Xbox Thread

[SimmyC]

True. Personal taste is probably a big part of it. I haven't watched any TV recently. All the anime I'm watching for example, I watch sitting in front of my computer. Sports? While I am a 'casual' fan of it, I rarely watch it on TV. Last game I saw on TV was the Super Bowl. If it wasn't for the fact this computer lacks a Blu-Ray player, I might have no need for a TV here. This means that inevitably, the aspect I would be focused on is the gaming.

And E3... the reason why I tend to dismiss E3 in general (not just Xbone's expected announcements. Which should be the highlight of this E3. But E3 announcements in general) is that... IMO at least, recent E3s weren't all that great. It seems like a lot of the big games announced at E3, from a personal standpoint, I just didn't care for. Especially since it seems more developers are no longer saving those 'big' game announcements for E3 nowadays.

With all that said, it was clear who MS wanted to appeal to. Besides Tenchi Ryu , my brother as well who isn't much of a gamer nowadays, and uses his Xbox 360 for, many of the reasons why MS did what they did. Streaming shows and movies, music, etc. The 'dudebros' as I've seen that word thrown around the web. The people that watch TV, watch sports, and play MANLY games like COD. Again, I get what MS was attempting to do. It's just, it was still IMO, a major miscalculation in terms of PR.

And once again, setting the above aside, the thing that turns me off isn't the used game issue, but the needing to connect every 24 hours aspect, and Kinect 2.0. Online thing, eh. It's more principle than something that adversely affect me most of the time. Just the idea that my gaming could suddenly stop because my network annoys me. I was never a fan of voice command since I'm not much of a talker. Certainly don't like the idea of talking to my system "Xbox Go Home". And maybe I'm old fashion, but I prefer using a controller to do things. Yes I know, Xbone has that option. But what it doesn't have the option of? Turning the new Kinect OFF. Especially since some of the features make it sound like it's always watching you. Monitoring your heart rate? Seeing how many people are in the room? Really? No, I don't believe in the conspiracy kooks that see this as MS going 1984 on us. Still, it is unsettling that it's a feature that you cannot turn off all the same.

*BTW, in case you're wondering, I am NOT excited about any of the 'new' generation at all. Not Xbone, not PS4, certainly not the Wii U. Seems like in the near future at least, I'll be sticking to my PC for my gaming, and 'TV' entertainment as well.

[Tenchi Ryu]

A unconfirmed leak has found it way on the internet



Also see this list floating around

    Halo 5
    Killer Instinct
    Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty Land
    Forza Motorsport 5
    Quantum Break
    Halo: Spartan Assault
    Ryse
    Fable IV
    Crackdown 3
    Fortnine
    Dead Rising 3
    Call of Duty: Ghosts
    Battlefield 4
    The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
    Dying Light
    Prey 2
    Homefront 2
    Beyond Good & Evil 2
    Mirror's Edge 2
    Rainbow 6: Patriots
    Brother in Arms: Furious Four
    League of Legends

THIS IS ALL NOT CONFIRMED

[SimmyC]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/06/microsoft-details-xbox-one-used-games-always-online

As explained by Microsoft, "while a persistent connection is not required, Xbox One is designed to verify if system, application or game updates are needed and to see if you have acquired new games, or resold, traded in, or given your game to a friend. Games that are designed to take advantage of the cloud may require a connection."

Seems to confirm the reason why it is always mostly online is to make sure you don't do anything that MS didn't intend for you to do. Anti-piracy DRM stuff. We can have a debate about DRM but eh. I'm tired at the moment (have work in a few hours. ) don't feel like getting into a long rant about it.

Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies."

Welp... time for gamers to calm down now. Gaming might not be possible if a freak accident takes down your Internet. But at least you can watch TV.

There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once."

On one hand, at least Microsoft is making it clearer. Certainly not the PR disaster they initially came out with. However... still limits my ability to 'gift' a game if, for example, I just recently friended someone. Or, what if I got gifted a game, decided 'meh' and wanted to gift it to someone else. Since it was already a gift, sounds like a fee will be applied for the other person to get it.

Microsoft stresses that "you are in control of what Kinect can see and hear. By design, you will determine how responsive and personalized your Xbox One is to you and your family during setup.

Your personal data will never be available to anyone outside of your console, Microsoft stressed. "You can play games or enjoy applications that use data, such as videos, photos, facial expressions, heart rate and more, but this data will not leave your Xbox One without your explicit permission."

Well that's a relief. As long as I don't do something stupid like agree to certain terms and conditions, don't have to worry about privacy issues (unless of course, they try to trick you with said terms and conditions like companies usually do. Like Sony explicitly stating you can't join a class action lawsuit when using PSN). And at least I can turn off 'functions' of Kinect 2.0. Even if I'm forced to keep it on ALL the time, at least no one can troll and scream XBOX OFF in a game chat.

But eh. Personal preference and all. Not caring much about all the awesome TV effects, the above news is much more relevant to me. And still, nothing that would make me want Xbone. If anything, I'm less incline because of it.

That being said, looking at the list of rumored games, well, at least it appears MS is finally doing something with their Rare products. It's like they are finally realized that there could be potential gems in their holdings that they acquired all that time ago. Not that I was ever able to play Rare games when they ruled the world, but eh. As long as MS doesn't fuck it up, can only be a good thing right?

If any game on that list makes me somewhat excited, it would be Mirror's Edge 2. Not that Mirror's Edge 1 was great (had it's issues). But I liked it because it was somewhat different than your standard FPS. Not to mention I love the art style. Though I doubt this is an Xbone exclusive game (if it is, a time limited one at most). And since I'm poor as fuck, certainly no reason for me to get the Xbone when I'd probably wouldn't buy the game at launch anyway. Still, it's one of the games I'm hoping to see become reality.

[Dr.Soviet]

    Halo 5
    Killer Instinct
    Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty Land
    Forza Motorsport 5
    Quantum Break
    Halo: Spartan Assault
    Ryse
    Fable IV
   
    Crackdown 3
    Fortnine
    Dead Rising 3
    Call of Duty: Ghosts
    Battlefield 4
    The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
    Dying Light
    Prey 2
    Homefront 2
    Beyond Good & Evil 2
    Mirror's Edge 2
    Rainbow 6: Patriots
    Brother in Arms: Furious Four
    League of Legends


Off the top of my head saying these are real. The ones I didn't cross off are the only console exclusives.

[Tenchi Ryu]

The funny part is that with all this, the pressure has now shifted to Sony. Even though MS is looking like the evil grandparents forcing you to eat spinach, Sony's quiet nature has started to worry people, specifically with XBOX's used games policies now out. Most people KNOW that many 3rd party developers are gonna go with this DRM and used game fee train, meaning unless its a Sony exclusive, you're getting raped too...

Well, I've already started to get my PC gamer skills up, might as well PREPARE. I'll probably still get the XBOX one to play the usual COD and NBA 2K with my friends and stuff, but my console to PC game collection will be a LOT more balanced now.

[SimmyC]

While it is true that Sony has been keeping mostly quiet (letting the shitstorm hit MS first). Sony's 'official' statement has always been, 'we don't have DRM. But if a publisher does it... well we can't stop that~" In other words, Sony is going to place all the blame on the publishers if DRM appears. And truth be told, there is nothing that would stop EA from doing that now. In fact, the online pass and those codes you get (something that Gamestop could fuck you over with because you know, they don't really sell 'new' games) can be seen as a form as a DRM. After all, sure you can get a 'used' game at Gamestop, but (even though EA is getting rid of the Online Pass. Doesn't mean they couldn't come out with something else), a unique code is needed. if it is missing or already used, they would have to get a new one from the game publisher.

It's just that Sony isn't mandating it. They're not forcing the game companies to do it.

MS is also trying to say 'it's the publishers doing it' as well. The problem with this excuse for MS? They're building the infrastructure for it. You can't use the excuse that it's all the publishers fault, when all of these restrictions are being placed on it are built into the system.

Also, Sony's official stance is that the PS4 won't always be online. A significant difference than the Xbone's once every 24 hours (or once every hour if you're using someone else's Xbone) stance.

Now if the above has changed, it would be a sign that Sony is LYING up to this point. And really, if they did decide to do this, it WOULD be just as suicidal to themselves as I feel it is to MS. I mean we are already seeing some backtracking on MS part. Oh, renting games? Well it won't be a launch but, we're looking into it. That tells me that they didn't even consider it before their big reveal, and then they saw the PR disaster that occurred and backtracked with it.

Now yes, I agree with the view that the 3rd party developers (note, this doesn't necessarily include Indies. Which is another strike against MS since any Indie developer HAS to either go through a big publisher or MS to be on the Xbone) love what MS is doing because they see $$$ in their eyes. I mean NO ONE thinks that MS is 'evil alone' here. But the used fee train only works if Xbone is successful. If there is an active push to NOT get an Xbone because of what they are doing, would significantly slow, if not, stop that train.

[Tenchi Ryu]

Xbox Family share is fucking huge, and could really give MS a boost in PR. Basically this is how it goes.

You get 10 Family members, these family members don't have to be actual family though. With these 10 people, you have access to their entire gaming library, the only catch is that you can't play it if they're actually playing it, which in turn is exactly how borrowing video games is in real life. So while this might not be the best for games like Call of Duty where you want to play together, this is absolutely fantastic for games that are single player. I don't even think Steam does this yet....

Let's say I have Adam in my family members list. I went to the store the other day and bought the new Final Fantasy while he went to the store last week and bought the new WatchDogs.

Whenever I'm not playing Final Fantasy, he can play it, Vice versa for me being able to play his WatchDogs. And if you have 10 people, those 10 people can literally rotate the same game, you could make like a sharing group where each person gets the game for a week, then the next person, then the next. So those 10 people can pitch in 10 bucks to make 100, buy the game, and effectively share it.

That's pretty fucking awesome. Like a video game car pool.

[Tenchi Ryu]

Scratch that, even better.

With these 10 people, you have access to their entire gaming library, the only catch is that you can't play it if they're actually playing it

Actually, I'm being told that the person who originally BUYS the game has access ALWAYS, even if someone else is playing. Those other 9 are the ones who will have to share. So if Adam bought the game, I can play and he can, but Simmy would have to wait until I'm not playing it.

[Tenchi Ryu]

Seems to have gotten NeoGAF's attention as well.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=586971

[Tenchi Ryu]

[shades of blue]

I was thinking about it and Microsoft's used games policy actually has some retailer & consumer advantages. The way I see it, what MS did was create a standard, that will actually make it easier for used game stores to handle dealing with game crippling dlc & online features. Because prior to this in order to add disabled features they had to buy codes from the developer, like Gamestop did with the Batman Arkham City Catwoman DLC codes. Now they won't have to order codes in bulk, as the codes are reset along with the ownership license. In the future I'd expect to see barcodes next to those activation passwords, for painless retailer entry.

And of course this was all while listening to what the bitchy 3rd party developers wanted; a piece of every used game sale and taking a piece for their self too. None of which is your problem, at least not when Gamestop gives you jackshit for your new release used games, then flips them for 10% off the price of a new copy. In fact because GS will no longer have to buy codes the price of your trade-ins may actually go up... Thou I doubt it.

The only real problem with their used game policy is the restrictions placed on selling/trading your games to friends. Hopefully they'll catch enough heat to revise that before the system launches. On the plus side, from the sounds of things, the full game license transfers with ownership even between consumers.

This means you too you do not need to buy new exclusive dlc codes & online pass codes to fully enjoy a game like Mass Effect 3, if you were 'given' a copy from a friend. That in itself is a huge win for consumers. Plus games like Mass Effect 3 would likely drop the whole online pass & new game exclusive DLC bullshit because they'll be getting paid for used game sales, like they wanted and that was the whole point of those 'features' to begin with.

But, as said, restricting ownership transfers to people on your friends list and a single license transfer really does blow chunks. And I would not doubt this is part of Microsoft's strategy to further socialize the whole system experience. After all, what better way to make you friend every annoyance you know, than being able to part with your old junk? Sneaky bastards.

[Tenchi Ryu]

So what have we learned? MS's PR suck donkey dick

http://www.neowin.net/news/anonymous-xbox-engineer-explains-drm-and-microsofts-xbox-one-intentions

>The thing is we suck at telling the story. The whole point of the DRM switch from disc based to cloud based is to kill disc swapping, scratched discs, bringing discs to friends house, trade-ins for shit value with nothign going back to developers, and high game costs. If you want games cheaper then 59.99, you have to limit used games somehow. Steam's model requires a limited used game model.

    >The thing is, the DRM is really really similar to steam... You can login anywhere and play your games, anyone in your house can play with the family xbox. The only diff is steam you have to sign in before playing, and Xbox does it automatically at night for you (once per 24 hours)

    >It's a long tail strategy, just like steam. Steam had it's growing pains at the beginning with all it's drm shit as well. [...] For digital downloads steam had no real competition at the time, they were competing against boxed sales. At the time people were pretty irate about steam, (on 4chan too...) It was only once they had a digital marketplace with DRM that was locked down to prevent sharing that they could do super discounted shit.

    >Think about it, on steam you get a game for the true cost of the game, 5$-30$. On a console you have to pay for that PLUS any additional licenses for when you sell / trade / borrow / etc. If the developer / publisher can't get it on additional licenses (like steam), then they charge the first person more. [...] If we say "Hey publishers, you limit game to 39.99, we ensure every license transfer you get 10$, gamestop gets 20$" that is a decent model... Microsoft gets a license fee on first and subsequent game purchases, compared to just first now? That's a revenue increase.

    >Competition is the best man, it helps drive both to new heights. See technology from the Cold War. If we had no USSR, we'd be way worse off today. TLDR: Bring it on Steam

    2/4

    >Yeah we passed that around the office at Xbox. Most of us were like "Well played Sony, Well played". That being said they are just riding the hype train of ZOMG THEY ARE TRYING TO FUCK US FOR NO REASON. Without actually thinking about how convienent it would be for the majority of the time to not find that disc your brother didn't put back... [...] just simpleminded people not seeing the bigger picture. Some PS4 viral team made them all "U TOOK R DISCS" and they hiveminded.

    >Everyone and their mother complains about how gamestop fucks them on their trade ins, getting 5$ for their used games. We come in trying to find a way to take money out of gamestop, and put some in developers and get you possibly cheaper games and everyone bitches at MS. Well, if you want the @#$@ing from Gamestop, go play PS4.

    >The goal is to move to digital downloads, but Gamestop, Walmart, Target, Amazon are KIND OF FUCKING ENTRENCHED in the industry. They have a lot of power, and the shift has to be gradual. Long term goal is steam for consoles. [...] If you always want to stay with what you have, then keep current consoles, or a PS4. We're TRYING to move the industry forwards towards digital distribution... it'sa bumpy road

    >Publishers have enourmous power. Microsoft is trying to balance between consumer delight, and publisher wishes. If we cave to far in either direction you have a non-starting product. WiiU goes too far to consumer, you have no 3rd party support to shake a stick at. PS4 is status-quo. XB1 is trying to push some things, at the expense of others. We have a vision, we'll see if it works in the coming years

    >Living room transformation. We want to own the living room. Every living room TV with an XBox on input one. It's the thing that gives the signal to your TV, everything is secondary. The future, where games, TV, internet telephony, all that shit happens magically on some huge ass screen with hand / voice gestures... That's our goal.


    3/4

    >Google TV + PS4 + Minority report level gestures, that combined with a sick second screen experience (which is really hot for TV, I know I know.. tv tv tv tv tv... but it's fucking sick when you have it). Games will be the same, there are more exclusives to MS then PS atm, and Kinect 2 makes Kinect 1 look like a childs toy.

    >By default it's on, listening for "Xbox On". You can turn it off tho, and turn the console like OFF off. OFF off is required for Germany / other countries that require it (no vampire appliances) [...] It has to be plugged in for the console to post. You can turn off everything it does from the settings. Think of it like airplane mode for the iPhone. You can't just unplug the cellular radio, but you can turn it off.

    >Instead of 10mins, is 24hrs for your console, and 1 or 2 at a friends house. Really the majority of people have a speck of internet at least once a day. And if you don't. Don't buy an Xbox 1. Just like if you didn't have a broadband connection don't get Live, and if you don't have an HDTV the 360 isn't that great for you either. New tech, new req. This allows us to do cool shit when we can assume things like you have a kinect, you have internet, etc.

    >Current plan is basically you're fucked after 24 hours. Yeah... I know. Kind of sucks. I believe they will probably revist the time period and / or find a diff way to "call in" to ensure you haven't sold your license to gamestop or something... but there is no plan YET. I'm hoping the change it, but I don't work on that so I don't have much influence there /sigh

    >If the power goes out you ain't playing shit. I'm assuming you mean the internet goes out but you have power for TV and Xbox. Yes, You're fucked for single player games. Again, that's the PoR (Plan of record), but I expect it to change after the e3 clusterfuck

    >What fee? There is no fee to play your games at your friends house. Never has, never will. Even x360 digital downloads could do that.


    4/4

    >The cloud capabilities is the shit they like the most. We basically made a huge cloud compute shit and made it free. What people are doing with it is kind of cool. THe original intention was to get all the Multiplayer servers not requiring 3rd party costs (Like EA shutting down game servers to cut costs), as well as taking all the games that servers hosted by the clients (Halo, etc), and have all that compute done in the cloud allowing more CPU cycles for gameplay. That will really expand what developers can do. Anything that doesn't need per frame calculation and can handle 100ms delays can be shifted to the cloud. That's huge.

    >SmartGlass + IE is going to be pretty freaking sweet. 1 finger cursor, 2 finger direct manip. Basically if you think of a laptop trackpad where your phone/ slate is the trackpad and the monitor is your TV... it's that. The tech is there, just needs to be applied. There is some really cool shit going on with Petra + controllers that pairs people with controllers. So if person with controller two trades controlers with controller 1, their profiles magically switch. It's sick. What does this matter? Now if you lean left/right it knows which person is leaning, even if 4 people are all int he same room. It's awesome.

    >New service using Azure for cloud compute. Allows developers to not use clients for hosting multiplayer servers, or other tasks that do not require per frame calcuations. It's pretty sweet.

    >Honestly, if you care about anything other then pure games AT ALL. Xbox 1 > PS4. If all you do is play games, and nothing else, PS4.

    This was all from the Microsoft engineer that was on /b/ last night.

    >It's not worth my time to prove it, or risk my Job. I work in Studio A, 40th ave in Redmond, Wa. The thai place in the studio cafeteria has double punch wednesdays. Go ahead and call them and verify if you want.

[Dr.Soviet]

So what have we learned? MS's PR suck donkey dick

http://www.neowin.net/news/anonymous-xbox-engineer-explains-drm-and-microsofts-xbox-one-intentions

Corporate Shilling

Oh wow

[Tenchi Ryu]

 


Also it seems the game sharing will not be too restricted

https://mobile.twitter.com/nowak911/status/345297685743534080

[Tenchi Ryu]

You make a LOT more people happy giving actual explanation compared to statements like "Well if you can't get it, get back broke muthaphucka".

http://www.wpcentral.com/lets-talk-xbox-drm