XBox One

[JustARandomPanda]

Thought any TTB gamers might enjoy this little ditty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Makes me glad I'm a PC gamer instead....

[Flolfolil]

hahahaha

 

i love how the whole internet is shitting their pants over this. i never was a fan of xbox or any ps3 game, and the wii? Come on now, that controller? It looks like a dildo!

 

i'll stick with my trusty DSi and acekard. i will be buying a used 3ds for the new pokemon game, beating the game in less than 7 days, then returning the 3ds because 3ds sucks too

 

*soooo jaded*

[Thunder_Gooch]

Both the xbox one and the ps4 use an amd apu with 8x 1.6GHz jaguar cores (think intel atom cpu for netbooks), and a crappy integrated gpu. Something slower than a Radeon 7770. 8GB of shared memory.

 

I hardly see how either the XBOX 1, or PS4 is anything to write home about.

 

It would be like building the absolute cheapest piece of crap computer you could that you could reasonably expect to play video games on their lowest settings.

 

The console industry is really holding back PC gaming as all pc games for the most part are just console back ports.

 

It's a shame.

 

Oh well maybe the next generation will be about as powerful as a moderate gaming pc from today LOL.

[Protector]

KEYBOARD AND MOUSE FOR LIFE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!!!!

[Mal]

PS4 forever :-P

 

Ok I will eventually upgrade my PS3 but I will wait for the 1st price drop after release :-)

 

Nothing compares to a PC but the hardware doesn't have to, look at a PS3 specifications vs what it's doing at the end of it's generation

[Enishi]

I've been thinking about switching over to PC gaming for awhile now, and hearing about these new consoles only helps cement it.

 

One of the nicest things about the PC is mods, some of the Skyrim mods I've seen are absolutely jaw dropping. O.O

I'm definitely still avoiding MMORPGs though, regular games are addicting and time consuming enough as is.

[Flolfolil]

where are all the cool games with awesome stories that we used to see? old school rpgs? anyone?

 

am i really the only one tired of all this shooter after shooter after army game crap heap?

[eye_of_the_storm]

AHAHAAHAA... !! so good haha.

Ahhh

I switched to PC hmm maybe a year ago...

I'd like to connect my XBOX controller to the computer though... its possible, never got around to it though.

[Flolfolil]

[xor]

where are all the cool games with awesome stories that we used to see? old school rpgs? anyone?

 

I used to play those. Good times. I still sometimes have a tune from Amiga versions of Bard's tale 2 or the Original Pool of Radiance in my head even when it's been what 20 years ago.

[joeblast]

heh, I remember putting a "special disk" in my buddy's computer and rebooting it so that we could get some computers networked together so we could play DOOM couple 486s and a pentium it was hell trying to dial it up over what, 5600 baud though.

[Thunder_Gooch]

oop someone already posted this lol nm

Edited May 24, 2013 by More_Pie_Guy

[JustARandomPanda]

Oh it just keeps getting better. I loved this article at GamesIndustry.biz (with some pretty spot-on commentary by site readers imo).

 

 

More Spin Doctoring by MS's damage control machine

[JustARandomPanda]

I especially liked this one guy's commentary about MS's model for XBox One. Think it's fairly accurate. I did also recently read from a MS exec that while games would not be required to be "on the cloud" he said Microsoft was aggressively selling that to all game developers. And I was thinking to myself...hmm...well looks like those 15 exclusive games (8 new IPs) will be cloud-based gaming.

 

 

 

I read this into the comments so far:

(1) Anybody can install a game from any disc. Meaning Microsoft does not require a copy protection for the disc itself.

(2) The game is somehow linked to an account and verified from time to time via Internet. Compare Steam. login and use your games anywhere in the world on any machine.

(3) If you bring your disc to Gamestop, it is worthless. The part which had any worth is now linked to your account. You are not losing that because you give up the disc.

(4) Sure, you can sell a game now. However, not to Gamestop, but only to Microsoft. They need to disable the copy, where before you "disabled" your copy by handing over the disc.

(5) Gamestop can still offer trade-ins, but they need to cooperate with Microsoft. Gamestop no longer has its own used game operation, instead they have become a point of sale for Microsoft's used game scheme.

(6) Steam could do the same. They could offer you store credit and in exchange disable a game on your account. Why would they need Gamestop for that?

In essence, Microsoft has put a nice wall around Gamestop's business model. Gamestop might still earn some money, but the bulk will now go to Microsoft. in long term, Microsoft will ask itself why it would ever buy back something and instead just discount the game directly. Remember, discs are worthless, you can copy them if need be and just buy a Keycard. Microsoft does that aggressively with other of their products, e.g. Office 13.

 

 

The one difference between Steam and MS's model the guy above didn't mention is that Valve doesn't require monthly or yearly subscription fees. MS will require both - you'll need to buy the game AND have Live to take advantage of the "cloud features" and multiplayer/co-op features. Of course they do that now with 360 but the eventual goal is to make discs obsolete.

 

Oh...and that new Halo TV show Spielberg is busy creating for MS? It's already been noted it will not be exclusive to Live (meaning eventually you'll be able to see it via other outlets as well) though you'll have to pay a premium to see the show (it is not included in the monthly Live subscription fee).

Edited May 24, 2013 by JustARandomPanda

[JustARandomPanda]

Anyone here also read Anandtech?

 

 

I liked this article too. Pretty good info and explains the philosophy that shaped XBox One's tech specs.

 

 

 

 

In its presentation Microsoft kept referencing how the world has changed. Smartphones, tablets, even internet connectivity are very different today than they were when the Xbox 360 launched in 2005. It’s what Microsoft didn’t mention that really seems to have played a role in its decision making behind the One: many critics didn’t see hope for another generation of high-end game consoles.

 

With so much of today focused on mobile, free to play and casual gaming on smartphones and tablets - would anyone even buy a next-generation console? For much of the past couple of years I’ve been going around meetings saying that before consolidation comes great expansion. I’ve been saying this about a number of markets, but I believe the phrase is very applicable to gaming. Casual gaming, the advent of free to play and even the current mobile revolution won’t do anything to the demand for high-end consoles today or in the near term - they simply expand the market for gamers. Eventually those types of games and gaming platforms will grow to the point where they start competing with one another and then the big console players might have an issue to worry about, but I suspect that’s still some time away. The depth offered by big gaming titles remains unmatched elsewhere. You can argue that many games are priced too high, but the Halo, BioShock, Mass Effect, CoD experience still drives a considerable portion of the market.

 

The fact that this debate is happening however has to have impacted Microsoft. Simply building a better Xbox 360 wasn’t going to guarantee success, and I suspect there were not insignificant numbers within the company who felt that even making the Xbox One as much of a gaming machine as it is would be a mistake. What resulted was a subtle pivot in strategy.

 

The Battle for the TV

Last year you couldn’t throw a stone without hitting a rumor of Apple getting into the TV business. As of yet those rumors haven’t gone anywhere other than to point to continued investment in the Apple TV. Go back even further and Google had its own TV aspirations, although met with far less success. More recently, Intel threw its hat into the ring. I don’t know for sure how things have changed with the new CEO, but as far as I can tell he’s a rational man and things should proceed with Intel Media’s plans for an IPTV service. All of this is a round about way of saying that TV is clearly important and viewed by many as one of the next ecosystem battles in tech.

Combine the fact that TV is important, with the fact that the Xbox 360 has evolved into a Netflix box for many, add a dash of uncertainty for the future of high end gaming consoles and you end up with the formula behind the Xbox One. If the future doesn’t look bright for high-end gaming consoles, turning the Xbox into something much more than that will hopefully guarantee its presence in the living room. At least that’s what I suspect Microsoft’s thinking was going into the Xbox One. With that in mind, everything about the One makes a lot of sense.

 

 

 

Hmm....I seem to recall the "all-in-one"/"it-does-everything" philosophy was originally Sony's vision for the PS3 but didn't seem to pan out in practice. I wonder if PS3's history is going to be repeated by XBox One or if Sony's vision was just too early?

[JustARandomPanda]

Damn...

 

It keeps getting spookier.

 

MS owns patents (2011) for visual DRM with Kinect 2. Yikes. Big Brother could know what you look like.

 

 

 

 

 

ExtremeTech discovered the filing back in November, which is labelled as covering "content distribution regulation by viewing user." Theoretically, if the Kinect establishes there are more people in the room than is permitted according to the licence that users agree to when renting of purchasing content, the movie won't play.

"The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken," it reads.

According to unverified "industry sources" spoken to by MCV within the last month, this is a real thing Microsoft is planning to implement on Xbox One using Kinect 2

Edited May 24, 2013 by JustARandomPanda

[JustARandomPanda]

Trading Used games to a retailer - how it will work (rumored 35 pounds MS/Publisher "tax").

 

Still haven't seen where MS's info has talked about trading among gamers themselves with no retailer involved. I suspect they refuse to talk about it because they want to see such exchanges go the way of the dinosaurs but I'm still looking for info on that.

 

 

 

A gamer walks into a retailer and hands over the game they wish to sell. This will only be possible at retailers who have agreed to Microsoft’s T&Cs and more importantly integrated Microsoft’s cloud-based Azure pre-owned system into its own.

The game is then registered as having been traded-in on Microsoft’s system. The consumer who handed it over will subsequently see the game wiped from their account – hence the until now ambiguous claim from Phil Harrison that the Xbox One would have to ‘check in’ to Microsoft’s servers every 24 hours.

 

 

These same unconfirmed reports also suggest that the activation cost for consumers buying or borrowing pre-owned software will be £35.

Edited May 24, 2013 by JustARandomPanda

[JustARandomPanda]

Found a currency converter.

 

OK. So as of today 35 UK pounds = $52.96 dollars.

 

That's MS's 'cut' of any used game sale...before the retailer adds in theirs.

 

Ouch.

[Thunder_Gooch]

I am sure that because it's running pc hardware that it will be cracked wide open and a standard pc with similar or better hardware will be able to emulate them in full, minus online play, pretty much all the major games will be easily ported to pc anyway because they both use pc hardware.

[JustARandomPanda]

 

This one has got to take the cake on ridiculousness of granted patents.

 

Achievements for how many eps of a tv show or ad you watch?

 

Microsoft applies for patent on TV achievements

 

 

 

Oh this is so going to help combat America's obesity epidemic.

[JustARandomPanda]

I loved some of the snarky comments the TV achievement badges/trophies got:

 

 

The couch potato badge!

"Watch 20hrs of TV in a day, and we'll send you a free coupon for a Whopper!"

 

and

 

 

 

Microsoft also envisioned using the Kinect motion-sensing camera in tandem with this system. For example, achievements may be tied to viewers performing specific actions while they watch a show.

oh god, this with the fact that the kinect can monitor heart rates, my god, add porn into mix and the jokes write themselves.

 

 

and

 

 

 

I wonder how many points you get for NOT changing the channel during commercials or fast forwarding through them? That and yeah, I can see Skinemax achievements popping up unexpectedly and scaring the crap out of some unexpecting viewers trying to enjoy a little private time... eek

 

 

[xor]

TV watching achievements??? What next? I think this is great for advertisers though. Finally people will watch through every ad to unlock the superdupermegaultrageniusadwatcher-achievement(watched 1000 consecutive ads without leaving the chair) for +5 hitpoints to their character in some game.

[Flolfolil]

it is like they took everything the illuminati wants and put it into a box

[eye_of_the_storm]

it is like they took everything the illuminati wants and put it into a box

 

ahahah

[Tung]

The new console from MS the Xbone.

 

They are really going to give it to the consumer this time.