Dcubed Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Begs the question; if this is how much a weaker console costs, then how much is the PS4 going to cost or how much are Sony prepared to lose on it and where do they plan on making the difference up? It's like these companies want to make gaming a commodity. Sorry, but that's a step too far for me; gaming to me should be a light-hearted hobby, not a monthly contract. Don't forget the Durango comes with Kinect 2. That'll no doubt push the cost of the hardware up significantly. I suspect that PS4 will probably end up being roughly the same price as the Durango, give or take about £30-40.
Shorty Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Thurrott is just guessing regarding the costs. Apparently there is a contract offer on the xbox? This is USA only? I dont recall ever seeing such deals here without mobile phones involved. Not much difference to buying your console on low/no interest payments really, which you could do at Currys or Argos or whatever.
Happenstance Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 I think MS said that the trial of the cheaper 360 with a contract actually did quite well over there so it wouldnt surprise me if they did it again for the new console. I wont be buying one anyway though as I dont like the way they are supposedly taking it and have already gone with the 360.
Cube Posted April 8, 2013 Author Posted April 8, 2013 Ah, so it's more like a separate financial thing and not "sign up for Gold for X amount of time".
Happenstance Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Yeah I think so. It was only available out of a few specific Microsoft branded stores in the US and you could get the 360 for a cheap price if you signed up for this certain contract. I don't know if Gold was included in that.
Dcubed Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Yeah I think so. It was only available out of a few specific Microsoft branded stores in the US and you could get the 360 for a cheap price if you signed up for this certain contract. I don't know if Gold was included in that. It was included in that deal and probably will be with this Durango one too.
Happenstance Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Here we go: You Can Now Buy An Xbox 360 For $99 (If You Can Find A Microsoft Store) The rumored $99 Xbox 360 bundle is now no longer a rumor. It's live. You dish out $99 up front and commit to two years of Xbox Live Gold at $15/month, you get a 4GB Xbox 360 and a Kinect. (Oh and also you have to buy it at a Microsoft Store. Yes, there is such thing as a Microsoft Store. There are 21 in the United States. Six in California. None in New York. Good hunting.) Wondering whether it's worth it? Well, $99 + $15/month for two years is a total of $459. The list price for a 4GB Xbox 360 and Kinect is $299. Xbox Live Gold will run you $60/year. So that's a total of $420. In other words, this bundle will cost you $40 extra. http://kotaku.com/5908241/you-can-now-buy-an-xbox-360-for-99-if-you-can-find-a-microsoft-store
gaggle64 Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Hang on, I'm trying to get my head round it all - Are they setting it up as a sort of dedicated cloud-access-service console with everything saved and stored somewhere out in the ether? Is that what this looks like?
Shorty Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 I think the idea is just to have a system which keeps itself up to date, DRM checks your games and wakes up quickly.
Daft Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Next Xbox reveal due 21st May, costs $500 or $300 with a subscription, reports suggest Microsoft will reveal its next-generation Xbox at an event on 21st May, multiple reports have suggested. The console will launch in "early November", seasoned Microsoft analyst Paul Thurrot has revealed. These details have been independently backed up by The Verge. Named just "Xbox", Microsoft's machine will be "expensive" and cost around $500 (roughly £326, although likely higher in the UK). A lower price $300 (£195) model will also be available with some form of subscription. Veteran Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrot in action. Regarding the console's rumoured "always-online" component, Thurrot reiterated what we knew already - that previous Microsoft design documents have mentioned the feature. "Looking at some of the stuff I got a long time ago, it actually says 'must be internet-connected to use' in the notes," Thurrot claimed. "And that's all I have, but it does say that." Recently-leaked internal documentation dated to last year referenced the console's "always on, always connected" design. Microsoft was coy in its apology for comments made by senior employee Adam Orth last week that appeared to support an "always on" console. The company's statement was careful to apologise for Orth's poorly chosen words while steering clear of addressing the subject in general. Thurrot's report also mentioned two other unannounced Xbox-branded machines. One, code-named "Yumo", was to be an Xbox device purely for entertainment apps, rather than games. The product has seemingly been canned to avoid confusing consumers. The other machine is a new budget-priced Xbox 360 model, code-named "Stingray". Due for release later this year, the device will cost just $99 (£65). Thurrot suggested this may mean Microsoft's new Xbox would not play Xbox 360 games. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-08-next-xbox-reveal-due-21st-may-costs-USD500-or-USD300-with-a-subscription-reports-suggest It's slightly surreal to see the PS4 doing everything right and the Xbox (if all this is true) do everything wrong. I'm having déjà vu from the PS3 and 360 launch, except everything's backward.
Charlie Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Here we go: You Can Now Buy An Xbox 360 For $99 (If You Can Find A Microsoft Store) http://kotaku.com/5908241/you-can-now-buy-an-xbox-360-for-99-if-you-can-find-a-microsoft-store See that's actually quite a good deal. Paying only $40 (£20) extra to be able to spread the cost over monthly payments. Would work very well for younger people or low-incomes to be able to buy the console.
Captain Falcon Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Hang on, I'm trying to get my head round it all - Are they setting it up as a sort of dedicated cloud-access-service console with everything saved and stored somewhere out in the ether? Is that what this looks like? Whilst streaming is an option for a lot of content, it's still far from appropriate for high definition gaming demanding fast response times - especially so in the US where MS have the biggest market share. Cloud saves will still be an option as they already are, but the gaming side won't be a cloud platform unless such a game required additional processing power that needs to be handled remotely and then both sides will likely be working in unison. As Shorty mentioned, it's probably just for random checks once every so often to see if you're running up to date firmware, DRM checking and probably recording activity use so they can better serve you adverts. Always on would be bad enough for some folks if the checks were made frequent enough but to have all content streamed, games and film, would be such a no-no move that not even Microsoft would attempt right now. Plus, you wouldn't need such an expensive box if it were all handled on the cloud as it has to do sod all work. Even with Kinect 2.0, $500 sounds awfully steep considering it uses inexpensive RAM, a low power/cost processor (well, probably two of them), and a low end GPU which are all based on off-the-shelf components. Surely the removal of motors inside Kinect 2.0 thanks to the wide angle lens has both reduced complexity and cost to manufacture as well. Even with a sizeable HDD, it sounds like there is a nice profit on the package compared to previous releases. Sony could easily undercut that and not even take much of a hit... unless their Eyetoy really does come bundled in every box but even then, there wouldn't be much in it and you'd be getting a much more powerful device to boot.
Shorty Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 It's slightly surreal to see the PS4 doing everything right and the Xbox (if all this is true) do everything wrong. I'm having déjà vu from the PS3 and 360 launch, except everything's backward. We'll have to wait and see what this console can do, first. I was initially very impressed by the PS4 reveal, then I sat back and realised that I really don't want much of what they were selling. Even if always-on is a big deal to some, it won't affect my choice personally, and they probably looked at the figures of online gamers on their system and realised that there's a huge chunk of people that this isn't going to bother. If Xbox has a machine as powerful, or nearly as powerful, as the PS4, fast to boot and fast to play, play as you download/install, slight improvement to the controller, big improvement to Kinect, retains its brilliant downloadable game structure, but has no share button... it's now one step ahead of the PS4 for me. (If I buy a Vita, that would probably change significantly). On the other hand if it looks like we'll get Sim City esque game launches with everyone failing to activate their game on launch day, or Kinect barely improves but shitty sports and dance games remain the focus of their launch, if the hardware is not up to scratch or the dash has even more ads and they make looking at your avatar's feet a big deal again....
Daft Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 (edited) Why would having an optional feature be a negative? Edit: That's not meant to sound aggressive as it does. What feature would sell you the new Xbox? Edited April 8, 2013 by Daft
Shorty Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 The share button is negative to me because it's a waste of space and it's taken away the select button. It's putting a feature right in front of me that I'm already sick of looking at on the internet. I'm not saying it's a negative to the system overall, but to me personally. No individual feature would sell me the Xbox really, to be honest I find most things beyond gaming and buying games to be a gimmick these days. I miss consoles that just played games and new consoles were just more powerful. I'd be happy with a more powerful Xbox. Really just a refreshing, gaming-focused attitude to the delivery of the system would sell it to me, unfortunately I'm expecting to see the opposite, more pushing the "family entertainment centre" aspect. But if I had to pick an actual feature... how about a "Games mode", where you toggle off the music apps and the video rentals and shit like that and just see your games. Or two HDMI outs, I mentioned that before, that would absolutely sell the system to me.
Agent Gibbs Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 theres a piece on another games news site that suggests it periodically checks and if connection is severed for more than three minutes it suspends the game and takes you to the network connection troubleshooting section of the consoles OS, its supposedly part of a large leak from reputable sources.... the thing with always online and all these other internet based saves/updates and digital distributions, is that modern ISP's have download and upload limits, BT's bog standard package is a limit of 10gb per month, and that is surprisingly easy to go through, it only takes a few demo's downloaded and you've exceeded it, not including normal browsing and the biggest drain streaming of content...BT then charge £5 per extra 5gb iirc, other ISP's restrict speeds So its all well and good pushing this digital concept of streaming and being online, but the infrastructure just isn't there yet, and until it is i don't think its a good business model. sure you could argue this will increase demand and get isp's to invest, but thats ludicrous, they were on about fibre optic broadband back when in the Gamecube/ps2/xbox generation and its only just come into effect in the last 18months if microsoft do this, they will fail....and frankly they deserve it
Shorty Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 I get what you're saying about streaming, but that's not really going to change much from how it exists now. Streaming a game will be the same as downloading now, and they're not killing physical media yet. The ping won't put you anywhere near it, every 3 minutes with your console on 24/7 for a month... thats only 430KB of downloaded data and the same again up.
Dcubed Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Well this is convinient! MS just sent out a press release about their selling off of Mediaroom to focus on Xbox for their IPTV stuff... http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2013/04/08/mediaroom-and-our-tv-journey.aspx The following is a post from Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Marketing, Strategy and Business for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. Today, Microsoft and Ericsson announced a definitive agreement for Ericsson to acquire Mediaroom, the number one IPTV platform deployed by TV operators around the world. This acquisition is mutually beneficial and strategically aligned for both parties. Ericsson will continue to invest in the growth and success of Mediaroom to the benefit of customers, employees, and the industry. It allows Microsoft to commit 100 percent of its focus on consumer TV strategy with Xbox. We are proud of the world-class engineering and business achievements within Mediaroom. They have a rich history of driving innovation in IPTV. As early pioneers, they built the infrastructure to stream video on limited bandwidth, and today they enable multiscreen entertainment experiences for pay TV subscribers. Mediaroom has contributed to the evolution of TV and powers 22 million set-top boxes today in 11 million subscriber households. With the sale of Mediaroom, Microsoft is dedicating all TV resources to Xbox in a continued mission to make it the premium entertainment service that delivers all the games and entertainment consumers want – whether on a console, phone, PC or tablet. And with 76 million Xbox 360 consoles around the world with 46 million Xbox LIVE members, it is a mission that gets us out of bed in the morning. It is not a mission that we can achieve alone. We want to partner with the industry to deliver the next wave of innovation in games and consumer entertainment. We will partner with content creators, studios, labels, networks, content aggregators, operators and distributors to make this happen. We believe the future of home entertainment is one where TV becomes more simple, tailored and intelligent. We believe the best is yet to come for this industry. Our vision and energy for the future of entertainment is more focused than ever. Stay tuned. So roughly 60% of 360s are connected online then (probably quite a bit less actually when you account for multiple accounts on the same machine) Cutting off 40-50% of your customer base doesn't seem like the smartest idea... 3G antenna for the always-on security perhaps?
Daft Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Isn't there a massive assumption within that 60%? Yeah, 60% are connected online, but how many are always online. It's amusing that I'm probably included in that 60% but I got rid of my Xbox years ago.
Dcubed Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Isn't there a massive assumption within that 60%? Yeah, 60% are connected online, but how many are always online. It's amusing that I'm probably included in that 60% but I got rid of my Xbox years ago. I'm probably a worst case scenario for those numbers. I have 7 accounts on my machine and it's almost never connected online (I'm still rocking a HDMI enabled original model 360 with no WiFi, so it's a PITA to get get it hooked up online). That number is a lot lower than I had expected actually. It's probably because it lacked WiFi up until the Slim model, but when you compare it to the 3DS (which has over 80% of systems hooked up online) it's still pretty surprising!
Agent Gibbs Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 I get what you're saying about streaming, but that's not really going to change much from how it exists now. Streaming a game will be the same as downloading now, and they're not killing physical media yet. The ping won't put you anywhere near it, every 3 minutes with your console on 24/7 for a month... thats only 430KB of downloaded data and the same again up. I know, the ping won't amount to much, but what worries me is forcing of adverts and updates etc through this always online service, not necessarily in regards to data size with those (although i suppose they could have large amounts of updated adverts/image and frequent updates), its more of the actual connection stability and installation side, who knows what issues could crop up due to this extra level of MS oversight? i've had connections go down for hours and days, to think i couldn't play on my console because of this is just madness Generally though streaming/downloads etc still confuse me in their approach, everyone pushes them, yet ISP's penalize for their "over" use, and what constitutes as overuse is entirely relative, one day of psn plus games can destroy a limit and i'd hardly call that overuse
Shorty Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Tbf all the decent ISPs only penalize in a way which limits your downstream during peak hours, even that shouldn't affect a gameplay scenario. But yeah, hopefully this will force a few more providers to start offering more reasonable packages. My Mum's plusnet is the worst, hit 10GB and automatically be charged £5 for another 5 gig... ridiculous. My cousin went round, watched some Netflix and hit the limit in a couple of days.
Cube Posted April 8, 2013 Author Posted April 8, 2013 What about people living in student accommodation? Consoles generally get blocked from accessing the network.
Charlie Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 What about people living in student accommodation? Consoles generally get blocked from accessing the network. And anyone who doesn't live in a major city has piss poor broadband. Travel 30 minutes outside Glasgow and its like you're back in the dark ages.
Cube Posted April 8, 2013 Author Posted April 8, 2013 I've heard one good theory: Microsoft have released this so everyone is impressed when they announce the console and it turns out not to be true.
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