Perhaps this should be “Tap vs. Ben,” or “Tap vs. Not-Tap,” since 47Games’ Ben Hoyt is not technically on the Tap-Repeatedly staff, but we don’t have a category for that and I wouldn’t want Ben to think we’re excluding him. He has, after all, contributed a Celebrity Guest Editorial for us, and we did recently do a fun podcast on the Mass Effect trilogy and Halo, er, quadrogy. The dude is an honorary staff member, and opened up some time to contribute slightly more than half a discussion of Microsoft’s May 21 Xbox One announcement – a lucky thing, since coverage of all the new consoles has been somewhat scarce around here. Now we have an honest to god game designer weighing in (one who’s shipped an Xbox 360 title or two). Suck it, IGN!
Steerpike: Microsoft was last to the party with its announcement – Sony unveiled the PS4 back in February, Nintendo’s Wii U is already out. And so ends the longest console generation in game history. Well, almost ends. The jury’s still out on whether consumers will flock storeward to buy these things during the holiday season.
Coming off the announcement and thinking about the generation as a whole, I find myself reflecting on how little the major players seem to have learned about customer management over the past nine years. Microsoft’s event was… sort of dull, in my book, showing off little in the way of sock-knocking new technology and avoiding key questions about connectivity, used games, and DRM. The most furious press debate to come out of their announcement was a discussion about how best to abbreviate the name of the system. “360” was easy, but “Xbox One” is apparently too many letters for journalists to type. Suggestions included:
- Xbox 1. Shouted down for already being what some refer to the first-generation Xbox as
- Xbone. Which people laughed at because we’re all third graders
- the One. Nixed on account of possible confusion among video games systems and Matrix movies
- X-1. Vetoed for “sounding like a snowboard brand”
- Xone. Killed for sounding like zone
- XB1. Which I’m guessing will probably win out.
Beyond that? My primary reaction was one of general unsurprise – Microsoft’s wanted a strong, integrated living room system for a while now, and the Xbone (*tee-hee*) wants to be that. It seems that Microsoft’s ideal outcome would be a system on which gaming is considered nothing more than one of its many functions.
Ben: Ok. I’m going to go ahead and indulge my inner 14 year-old just the once and call it the Xbone. (Ah, that felt good). From now on, I’m gonna throw my hat in with the XB1 camp.
So, I have to admit that I was really surprised, the day after the XB1 announcement/reveal, to hear that the general consensus was so negative. I watched the announcement live and was really excited by what I saw. As far as I can tell, there seem to be three major complaints:
- There was very little in the way of exciting new game titles
- Games were not enough of a focus / they focused too much on TV, movies, music, etc.
- It’s solving problems that I don’t have
Let me go ahead and address why I am not concerned by these three issues.
1) I think that Microsoft made an extremely wise decision with regards to the format of their reveal. I had actually blocked-out two hours to watch it, expecting it to be a long, plodding, affair with all of the kinds of examples, demos, tech specs, and partner glad-handing that we’ve seen in the past and at the PS4 reveal. It seems pretty clear to me that Microsoft’s goal was to save a lot of the really exciting, hardcore gaming news for E3, which is now only a couple of weeks away. If there aren’t a lot of really cool games being shown off then, I’ll be worried (and very surprised). In the meantime, I actually liked the idea of having a shorter reveal that was focused on the hardware and non-gaming features while saving the hardcore gaming news for the hardcore gaming press at E3.
2) I was really surprised at the negative reaction to the XB1’s non-gaming features and focus. It’s been pretty well-known for some time now that many Xbox 360 owners use their console as much (if not more) for watching video as gaming. I certainly think that I fall into this group. It feels to me like most people, particularly in the gaming press, are missing the forest for the trees here. Microsoft has been pretty clear, since before the first Xbox, that it was using the gaming console as a Trojan horse to try and win the war for the living room. The Xbox One reveal makes it pretty clear to me that they have decided that it’s finally time to transition the Xbox from being a hardcore gaming console to being the unified interface for living room entertainment of the future. Games are, and will remain, a central part of that strategy, but TV, movies, music, and communication (Skype) are also clearly equally important pillars. The Xbox One is competing as much with the Apple TV as it is with the PS4, and I think that Microsoft has put forth an exciting device from that perspective. If it really does everything they’re saying that it does (as well as solid DVR functionality, which seems like it should be perfectly doable), as smoothly as they say that it does, I think that they could just succeed in their goal of becoming the default and only necessary living room device. That would have very interesting implications for the smartphone, tablet, digital distribution, and games industries.
3) I call BS on this entire line of argumentation. I have a pretty sweet entertainment setup here in my living room. I have a big HDTV, a fancy receiver, a 5.1 sound system, a TiVo, PS3, Xbox 360, and an Apple TV. Switching back-and-forth between my various inputs involves at least 2-3 different remotes, not to mention controllers for the consoles. Is this a #firstworldproblem? Yes, absolutely, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t still be a pain-in-the-ass; and forget about trying to have a guest figure it out. Being able to manage this, instantaneously, with just my voice feels like a pretty big win to me.
Steerpike: I think a lot of it is an inexplicable desire to be mad no matter what they show off. I’m not 100% sold on the functionality decisions of the Xbox One for reasons I’ll go into in a minute, but I understand the logic behind those decisions. (A) Living room, as you said. (B) Market share. A system that does more than games inherently has more potential use than one that doesn’t; Microsoft is in the profit business like all other companies. (C) Audience. The great dream of game console makers since the beginning has been to expand their user base beyond gamers. I remember old Atari 2600 ads for “productivity” software. Back then it was a way to convince parents that these systems weren’t just for kids, or to convince parents to invest in an expensive gift for their kids because they could use it too. Now the device actually can do things nongamers might want, and games are a feature. What’s the big deal?
It’s worth noting that in the months leading up to the untimely Red-Ringing of my seventh Xbox 360, I used the thing almost exclusively for Netflix and HBO Go. In general I prefer the PS3’s controller, so unless a game was 360 exclusive, I didn’t play it there. But I had no regrets about using the machine that way.
Why am I not sold on the functionality? Part of it is concern over the strength of their hardware. Mechanical instability in one generation by no means implies potential shortcomings in the next, but still.. I went through seven 360s. Seven. And my story isn’t unique. An experience like that has to color your opinion. So when I look at the Xbox One and see how much more functionality it has versus its predecessor, the pessimist in me sees more to break.
The other thing that worries me is more nebulous: this box supposedly does so much. Are we sure that Microsoft will be able to keep feeding that beast? Won’t it get pushback from media companies that see the Xbox One as taking market share from them? Netflix streaming was The Thing until the studios got wise and didn’t renew their contracts. Oh sure, Microsoft has plenty of deals now, with almost all the big names. But does it have the clout to continue them? What if Comcast decides that the Xbox One is cutting into their DVR rental margins? Or into their Xfinity On Demand profits?
My interest in the device is primarily as a gaming system (despite what I said up there), and I agree Microsoft is simply waiting for E3 to reveal the big launches in its exclusive lineup. Remedy Entertainment’s Quantum Break announcement is intriguingly vague and should tide people over. I won’t opine about XB1’s games until I’ve seen some. But a lot depends on the launch library… and the price. I’ll start the betting at $499, plus maybe some sort of cut-rate subscription-based one like they do with the 360 now.
That leads me to another thing – Xbox Live. A great service in many ways, though Playstation Plus actually gives you more goodies. Fundamentally, though, it’s a two-generation-old platform that doesn’t work with modern, unified-device logistics, the very heart of XB1’s design intent. I suspect they have a whole team of coders locked in a basement with a pile of increasingly rancid ham sandwiches because the brass won’t let them out until they’ve brought Live’s functionality up to snuff. Concurrent logins and multiple users under a single account, granular controls, cloud integration… lots of work to do.
Ben: Well, a couple of quick responses: a) While your hardware stability concerns are certainly understandable, I suspect that they are unlikely to be an actual issue. b) Much of the content is already available via Xbox Live and has been for years. Assuming that they get a critical mass of users, I don’t think that the content providers will be able to afford walking away, regardless. c) I’m really hoping that they can hit $399, but I think you may be right about launching at $499. Pretty sure I’ll be getting it day-one, regardless, but think that the lower price point will be important for them to get the kind of numbers they are looking for.
So, here’s my chief complaint/concern: what is their plan with regards to indies? Their conspicuous silence during the reveal could be chalked up to them saving that info for a later time, as they didn’t see it as central to their strategy as the more mass-market content. However, since the reveal, there has been a lot of buzz on this subject and Microsoft hasn’t said anything to make me feel better about it. I think that if there is one key lesson to learn in the last 4 years its that a low-friction, open marketplace (at least as open as the Apple App Store or Steam) is a very powerful thing. I don’t think that Microsoft’s heavily-curated approach to XBLA will be viable in the next generation and if they aren’t going to make big changes to make it easier for indies to release content for their console, they are going to suffer for it. In fact, I’d go so far as to predict that they will inevitably have to do this, but that it’s a question of whether they acknowledge that at launch or submit to it later because it’s hurting them not to.
Steerpike: it’s funny how fast things have changed on that front. Not long ago, a heavily-curated model would’ve been just fine. Maybe annoying for indies, but not a major problem. Today, you’re right, if they try to do something like that they’ll shoot their own marketplace in the foot. Microsoft should look at some of its policies; some – like the exorbitant fee to issue a patch on Live – don’t really do anybody much good.
Microsoft has a history of making savvy decisions in a calculated, observational manner. They rarely blaze trails with hardware, software, or policy, but they watch to see what’s working elsewhere. Then they change slowly. My guess is that while the new Live Marketplace won’t be God’s gift to the indie developer, neither will it be ruinous. There’s money there for all involved, and plenty of room to play.
Like you, I felt that the unveiling was intentionally reserved. Nothing about it got people really excited, but I suspect that was by design. Microsoft’s strategy may be a slow release of information so people get more and more comfortable with the system, until by the time it finally comes out they feel they know the console and therefore buy it. That might be better than getting people frothed up at some huge extravaganza… especially because the days of blowing people’s minds with tech and graphics are pretty much over. (that’s a whole other conversation right there).
I was going to ask you if you intended to buy XB1 out of the gate, so I’m glad you mentioned it. It’s too early for me to say. This generation represents my first consoles since the SEGA Genesis, if you can believe it. That means I missed a lot of classic stuff, but also a lot of hassle. And in this generation, I waited for prices and exclusives I really really wanted before taking the plunge with both consoles. I don’t regret either decision for a second – especially the PS3, which I’m very fond of – but I don’t think that will translate into my standing in line on Day One. Besides, launch libraries are often lackluster and uninspiring. Developers need time to get used to the hardware. By not buying a PS3 until the Slim and Demon’s Souls, I ensured that my earliest experiences with the console were great. Same goes for the 360 and Gears. Thus I’d say – right now – I expect to wait, but don’t hold me to that. You never know!
Let’s change gears for a second. The upcoming generation will be unique in many ways, but it’s also facing a new landscape. We haven’t yet talked about the Steam Box and what we think it’ll mean – both for the living room and for consoles in general. Do you see it as direct competition to the XB1 and PS4, or does its (expected) high price put it in a different category? Speaking personally, I don’t know if I’m going to buy a branded Steam Box, but sooner or later when the right moment and right components align, I’ll put something based on it under my TV. What’s your thoughts? Is this something immense for the living room, or will it be lower-key?
Ben: Well, I think we should be avoid beating a dead horse, especially given that we seem to be largely in agreement. I will say that I’m willing to bet that you end up buying an XB1 within the first 6 months. 🙂
With regards to the Steam Box, I’m not sure that I have enough info to speak to it. I recently invested in a monster gaming PC, which is where I plan to do as much of my gaming as possible for the foreseeable future. In fact, Bioshock Infinite is the first shooter that I’ve played on a PC in quite some time (though I will confess to using an Xbox 360 controller to do so). So, the idea of having a box that would let me play a PC-quality game with a 360 controller on my HDTV, from the comfort of my couch, really intrigues me. (For similar reasons, I’m also pretty intrigued by the nVidia Shield, which I’m hoping will allow me to play these games from the comfort of my bed).
I understand that Steam is supposed to already support outputting to an HDTV, via Big Picture mode, but I haven’t hooked that up and am not 100% clear on what’s involved. Assuming that the Steam Box makes this simple, I’m curious about it, but I don’t really see the value of having another console-like box by my TV with which to play PC games (many of which really require a keyboard/mouse/desk/monitor-type setup).
Anyway, the Steam Box is probably another conversation and I’m sure that your readers have had their fill of my ramblings at this point, so we should probably draw this to a close. Thanks for taking the time to read/listen. 🙂
Steerpike: six months, you say? Hmm… it’s a possibility. I try to be strong, but somehow this stuff ends up in my house anyway. Stranger things have happened, that’s for sure. Hell, nine times out of ten when I go into Best Buy for a can of air or a toaster or something I get to the checkout counter and a game has inexplicably found its way into my hand.
The Steam Box intrigues me because it’s an oddity, in the sense that it doesn’t fit any category that’s come before. It’s too “big” to be a console and too “in your living room” to be a PC. What I find myself wondering is whether it’s about to define a future category – or, possibly, redefine the idea of a console. I tend to play certain games on the PC and certain games on consoles, divided pretty logically between what plays best with thumbsticks and what plays best with a mouse. But the idea of having Steam, and a powerful computer, near the sofa is intriguing to me.
In the end, I didn’t see anything to hate in the XB1 event. But I didn’t see anything that made me want it, either. That, I guess, will have to come from the games. Now, I admit the media center aspects of XB1 are far more interesting than all the sharing/social crap Sony’s promising with PS4, but neither offer anything that make me want to stand out in the cold on launch day.
We may largely agree on the console launch stuff, but I’m horrified by this revelation about a 360 controller and Bioshock Infinite. Nothing short of blasphemy, that is. God himself intended shooters to be played with a mouse and keyboard. I mean come on dude. For shame!
Many thanks to Ben for taking the time to share a discussion with us – especially when his time is consumed by something I can’t talk about just yet but will be appearing on Tap in due course.
Great to hear some positivity about the Xbone! Makes a refreshing change from the vitriol I’ve heard pretty much everywhere else. Not that I care an awful lot for Sony or MS’s new consoles. I’m out this gen unless something pretty damn spectacular happens.
My PC is in a home theatre/living room style setup already, and my girlfriend’s is next to a big HDTV downstairs too where she uses a wireless keyboard and mouse from the sofa. This idea that only consoles can get into living rooms does flummox me, especially given how many games on PC support controllers now (and Steam’s pretty sweet Big Picture) and how easy PCs are to use for things like chatting on Skype and Ventrilo and Teamspeak, watching all types of videos and discs, listening to all manner of sound formats (like say, Amiga mod tracker files or god forbid, Real Player files), reading and writing and sharing stuff. A PC does everything (admittedly with a bit more effort, but still). Screw SMART TVs and browsing and messaging without keyboards (Kinect should be a great alternative for this provided it works well). I suppose both myself and my other half have a rare setup but it’s proof that PCs can already fit into a living room relatively harmoniously. Admittedly we have our own house and no kids but that leads me on to the Steam Box.
I think its short-term aim isn’t to replace the PC per se or even break into the living room, it’s to make the PC platform more palatable to console users who are afraid of all the faffing around that PC gaming typically entails. I think they’re muscling in on the one part of the market they haven’t really touched yet. I’m guessing it’ll be a modular system that can be upgraded easily but restrictively, and standardised (I presume this would make development and compatibility much easier too). How Valve will manage the OS side of things is the biggest question for me. Will it splinter off entirely from the PC’s history of gaming on Windows-based systems and try and nurture a new one with Linux? Will it do some sort of fancy emulation? I have no idea. The prospect of a high power but more open box being a viable alternative to the closed ones of the big three, helmed by Valve no less, excites me no end because if there’s any company that can shake things up, it’s them.
Having said all this, all the PS4 and Xbone chatter has been very entertaining, roll on E3! This gen’s going to be very interesting.
And no, I won’t call it XB1.
It’s Xbone for me as well, I’m afraid!
I was underwhelmed by the reveal and definitely have some reservations about the Xbox One.
The whole existence of “TV, TV, TV, Spawts, Spawts, Call’O’Dooty, Spawts, TV, TV” doesn’t bother me. I wish they had shaved 15 or 20 minutes off that stuff and spent more time talking about games, but at the end of the day, my wife watches a lot of TV and I watch a lot of sports and still buy COD every year. That stuff isn’t fundamentally unappealing to me.
My issue is that I don’t think Microsoft’s “All-In-One” aspirations are as conclusive as they seem to think they are. I think there’s a very strong argument right now to suggest that old way of watching live TV is on the way out, and all recent trends have moved towards on demand and other more accessible services. It almost feels outdated before it’s got off the ground. There’s also the issue that the Xbox One still needs your existing (and often very slow and clunky) DVR box and subscription services to use any of that stuff. So if the Xbone isn’t a replacement box and Xbox Live not a replacement content service, then where does the Xbone fit in with a 2013 living room now? An extra layer of hardware and software to add voice commands, motion gestures and some twat walking in on you and shouting “XBOX, OFF!” half way through your favourite movie?
I’m also not convinced by Microsoft’s target market. Like Nintendo’s before them, I’m not sure that their nuclear vision of family life actually exists. I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who Skype calls during a movie, then switches to and from a Halo match or watching The Price is Right with the same enthusiasm or regularity as in Microsoft’s public showing. I’ve never met anyone who genuinely behaves like this.
Access to stats during live sporting events is a nice touch, but again, I’d argue it sort of feels like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Recent trends have been pulling all that secondary content OFF the TV screen rather than integrate it into it. See smartphones, tablets.. even the Wii U. And even Microsoft’s own SmartGlass.
Kinect is still the elephant in the room for me as well. Especially now that it’s always on, always connected online and has to be plugged in for the entire system to operate. I have mild paranoia issues with this sort of thing. I don’t own a webcam for similar reasons, and when I used to it was always unplugged and shoved in a draw after use. At best, I’m still unconvinced Kinect offers me anything I really want in any of the games I play. At worst, I don’t trust it or Microsoft to have constant visual and audio access to my living room. I just don’t particularly want to invite it into my home to sit there staring at me, my wife or my 7-month old daughter all day.
The controller looks nice though. I’ll definitely grab one of those for my PC.
I’m glad I never have to hear the tragically-8-year-recurring joke of “Xbox 720” ever again or Durango or Infinity or other brainstorm abortions, but … good god, Microsoft, why didn’t you just call it The New Xbox for 12 months then seamlessly transition to just Xbox?
Anyway here’s my take on the Xbox conference. A lot of people watched it. A lot of people have twitter. You can’t write many meaningful things on twitter, so why not just write crass one-liners? And so what happens is that when you’re watching this conference you can’t do TOO much multitasking. You can’t go into your kitchen and peel an orange because you’ll miss 2 minutes of the conference, which you’ve specifically set aside time to watch. So instead of eating an orange you go on twitter and say things like “Lallzs Im not giong to tlak to my TV! HAHA #XboxOn!”. Then entertainment sites that demand high traffic see this furor and decide that they need to write stories about it because the last 5 months have been the deadest news months for gaming … pretty much ever. No news has come out (save the two conferences) because everyone is waiting to blow their next-gen load at E3. So they need something to drive traffic during these down periods.
None of it is vital. Soon nobody will care about any of this nonsense. Even the internet way-back machine will be like “lol u surez you wanna search that?”
And so I come to my point: it’s about the games. I don’t care if it’s a PlayStation, a frisbee or a bag of potatoes: if people make good games that play on it, that’s where I (and most of gamerdom) will go. The other features are fine. Sharing video snippets of my gameplay? Yeah maybe I’ll do that once. Real-time fantasy scoring updates as you watch them happen? That’s pretty cool. At the end of the day I’m going to own the piece of hardware that lets me play [new Ueda game], [new Remedy game], [new Miyazaki game], [new Naughty Dog game] and [new Gordon Freeman/Adrian Shepard/Dog game].
Why anyone is genuinely upset before these things even exist is beyond me. The GAMES will still exist. [Insert Field of Dreams quote]
I’m not sure if I can agree with that, Max. I definitely get your point regarding the white noise of internet rage that generally happens in response to these things, something that wasn’t as prevelant the last time a generation launched in a pre-Twitter world, but I think there is legitimate anger and frustration as to Microsoft’s current direction with the Xbone.
At the moment I think there are very real concerns over user privacy, over the 24-hour “always on” requirement, over where gamers stand on their consumer rights to sell and buy used products. There is frustration over the decision to abandon backwards compatability, which is especially prevelant when it comes to digital goods and people with large Xbox Live Arcade libraries. Then there are the more general questions, such as distrust over another RRoD fiasco, or how – if at all – Microsoft intends to get away with continuing to lock features (and even games) that are free literally everywhere else behind the Xbox Live paywalls.
Honestly, I don’t think this is just about the games. I don’t expect gamers to drop their frustrations or questions about the Xbone at the first sight of the next Halo. I buy a lot of consoles – I’ve bought every one since the mid-90’s apart from the Wii U – but the Xbone is the first time I’ver sat back and genuinely questioned whether I actually want to support the business practices or direction a console represents. Right now Microsoft are doing almost nothing that appeals to me in any sense. They’re trying to deliver (or get away with) a PC environment with literally ZERO of the benefits.
Gamer Rage is very real and very often blown out of all proportion, but I think placing all of this on Twitter reactions gives Microsoft one hell of a free pass on what looks like some potentially very questionable consumer practices.
I’m in line with everything you’ve said in both comments, Mat. I think Microsoft’s attempt to “take over the living room” is laughable and misguided. Surely this new console can’t be priced lower than $399, but possibly as high as $499. And why would anyone spend that to own what is arguably, as you say, an already-outdated tool. I think Microsoft have made huge errors in judgement concerning what they believe humans want. No ordinary non-gamer is going to pay anything higher than the $249-299 range, with a small exception of the population who are rich and buy everything. So right there Microsoft’s strategy is flawed. In my honest, not-joking, not-trolling opinion, I think the Xbox One should be priced at $199. I’m 100% serious and not kidding you. Would you pay your cable company more than that for their cable box/DVR? Would you pay more than that (again, the AVERAGE person) for a Blu-ray player? No and no.
Quasi-always online (confirmed yesterday), mandatory Kinect, probably a subscription fee in the range of Xbox Live Gold ($60 USD) … these are all big turn-offs to me as well, and there is almost nothing that is going to sway me to want to ever own this console, let alone at launch or the first year. I plan to rely on PC/PS4 for the bulk of my gaming over the next generation. XB One will be a many-years-later purchase if there’s something really amazing that I can’t play anywhere else and don’t want to miss forever (looking at the 360 exclusives after all is said and done … I doubt that will ever happen – I can live without Halo and Gears of War).
Aside from the part where they showed fantasy football (I’m a sucker for it) nothing in that conference interested me. But at the same time I didn’t feel concerned that this wasn’t going to be a games machine; because it inevitably will be. It’s just going to be a lot more modern, and while I agree that all this Big Brother crap sucks … well, it’s the way of the future, and people are going to get used to it. We lose more privacy every day whether we realize this or not. Indeed, the good Steerpike has written extensively on this topic.
I do think some of these small features and requirements will shift a little chunk of previous Xbox faithful to other camps (myself included: I’m very likely going to get a PS4 during year one; whereas last generation I owned an Xbox and Xbox 360 before ever playing a PS2 or PS3 game), but I believe most people will be over the “your Xbox needs to log online once daily” thing very quickly – from a privacy perspective I mean. As a general feature it’s rubbish, and you’ll never find an Xbox One sitting in cottage country because they won’t work there, and old school folk (there is a shred of old school folk-ness in my body too) will detest that feature. I, and other people don’t like it for good reasons: they’ve admitted it’s to check what “new” or “shared/borrowed/used” games you’ve acquired, and to then render those games inert on any potential third console. And then there’s the reason in the back of everyone’s minds: “what if the East Coast blackout of ’03 happens again and I literally can’t play a game on the Xbox One?” And hey, sure it’s silly, but that’s in the back of my mind too.
All in all, I don’t think MS will see the success they did with Xbox 360; by default they’ve allowed Sony to reclaim a small but important piece of the “hard/core gamer” pie, and unless they have a mind-blowing low price slapped on the thing it’s certainly not going to be a casual hit the way the Wii was. My point was simply that the sky is not falling on Xbox + Games. Xbox will still have all the games anyone expected them to. Whether or not some evil old men in a Redmond, WA board room secretly begrudge its gaming device existence, it’s still going to play them.
This was a long and rant-y comment. I am sorry.
You know what; after I clicked “post comment” I thought of a great cliche I could have used instead of writing all that.
“You can’t have it both ways.”
Somebody needed to say that in meetings at Microsoft. You can’t have all the billions of dollars of success that the massive gaming industry has brought forth increasingly over the past decade while also being the best at TV and all the things that entails. But history shows us that Microsoft cares not about such trivial concerns (See: Zune, Bing).
I didn’t watch the reveal itself so I can’t really comment on particulars with any sort of authority but from what I heard a lot of what Mat C said I can agree with. I don’t watch TV and I don’t really watch sport either. My girlfriend and I had a TV licence bought for us as a gift and it’s up for ‘renewal’ this month. We’re not going to renew it because we’ve watched probably no more than 6 hours of live TV all year. We’ve watched plenty of TV, just on our own terms, in our own time, when’s convenient for us. On demand is a big thing these days because, hell, everyone wants choice and if they can get away with not planning around things, they will, which is understandable. Having said this, not watching live TV is still frowned upon whenever I mention it so it’s still a big part of many people’s lives. To me though, it’s a big nothing. I can imagine watching more live sports than anything else.
xtal, I agree up to a point with regards to the games being what it’s ultimately all about. The problem I have (and this has pretty much been the case since forever), I hate buying hardware just for exclusives, specifically consoles where games are disproportionately more expensive than they are on PC, and the hardware comes with all sorts of proprietary and technological and accessibility traps. I hate that I have a box in the garage full of old consoles and controllers and memory cards and cables that are worth absolutely nothing and will probably go into landfill if I want to get rid of them. Yeah, my old PCs are probably buried somewhere by now but that would be, what? Two or three systems, tops — one a secondhand purchase off my brother. And just the towers at that — I’m still using my PS/2 keyboard that’s over 10 years old and almost all my other cables can still be used, whether I need them or not. I have a (kinda broken) Dreamcast, a Gamecube, a SNES, a Playstation and god knows how many controllers, peripherals and cables to go with them. The fucking Playstation pad has barely changed since the first console and yet we still have to buy new versions every single time. First time for thumbsticks and rumble (the former, okay fine, the latter I’ve never liked), this time for suxaxis then sometime later for rumble, and next gen for some touch technology and a share button. I think I have… six Playstation controllers so far. It’s a money pit. The Wii, DS and PS2 still have a place, as I guess my PS3 will, because they all play games from older systems (GBA, DS, Wii, GC, PS1, PS2, PS3). The thought of getting another system, and all the other associated stuff, to add to that pile at some point bothers me (especially given that neither Sony or MS boxes will feature backwards compatibility). The fact that many people have purchased numerous Xboxes just utterly dumbfounds me.
I like that with my PC, old games, even on other platforms, are playable and old hardware and peripherals can still be used to some extent. It does almost everything, guaranteed, after the initial purchase. It’s entirely customisable and open and doesn’t come bundled with stuff I don’t want or need to use. (I can’t stand this SMART and 3D TV fad. I just want a vanilla TV god damn it!). To me, the PC is the ‘One’ system. Yes, the hardware becomes obsolete eventually but you can get away with replacing parts that extend the longevity of everything else. It just makes more sense to me that way. When I get a new rig, I still have access to everything else that came before it.
I remember when consoles were just these simple devices for playing games, simply. The PS3 has driven me mad with the things it does and tries to do and does badly. Messaging, browsing (using the internet, Lovefilm, 4OD, iPlayer etc.), updating, installing, chatting. All these things — things I generally avoid using — get updated, and updating prevents me from not only connecting to PSN which (tries) to sell me games at insane prices, but communicating with friends, or hell, even playing with them. As a Blu-Ray player it’s served me very well and when it’s not been updating or installing said updates I’ve enjoyed using it for a good handful of games, but all these niggles (particularly when I had a 1.2Mpbs connection) haven’t strengthened my desire to stump up another few hundred quid for a next-gen console, especially given how much more draconian and media/social hub-based they’re likely to be. I think I’m more likely to pick up an OUYA to be honest.
Speaking of draconian, Xbone news just in: “[…]you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection” NEXT GEN.
The strategy Microsoft seems to be using appears to be based in the assumption (probably correct) that most gamers/consumers of consoles don’t follow industry news that closely. They read reviews, but have little knowledge of the war over used games, or of the issues with always on connections, etc etc etc. If this assumption is correct, the vast majority of potential consumers will go out and buy the console not knowing or not caring about many of the concerns held by more hooked-in gamers.
PS3 failed at the outset because of its price. That’s a tangible stop that every consumer understands. For the first time, we’re going to see a generation of consoles with very irritating-sounding requirements, requirements that do little to add value for regular consumers, do nothing to discourage piracy, provide no additional revenue to the manufacturers, and could drive legitimate customers away. I’m not surprised by the recently-revealed connection requirements, but I see it as a horse designed by committee. Most of these decisions are.
What’s the value? Since the invention of DRM is there any evidence that piracy is less than it would’ve been if there’d never been DRM? What if someone is in Federal Witness Protection, or overseas military, or any of a million reasons why connecting regularly through an unsecured port might be ill-advised? Small groups, yes, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be considered.
Ultimately people at Microsoft and Sony (and Nintendo, and UbiSoft, and EA/Maxis) have stopped saying “does this idea add value for us or for our customers?” I simply don’t see the point in some of the foundational decisions built into the next generation’s architecture.
“You can’t have it both ways.”
I think you’re right there xtal. It’s a Jack of all trades mentality, master of none. Well, maybe a master of none. Nobody knows yet.
The thing is as well, I think Sony are favourable at the moment simply because they’ve kept their mouths shut. A wise move. I’m betting they’ll be adopting similar policies to Microsoft simply because I can’t see publishers allowing one console manufacturer to have an open pre-owned market, and one without. I dunno, E3’s going to be a riot. My popcorn is ready, and I don’t even like popcorn.
Edit: @Steerpike: I foresee many hacked Xbones and just as much piracy. DRM and all these other measures only serve to inconvenience legitimate players.
I’m so down on Microsoft right now I’m incapable of looking at the Xbox One objectively. I had 2 RRODs and my current 360 only occasionally deigns to actually read a disk successfully.
Either way, put me in the “back to PC” gaming camp what with the smooth rig I just put together. My setup isn’t in the living room, but I’m happily using a controller with my PC while sitting in a comfy chair. Every console I own I’ve bought well after launch. The closest was my (original) 360. But even that one was mid-2007, and still I regretted it. So barring some mind-blowing exclusive, no thanks. That goes for PS4 and WiiU as well.
For me though, it really is all about the games. Not necessarily exclusives, but in a lot of cases that has been a driving factor. No one will argue (successfully) that PC is not the superior platform, because it is and always has been. But value changes depending upon the person. For me, I bought an excellent custom built PC in ’09 and I don’t plan to upgrade it for a good while because it plays most PC games I’m interested in (“lo-fi” indies) and when asked to it can still run the big boys (Infinite ran quite smoothly), so that’s why I’ve shifted to depend largely upon my consoles to deliver gaming experiences I desire. While the same games will on average be $10 more on consoles (except for Activision games) I’ve still found immense value in it: the best gaming experiences I’ve had over the past 5 years have been Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s/Dark Souls. To me, those are priceless experiences. 75% exclusive to the PlayStation, so while not for everyone, I’ll continue to own a console because there will be experiences there that will simply not be delivered elsewhere.
If I had to buy a device just to play Dark Souls 2, I would do it. (Thank goodness I don’t have to, because that would be ridiculous, but hey, again, it’s the value aspect.)
Steerpike, I just want to warn you now that I’ll be referring to it as the “Xbone” a lot, because it’s funny to me in the way that “Cod Blops” is funny.
Bone.
Cat’s out of the bag: $499, 429 in the UK, 499 Euros. Launching in November, obviously, but still no exact date.
Assuming Sony reveals the PS4’s price later on today and it’s the same, these are equally disappointing, and frankly surprising. You’ve got to take a loss to move the units. Why do they insist on learning the hard way?
So $499… probably with a $399 “subsidized” version that requires a Gold subscription and winds up costing much more. That means the main system will go down to $399 after a year (or if it bombs). Like most of you guys, my decision will be based on games, though I do take some of the privacy issues seriously and that will temper any purchase if I don’t like how things work out there.
In the meantime, though the Steam Box-style device is in a way another category, given that you’re looking at more like $1000 for it, that seems like a better investment long term. It amazes me that the PC was “dead” as a platform (said with salt) just a few years ago; now, thanks almost entirely to Steam, it’s practically dominant again. Other factors have contributed, such as Eastern Europe, Kickstarter, and Big Three’s mishandling of the console space, but the biggest pie slice goes to Valve.
One of these days the right mood will hit me and I’ll take the plunge. Media Steam Center Living PC Room Box ahoy!
They’re not going to do something inane like hamstring developers from using the hard drive again are they?
Xbowned.