Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

[DarthCuddles]

Does anyone know if that live stream is likely to work on iPhone, and if not, if there are any iOS friendly streams? Thanks!

it's being streamed on twitch so if you get the app you can watch it there

[arry_g]

Anyone else find the initial opening with all the different people sickening?

[Scrustle]

So the event just ended, and here are my initial/knee-jerk reactions.

Stupid name and boring looking box. Not ugly, but it's just a square. But "Xbox One"? Really? "Infinity" is better than that.

Pretty much everything else wasn't very interesting at all. Got pretty sick of all the sports stuff. Definitely gave off the feeling of is being the "frat boy console" that Xbox always has a reputation of having.

All that multitasking stuff sounds worthless too. Yes, it moves very fast and Kinect actually works this time, but why the hell do I want to be doing all that stuff at the same time? When I'm watching a film or playing a game, or whatever I happen to be doing, that's what I want to do. I don't want to also to channel surfing, Skyping, and watching trailers all at the same time. That's just not something you can really do and actually pay attention to any of it. I really hope all that stuff is optional and/or it won't hike up the price of the console too ridiculous prices.

Perhaps the only things that interested me was Forza (obviously) and the fact that they seem to actually have a reasonable number of games planned. Forza looked like it could be amazing. Very interesting environment, which is something the series really needed to improve on. But we saw so little of it we can't really say anything about it yet. I guess we'll have to wait until E3 to see more. I'll be checking out the Forza website shortly to see if there's more info there too. As for the other games, can't really say anything yet. That Remedy thing didn't really do anything to excite me, and although it's nice to hear there's more new IP and exclusives on the way, we don't know anything more than that. Some of the tech stuff for CoD was interesting, purely to see what the games on the thing will look like, but other than that I don't care.

Overall, pretty much what I expected it to be. Way too much emphasis on pointless stuff that has nothing to do with games, and endless talk about fucking sports. At least it wasn't as bat-shit crazy as the initial Kinect reveal. It actually made sense. I'm actually somewhat looking forward to E3 to see what the games they teased will turn out to be.

[arry_g]

"frat boy console"

I completely agree with this. I was thinking the exact same thing.

E3 will be interesting I think and I look forward to seeing what Sony and Microsoft deliver on but at this stage I am leaning more towards the PS4, you might ask "why?" and my answer would be the following: Sony have served me better in the twilight of the PS3 than Microsoft have with the Xbox and the PS4 has already shown off at least one game I care about: 'infamous: Second Son'. Nothing game related that Microsoft has shown me tonight interests me. The name is plain stupid. Now, E3 could easily tip this balance depending on who announces what but might I add that this MS announcement mentioned nothing of Indie developers whatsoever and that bothers me.

Until E3 the PS4 is the console I consider to be the gaming enthusiast machine and the Xbox One is the gaming machine for everyone else (the larger market I admit).

[Scrustle]

Yeah, it definitely seems that they are going after a wider audience for which games aren't necessarily a priority, while the PS4 is more for gamers. I caught the end of the Rev3 stream of the event, and one of them commented saying that it seemed as if they were taking gamers for granted. It did seem like that, to a certain extent at least. That all they wanted to say was "oh yeah, it's also got games" and leave it at that. They don't really care.

I also took a closer look at the controller. Looks interesting. They've made the triggers fat. Not sure how that will affect things. The d-pad looked like it might be better though. Funnily, it kind of looks like a 3rd party controller to me, but one of the higher end ones. One of the ones that actually has quality to it, instead of the cheapo ones you usually find.

[AndyKurosaki]

Well that name is bloody awful. Xbox One! So what was the first Xbox then? Xbox Classic? Xbox Beta? Sure, they could do a Nintendo and change the name at the last minute. But yeah, that name is poor.

As for all the multifunctionality, I don't give a toss about watching tv, or streaming films, or any of that. I've zero interest in sport. None. I buy a console to play games on it, funnily enough. No backwards compatability is, as ever, a ballache. And CVG states that to play games on a console other than yours, you have to pay a fee. If so, there go the days of taking something round to your mates to show them.

But the real question remains unanswered- will a Gold Live subscription live up to the level of Playstation Plus? Because that's a service that goes from strength to strength. Free games, games that you actually want to play, and make you go "wait, I'm just being given this? Just for subscribing?". Xbox Live sorely needs to do likewise with One, not piss about with other functions I don't give a flying fuck about.

So PS4 it is then

[arry_g]

But the real question remains unanswered- will a Gold Live subscription live up to the level of Playstation Plus? Because that's a service that goes from strength to strength. Free games, games that you actually want to play, and make you go "wait, I'm just being given this? Just for subscribing?". Xbox Live sorely needs to do likewise with One, not piss about with other functions I don't give a flying fuck about.

While I agree with everything you've said I will add that we don't know what PS Plus will offer us (or not) going into the next generation.

[ratsoalbion]

I didn't watch the corporate promo, I couldn't give a fuck what the console is called, what it looks like, who Microsoft are marketing it towards, what online/social features it does or doesn't have, whether it's got some games being made for it that I'm not interested in.

What it comes down to, always has and always will, is the essential games that are available to play on it that aren't available anywhere else. If it has at least ONE of those, I and a lot of other gamers, will want/need to have an Xbox One.

[Buckled Kipper]

Wow, I'm actually pretty stunned by how bad that was. I can only afford one of the new consoles (for a few years at least) and was leaning towards PS4 for various reasons, so I was actually a bit nervous going into watching this as I was dreading having a hard decision to make. But fuck me its looking like an easy one so far.

I'm not worried about the games as I'm sure that both Sony and Microsoft will have plenty to offer. What worries me more is Microsofts priority to everything other than games. Opening the reveal with voice recognition???? Oh and apparently Kinect can recognise wrists and shoulders now so will revolutionise how we game (or something like that).

[AndyKurosaki]

But the real question remains unanswered- will a Gold Live subscription live up to the level of Playstation Plus? Because that's a service that goes from strength to strength. Free games, games that you actually want to play, and make you go "wait, I'm just being given this? Just for subscribing?". Xbox Live sorely needs to do likewise with One, not piss about with other functions I don't give a flying fuck about.

While I agree with everything you've said I will add that we don't know what PS Plus will offer us (or not) going into the next generation.

True, all we really know at the moment is "your PSN titles won't carry across to PS4". Still, you would think it'd be a bit mad to go from being generous to stingy. It took about a year for Vita to kick things off Plus wise...

[Alex79]

Thanks for the links - I forgot to watch it >_<

Anyway - yeah, doesn't sound like something I'll be interested in. Throughout the course of the 360's lifespan Microsoft gradually seemed to make games less of a priority and started focussing on crap I wasn't interested in. After the Wii/Wii-U I'm no longer interested in owning a Nintendo console. I only ever planned on getting a PS4 next gen, and the reports I've read on the XBox reveal only confirm that.

[arry_g]

What it comes down to, always has and always will, is the essential games that are available to play on it that aren't available anywhere else. If it has at least ONE of those, I and a lot of other gamers, will want/need to have an Xbox One.

This is true but the real question going into a new generation for many gamers is "with a limited budget what do I buy first?". We all know that sooner or later both consoles will have at least one of those games (in reality we'll see many) and most of us if not a lot of us will buy both consoles in the lifespan of the next generation just as I imagine that eventually many of us might fork out on a Wii-U but when money is tight and family is demanding which console do we get first, which can afford to wait? The answer is whichever offers the better value for money and has got our attention.

At this stage it is all speculation and the next month will ease some of that but all these little details like name, features etc do leave a first impression albeit a weak one and the way MS skirted over games is a little off but then that is what E3 is for I guess.

[ratsoalbion]

Absolutely, it seems fairly apparent right now that enthusiast gamers ought to go for PS4 first, and that looks set to happen at this point.

[Cress1968]

I didn't watch the corporate promo, I couldn't give a fuck what the console is called, what it looks like, who Microsoft are marketing it towards, what online/social features it does or doesn't have, whether it's got some games being made for it that I'm not interested in.

What it comes down to, always has and always will, is the essential games that are available to play on it that aren't available anywhere else. If it has at least ONE of those, I and a lot of other gamers, will want/need to have an Xbox One.

^^^ this ^^^ I have always favoured the Xbox over ps3 and for that reason I will buy this day of release but for the very point Leon makes I will buy a ps4 simply to play killzone on. After the dork nights we had on killzone 3 it would be rude not to lol

[Scrustle]

Just did some digging, and it turns out there were some unsavoury things left out of the conference, surprise surprise.

There will be no backward compatibility at all, and you need to pay an extra fee to play used games. As in, when you put a disc into the console which has already been in another, and thus tied to the account of that console, you will be forced to pay a fee to be able to play it. But after that you can install and play the game straight off the hard drive without the need for the disc, which is I suppose a small, if ultimately insignificant, consolation.

The "always online" rumours turned out to be partly true, but it doesn't seem like it's something that's designed to be constrictive. It's supposedly designed to allow a designated portion of the processing of a game to be done via the cloud, like the way it was claimed SimCity did. But it appears to be something that is optional on the part of the developer/publisher. Could still turn out to be awful, but at least it isn't as awful as we feared.

Here's the source for the info:

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/05/x ... -analysis/

[magicjoef]

My plan has always been to wait a year for a price cut on the consoles before dipping in, partly because I have a PC that should keep up for the first few months of the 'new gen', and I also want to see how the services compare once they get into full swing.

From what I have seen so far though, PS4 definitely feels preferencial at the moment, I like the focus on games they had, and what they have been trying with their relationships to smaller devs. I think a lot of the big games will come out on both due to the economics of having to make them, so it is those smaller games that really could set one platform apart from the other with these new machines.

The media stuff on the Xbox could be cool, I just don't trust Microsoft to make anything other than a cluttered mess of it! Keeping an open mind though

[arry_g]

Absolutely, it seems fairly apparent right now that enthusiast gamers ought to go for PS4 first, and that looks set to happen at this point.

That's the thing though, it absolutely is the case right now but who knows in a month, in two, in a year what the situation will be. We've seen so much change in this cycle, who knows about the next and for that reason either is a gamble if one is being chosen over the other early in the generation.

None-the-less, it is nice to know that my opinion is in-line with others (at least to some degree) because whatever console I pick it will be the gaming experiences with people such as those on forums like these which make or break the next co-op hit. Hell, what would a game like Left 4 Dead be without the people you play it with? Passable at best I fear as it was a social experience ahead of a gaming one.

All that said I know most people I played with this generation will be playing whatever is on Xbox One (good or bad as the launch line-up might be) because of the experiences they had in CoD, Fifa, GoW and Halo this generation.

I didn't watch the corporate promo, I couldn't give a fuck what the console is called, what it looks like, who Microsoft are marketing it towards, what online/social features it does or doesn't have, whether it's got some games being made for it that I'm not interested in.

What it comes down to, always has and always will, is the essential games that are available to play on it that aren't available anywhere else. If it has at least ONE of those, I and a lot of other gamers, will want/need to have an Xbox One.

^^^ this ^^^ I have always favoured the Xbox over ps3 and for that reason I will buy this day of release but for the very point Leon makes I will buy a ps4 simply to play killzone on. After the dork nights we had on killzone 3 it would be rude not to lol

Hmmm... it is nice to see a degree of contrast to that said so far, to my shame I only played an hour of Killzone 3, never clicked with me.

[Cress1968]

To be honest I was always going to buy both, I have friends on both consoles and like to be able to enjoy gaming with both. I agree that ps plus is a much better deal than Xbox gold but I just prefer the Xbox dashboard and the whole package tbh. As long as Sony and MS have exclusives then I will always have both consoles
For the record the clan nights we had on kz3 were the best gaming nights I've ever had and only brought to an end by them twats hacking the psn network

[dezm0nd]

While this conference didn't impress me I am reserving judgement until E3. If they don't show anything on those new IPs then I'll be fuming.

Hopefully tonights showing was clearing the cobwebs out of the way for a gamefest on June 10th

[delb2k]

I have to admit I thought the presser was fine.

This was a national TV show going out to highlight what this media box could do which meant that games were never going to be a huge focus for them. So it can do the media stuff, it can do the games, it can do all the whizz bang rata-tat-tat most people come to expect from a box under the TV. This was not a gamers only event, never was meant to be, this was a tech event for a multi-media box.

Which I personally I do not see as a bad thing, never have. All our devices are becoming more mutli-functional so the fact the consoles are as well appears to be a no-brainer in my view. New TV's can stream Netflix and understand gesture controls and all that gives us is more choice. Out of all the consoles released recently as 'game only' devices hardly any have had sales success of note. The Wii U and Vita are both struggling which makes me wonder if you need to present something that can do more than just games just to make the wider audience pay attention.

What they did present software wise was mainly to let the less hardcore gamer that yes, you will have CoD, you will have Forza, FIFa et all so do not worry about that. It was as much re-assurance as anything else. I liked the first party commitment they made and the commitment to new IP making up over half the exclusive titles. Makes me very interested in what they present at E3.

I still have questions over activations and game availibility in regards to online connections. As long as it performs the basic function of put disc in, play disc, take disc out whether it is online or off I will be happy with that. I also want to know what they plan for independant support. Everything else is conjecture right now and there are a lot of reports flying about that may well be dubunked in the next few weeks.

I have to admit I have never felt the same drift away from the gamer that many have felt from Microsoft. They brought me one of my favourite games last year in Forza Horizon and I still enjoy a lot of what they produce plus the third party support has been strong for the console throughout my time with it. It feels that I am very much in the minority with that though.

So most likely I will own both but neither has edged the other for me at this point. PS4 looks good but presented me with sequels that did not float my boat. Xbox1 showed less software but gave me a better commitment and at least presented some new IP that came as a proper surprise.

Roll on November eh?