MS - Next Xbox reveal live stream thoughts

If this the best the consoles can do maybe they deserve to die. Why are they producing underpowered pieces of crap, first nintendo then microsoft, I bet ps4 is going to win by default.

 

According to their stock prices, you're not alone in that opinion. It looks like my console line up for the next few years is PS4 and Ouya.

 

I am not impressed with the Xbox ONE (why did they choose that name considering the REAL Xbox 1 is long dead), mainly because of the underwhelming reception and no focus on the GAMES. And for me, personally, I am with PS4 on this one... that console has my attention

 

Well, that was..bad.
'Xbox One' what? How is that even relevant.
I think they should take a few lessons from apple on design, that console looks horrible, like a..90's VCR or something. I cant even imagine how customised skins can be incorporated. Everything these days seem to be getting slimmer and smaller, not the xbox though...does it even stand vertically?
Past all the nitpicking on design the actual interface and functionality looks very "tabletish". I really didnt see any focus on the gaming community and more on older generations watching their favourite episodes such as time team. I don't see why you would want to switch between watching a film and finding a matchmaking lobby.

Most of my joy came from the new halo TV series, to be honest. I'l be keeping an eye out for the steam box i think.



Why couldn't you just upgrade the hardware of the 360?

 

I agree with Ben. the console looks like TiVo going through withdrawls... just ugh...and I wish it was more gamer centric... the kinect absolutely sucks

 

Its sad to admit how long to took me to see that this was a VCR, and not the new Doom Cube.

 

Well things are going from bad to worse.
No wonder the reveal was so lacklustre, they kept back all the worse stuff

This is gathered from various sites such as Polygon, The Verge, kotaku.

1. Blocks used games.
2. Second-hand requires a fee.

This will actually go a long way to killing the second -hand market, as for the fee to be reasonable we have to assume that games are active on only one device at a time. Meaning to sell the physical copy you must first deactivate it on your machine. However buyers on say ebay will have no guarantee of this, shops may fair a little better, by putting the game into a machine to test, but then shops were always ripping off the public with second hand prices anyway. So its a nice way to spread distrust from buyer to seller.


3. Installing to a new account (e.g lending it to a friend) requires a fee.

Fun for all the family, though the account who bought the game will have to remain logged in for others to play the game, assuming that works.


4. Definitely not backwards compatible.

That sucks, bang goes all the money I invested into the 360 once it breaks. Bizarre in such a connected digital world they couldn't see the benefit in transferring and playing your old games on a new system.


5. Kinect is integral yet separate, xbox will not work unless it is plugged in!

This is dumb on so many levels.
a. So if the kinect breaks you can no longer use your xbox?!?
b. Why must it always be connected? Are they watching you, listening to you? Is face recognition for access to media like that MS patent, just a short step away?
c. Assume it means voice is always active, which is so ready for grieving 'xbox turn off', even worse there were apparently reports from people watching the live stream that the voice commands from the reveal triggered their kinect!

6. Not always online, but must log in once a day for games to run.

Hmm, something comes to mind, oh yeah Deal With It!

So assuming all the reports are true, whilst the console does not have to stay 'always on' it does need an internet connection daily to keep playing the games. So all those instances people tried to explain where this might be a problem will remain a problem. No internet? No games for you. Dodgy broadband or someone digs through your cables, well you'll ok for 24hrs then no games. Moving house, got no internet for a wekk, no games for you.


7. Can use cloud to off-load calculations - Sim City anyone?

8. 500Gb HDD,
Not great, especially as all games will need to be installed, combined with storing bought movies and other media, that could mean as few as 10 or 15 games installed. Haven't read anything about adding additional drives, but MS seemed to take a perverse pleasure in forcing customers to get their propriety versions.

9. a positive to balance things out
The kinect can apparently monitor your heart rate. I guess that's good if you have a heart attack can it call an ambulance?


This is NOT a gamers machine, frankly if you want to play games I see no reason not to simply get a PC, install steam. You have the same restrictions on second-hand, but you get much better deals on the price of games. The xbox One is a machine that doesn't trust you and seems designed around being able to monitor you. This is really disappointing, though i'm not angry as Angry Joe - worth a watch

Assuming this is accurate (it is being widely reported though), then Sony assuming they have no similar plans can just walk in and steal next gen completely!

They have backwards compatibility, all be it at a cost via streaming (but their current PS Plus subscription is already popular due to the value it adds). If they don't block second-hand games or second installs, don't require a big brother kinect box to be always on they are ahead again. Its just a massive win for gamers and the PS4 will be known as the 'gamers console'. That leaves MS with the 'entertainment' machine, with over-priced rent/purchase of media and being able to shout at it to change tv channels.

 

I definitely don;t like this at all...

 

Because choosing XBox Unity would be misleading.

Outside of Wolf3D and Doom the only games I could stomach playing for hours have been console games. I know alot of you think the new 'realistic graphics' bring more to the game but they diminish the game. The game play hasn't changed since the first shareware cartoon Wolfenstein basically.

Sitting on a couch a comfortable distance from the TV and playing with your family and friends in the same room has alway been more fun then when they are in another house or playing a stranger in some online game.

 

Man, this guy's got me angry and I wasn't even planning on buying one!

 

That is another thing that aggravates me! Sony made a focus on the indies, and Microsoft should have followed suit... I definitely see a planar shift of the popularity of consoles... and keep in mind too that since PS4 is working with PC components, it will be MUCH easier to develop for...

And I am glad that Sony focused on the GAMES

 

Indeed and I think this started right from the PS4 reveal. It may well be looked back on as a master stroke from Sony.

What I find ironic is that current gen Sony did everything they could to piss me off. So much so that by the time it was available i'd lost interest and this was someone who had both PS1 and PS2 and thought the PS3 would be a given. This time it seems like the reverse. So far Sony have done and said everything right (though there is still ample opportunity to mess it up, reveal they are blocking used games too etc) and MS are going out of their way to put up barriers to me getting an Xbox One.

I do think its beginning to be summed up as 'Xbox One the media entertainment machine, PS4 the gamers console'

Obviously its way to early to tell, heck I doubt i'd be first in line to buy either of them, but I was probably going to buy one earlier than I ever had in previous console generations. Maybe i'll just give up on gaming altogether and save myself the agony of deciding

He tells it from the heart, man
Its funny that he got angrier as the show went on and more details started coming out pre-reveal show.
But he's a pretty good youTube games commentator, yeah he acts angry but on the whole he's usually right to be.

 

Don't know if this has been posted, but:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVkQFMPwWc8

I was hoping for the COD trailer to be a little more.... revealing. Not even a storyline. BUT, there was a ghost mask at 1:03.

 

it really was... and for me personally, I have ALWAYS wanted to make a game for a console every since I was a kid, but lacked experience knowledge and other S***. And right now, I am going to wait until both consoles come up with something impressive in their software library... NO ONE wants to pay out the ass for a new console right now when there aren't any launch titles that are worth buying it for.

Right now, I love Watch Dogs and GTA 5... but other than that, I am solely focused on PC development until Sony and Microsoft come up with a reasonable way for us indies to make games for their consoles without the extreme costs of an SDK and maintenance for the games... Unity has it READY... we just gotta be sure we are...

And PC gaming hasn't failed me yet... I recently started playing Shogun 2 Total War and don't know why

 

lol, that was the first game I bought last year when I returned to start playing PC games, a great steams sale deal and many hours of fun. Now i've spent more on steam in the last 6 months than i've spent on the xbox in the last few years.

My machine isn't state of the art, but its ample to play the latest games like Bioshock Infinite, which in itself was a key moment, as I Initially switched from PC to xbox to play Bioshock 1 since my PC was at an evolutionary dead end with an AGP card slot. I guess it may struggle a bit with Watch Dogs, though since that is also a current gen title, I doubt it will be too bad.

After that we'll looking towards next year at which time I guess i'll make a choice, new PC, xbox one or PS4.

 

I always love the tidal-wave of negativity after any gaming press conference. It doesn't matter what company it is - all the fortune-tellers and self-described "completely unbiased" gamers come out of the wood-work and try to educate everyone else on the internet as to why this product is doomed to fail.

My turn!

The Xbox One and PS4 are going to be as identical as the PS3 and 360 were. We've reached a point where huge leaps in graphical power aren't going to happen - they have basically the same architecture, and same overall gaming hardware specs. They will both play the same games equally well. They will both have exclusive titles you will want to play. So it's interesting to see people blast MS for being a media box / smart TV, while simultaneously praising the PS4 as being 'for the gamer'.. when really the only things that will set them apart are what else they do outside of gaming.

As for the event itself - I just wish they'd have not talked about sports so much. Just announce the NFL partnership (huge), show the fantasy football stuff, and boom - done. Was it really necessary to have the EA Sports guy come on stage and talk about all the super-awesome-brand-new-never-before-done things they're working on.. while not actually really saying or showing anything? It was almost as awkward as that driving club dude at the PS4 announce, talking about how detailed their cars seats were in his new super-awesome race game.. but never actually racing.

 

Tough choice. I have a workstation and a mobile workstation... those will help me. As for Steam, I have logged in over 400 hrs on it... and with Shogun being the most played... I think I played until the sun came up...and I conquered 50 provinces before going to sleep

 

err, the majority of this discussion has been exactly what differentiates the Xbox One and PS4 and your right to a large degree its not about power or games, its about the apparent sweeping restrictions that MS have instigated (which so far Sony have not) and the complete repositioning to be the media/all-in-one/lounge xbox vs the PS4 game centric push (supporting developers, indie games etc).

in that case I strongly recommend you don't get Civ 5 or XCOM: EU

 

I'm good on those... I will stick to Shogun and hitman absolution... can't believe I still have half life 2

 

Half Life 2 is fantastic game. What's not to believe (other than the fact that Episode 3 still isn't out)?

 

Well, yeah...and unfortunately, HL2 gives me motion sickness

 

XBox One summed up in 1.5 minutes.

EDIT: I'm very disappointed that they didn't even mention "interactive smoke". I mean... really. That was really what was holding back the CoD franchise. That, and the lack of AI in their... fish.

 

I haven't really seen any real restrictions mentioned that aren't more than speculation? It's not backwards compatible, but neither is the PS4. It's not 'connection required' outside of things you'd expect like multi-player. The whole 'you can't sell used games!!!' thing was debunked today by Major Nelson, though he didn't give any real specifics.

And just to be clear, Sony aren't 'supporting' developers with the PS4 any more than Microsoft always has. If anything, with the PS4, Sony is trying to catch up to Microsoft on that front. They even kind of owned up for it during the PS4 announce. I don't know if you've ever developed for the PS3 - but it was a pain in the ass working with its proprietary architecture (and Sony were horrible with support unless you were a first-party studio).

 

You can trade and resell games "at retail". Whatever that means.

And you can play your game, but only with your profile, That means your friend cannot play your disc unless they are signed in to your specific profile.

 

Sorry but all those points are incorrect. PS4 offers BC via streaming service, online connection is required to register and play the games you install ( which must be installed) and must be available every 24 hours else the game will cease working. MS are offering cloud based services a la Sim City, so whilst MS may not enfroce the always on requirement, game publishers can and will. The second-hand market will not be the same, whilst you can sell a game, the buyer must pay a fee to unlock the game and its likely to be very high, higher than current online passes. You can no longer lend a game to a friend, they will have to pay a fee, unless you are also logged into your account on their xbox at the same time. The list goes on.

What I think is most telling is that nearly all of this was left to after event announcements, they clearly knew this was a bad direction for gamers and would be unpopular, but as gamers seem to no longer be there may focus or even target I suspect they think they can get away with it. Only time will tell.

I disagree, the PS4 reveal was all about the developers, the games, supporting indie, and gamers, none of that was in Microsofts reveal. While people say wait until E3, why couldn't they take just a couple of minutes to mention similar support, why wasn't developer support mentioned in the wealth of information that came direct from MS sources after the reveal which confirmed all the negatives that have been mention (i.e stuff above). The reveal was the most important opening salvo in the MS vs Sony battle for next gen and they practically ignored gamers and developers. Thats very strange.

I agree that Sony handled developers and gamers badly with the PS3, so its no surprise they are making it such a focus this time. Sure they have more to do in that area but they are doing it at every level, whilst MS seem happy to sit on their laurels.

 

Wall of text crits you for 9001 damage!

Is it really 'backwards compatible' if you have to re-buy the content, and none of the physical or digtal media you own can be used in any way? To me that's just another 'virtual console' sale.. like saying the Wii was backwards compatible with the NES. Obviously you'll have to be online the entire time you're playing them as well, since it's fully streamed. And I won't be surprised when Microsoft unveils a similar option for the One, considering they have far fewer technological hurdles to overcome (though I'd bet on fully downloadable games with sellable/tradable 'licenses' rather than on-demand streaming).

Yea, the 24hour online thing is the one 'true' factoid floating around. At least, it's confirmed - we still don't have all of the details about how the trading system and market work. For all we know it could be another opt-in thing that developers can choose to use or ignore, or you could have the option to 'gift' your rights to a game to another person. Or maybe developers can issue more than one license per disc, allowing it to be played by a number of their choosing before purchases have to be made. There are so many variables it's hard to judge before we know them all.

Personally, as a developer for the systems, I'm glad stuff like this is going into place (and most developers I know are too). Sorry to be a draconian DRM pusher - but these give us options. We could be ruthless overlords and demand everyone buys our game, or we could be cool and let you 'lend' it to a few friends before it's used up and requires a purchase. With these kind of options publishers don't have to push every game online in order to secure sales and keep revenue leeches like GameStop at bay. This has been a hot topic among publishers and developers lately, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony offer up similar restrictions.

And the same publishers can do the same exact thing on the PS4. If a publisher decides to make a game have an online-requirement, they can (and will) do it on either system.

Please continue with the rest of the list. You're just guessing as to how trading will work and how much it will cost - unless you've found info I haven't (in which case, please share!). The best I found was Major Nelson, with a vague "at retail" answer. Trading and selling used licenses, over Live, in an online second-hand market that Microsoft takes a cut of isn't too radically different than buying a used game from GameStop. It could even be cheaper if sellers control the prices, and developers could potentially get an actual slice of the profit. It's a giant middle-finger to GameStop, basically.

We'll see at E3 - I think Microsoft and Sony held quite a bit back. It's going to be a hell of a show I think, not necessarily for blow-your-mind new features, but an info-dump of all the details about how it'll all work. And some kick ass game teasers too - pretty sure there'll be a few there as well.

I guess my question would be - why does Microsoft need to pledge their support for developers when they've been the exemplar for nearly a decade, and they have such strong 3rd party backing? Sony had an admitted problem with the last generation, so assuring developers we wouldn't be putting up with another cell architecture nightmare was something they had to do.

I'll fully admit though, MIcrosoft not mentioning indie developers was disappointing.. though they've never really beat the 'indie' chest, hopefully they have more to tell.

 

Wait... are you an XBox Fan Boy? I didn't even know those existed!

Hey, I'm a fan of XBox myself, but seriously, this new console is just crap. Seriously, they, themselves have said that ALL GAMES must first connect to the internet in order to download a code to activate and play the game. That game is then connected specifically to your profile. If your friend wants to play it on their machine, they can either log in to your profile or pay FULL PRICE for the game to activate it.

 

Because I don't blindly rage about stuff nobody has the details on, I'm a fan-boy?

I own a PS3 and a 360, and I'll own both a PS4 and an Xbox One - I'm a game developer after-all. I'm just amusing at how up-in-arms people get when they know relatively little. How quick they are to judge things without thinking for just a minute there are reasons for all of these decisions - and maybe, just maybe, they don't have all the pieces to the puzzle yet.

And you realize the system you just described is Steam.. right? Because I'm pretty sure people are cool with Steam, as it's been making an f'n killing among the 'hardcore gamer' crowd for a while now.

 

Those are the details, as described by Microsoft themselves.

And Steam is a service that provides digital downloads, not physical copies of a game. There's a reason people still buy the physical games... there WAS a reason.

 

What, are people actually surprised by this?

 

baaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahhahahaha

 

lolz hahahahahaahhaahahahahahahahaha i saw the video and that's what i saw.. TV, TV, TV maybe gaming, BUT FOR SURE TV TV TV TV SPORTS TV TV lol

 

Well, it is Comedy Week on YouTube, perhaps Microsoft just has a fabulous sense of humor?

 

I was really disapointed with that reveal...
Almost all they talked about was tv, movies, nfl, fantasy leagues, kinect and how to switch from one interface to another (the ultimate troll machine where you have a friend playing a game and you simply say xbox watch tv)...
Talking about games, which should be a priority in a console, they showed CG trailers ( EA sports trailer and Quantum Break), COD and forza. No real gameplay was shown.
They were talking so much how the next-gen cod was going to revolutionalize the FPS games and it really didn't impress. Battlefield 4 looks way better and more colorfull. If you are going to show a next-gen game, then i think the top priority is probably graphics.

If it coudn't get any worse, they confirmed the following:
- Kinect has to be always connected to your xbox, if not then the xbox won't work,
- Used games are blocked, if you want to play a friend's game, then you have to use his profile or buy the game yourself and if you want to buy the game, then you must be connected to the internet.
- You can't switch the HDD, but you can have an external HDD.
- You have mandatory full game installs. A next-gen game will occupy more than 15GB minimum, adding to that HD movies, music and demos, the HDD will fill really quick,
- To play a game you need to link it to your xbox live account first, which requires an internet connection.
- The xbox isn't always on, but requires to connect to the internet once per day, so say if you and your friends want to go on vacations or just go to a country house for a week with no internet access, you won't be able to play games.

Well i think that's the end of my rant xD

It's still really early to call it, but i'm going to say that Sony is a clear winner, they hit everything right in their conference, focusing on games, something that microsoft didn't do.
This pretty much sums up their conference : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbWgUO-Rqcw

PS: sorry about the grammar errors, i wrote this really fast.

I still remember the time when all you had to do to play a new game was turn on your console and insert the disc... good times.

 

to drive home my point i made yesterday, I'll leave this.

http://kotaku.com/mainstream-media-reacts-to-the-xbox-one-509243303

to reiterate "the avg consumer will eat this up"

i would also like to quote an anonymous Japanese gamer:

"They [Microsoft] are not looking at Sony or Nintendo, but are frantically coming up with countermeasures for Apple and Google."

 

My thoughts:

1) This reveal was never meant to be targeted at core gamers. It was televised on Spike, it was designed to appeal to casual dudebro sports/CoD fans. That's why the focused on all the transmedia stuff, and not core games. Wait for E3.

2) If you don't think the PS4 will do the exact same thing with used games and connectivity, you're kidding yourselves. EA recently killed their online passes program for a reason, and it wasn't out of the goodness of their hearts, it was because it was unnecessary due to how used games will be handled (nearly eradicated) in the next generation. There's no way in hell they'd kill the program across the board unless there was parity in how "used game reactivation" was handled in both next-gen consoles.

Still, PS4 gets my vote for how invitingly they're handling the indie scene.

 

https://twitter.com/CollarDuty

 

That's because you can buy mainstream media, and money is the one thing MS isn't short on. Although, the way the public works is "What? CNN said I should get this? Well then I'd better get it!" Sad, but it works. (Really? The design is "sexy"?)

I'm just waiting for MS to back peddle this one. Make an announcement, "Just kidding! Gotcha! Wouldn't it be funny if we really were making a console like that though. Heh... you guys..."

 

OK after giving the thing a lot of thought, here are my points of view on the machine:

HATE the used game installation thing. It's absurd.
HATE I must install games to play them.
HATE the "needs to see the internet every 24 hours" bit. (I have more than once lost access to the internet for a week and those are the days I like to play consoles the most.)

Basically, they turned the Xbox into a TV-hooked PC. Oh did I mention the thing looks almost as sexy as my Motorola Cable Modem? Yea that box may blend on the average home theater setup... but as a gamer I scream bloody murder.


I'm guessing the reason EA is not working on future Wii U titles is because they are signing some exclusivity deals with Microsoft, may be they will be bought out by big MS (I would like that, actually... they would likely be forced to stop using that Origin crap and use Xbox Live/Windows Live instead.)


My gut reaction is not to get it... however I guess if you are into downloadable games, resale has never been an option anyways. If that's what you are into, I think the Xbox One may be a fine device to play with. In fact, it will be way better than the Wii U that ties up your digital purchases to the console itself, instead of tying it up to your account.

Lack of backwards compatibility was a bit expected. When the Xbox 360 was first engineered, Apple was keeping IBM/Motorola working on the PowerPC architecture, so it seemed as a safe bet to go that way. Since then Apple switched to Intel and now it would be very unlikely IBM/Motorola would be persuaded to make a competing PowerPC chip. Nintendo is still using a PowerPC chip, but their console is arguably comparable to a current gen Xbox, not a current top-of-the-line PC.

Big issue though is that as much as I love my Xbox, the things seem to be programmed to self destruct. I have little faith I'll be able to play my Xbox games in 5 years unless I stockpile Xboxes now like a doom prepper. So, if anything, this announcement has encouraged me to sell every xbox game I own that also exists for the PS3, and get the PS3 versions instead.

I'm not a big fan of EA, nor that big on Halo games. I think I wont be getting one of these things. I MIGHT get one at some point as a media center or something... depending on price... but I got to say: always on, always listening Kinect freaks me out.

 

PS4 won't be doing anything like that. EA has formed a "partnership" with Microsoft, which is what leads to this draconian business model.

 

If sony does this, I am buying a Wii U. These companies already sell digital copies of their games, you can get full versions of games like Tomb Rider directly for download that cant be resold. They want to incentivize those over physical? Make them much cheaper than the disk versions. I would dare pay a premium for disks just for the convenience to play them in any machine of any user and at any date in the future. I don't want to worry about the console being abandoned years in the future and my games no longer working because I cant authenticate with a discontinued server to install my frigging game.

 

EA games will still come out on PS4, and they wouldn't kill off online passes across the board like they said they are if they weren't guaranteed revenue on used games on PS4. Sony has remained decidedly vague on the subject of used games for a reason (they didn't want to kick off the S***storm). If used games were 100% usable as they have been in previous generations, it would be a huge selling point for PS4 and they'd come out and be 100% clear about it. They're not.

 

My guess is that "special partnership" means one of two things:

A) Microsoft may buy EA
B) EA may leverage that partnership to blackmail other consoles into offering the same, Nintendo refusing may be the reason they not going to do more titles for the Wii U.

 

Sony has come out to say a few things already, but sure, they have not given a clear cut yes-no answer yet. I'd give them time to react to Microsoft's S*** storm. MS trying to announce this early may be the best thing to happen to Sony, if they were planning this they may be able to back out of it before their E3 reveal.

 

I hope they crush them.

 

http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield-4/buy/playstation-4
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/21/madden-fifa-ufc-and-nba-live-also-coming-to-ps4

The partnership is undoubtedly just an exclusive content or timed-exclusive DLC thing.

 

Sony's primary stance so far has been "we're leaving that up to the publishers". So, if I were to guess, I'd say its an option that devs can either use or not.

 

Exactly! The Steam business model is where all console manufacturers and publishers want to be. It's the future of the industry. Hate on Microsoft all you want, it's basically guaranteed Sony will follow the same path with the PS4.

 

Rigth now yea, my point is not immediate. My point is about the long run. It may not happen this year, though, although then again depending how Sony starts performing it may happen faster as a desperation move.

 

You can follow that model now. Sony already sells games a-la-steam in the PS3, same with the Wii-U, but they also still support disk sales. If you going to tie up disk sales with digital shackles, just don't offer the disk sales at all.