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EDGE: The next Xbox: Always online, no second-hand games, 50GB Blu-ray and new kinect
- Thread starter Hanmik
- Start date
don't give them ideas lol
Yep, and of course only for gold users.
Tripp Daily
Member
A quick google search showed that globally 1 out of 4 people have access to a broadband internet connection. Granted a large portion of the population lives in the global south, but it would be interesting to know just how many users this would segregate.
I believe the most recent numbers were that Microsoft had sold 76 million 360s and out of that number 40-45 million of the users were on some sort of live (silver and gold included). So, at a maximum Microsoft would be axing basically a third of it's user base from this generation. I don't really see that happening.
Care to elaborate on what those great and not so great things might be? The comments are based on the information we have.
Version 3.0
Member
I don't know about you, but the things we're discussing in these threads certainly constitute "really screwing things up" as far as I'm concerned.
Version 3.0
Member
Yeah, seriously. "The road's still free, unless Einon's taxed it." ... "A road tax, King Einon!"
Depends on how much it's worth. It could mean your product is really obscure!
There are people against blu-ray for the next Xbox? Seriously? Are they completely fucking idiotic and fail to notice how often game downloads are exceeding 10 GB and going multidisc on 360? We need blu-ray for a game format period now; hell HD-DVD would probably be OK, just so long as it wasn't DVD.
And I'd like to know the broadband numbers for NA/Europe/Japan/S. Korea, then the numbers for age groups. And how many providers reliably provide smooth 24/7 support without any flakiness. I honestly think flakiness is the bigger problem here depending on how much they want it constantly working, there's times where it gets weird and unresponsive, or the router locks up, and if it's THAT picky it is straight up unacceptable.
Version 3.0
Member
We've already seen what happens when customers choose one console and publishers choose another. That's exactly what happened with the Wii and PS3/360. Eventually, publishers got what they wanted. Customers go where the (good) games are, and the Wii's support wasn't good enough.
In this scenario, customers would have a compelling reason (I hope) to avoid the competition even if it had better publisher support, but it still scares me to think that what customers want is less important in this industry than what publishers want. Something as simple and clear as this basic, long-standing consumer right shouldn't be under the axe to corporate greed.
In this scenario, customers would have a compelling reason (I hope) to avoid the competition even if it had better publisher support, but it still scares me to think that what customers want is less important in this industry than what publishers want. Something as simple and clear as this basic, long-standing consumer right shouldn't be under the axe to corporate greed.
Nealand Liquor
Member
Are you suggesting that consumers weren't interested in the HDTwins and the only reason why MS & Sony succeeded in capturing the majority of gamers was only because publishers avoided the wii?
Are you just trolling hoping someone bites?
Has to be.
Anticitizen One
Banned
what are the advantages of being "always online"?
No, no it wouldn't. Ubisoft has a very strong relationship with Sony at the moment.
For us: Supposedly getting game updates all the time.
For them: Full DRM lockdown.
Given how trivial such content would likely be without forking over extra, and the fact you don't NEED to be online all the time for it (just make online integrated well, a bit better maybe than 360/PS3 already were) I'd rather just have the option to be offline and for them to tighten their security more.
ShockingAlberto
Member
I am fine with always being online (and patching whenever and such) if it does not mean only ever being online.
Which is to say, I'm okay with the benefits and never the limitations.
Which is to say, I'm okay with the benefits and never the limitations.
Baconsammy
Banned
Insta-bans of people that "buy" games early.
It'd probably be like PC: they'd just lock it down until the right time has passed. Will be a bitch if they set it by PST and everyone trying to go for midnight launches on EST gets screwed over.
Stuff like no used games and your console always being online? Yep sounds like no one will even notice.
BobTheFork
Member
I tend to agree with him. They will sure as hell figure it out once they buy but I think the mjor parts of the consumer market don't know the specifics and don't care. Right now, they either want a ps4 or Xbox and they don't know how much ram it has, the TFlops or what the connectivity is. I'm convinced we are going to see tons of people buy either console and then find out something they hate about it.
Baconsammy
Banned
Ah yes. No codes will function until X o'clock on a specific date. Good thinking. If I were a Steam user I'd probably have thought of that.
This will lead to a ton of "Is it up? Did anyone download it yet?!" posts in all OTs.
tkscz
Member
I think there are still more people without their own internet connection than with, but they probably didn't buy an Xbox either so.
We're not talking about a Nintendo system, unless they're dumbasses and do something fancy other than registering to an accounts, which would make no sense as it's always online and thus seemingly would expect your account there. May lose your saves without a subscription to back them up to the cloud. Unless they just make a subscription necessary to use the system at all, then wow. Doubt they'd go THAT far though.
Family Fry
Member
If Nintendo can clobber together a method of recovery for a broken Wii consoles to re-download their digital downloads, I'm sure MS will be fine.
Then again this could be a different method, depends if it's your account that unlocks the game, your console or both together.
Sure there will be some kind of recovery method, they have to be prepared for when things go wrong, this time.
Version 3.0
Member
No, not at all. I'm saying millions of customers - not specific demographics - chose the Wii, which is clear by it sales figures. And then they left once it became clear that the other systems had a better quality game library - also in evidence based on the steep decline of Wii sales and eventual takeover of that market share by the other systems.
Are you suggesting that publishers did, in fact, support the Wii well? As well as the other systems? Please.
I know - the popular story is that 100 million grandparent bought the Wii and never bought anything except Wii Sports, Wii Play and Wii Fit. No. Plenty of people bought the Wii, bought quite a few games, but eventually became disgruntled at the lack of quality, and moved on to another system. The sales figures, attach rates, and total market share do support this.
Silly.Mikey
Banned
im really curious as to what this ps4 announcement will tell us now. After all this, this might be the first time i actually get a ps4 instead of an xbox at launch.
Master of what the what?Ms stop being master of anything some years ago...
yo, you like pre-rendered footage of motor storm and a shooter. That's all its going to be.
No. MS already has an account system in place with 360 which is not completely tied to the hardware you own. There is no reason for it to change.
...And if your account gets compromised?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11960243&postcount=1766
Silly.Mikey
Banned
No, its more about not being crazy about the whole direction MS is going in. I don't hate that i can watch netflix and all that crap on it, but i really don't like this kinect 2 bs. I have it now, never foking use it. I have yet to play a game that doesn't involve dancing that uses it properly (and which i dont need to move all my furniture for) and now they seem to wanna make it so its a much bigger focus. I dislike the whole direction of this console mainly cause of kinect2 and the always online rumors. I trade in a lot of games, you take that away from me and i play a lot less of your games. I hope im wrong but right now, im really not hyped.
Only thing that might save it for me is wanting to play Destiny, but thats another question mark right now with it rumored as a MMO.
I hope you don't actually think that lol. 2013 Sony =/= 2005 Sony.
There will have to be an official channel to talk to a MS rep to get it back. When Iasteam account gets hacked you need to talk to Valve to fix it.
I'm hoping MS adds a second layer of security like Steamguard.
Halo 4 is their big game for the year, and that didn't use Kinect.
I buy A LOT of stuff from steam, so I am not worried about a console being online.
are you worried about used games or game prices? I'm pretty sure the market will not allow prices prices to remain high indefinitely. Otherwise the steam model would not work. MS doesn't set price cuts, the publishers do, even on steam.
Your talking about a Microsoft Account here. An account that you use to access Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox, Skype, Hotmail, outlook.com, MSDN, Office 365, SkyDrive, etc.
This is a key component to Microsoft services in general.
Most indications are that Sony will launch this year. Sony was a year and a half from launch at E3 2005 and wasn't near finalizing dev kits.
Nealand Liquor
Member
Steam lets you play in offline mode, according to rumors you have to be online AND have the kinect running to play.
There is a big difference between Valve's strategy with Steam that is to make the act piracy not worth it to the user, and if this rumor is true, MS's want to create an additional revenue stream by eliminating used games in order to enjoy higher profit shares. Simply put MS is not going to go to the trouble of increasing profits in one area to lessen them in another. No company is going to risk the brand and invest millions for a lateral shift.
Beer Monkey
Member
I usually buy at launch. Any console that doesn't allow used games or doesn't have backwards compatibility is getting a one-year wait-it-out period. My PC is pretty good. So I'm not boycotting anything, I'll just punt and decide down the road if the platform is worth it.
76 Million Xbox owners
46 Million Xbox Live accounts
Even assuming that there is only 1 Live account per Xbox, that means they would be leaving 30 million people out in the cold by requiring an always-on connection. Is Microsoft going to do this? I think not.
For the North American market though, they might require always-on DRM, but allow people to run their installed games without the disc in the drive. But for Europe and Austrailia and the Asian markets, they will simply force people to use their game discs to physically verify ownership of games installed on the hard drive.
Shit, now that I think about it that's not a bad solution for every market. Want to play a game without inserting your disc? Log in to Live. Want to play without logging in to Live? Then insert your disc. Works perfectly, so long as nobody figures out how to pirate the discs. It would satisfy the people that want to stop disc-swapping, but also satisfy the people who whine "What happens if I want to play Halo 5 twenty years from now?" (As if you ever even play 20-year old games on their native hardware in 2012).
SpoonyBard
Banned
I don't know about that math, most likely there are a bunch of people in that 30 million that just don't care about online games, or don't know that free version of xbox live exists, or just haven't bothered connecting their console online, preferring to play a game of Madden NBA whatever with their friends once every two weeks. If online connection was required, I'd say that a large portion of those 30 million would also be online.
The bigger issue is there are probably a lot of people that own an Xbox that is not WiFi capable, and don't see any value in buying an adapter. Are those things still even sold at retail? So they're not online because they don't want to rewire their home for an ethernet connection, or buy an adapter.
Still though, I think this is at least partially offset by systems that support multiple user accounts. So while there are some people that remain offline due to practicality issues, the ratio of consoles-to-XBL-accounts is inflated by households that have multiple accounts assigned to a single console.
What about the people who own multiple 360s due to RROD? That math doesnt make sense.
(Not that I'm saying forcing a network connection is good)
Warm Machine
Member
Surprised people still bring up Kinect as some kind of serious game focus from Microsoft. It should be pretty obvious as of late that they are relegating Kinect to be an OS/dash input device as opposed to a serious game controller. It has basically become a air touch screen you can use on your living room tv from your sofa.
If devs use it, great but MS seems to have abandoned game play with it as far as I can tell.
If devs use it, great but MS seems to have abandoned game play with it as far as I can tell.
Problem is that Kinect isn't all that great as a tool for UI interaction. Arms get fatigued from being held out, and it generates a lot of false positives that result in unintended choices. Selecting an item on the menu requires you to hold your hand up in space for a predetermined amount of time, which is much slower than a button press. Plus you have to wave at the camera just to kick it into action, and that alone results in a slower, more tedious experience than just using a controller and remote. If Kinect was really that great, then why did they push SmartGlass so hard at the last E3?
I actually used SmartGlass with Internet Explorer 360 for the first time last night, and found it much better and more sustainable than Kinect. Swiping through menus with your arm is a cool novelty at first, but gets tiresome pretty quick. Once the kinks get worked out of SmartGlass, I think it is much more promising than Kinect.
Alx
Member
Kinect, smartglass, gamepads and remotes aren't mutually exclusive... I use all of them on my Xbox, depending on the situation. MS isn't trying to find a perfect UI device that will replace everything else, but offer different alternatives to give more freedom to the user.
*edit : quick example of the way I used them just last evening : I was watching TV while browsing NeoGaf on my laptop, and read a topic about the Strokes next album. "Hey good idea, I haven't listened to the Strokes for some time".
grab remote, turn on Xbox
use kinect voice commands : "Xbox bing music the Strokes", "Element 1", "Play favourite songs"
connect Smartglass from PC to skip songs, continue browsing NeoGaf
Using kinect as a UI device isn't "relegating" it, that's what it's designed for. Companies like Primesense built their sensor for set top box and TVs as their main target, games are only one of its uses (but a very good one to popularize it and get people to try it).
It's part of a general trend of adding more natural ways of interacting with your electronics, like Siri/Google Voice, inertial sensors, touch interface...
*edit : quick example of the way I used them just last evening : I was watching TV while browsing NeoGaf on my laptop, and read a topic about the Strokes next album. "Hey good idea, I haven't listened to the Strokes for some time".
grab remote, turn on Xbox
use kinect voice commands : "Xbox bing music the Strokes", "Element 1", "Play favourite songs"
connect Smartglass from PC to skip songs, continue browsing NeoGaf
Using kinect as a UI device isn't "relegating" it, that's what it's designed for. Companies like Primesense built their sensor for set top box and TVs as their main target, games are only one of its uses (but a very good one to popularize it and get people to try it).
It's part of a general trend of adding more natural ways of interacting with your electronics, like Siri/Google Voice, inertial sensors, touch interface...