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Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by Supermallet
(Post 11702720)
I wouldn't mind if they offered, say, a 3 or 5 day temporary license for $20, and any time during the period of the license you can spend an additional $40 to unlock the full game.
But that would also have to be for downloads. No way am I going to bother with a B&M store on top of all of that. Some of what's being proposed here and elsewhere sounds remarkably similar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Video_Express |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
DIVX failed for multiple reasons. For one thing, you needed a separate, expensive player just for DIVX. Second, the discs themselves were more expensive than standard DVD rentals (and possibly even purchases given some of the deals in the early days of DVD), had a higher cost to own if you wanted to purchase the disc after the rental period, and finally, DIVX titles didn't include any of the extras that were on DVD.
The only similarity here is in a rent to own model. The games would be the same, the price would be the same, and they would all play on the same hardware. |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by Supermallet
(Post 11702789)
DIVX failed for multiple reasons. For one thing, you needed a separate, expensive player just for DIVX. Second, the discs themselves were more expensive than standard DVD rentals (and possibly even purchases given some of the deals in the early days of DVD), had a higher cost to own if you wanted to purchase the disc after the rental period, and finally, DIVX titles didn't include any of the extras that were on DVD.
The only similarity here is in a rent to own model. The games would be the same, the price would be the same, and they would all play on the same hardware. |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by Matthew Chmiel
(Post 11702761)
I forgot, the games on the 360 ran and looked better. My bad. The only major, cross-platform game I could think of that got the same performance on either console was Battlefield 3. That ran at 1280×720 and 30 FPS on either unit. Most games got better resolution and better performance on the 360 (like every single Call of Duty game).
Transferring from PC to 360 was obviously easier, and anything where the 360 was the lead platform looked better (including CoD), but there are plenty of examples of games where the PS3 was the lead platform (like Mirror's Edge and Burnout Paradise), games where the PS3 got the better looking version (like Darksiders and GTA4), games where PS3 got exclusive content (like Arkham Asylum and Portal 2), or games that came out later on PS3 and were better versions (like Mass Effect and Bioshock). For the next gen, they both seem to have very PC friendly architecture, so I doubt this will be much of an issue either way. |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
If they work out some sort of rental system for like $2 a day, I'd be far less likely not to be pissed about the used game thing.
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Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
The important thing with rentals is to still provide discs to renters. You can't rely on ever-constricting bandwidth caps or the time required to download ever-increasing game sizes.
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Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by Deftones
(Post 11702792)
Also don't forget, it was only sold at Circuit City and not other major retailers at the time.
Originally Posted by pinata242
(Post 11702815)
The important thing with rentals is to still provide discs to renters. You can't rely on ever-constricting bandwidth caps or the time required to download ever-increasing game sizes.
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Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by Deftones
(Post 11702812)
If they work out some sort of rental system for like $2 a day, I'd be far less likely not to be pissed about the used game thing.
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Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by Supermallet
(Post 11702860)
I think it's important to give people the OPTION to use discs, but I would also like to see it being offered digitally. How nice would it be to wake up on the day of a game's release, flip on your console, charge $10 to your credit card, and get the game for 5 days? And since you can play as it downloads, you don't have to wait for the whole thing to finish before you can start. I guess if you rent it for 10 days and spend $20 they would apply that towards the full price of the game? |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by chess
(Post 11702802)
This is definitely conventional wisdom, but it's a bit overstated, and is largely based on the earliest games of the current generation. There are a few really bad examples like the Bethesda games, a bunch of early Unreal engine games, and a couple of bad ports like Bayonetta, but for the most part the differences were completely imperceptible. This was more and more true as the generation progressed and developers figured out the PS3's architecture.
Transferring from PC to 360 was obviously easier, and anything where the 360 was the lead platform looked better (including CoD), but there are plenty of examples of games where the PS3 was the lead platform (like Mirror's Edge and Burnout Paradise), games where the PS3 got the better looking version (like Darksiders and GTA4), games where PS3 got exclusive content (like Arkham Asylum and Portal 2), or games that came out later on PS3 and were better versions (like Mass Effect and Bioshock). For the next gen, they both seem to have very PC friendly architecture, so I doubt this will be much of an issue either way. I don't think you're wrong on what games looked better and had the lead on the PS3, but you're not right either. A quick Google search shows videos and reviews pointing out to some of those games being an exact draw (Burnout Paradise), the 360 being the lead (GTA4), or the PS3 being the lead (Mirror's Edge). I did purchase Portal 2 on PS3 for one reason alone: it came packaged with the Steam edition of the game. If I didn't activate it the day it was released, I would've been fucked as the PSN debacle started the day after its release and I would've been unable to play it for a month with its "exclusive features." Anyway that argument is invalid as the PC edition of Portal 2 trumps both console editions. Anyway, the PC-friendly architecture of both consoles gives developers the upper hand as it involves less time and resources (i.e. having another studio do the port) to have their titles on multiple platforms. In fact, PC gaming might be in its prime over the next few years due to this. That and hardware prices continue to decrease. And Microsoft and Sony alienating customers left and right. Speaking of which, where's my Steambox? |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Microsoft’s Mattrick says he doesn’t think compatibility is really a problem. He said only 5% of customers play older games on a new videogame system anyway, so spending time and money to develop technology to allow them to play older games isn’t worth it. “If you’re backwards compatible, you’re really backwards,” he said. |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
So gamers are stupid for wanting to play old games? Guess they think everyone that buys xb1 will have finished all their 360 games?
And not one xbla games will be bc with the xb1? They can't even port over simple games like fucking UNO or classics like Pac-Man? |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
I want my $500 piece of hardware to play a game that I spent $100 on a few years ago! Fuck me, right?
(And no, I have not spent $100 on a single game. Yet.) |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Great read from Anandtech.
I'm glad to read that Sony will have the power advantage, and developers may be able to use it. That should even the play field. It would be ironic if we have more overheating issues with the PS3 though. |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by Microsoft
If you’re backwards compatible, you’re really backwards
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Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by Supermallet
(Post 11702860)
I think it's important to give people the OPTION to use discs, but I would also like to see it being offered digitally. How nice would it be to wake up on the day of a game's release, flip on your console, charge $10 to your credit card, and get the game for 5 days? And since you can play as it downloads, you don't have to wait for the whole thing to finish before you can start.
My point was that you can't get rid of GameFly or other rental outlets completely yet. |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
There's a great deal of speculation in this thread, a lot of it phrased as fact. Here's some more semi-clarification:
Q&A: Microsoft Veep Phil Harrison Talks Xbox One, Used Games, Always-On, and More REDMOND, Washington — After Microsoft revealed the brand-new Xbox One console to the world yesterday, a common reaction wasn’t one of amazement or eagerness, but confusion. Since most of the presentation showcased fantasy football, Skype, and multimedia applications, anyone wanting to hear about games was left hungry for details. Wired sat down with Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Harrison — the former head of Sony’s worldwide PlayStation development studios — after the reveal to get answers about a future that seems to promise (or threaten) always-on requirements, a more complex scenario for used games, and a mandatory Kinect sensor. Wired: How “green” is this machine? It seems so powerful, but how energy efficient is it? Phil Harrison: You are the first person to ask that question. The Xbox One has multiple power states, starting with “completely off,” but the device has been designed to operate on a very, very low power state — just enough to understand your voice and activate when it hears the key words ‘Xbox on’ and to do some background downloading tasks. We’ve broken it down [consults with PR assistant] to five U.S. cents per day at the lowest setting. Wired: I’ve heard that if your Xbox One does not connect with Xbox Live at least once a day, the machine becomes inoperable and you’re not able to play any of the games that you’ve paid for. Is that true? Harrison: I don’t think that’s what was said. Let me try and clarify what is happening. So, there is a lot of anxiety about “what if my Internet connection goes down” and you don’t have connectivity for a period of time. There are a host of features which will be usable without an Internet connection — watching movies, playing certain single player games… all of which will operate offline. We expect most of the more advanced experiences, like online multiplayer games, or games which have a lot of connected features… those games won’t operate if you don’t have an Internet connection. We designed the system to take advantage of a connection to the cloud, and all that that means. But no, it’s not required that you are connected all the time, every second of every day. There is some technology about how often, or how frequently the device has to ‘ping’, but that has not been… we have not talked publicly about that yet, but it will be very user-friendly. Wired: So are you saying that there is no function of the machine which checks in with Microsoft to see whether the player is still authorized to use the games that they’ve bought — there is no user validation check, or any sort of DRM function? Harrison: We haven’t announced the details of that today, but like I said, it will be very user-friendly. Wired: What’s going on with used games? What about borrowed games? There’s a lot of speculation today. Can you clear some of that up? For example, we have multiple Xboxes in my house and trade games all the time. If we have multiple Xbox One consoles, can we still do that? Harrison: Absolutely, just like you can today. You take the disc, install “the bits” on every machine you have in your house from the same disc, and anybody in your household can play that game. You have exactly the same restrictions that you have today, as in only one of you can play that game at a time because you only have one disc. But anybody in that house… well, the Xbox Live account… it goes for both the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One, and any user inside that house. Wired: So as another example, if I took my disc and went to a friend’s house, would I be able to play that game on his machine? Harrison: Yes, you can. You can take your game around to your friend’s house just as you would today — that’s assuming you have a physical disc — and what we’re doing with the new Live technology is that… with the disc, it’s just a repository for “the bits”. You can put that disc into his drive, you can play the game while you’re there, and then you go home and take that disc with you. But actually, “the bits” are still on his drive. If your friend decides that he really likes to play that game, then he can go buy it instantly, and it doesn’t need to download again. It’s already there. Once he’s paid for it, it’s immediately there. Wired: So the discs that will be sold will essentially be start-up discs, and then the game isn’t really connected to the disc anymore once it’s been installed? Harrison: Once you put the disc into your machine, you never need it again. If you want to keep it, that’s great. You can do that. But you can also download the game. You don’t actually have to have a physical disc after that point, but you can then share that disc with your friends which is basically a great way of distributing the content to other people. Also, let me turn this around the other way. A game can be completely on a disc, with no additional content downloaded. You install the game on your hard drive, and other than pinging for Achievements and other multiplayer connectivity, then that’s it. That’s the end of it. Each game is on a case-by-case basis. But, I think it is very likely, that because of the inherent connectivity designed into the platform, that developers would want to expand and extend an experience over time. Wired: Will all games on Xbox One be available both as discs, and digital? Harrison: Yes. Wired: Is it true that there is zero backwards compatibility with 360 games, whether they be disc-based, XBLA, or XBLIG? There will be no way to transfer any of those games over, even if it’s only through the cloud? Harrison: Yes, that is correct. You will be able to transfer over your music and television purchases, but no games. The games stay on 360. Wired: I assume current Gamertags will stay active and transfer to the Xbox One, along with the associated Achievements and so forth? Harrison: Yes. Wired: Will there still be avatars, and is there anything new being added to this new Live system? Any new sorts of achievements on top of the old system, or any new perks of that nature? Harrison: All of Live has been redesigned from the ground up for Xbox One. There is a whole set of achievements which are driven by the cloud. Today, when a developer finishes the game, the achievements get locked at that point. In the future, with Xbox One, achievements are now dynamically pushed from the cloud. Developers can add new achievements… they can do some very clever things with bridging achievements across multiple games, and that means it can go on forever. Wired: Does the device function if the Kinect is not attached? Harrison: Kinect and Xbox One are one and the same. They are two parts of the equation. Obviously the Kinect sensor is used for Skype, for communication, for voice recognition, gesture and motion sensing and the rest. Wired: So as an example, if your dog comes in and somehow it knocks the Kinect down and breaks it, would you still be able to use the box if there was a particular game which did not use the functions embedded into the Kinect? Harrison: In that situation, I have no idea. [consults with assistant] What kind of dog is it? Wired: The dog from the Call of Duty video you showed today. That one. Harrison: (laughs) Wired: For players who don’t have consistent access to online connectivity due to their particular location or poor quality of service, how much functionality will they be able to get out of the Xbox One? Harrison: So, Xbox One is designed to have an internet connection. You will recall what I said earlier about it not requiring one all the time, but just like many devices that we have in our lives today… they are an extension of the Internet. Wired: Will there be region-locking? For example, if a person wants to import a game that’s only available outside the United States, will it be able to play on the Xbox One? Harrison: Generally, our policy on that is to let the developer or publisher choose how they want to implement that. I would imagine the same thing will happen with Xbox One, but I actually do not know. Wired: Is the hard drive inside the unit upgradable? Also, is it proprietary, and will there be any external storage options? Harrison: External storage, yes. Hard drive upgradability, I do not know. Wired: So will Microsoft put out a separate external hard drive product that consumers can buy, or will Xbox One be compatible with non-Microsoft drives off a shelf? Harrison: I do not know. Wired: So can you clarify a bit about the fifteen exclusive games that were mentioned during the briefing this morning? Are any third parties involved, and are those for the general launch window, or will those be available right at launch? Harrison: Microsoft Studios are developing fifteen games exclusively for Xbox One, of which eight will be brand-new IP. Those will be available during the Xbox One’s first year. Wired: How many SKUs will you have at launch? Will there only be one unit to buy, or will you have varying packages with different price points? Harrison: We will announce details on pricing and availability and configuration later on, but the current plan is to offer one SKU. Wired: With regard to the feature that allows player to record their gameplay, will you be able to upload that anywhere, or will it only be shared between Xbox One owners? Harrison: Game DVR is the feature you’re talking about. It’s a fantastic feature. Think of it as a video celebration of Achievements, but also players and developers will be able to record certain moments during the game as well. You can share that with your friends. It’s saved in your private cloud storage that we give you. It is exposed on the dash and you can publish it to your social feeds. Wired: So if I have a Twitch channel, can I send it there? Can I upload it to Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere else? Harrison: As I said, you can upload it via your social feeds. We will share more details on this at E3, but it’s a very powerful feature of the box. Wired: So what’s the status of Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Indie Games? Is the plan to keep those programs going, or what do you envision for smaller games and smaller game developers? Harrison: There’s two parts to the question there. First, how will we curate that content and allow the user to find those games. In the past, we created three separate and distinct spaces. For Xbox One, we’ve very purposely done away with that. We just have “Games.” There will be very big games, there will be very small games, there will be games in the middle… we don’t mind. We don’t want to categorize the type of game, or infer quality by the size of the developer who made it. I think it’s up to users to discover which games are great, and it’s up to them to share and talk about those things with their friends. Also, the recommendation engine we’ve built into Xbox One will allow for much easier discovery of great games. The Game DVR feature will allow you to share with your friends what you’ve been playing, and they will be able to see it and say “that looks really cool, I want to play that game”, so that actually has a massive benefit to the developer community, and helps solve one of the biggest problems developers face, which is discovery. How do they get their game to an audience? So, we’ve made some very thoughtful, purposeful decisions in the architecture of Xbox One which I think will be great for the developer ecosystem. These things have been very well-thought-through. And certainly, I’m extremely passionate about this space. As you’ve seen on 360, we are already publishing and developing games which have a variety of business models, and we will continue that on Xbox One. We are committed to making that as global as we can, encouraging developers wherever they are to bring their games and experiences to our platforms. The final piece is the Snap Mode part of the operating system. It’s a Windows 8 kernel, so that expands the ecosystem of developers who can write for Xbox One by an order of magnitude. It will be a huge ecosystem of developers, and that’s great for the consumer and the player that there will be even more developers who are tooled and capable of creating experiences for our system. |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
If your friend decides that he really likes to play that game, then he can go buy it instantly, and it doesn’t need to download again. It’s already there. Once he’s paid for it, it’s immediately there. |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
I still don't like the kinect requirement. Will there even be a way to disable the kinect controls, if MS considers kinect and the one to be part of the same device?
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Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by stingermck
(Post 11702999)
Yeah that will never happen with my circle of friends.
I'm just as skeptical as anyone else, but I think there's been a bit too much of a rush to negativity without considering the possible positive aspects of this. |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by Matthew Chmiel
(Post 11702915)
I want my $500 piece of hardware to play a game that I spent $100 on a few years ago! Fuck me, right?
(And no, I have not spent $100 on a single game. Yet.) |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
In that interview above, that is an interesting question he asks about the Kinect breaking...but of course there was no answer. :lol:
And in regards to using the same game on difference Xboxes in the same household...I understand they are saying that the game would have to be played under the Xbox live user ID that the game is activated under. But what if we activate a game under my name and my kid wants to play it on his Xbox while I am playing a different game on my Xbox. Can you be signed in on two Xboxes at the same time with the same ID? I doubt it. |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
It's weird how similar Microsoft is coming off now to the way Sony came off at the PS3 launch.
But at least the first gen PS3's could play all PS1 and PS2 games. |
Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
Originally Posted by davidh777
(Post 11702887)
:hscratch: Trying to cancel out the negatives here. So a rental system would make you pissed?
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Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
It said that it would be an Xbox Household Account?
Harrison: Absolutely, just like you can today. You take the disc, install “the bits” on every machine you have in your house from the same disc, and anybody in your household can play that game. You have exactly the same restrictions that you have today, as in only one of you can play that game at a time because you only have one disc. But anybody in that house… well, the Xbox Live account… it goes for both the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One, and any user inside that house. I'm guessing he meant that in reference to the 360 and how you only have 1 disc that you can play on any 360 - but the ONE is different in which only one person on your LIVE account can play the game on any of your systems that would be registered under your LIVE account... |
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