperson Adam Pollington told the site Xbox One would be “40 times greater than the Xbox 360 in terms of processing capabilities” when using the cloud.

“Xbox One is ten times more powerful than the Xbox 360, so we’re effectively 40 times greater than the Xbox 360 in terms of processing capabilities [using the cloud],” said Pollington. “If you look to the cloud as something that is no doubt going to evolve and grow over time, it really spells out that there’s no limit to where the processing power of Xbox One can go.

“I think that’s a very exciting proposition, not only for Australians, but anyone else who’s going to pick up the Xbox One console.”


Can anyone with a brain explain that too me as I don't really get it?
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This cloud thing will not work here since it´s always sunny in Rio :SMUG:
 
Gab_ said:
Maybe your computer just isn't good enough jonney :SMUG:


Jotagrim: That's why it's always online, every game can (will?) be built like SimCity.
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SimCity was a nightmare for me, pre-ordered the game only to not be able to play it until a few weeks after it was unlocked on Origin due to constant queuing.

One time I fell asleep waiting to get in the game, and it was just left on while dozed off. That's the worst case scenario when you purchase games requiring Always On and Cloud features integrated.
 
After hearing what Angry Joe had to say about the Xbox One launch, anyone considering a console would have to be a complete idiot to choose the Xbox One over the PS4.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/microso...ements-6408924
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Really? Really, MS? Angry Joe is right, you've lost the flaming plot!

As for Win 8, I don't like it because it looks like it belongs on a phone, not a PC. I'll be sticking with Win 7 64bit thank you very much, Microsoft.
 
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