Xbox One Console Discussion

[The fish]

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.

 

That did occur to me. I doubt they're that cunning, though. Maybe they're backpedaling as we speak, and will try and claim they were having us on the whole time?

[Rowan]

it's taken away the select button.

 

Maybe I'm wrong but I'm struggling to think of a game that made inventive use of the select button apart from to bring up the map so it's not that big a loss. :hmm:That and a gesture on the touchpad could emulate the select button.

[Cube]

The touchpad is also a giant physical button.

[Ashley]

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.

 

Man I'd love it if gaming companies started releasing foilers.

[Happenstance]

We'll obviously have to wait until they announce everything properly but one theory is that they think whatever services they are planning with this always on feature are going to make them enough that losing all the other people who can't or won't go with the always on feature will be an acceptable loss.

[Choze]

MS will probably focus more on voice and Kinect. Dont forget glasses and other peripherals that MS plan on introducing. The wii has huge so obviously someone was bound to follow. The plus point is that specs are inbetween the WiiU and PS4 rather than low end.

 

I suspect that PS4 will probably end up being roughly the same price as the Durango, give or take about £30-40.

 

Its a much bigger difference performance wise than what you are thinking. I would assume at least a £100-150 difference at launch even with Sony taking more up front losses. 720 should be quite affordable in comparison. Of course MS could get greedy like Nintendo and over price the system because it has something like Waggle or tablets etc.

Edited April 8, 2013 by Choze

[Cube]

Considering how long Google have been working on them and they're still not sure what the end use is, I highly doubt that Microsoft Glass will have much relevance to the Xbox.

[Dcubed]

Its a much bigger difference performance wise than what you are thinking. I would assume at least a £100-150 difference at launch even with Sony taking more up front losses. 720 should be quite affordable in comparison. Of course MS could get greedy like Nintendo and over price the system because it has something like Waggle or tablets etc.

 

You're forgetting about the Kinect 2 included with each Durango. That's gonna bump up the price significantly...

[Choze]

You're forgetting about the Kinect 2 included with each Durango. That's gonna bump up the price significantly...

 

Shouldnt add that much. Certainly nothing like the GDDR or GPU differences. I wouldnt worry about the 720 price. Ps4 price on the other hand...

 

http://www.vgleaks.com/durango-next-generation-kinect-sensor/

[Retro_Link]

May not be backwards compatible...

 

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/04/09/bloomberg-next-xbox-to-use-amd-based-cpu

 

Bloomberg Reports Next Xbox to Use AMD-Based Chipset

 

Rumors of the next Xbox's use of an AMD-based chipset have been circulating for months, and now Bloomberg is lending further credence to the claim. According to the news organization's anonymous sources, the system will utilize a chip based on AMD's Jaguar APU architecture. The article also claims that, because of the move away from Power PC technology to an x86 system, current Xbox 360 discs won't work with Microsoft's next console. This puts the possibility of hardware-based backwards compatibility in jeopardy.

 

While the report offers no additional details on the specifics of the hardware, it falls in line with purported specs leaked earlier this year, which claimed the system would utilize a 1.6GHz 8-core AMD CPU. If true, the next Xbox would be comparable to the PlayStation 4, which Sony has confirmed will use an 8-core AMD processor based on the same Jaguar architecture. Whether or not Microsoft's silicon will outpace the PS4 in terms of clocking speed or number of cores, however, remains unknown.

 

The news follows reports earlier today that Microsoft is planning to reveal its next console at an event on May 21st. With just over a month to go, more pre-announcement leaks seem likely. To catch up on all of the latest next-gen Xbox rumors, check out our wiki guide.

[Magnus]

With the extremely spotty backwards-compatibility on the 360, was anyone really expecting their next console to be backwards-compatible?

 

Though I guess it would be useful for when your 360 dies.

[Daft]

I'm only slightly surprised it won't be (the explanation is completely reasonable, to be fair) but I also think BC is a pointless waste of resources.

[Captain Falcon]

So every gaming site going for the last 6 months have been telling us it will be an AMD x86-64 chip with no backward compatibilty due to architectural differences and it's only rumours but Bloomberg rope in an annonymous source, could even be the same guy supplying everyone else, and it's now totally newsworthy/revelatory? I don't get it

 

At least we aren't talking about Creative Directors giving a big "f*** you" to their customers anymore though.

[Dcubed]

Nice to see the gaming media (and Capcom/Ubisoft) leaping to MS' defence...

 

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-04-09-xbox-always-on-maybe-its-not-so-terrible

 

Chris Morris explains that having a big company like Microsoft step up could make always-online more palatable for next-gen

 

Will the next Xbox continue the reign of success Microsoft has seen this generation or will it stumble Sony-style, losing momentum at a critical junction for console systems? The answer could lie in a single feature.

 

Kotaku recently reignited the rumor about the next Xbox requiring a constant connection to the Internet - and Microsoft Studios' creative director did nothing to put out that growing brushfire with his Twitter fiasco last week.

 

Will the next generation Xbox require an 'always-on' connection? There's nothing to base that on right now except for rumors and the echo chamber of the Internet. But, for the sake of argument alone, let's say that is an upcoming feature. Is it as bad as it seems?

 

Certainly, the recent history of mandatory Internet connections hasn't been a good one. Anyone who purchased Diablo III, SimCity, Defiance or, for that matter, any recent World of Warcraft expansion has lived the same story: Eager to play, they inserted their game disc - only to be unable to log onto the servers. It's a nightmare scenario for pretty much everyone involved - player, developer and PR/community person who has to do clean up work afterward.

 

What's staggering about this all-too-familiar scenario is its regularity. The video game industry has had the chance to prepare for these sorts of launches time and time again, yet constantly drops the ball.

 

"As an industry, we needed [simCity] to get it right," says Christian Svensson, Senior Vice President at Capcom Entertainment. "We needed Blizzard to get it right. And there are reasons that needed to happen for the sanctity of our revenue streams. ... Network based service models are crucial to our business moving forward. If we cannot provide the level of service appropriate and we continuously disappoint, we create continued ill will from customers. Even when there's a huge value to consumers ... every single time, it's going , it's going to be viewed with skepticism and waiting for people to get burnt."

 

While that logjam created by a big launch is one of the most-cited problems with the always-on model, it's not an insurmountable one.

 

"It's a money question," says Chris Early, VP of digital publishing at Ubisoft. "If you backed it up with Amazon servers, you could launch any game that we make today - completely digitally. There's enough server space and bandwidth to do that."

 

Of course, those servers cost money - and publishers aren't in a financial position to overestimate and miss, especially with investors watching them so closely these days. (Investors, it's worth noting, didn't seem to care about SimCity's problems. EA stock didn't suffer during the launch woes.)

 

Microsoft is in a slightly different position. It has the ability to make that gamble - and having launched a few big games of its own without incident, it has some expectations of what to look out for. Halo 4 and any recent Call of Duty debuted without any major hiccups in the multiplayer component - and expanding capacity to handle the single player element wouldn't be too challenging for the company.

 

Consider also that, even if the new Xbox does require a constant Internet connection, Microsoft will have plenty of time to study trends before it reaches a significant roadblock. The system will be supply constrained at launch, meaning roadblocks won't be a problem. Additionally, there's unlikely to be a game that has the same level of anticipation as a SimCity or Diablo, since it's economically infeasible for publishers. (That's why the holiday after a system's launch is typically much more exciting for players - the installed base has reached a point that publishers can fully devote resources to it.)

 

That gives Microsoft a chance to learn, like Valve did with Steam, and be ready.

 

"We face [as an industry], I think, the same problems as when people started to think about 'I have a home phone and I have this new cellular phone.' And who sat at home and used their cellular phone? Nobody did - because it was unreliable," says Early. "When you were home you picked up the phone. ... Now, some amount of time later, when the appropriate amount of investment has been made in the infrastructure, a lot of people don't have hard lines any more."

 

The more troubling problem - and the one that seemingly doesn't have an answer right now - is what happens when someone's Internet goes out for more than a few minutes? Or, conversely, what about the people who live in rural areas, where Internet speeds are well below the national average?

 

While that audience makes up a minority of the potential buyers, their defenders are vocal - and could prove sufficiently loud to affect sales, though likely not on the scale they'd like to imagine.

 

Why's that? Well, despite the tempest in a teapot that was the SimCity or Diablo III launches, look at the sales numbers of both games. EA topped its expectations and Blizzard moved more than 12 million copies. Even with all the outrage that accompanied both of those games, they were massive successes. And any potential cries of forum dwellers are unlikely to match the level of volume Microsoft's marketing machine will make during the ramp up to the new system.

 

Of course, even if Microsoft launches with this feature, it can always switch course fairly easily. Should it sniff a consumer pushback that's growing beyond its ability to contain and control, it can easily fall back to the position Sony has established - pushing the choice (and, thus, the blame) back onto the publishers, while quietly offering them all the support they need.

 

To some, that might seem a victory, but when it comes to big titles, they're likely to see that always-on connection just the same.

 

That's not a roundabout way of saying "deal with it". (We've all seen the effects of that ludicrously condescending hashtag.) However, always-on DRM is unlikely to go away anytime soon. It's invasive and annoying for some consumers, but many, many more don't really care too much about it. Additionally, it helps publishers protect their IP - and regulate things like cheating much more easily.

 

It's a problem that's slowly getting better, as publishers try to work it out themselves. Maybe - just maybe - having a central player like Microsoft stepping in could speed up that learning process and make it palatable.

 

Fucking gross

[Cube]

Diablo III, SimCity, Defiance or, for that matter, any recent World of Warcraft

 

Aren't Diablo, Defiance and World of Warcraft expansions multiplayer-only games? And isn't EA trying to pass off SimCity as a multiplayer-only game?

 

This just makes things sound worse - like singleplayer is no longer important in any way.

[Happenstance]

Diablo can be played on your own

[Cube]

Diablo can be played on your own

 

Ah, didn't know that. Is it an actual singleplayer or would it be like playing a co-op game with nobody else there?

[Happenstance]

Mostly a co-op game with nobody else there I guess. Its drop in multiplayer for 4 people. Similar to SimCity I guess where it should be able to be played on your own offline but designed to be played with others except Diablo III had actual stuff stored server side whereas we know from people hacking that SimCity didn't despite their claims.

[Choze]

Vgleaks confirm you do not need to be always online to play games.

 

http://www.vgleaks.com/microsoft-xbox-roadmap-2013/

 

Also SEGA style BC confirmed.

 

 

 

You didn't need to be always online for Diablo 3 and Sim City. Lots of games save server side stats but that does not mean offline should be blocked.

 

Amusingly restrictive DRM considering other pc games cant be sold second hand but can be played offline. Its just stupid.

 

Also amusing are articles suggesting the hdmi in feature on the new xbox requires always online games. How dense can some writers be? I suposse we will see articles such as rechargeable batteries require always online or you should pay to play online?

Edited April 10, 2013 by Choze

[Ashley]

I don't want to be that guy but how reliable is that site? Their grammar suggests not very.

[Choze]

I don't want to be that guy but how reliable is that site? Their grammar suggests not very.

 

Other places are using the same source (MS). Its an obvious official leak after the always online mess.

 

So basically:

-No online requirements and second hand games are fine.

-A new mini 360 will be launched. This new 360 can be plugged into the 720. You can then use the 720 to play 360 games.

-Some gibberish about MS destroying Apple and Google for TV.

-Kinect 2 wont be packed in.

 

The second thing is classic MS.

Edited April 11, 2013 by Choze

[Shorty]

That mini 360 thing seems a bit unbelievable but I actually kinda like the idea. Backwards compatibility isn't a big deal for me, so it essentially becomes an optional extra which has a positive effect on the base cost of the 720.

Edited April 11, 2013 by Shorty

[Agent Gibbs]

so like the HDDVD drive attachment only to play 360 games..... i kind of like the idea of a mini xbox, conjours up ideas of Dr Evil and Mini Me

[Cube]

-Some gibberish about MS destroying Apple and Google for TV.

 

Are those things popular in America or something? I don't think anyone uses them over here.

[Retro_Link]

So Orthy has left Microsoft!