Xbox One Catch-all

SallyNasty wrote:

If Titanfall is day one, that will lock down my purchase.

Spring 2014.

PRG013 wrote:

So... Anyone buying a Xbox One?

No. I might not even buy the PS4, honestly. Last night I was looking at the new games (XCom, etc.) on my PS3. Today I pick up "Last of Us". Last night I picked up Donkey Kong Country Returns for the 3DS. I have lots of games. Nevermind PC stuff I started playing. Reality is I'm more likely to game more on PC after all of this has settled down.

PRG013 wrote:

I really tried to like the PS3. The plastic feeling controller and digital trigger really turned me off from even looking at the PS4. I loved my original Playstation so much that it is sitting in my office (spare bedroom with no bed in it) at home just incase I want to hook it up and play some Blast Chamber. It's been there since 1999 (on the shelf, waiting to be played).

I preordered a Day One Xbox, but I am uncertain if I can actually spare the $500.00. Real life (um, wife) gets in the way.

I'm with you on the PS3, really. It's mostly just the Netflix/Streaming video box. I played MGS4, Uncharted, and the two Killzone games on it but other than those and a few rentals (Heavenly Sword, etc) it basically just collects dust. And the controller is a hateful little torture device as far as I'm concerned.

But Sony seems to have made big changes. There's been more than one person from E3 who, like a lot of us, vastly preferred the 360 controller over the dualshock but came out saying the PS4 gamepad feels better than the Xbox One's.

Thin_J wrote:

But Sony seems to have made big changes. There's been more than one person from E3 who, like a lot of us, vastly preferred the 360 controller over the dualshock but come out saying the PS4 gamepad feels better than the Xbox One's.

Not having held one in my hands, I will say it looks somewhat better. I don't like the sticks being parallel, but I could probably live with one vs the PS3's.

Hopefully it's good. I figure within a couple of years, I'll own both a PS4 and an XO, so it would be good to not look at the controller for the Playstation with dread when I have a game I want to play.

DSGamer wrote:
PRG013 wrote:

So... Anyone buying a Xbox One?

No. I might not even buy the PS4, honestly. Last night I was looking at the new games (XCom, etc.) on my PS3. Today I pick up "Last of Us". Last night I picked up Donkey Kong Country Returns for the 3DS. I have lots of games. Nevermind PC stuff I started playing. Reality is I'm more likely to game more on PC after all of this has settled down.

In the same boat, I WILL pick up a PS4, but not any time soon after release. The thing is, there are SO MANY great games out this generation that I haven't played yet and I already own a 360 and a PS3 (Had a Wii but sold it. Unfortunately never played it, and I wanted to love it so badly!).

I've said in more than one place I think that I'll have both systems eventually. It's just a question of which one I get on release and which one waits for a price drop.

Although there is a small chance that, if this thing at work happens the way I think it might, I just end up with both.

MannishBoy wrote:

it would be good to not look at the controller for the Playstation with dread when I have a game I want to play.

This is my hope.

I would only buy a PS4 at this stage, and even then it won't be until some major price drops. I've gone back to PC pretty much. Been soured on Xbox since the stupid requirement of a Gold subscription to use Netflix.

I predict a huge resurgence in piracy with no used games. Good on ya Microsoft.. keep digging that hole. The hackers will bypass the drm within weeks.

Does console piracy really affect sales that much? In 20+ years of gaming I have never pirated and know no-one who has. Just seems more of a PC thing.

Thin_J wrote:
PRG013 wrote:

Stuff about not having power

Do you have a cell phone with a data plan? Turn on the Wifi hotspot, get the Xbox online long enough for it to dial home and be cool, and play away.

I've seen it done multiple times for title updates with 360's that had different versions of title updates for the same game.

I thought that I heard you would be able to do it through the Smartglass App on the phone. If not, that is something they should get on top of stat!

SallyNasty wrote:

Does console piracy really affect sales that much? In 20+ years of gaming I have never pirated and know no-one who has. Just seems more of a PC thing.

It was pretty rampant on the PS1. The DS and PSP also had hard times, if you count handhelds (which I would).

SallyNasty wrote:

Does console piracy really affect sales that much?

TorrentFreak had numbers on one of the CoD games one year. I think it was around 10-30% of all the 360 sales that year. So it exists, but it's not as widespread as PC most likely due to requiring additional work (ie. mod chips) I think.

EDIT:

Blind_Evil wrote:

The DS and PSP also had hard times, if you count handhelds (which I would).

I would not be surprised if the R4 cards are what led to the decision to region-lock the 3DS after the previous two Nintendo handhelds were region free.

PRG013 wrote:

So... Anyone buying a Xbox One?

Probably, and if so, probably within a year or after a price drop.

I still waffle between an Xbone and a PC, since I can't afford or justify both (and Apple doesn't yet ship iMacs with gaming-capable vid cards). PC has breadth of diversity but is a physically solitary activity. Xbone has ease of use and can be physically social (Kinect games in the living room). Xbone is also cheaper than a PC, even without a price drop.

Also depends on if it works if there's a glacial maximum and it's buried under 2 km of solid ice.

Gravey wrote:

Also depends on if it works if there's a glacial maximum and it's buried under 2 km of solid ice.

If that happens, you're going to want lots of Steam.

And the coolness factor of the PS4 is a detriment versus the Xbox's propensity to run hot.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

If that happens, you're going to want lots of Steam.

Considering the sale is coming.

Wait, you have to have electricity to use this thing? HORSESH*T!

PRG013 wrote:

So... Anyone buying a Xbox One?

Yup, preordered.

Edit: I tried the PS4 and XO controllers at E3. At home, I used the 360 controller and did not like the PS3 controller. PS4 controller at E3 felt better than the PS3 but not enough for me to switch to a PS4 this generation. I sold my PS3 after six months of ownership because of the flicking controller (and to a lesser extent the UI); I am still debating whether to purchase a PS4 (in addition to the XO)...would be a no-brainer if the PS4 allowed me to play PS3 games I missed on the new controller.

Major Nelson posted stuff on asynchronous matchmaking and the reputation system.

Asynchronous sounds like an attempt to do something better than beacons, but I'm not really that sold. Maybe I don't play enough multiplayer games that don't have a lot of people playing when I'm into them?

The reputation sounds interesting, but I'm not sure it couldn't be gamed to where you get groups of people trolling decent people by filing multiple reports, knocking them down in the reputation depths were jerks are supposed to be stuck playing the other jerks.

I was watching some of Jeff Cannata's E3 recap videos, and it was mentioned that they thought an XBone purchase comes with one year of Gold.

That's the first time I've heard that. Can anyone confirm? That would make the price difference between the systems closer to $50 for most people.

Jayhawker wrote:

As has been the case, Microsoft continues to be unclear.

But how I interpret it is that you can play any game on your home console at any time. One family member at a time can play any game you own on your home console on any other Xbox at the same time. But two family members cannot play games from the home account at the same time on other Xbox's.

So, home Xbox: play any game, at any time, even if a family member is playing it 3000 miles away on another Xbox.

So I can't lend my family my games ? Or how does it work? I don't get it. If I'm playing Rocksmith, my brothers can't play any other games I own in my account on their xbox? We lend each other games all the time.

edit: Or is it like Steam, no one can log into my account at the same time

Mex wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

As has been the case, Microsoft continues to be unclear.

But how I interpret it is that you can play any game on your home console at any time. One family member at a time can play any game you own on your home console on any other Xbox at the same time. But two family members cannot play games from the home account at the same time on other Xbox's.

So, home Xbox: play any game, at any time, even if a family member is playing it 3000 miles away on another Xbox.

So I can't lend my family my games ? Or how does it work? I don't get it. If I'm playing Rocksmith, my brothers can't play any other games I own in my account on their xbox? We lend each other games all the time.

edit: Or is it like Steam, no one can log into my account at the same time

If your family is in your Xbox family, they can play your games and you can play games they buy. Anybody can play them on the box where they're first registered as I understand it. You as the owner of a title will always be able to play it on that box, and one other person on another Xbox could be playing it at the same time.

At least that's how I'm reading the stuff so far. Major Nelson said on twitter he's writing something up about it.

Dyni wrote:

I was watching some of Jeff Cannata's E3 recap videos, and it was mentioned that they thought an XBone purchase comes with one year of Gold.

That's the first time I've heard that. Can anyone confirm? That would make the price difference between the systems closer to $50 for most people.

They didn't sound sure on Weekend Confirmed if it did or didn't.

But one way to offset the price difference would be to do just that. Maybe even give a card in each box for some bucks in the Xbox store to get people who've never bought anything through their console used to buying digital games from day one.

Hmm, from that leaked talking points thing:

Q: Will there be advertisements built into the dashboard like Xbox 360? How many?
A: We designed the Xbox One dashboard to make your favorite games and entertainment even more front and center. Advertisements will not be visible on the home screen, so you only see what’s most important to you.

Q: What are you saying to advertisers interested in Xbox One?
A: For advertisers looking to reach their audience today, we offer creative ways to engage with the 48 million active Xbox Live members on Xbox 360, as well as 100 million PCs or devices with Xbox on Windows.

First should make a lot of people happy. Second sounds confusing. What's their new way to "engage"?

Also:

Q: Will there be a remote control for Xbox One? / Why is there not a remote for launch?

A: ...We will also publish our Xbox One infrared remote control codes at launch for existing 3rd party universal remotes to use.

Whew. No PS3 style craziness.

And for Dyni:

Q: Will you offer a free trial of Xbox Live Gold when I purchase an Xbox One console?
A: A one-month Xbox Live Gold membership is included for free with every Xbox One purchase.

And a hmmm for me, the Windows Media Center user:

Q: Does Xbox One have a built-in DVR?
A: No, at launch Xbox One will not provide any built-in DVR capabilities. On your Xbox One console you will be able to access and use your cable or satellite set-top box DVR service via HDMI pass-through. We look forward to sharing additional details about TV experiences as we get closer to launch.

So at launch? Does that imply future abilities to come?

And bad news on the new 360:

Q: Why did you remove the audio out/SPDIF functionality on the redesigned Xbox 360?
A: Most consumers are able to use their HDMI cable for their audio out needs so we opted to remove the audio out/SPDIF port.

So neither of my headset solutions that rely on the SPDIF port will work. Great.

I'll believe no ads on the dashboard when I see it.

OK, my background in financial operations is making me think about ways to game the game transfer system a bit.

Somebody above mentioned you could in theory have a title shared between 10 people in a "family", hurting sales. It's actually double that, or more if you consider the local options. MS allows for a title to be given to a friend that's been on your friend list for 30 days.

So the game is bought by one player in a group of 10. That group all plays the game, plus you could have a bunch of people play it on the original registration box. Once that group is done with the game, the original purchaser gives it to another friend that's in another hub of 10, who then are able to all play the game, plus whoever can play it on the transfer receiver's box. So that's 20 people plus whoever is able to play on the original box and the transfer box. That's a lot of people for one sale.

I'm sure once people realize how this works, there are going to be game clubs that do this stuff around the internet. Especially for more single player focused games where people don't have to play day one. For people really on a budget that have people they trust enough to put into a family, this might make any friction put into place for trading a bit less impactful I'd think.

This is now an issue of how unclear Microsoft's message is, nut you are conflating two aspects of how sharing works.

First, you can gift any game to anyone that has been on your friends list for 30 days. This is restrictive, as you could give a disc to anyone, and they could continue to gift it. But now, each game can be gifted just once. And when you gift it, you lose access to it. But note, this has nothing to do with family.

When you buy a Gold account, you get 10 slots for people that can play your games. These are not people with their own Gold accounts. You can't add me.

You can make a,slot available to me, but I would then be playing your games under a different gamertag than my own. That's great for trying games out, but its not really how I plan on playing games.

For a game club to exist, one person would have control over everyone else's account. I'm sure that will work for some, but its still sketchy. All games will be on one guy's Xbox, and he can cancel everyone, and keep all of the games.

So while I may make a slot for my brother, and he cab share games, he will pro ably also have his own account.

The sharing you are talking about can be dome now, just by handing a disc over to another person. There isn't really that much to game. That's why the checks are in place, though.

Jayhawker wrote:

This is now an issue of how unclear Microsoft's message is, nut you are conflating two aspects of how sharing works.

First, you can gift any game to anyone that has been on your friends list for 30 days. This is restrictive, as you could give a disc to anyone, and they could continue to gift it. But now, each game can be gifted just once. And when you gift it, you lose access to it. But note, this has nothing to do with family.

When you buy a Gold account, you get 10 slots for people that can play your games. These are not people with their own Gold accounts. You can't add me.

You can make a,slot available to me, but I would then be playing your games under a different gamertag than my own. That's great for trying games out, but its not really how I plan on playing games.

For a game club to exist, one person would have control over everyone else's account. I'm sure that will work for some, but its still sketchy. All games will be on one guy's Xbox, and he can cancel everyone, and keep all of the games.

So while I may make a slot for my brother, and he cab share games, he will pro ably also have his own account.

The sharing you are talking about can be dome now, just by handing a disc over to another person. There isn't really that much to game. That's why the checks are in place, though.

I'm not sure that's right. They said an unlimited number of accounts can exist and use Gold on the "host" box. So I'm not sure that fits with your 10 per gold. And I assume those accounts that get gold access on that box won't be able to use gold elsewhere on their own (another fresh box with no Gold). But they might be able to ride the Gold account of a friend who's paid for Gold...on that friend's Xbox.

But yeah, if it's like the family plan, there will be a "master" account for however they let you link the Gold accounts.

We'll know soon I suspect, as this is one of the things Major Nelson tweeted he was going to blog about soon.

Hadn't seen this one posted yet: New Xbox 'a sin against all service members' - Army Times

Here's Johnson's op-ed to Gamasutra.

Evo wrote:

Hadn't seen this one posted yet: New Xbox 'a sin against all service members' - Army Times

Here's Johnson's op-ed to Gamasutra.

Hahaha, ouch!

Microsoft: Sucks to be you
Not to fear, says Xbox exec Don Mattrick, president of the Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment division. The company has a solution for those in the military: Just use the old Xbox 360 instead.

“Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity, it’s called Xbox 360. If you have zero access to the Internet, that is an offline device”

edit: But for realz yo, I'm staying out of this one - Until the dust settles and everything is clear regarding "Region Locking", internet connection requirements, sharing games with family, etc. We have 3 xboxes (Xboxen?) in our house and we share games between us and visiting friends all the time, all this sounds like a big hassle. Re-sale of games is pretty popular here too, and there's no Gamestops. I guess Microsoft wants to focus on the US.

Just for practical reasons Microsoft is going to lose a lot of sales to the PS4. That's without people who are jumping ship because they've made a choice to avoid all the draconian rules.

I'm tempted by PS4 but I don't want to buy one out of spite and then spend the generation wishing I'd gone for an Xbox. Fortunately, I'm way behind the curve in terms of games played and can be happily occupied by my 360 for many months to come. I'll let the dust and ire settle before committing one way or the other.

I also need to handle a PS4 controller to make sure I could live with it.

I do feel for service men and women that are now stuck with a PS4 for next Gen games. Microsoft has said they are looking into codes for military use that eliminates the check-in.