Nextbox rumors..

Thin_J wrote:

It basically doesn't matter what's in this new xbox. I'll have one preordered regardless.

cantwait.gif

I felt that way about the next Xbox for a long while, but the lack of first party development and the increasingly obnoxious interfaces have thrown my devotion into question.

The slicker community features are nice, but not at all a necessity for me, and increasingly not worth $35-$60 per year. The controller is definitely better than Sony's Dualshock.

What I care about above all else is the library, and Sony's stable of exclusives has eclipsed theirs over the last two or three years. Gears 3 was a disappointment, Halo isn't my cup of tea, Fable seems destined to be terrible (I liked 3 well enough, they're taking the series in a totally different direction), and I hadn't liked a Forza game until Horizons, which isn't the type of game I buy a system to play. Arthur Gies on RebelFM said a few weeks back that MS was going hard into first party development for the next gen system, which is potentially exciting. But, in spite of his claims otherwise he has always been more forgiving toward the Xbox platform which makes me wonder if he's hearing these things selectively.

Thin_J wrote:

It basically doesn't matter what's in this new xbox. I'll have one preordered regardless.

You know, a lot of people would have said (and probably did say) the same thing about the PS3 coming from the PS2. And while that turned out pretty okay in the end, there were some serious rough patches in the early going.

I'm taking a wait-and-see approach this upcoming gen. With PC gaming going so strong and so many cheap small-to-medium sized downloadable titles to eat up my time, I think I can afford to wait on a round of price drops and for the inevitable first-year kinks to get worked out.

There is no doubt that Microsoft could dork this up. But the PS3's stuggles were pretty predictable. I mean, we had a whole thread on it.

Hate to poop on the party but:

C&VG wrote:

Xbox World has used the Microsoft leaks and industry sources to come up with a 3D mock-up of what it expects the next-gen Xbox to look like.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...

This is basically a Greatest Hits of Rumors and Leaks, with a purely speculative guess on the hardware design.

Scratched wrote:
merphle wrote:
They also speculate the next Xbox will just be called "Xbox".

Microsoft would be doing themselves a disservice if they don't call it the "XBox 365".

I think "loop" or "infinity" or "infinite" have been rumoured too.

Oof, that'd really paint them into a corner come the ninth generation. Xbox Infinity+1?

Xbox InfinitytimesamillionforeverIwin!

Too bad they didn't launch this year or they couldn't named it the XBox 2012 and launched with a special X-Boxalypse edition.

nel e nel wrote:

Hate to poop on the party but:
....
This is basically a Greatest Hits of Rumors and Leaks, with a purely speculative guess on the hardware design.

That pretty much describes this whole thread. As with pretty much anything the interesting bit is the discussion.

I kind of wish they'd pick a different name entirely. I still hate the name Xbox.

Actually, I hate all the console names. Playstation is also silly, and Wii U is the worst.

Demyx wrote:

I kind of wish they'd pick a different name entirely. I still hate the name Xbox.

Actually, I hate all the console names. Playstation is also silly, and Wii U is the worst.

MS felt the same way, xbox was a "we don't know what to call it" name, and used as a control in the focus testing, but the testers kept picking 'xbox', so it was chosen. It's their brand now, so I can't see it going away.

I like it. It's the DirectX box. One step away from calling it the Video Game Box. Simple. And, despite the efforts of a thousand journalists and bloggers, it isn't written in stupid and dated CamelCase. PlayStation I don't mind either (CamelCase notwithstanding), especially since the alternative being bandied about before its NA release was PowerStation.

e2a: And thankfully no one followed the directive of Sony, in their infinite wisdom, of spelling it PLAYSTATION 3.

I'd like to see additional shoulder buttons on the nextbox controller if they were mappable on the console. Seems doubtful but I can hope. I'd also like to see a mouse-wheel on the controller somewhere, I think it would work well for adjusting zoom or cycling through a menu quickly.

I am most concerned about Microsoft continuing to shovel Kinnect functionality down the throats of developers.

There was a next-gen controller thread a while back. I kind of liked the idea of a trackball in a pad, or something like this with force feedback. A mouse wheel or throttle slider would be good additions too.

Demyx wrote:

I kind of wish they'd pick a different name entirely. I still hate the name Xbox.

Actually, I hate all the console names. Playstation is also silly, and Wii U is the worst.

The PS2 and Wii were so popular in their time periods that I can understand not giving up the names. But Wii U is silly. Wii 2 would have been better. Or Wii Next. Or something more explanatory. Have seen way too many people asking if it's an add-on to the Wii or something instead of a new console.

Kind of like the 3DS. After you do DS, DSL, DSi, DSi XL and they're all the same console, when you finally do something new and it still has the DS name in it, the public at large doesn't get it.

I've never looked into it, but what is the U supposed to represent in "Wii U"? When I first heard about it, I thought it was Wii University, as if it were some sort of developer's school or courses or something to streamline 3rd party developers' introduction into Wii development.

WipEout wrote:

I've never looked into it, but what is the U supposed to represent in "Wii U"? When I first heard about it, I thought it was Wii University, as if it were some sort of developer's school or courses or something to streamline 3rd party developers' introduction into Wii development.

It's a play on We and You, and was chosen to represent the more personal/intimate experience of playing the games on a tablet. At least, I think that was the marketing spin/justification.

WipEout wrote:

I've never looked into it, but what is the U supposed to represent in "Wii U"? When I first heard about it, I thought it was Wii University, as if it were some sort of developer's school or courses or something to streamline 3rd party developers' introduction into Wii development.

Wii was supposed to be "we", so I assume U is for "you".

Does the WiiU count as a next/new generation console? Can we start calling it 'current gen' now, and that Sony/MS need to catch up to them, and that their 360/PS3 are 'last gen' and 'old hat'?

Minor controller hope: I want to be able to use more than just my thumbs and first finger or two. I think at least a couple of buttons on the bottom of the controller for ring finger and or/middle finger.

Would be perfect for jump or other things you might want to do while still controlling the sticks with your thumbs.

There have been some modded controllers with this added.

MannishBoy wrote:

Minor controller hope: I want to be able to use more than just my thumbs and first finger or two. I think at least a couple of buttons on the bottom of the controller for ring finger and or/middle finger.

Would be perfect for jump or other things you might want to do while still controlling the sticks with your thumbs.

There have been some modded controllers with this added.

There was one I remember from a few years back that translated a load of the buttons onto triggers around the underside of the pad. I can't for the life of me remember the name, but I think momgamer might have reviewed one.

I guess the takeaway for me is that while there's plenty of people who love the pads as they are, and they need to make one design generally suitable for most people, there's plenty of room for improvement.

MannishBoy wrote:

Minor controller hope: I want to be able to use more than just my thumbs and first finger or two. I think at least a couple of buttons on the bottom of the controller for ring finger and or/middle finger.

Would be perfect for jump or other things you might want to do while still controlling the sticks with your thumbs.

There have been some modded controllers with this added.

I like the Razer Onza conceptually. I haven't ponied up and bought one though.

S0LIDARITY wrote:

I like the Razer Onza conceptually. I haven't ponied up and bought one though.

The extra Onza buttons are located to where you use fingers you're already using. I want something underneath where I have fingers that just sit there bored.

MannishBoy wrote:
S0LIDARITY wrote:

I like the Razer Onza conceptually. I haven't ponied up and bought one though.

The extra Onza buttons are located to where you use fingers you're already using. I want something underneath where I have fingers that just sit there bored.

I expected that I'd bring my ring fingers up to the trigger then use index for the first row of shoulder buttons and middle for the second row. That might not leave a stable enough grip, I accidently pull the r2 and l2 buttons on ps3 all the time. So you'd have extra keys near where the ring fingers rest on the bottom?

S0LIDARITY wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:
S0LIDARITY wrote:

I like the Razer Onza conceptually. I haven't ponied up and bought one though.

The extra Onza buttons are located to where you use fingers you're already using. I want something underneath where I have fingers that just sit there bored.

I expected that I'd bring my ring fingers up to the trigger then use index for the first row of shoulder buttons and middle for the second row. That might not leave a stable enough grip, I accidently pull the r2 and l2 buttons on ps3 all the time. So you'd have extra keys near where the ring fingers rest on the bottom?

Yeah, down near the battery bump on the 360 controller. It could be a long button so that you could hold it however you want and still have it reachable.

I really think controllers are complex enough as-is; the Wii really succeeded because it made gaming easy for all, and the 360 controller is pretty intimidating with all its varied buttons. Moving them around makes it even harder to get new people to adopt to your system.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I really think controllers are complex enough as-is; the Wii really succeeded because it made gaming easy for all, and the 360 controller is pretty intimidating with all its varied buttons. Moving them around makes it even harder to get new people to adopt to your system.

Pretty much, my wife will play Wii games or MMOs on the PC but she is completely intimidated by the Xbox controller.

What's funny is that MS did a true Trojan Horse when they linked the 360 pad with PC games across the board. Some years ago PC gamers would have laughed at the thought of using a game pad instead of k/m. These days, most have seemed to adopted the 360 pad with open arms.

Now 7 years later you have a controller standard across two large gaming markets.

Like I said earlier, I hope MS doesn't mess with it too much or overthink it trying to keep pace with the competition.

Sometimes it's all about me. I have no wife to intimidate with extra buttons and dongles.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I really think controllers are complex enough as-is; the Wii really succeeded because it made gaming easy for all, and the 360 controller is pretty intimidating with all its varied buttons. Moving them around makes it even harder to get new people to adopt to your system.

Pfft! Noewb!

I can't wait for my 360 degree rotational body sieve that the NXbox will use to interface via sphincter contractions.

I just realized that my absolute pie in the sky dream for the Xbox 3 would be for it to be MS giving us a Steam Box. They could still do some of the fabulous things they do, but give me Steam sales on my TV.

I'm very resistant to buying PC games these days, because I really want to chill out on my couch. I don't want to spend $1000 (or whatever) building my own Steam Box. But I do want access to Steam Sales, etc.

The Xbox is already similar to a PC. Just add this feature, come up with a revenue split with Steam, and I think they'd dominate the next gen and add tons of users who weren't Xbox owners in the past.