How Microsoft plans to make Xbox great again [The Verge]

I'd say it's already great. The difference between how things were with Xbox One at launch and how it is now, is big. MS should simply keep on investing in great games and keeping the gamers happy. They should also keep listening to the gamers in improving Xbox One overall and it's all good with me.
 
Great, I hope they do. PS4 is killing it and I'd like to see the One catch up. I have both and I'm rooting for both.

On the one hand I love how the success of the PS4 is allowing for a wider breadth of games like more JRPG's and indies...something that reminds me of the PS2 days. Sony gets to take even more chances.

The One seems to really be narrowing their focus and putting out quality games instead of quantity, the opposite of the Kinect years.

It's a win win for everybody in my opinion.
 
Krystopher McConnor said:
I think you're seriously underestimating digital sales. I don't have single friend who still buys retail games. Also, I think you already know Microsoft didn't release the number of sold copies.

Yet again, $400 against $300, don't see why you need any more persuading.
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So we're now somewhere between 90 and 100% of game sales being digital if we add this to Leeh's extensive research.
 
Ol No Bones said:
I love Phil Spencer. In fact my favorite thing about xbox isn't the console, it isn't the games, it's that dimply man with the big smile. If I could I would invite him over for dinner with the wife and kids and he could tell us about Xbox in hushed tones. I would send the wife away and put the kids to bed to have Phil to myself. We would play Voodoo Vince all night and talk about how great an exec he is. The next day we could wake up and smile at each other as we chew on our Cheerios. That would be the life.

Edit: We could smile at each other as we chewed on our Doritos drenched in Mountain Dew.

Edit again: it has come to my attention that Doritos and Mt Dew are no longer associated with Xbox. Given this news, I would not eat Doritos but I would serve Phil whatever he pleased for breakfast.
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Lol! I think there is a tag worthy line or two in there, haha.
 
Glendemonium said:
And while they're at it, allow cross platform play. All this talk about blurring the lines between Windows and Xbox but they wont allow this?
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The big caveat about cross-platform multiplayer is that at this point, both companies won't allow you to play with their competitor, but both of them will allow you to play with PC. It's really a one-or-the-other sort of deal - if either side implies otherwise, you can bet that they're hinging on some weasel-words, technicalities or ridiculously-implausible circumstances in their speech when they say so ("We totally support the idea of playing with Xbox users! They just have to implement PSN and reference it properly and put splash screens up and our copyright notices and disconnect from Xbox Live while they're doing so." and etc.).

Contributing to this is the fact that all of the announced upcoming games require Windows 10, which ties in to your Microsoft Account (which is used for Xbox Live), meaning it's likely a requirement for it. This is something that'd be a bit difficult to implement post-release, so in the case of a game launching on PC and then coming to Xbox One with cross-platform multiplayer, either a substantial patch would have to go out to the former, or some massive exceptions be made for the latter.

The bottom line is, they do allow cross-platform multiplayer, but you still have to follow their rules and regulations for it.
 
Tyreese Victoria said:
ODST was launched at full price and can be treated as a mainline game.



I'm not deciding this, sales and critical reception are deciding this. Halo 5 is the only Halo I haven't played so I'm personally neutral with regards to its quality.
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Only in the states I believe, it was released for £30.

crpav said:
Microsoft and the XBox are doing just fine so not sure why there is so much talk and articles saying otherwise. It doesn't matter what the other company is doing. Just do what you do.

They could of course bring back Project Gotham Racing, KOTOR and maybe some other old games people loved.
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That's down to EA, so it'll be a multi-platform release in any case.
 
Today has been a spooky day.

http://www.technewstoday.com/27698-xbox-one-is-no-longer-the-underdog/

The Xbox One has gained considerable ground over PS4 and is perhaps no longer the gaming underdog


There was a time when the Xbox One was the underdog when compared to the PlayStation 4, which has sold 30 million consoles. Under Phil Spencer’s lead, the Xbox division has taken a positive turn and this year’s reports show why it should be taken seriously.

Microsoft had been criticized for its ‘anti-consumer’ policies with the Xbox One. Prior to its launch in November 2013, the Redmond-based tech giant had to end DRM policies that restricted used game sales and required an uninterrupted online internet connection. The PS4 allows games on compact discs to be sold or lent without issues. The Xbox One suffered from a pre-launch backlash, with damage control coming late.

When Phil Spencer came on board last year, he moved the Xbox One focus to gaming. Prior to the launch, the console was marketed as an all-in-one entertainment system, but Spencer attempted to make the console attractive to hardcore gamers. You could say he succeeded. This year’s Xbox One came with 1 TB hard drives, an Elite Wireless Controller, and backwards compatibility for Xbox 360 titles, perhaps its most attractive feature yet.

Backwards compatibility with its access to 104 games from the Xbox 360 catalog with more to be added soon, has gone down well with gamers. Many gamers may already own the game digitally or on disc, and they can now play them with no extra cost.


Sony is now offering PS2 titles on the PS4, of which eight are on sale, including favorites like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas. They still cost $14.99 for games that are almost a decade old. Similarly, the PS Now program is a Netflix-style game streaming service that offers good PS3 titles but at a cost.

Xbox One also had some excellent exclusives this year, from the racing hit Forza Motorsport 6, to the shooter Halo 5: Guardians. Xbox One owners can play Rise of the Tomb Raider a full year ahead of PS4 owners as well. After this year, we may not need to consider the Xbox One an underdog. Do you agree?
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In theory, the Xbox One was an improvement on everything fans loved about the Xbox 360: a more powerful Kinect, new hardware that merged the console with your cable box, and lots of talk about the cloud
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Is that really what fans loved about the Xbox360?
 
I'm a new Xbone owner (2 days) and really loving it so far. I also own PS4 and WiiU.

Seems like the biggest complaint is that multiplat games generally perform below the PS4 versions. 900p vs 1080p etc.

So, I wonder -- is it possible MS could release a ~25% faster clocked Xbone in the future? Surely costs of the CPU will go down and it will become feasible to offer a faster CPU that could increase FPS and give room for more games to run at 1080p.

I know it's unlikely, and would enrage a lot of gamers who already own the system. But it could close the performance gap.
 
It's not trash like all these articles are portraying it to be. It's got it's issues but so does Playstation. So does PC. So does Nintendo. It's fucking annoying.
 
The hardware and software are in a decent place at the moment however I think the problem they have is with general opinion of the Xbox one.
It still feels like a toxic brand after the reveal (anecdotally speaking to non gamer friends). That is going to be hard to shake off in my opinion.
 
Bits N Pieces said:
Is it not just websites posting their reviews of the year and looking at each manufacturer separately?
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Of course not. Any positive Xbox One articles are clearly money-hat deals and should not be taken seriously.

quadrat-foil-300x300.png
 
I like my Xbox One and all, but there are some major hurdles Microsoft needs to overcome, including, among other things, treating its premium games as non-premium, not having more solid mainline games people can get excited about, stuff like that.

There are some massive gaps in their library of released games that come out, a general sense that they don't get what their audience really WANTS out of their games, stuff like that.
 
One thing that I can't help thinking is Microsoft resorts to doing the bare minimum if successful. They are quite happy to sit still rather than trail blaze especially with content. What's going to make the most money rather than pushing the ideas first and foremost. Crackdown cloud stuff is one thing that they're playing with which is cool but it's still just Crackdown if you know what I mean.
 
MS have worked incredibly hard to change and improve the X1 into a great console but what they need now are a couple of massive hits, much, much easier said than done.
 
In theory, the Xbox One was an improvement on everything fans loved about the Xbox 360: a more powerful Kinect, new hardware that merged the console with your cable box, and lots of talk about the cloud. Microsoft only forgot one thing: the games. During the hour-long kick-off presentation, six minutes were allotted to new game announcements.

Fans felt betrayed and poured their fury into forums and game blogs; critics dubbed the event a disaster.
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This makes it sound like the missing games was the only problem and the rest was welcomed by fans... I remember that quite differently! (at least here on gaf)
 
Breakbeat said:
Considering Microsoft's overall company strategy since Nadella took the reins, this seems incongruous. I have a feeling the rest of the company might not agree with Phil on this. GaaS seems like the most likely next step for Xbox.
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Um what? Microsoft just made their first laptop. Have one of the hottest tablets on the market right now and are about to launch 2 new flagship phones. They're fully in on hardware now. If they're smart, they'll get the Surface team designing and making the new Xbox. Look at the specs they can squeeze into a Surface Pro 4. Imagine what they can do with hardware just double the thickness.
 
Collingwood said:
Um what? Microsoft just made their first laptop. Have one of the hottest tablets on the market right now and are about to launch 2 new flagship phones. They're fully in on hardware now. If they're smart, they'll get the Surface team designing and making the new Xbox. Look at the specs they can squeeze into a Surface Pro 4. Imagine what they can do with hardware just double the thickness.
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The thing is that all of their devices run a true Windows environment... except the XB1. The Xbox will be the black sheep if it continues to have a console-specific version of Windows in its next iteration, and if they decide to make it run Windows 10 identically to the rest of the MS ecosystem, what is it other than a glorified set-top PC? It doesn't make sense for them to continue Xbox as isolated hardware (yeah, yeah, I know XB1 "runs" Windows :P)
 
Collingwood said:
Um what? Microsoft just made their first laptop. Have one of the hottest tablets on the market right now and are about to launch 2 new flagship phones. They're fully in on hardware now. If they're smart, they'll get the Surface team designing and making the new Xbox. Look at the specs they can squeeze into a Surface Pro 4. Imagine what they can do with hardware just double the thickness.
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Sure they could make something nice but cost does come into it.You're not going to get that quality in a console box for 400 bucks.

They need that Surface presentation guy revealing the next Xbox.
 
ironcreed said:
Or maybe it is just a great system with a lot to offer and is receiving credit where it is due.
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After the timing of all this, you really don't think it has to do anything with Microsoft PR and that these web sites have just decided it was a great time to praise their efforts?

It's perfectly fine that Microsoft is doing this because that's what you're supposed to do constantly in addition to making improvements in order to compete effectively.
 
ShaoranWright said:
MS PR going full force today,
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This. It's fucking embarrassing. The timing of it all coming at once as well.

I can't believe they're getting coverage like this:
"The Xbox One has gained considerable ground over PS4 and is perhaps no longer the gaming underdog"

I mean really now? No it hasn't...

Pure bullshit. I don't remember the media doing this for PS3 when it was actually literally outselling the 360 every year from launch despite it having trouble in the US.
 
Collingwood said:
Of course. I all honesty though, it's free for a year, there's really no excuse for someone not having Windows 10 at this point. I say this as an iMac user.
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If you say so. I haven't cared enough to look into the upgrade to find out if it's worth it. And at my work and my clients, no-one has upgraded to it.
 
After how weak Halo 5 turned out, I have very little confidence in Microsoft's first party productions.

I enjoy the console, so I'd love for them to rebound, but if that was the best they could do with their most important franchise, I shudder to think how far their quality control has fallen.
 
DangerMouse said:
This. It's fucking embarrassing. The timing of it all coming at once as well.

I can't believe they're getting coverage like this:
"The Xbox One has gained considerable ground over PS4 and is perhaps no longer the gaming underdog"

I mean really now? No it hasn't...

Pure bullshit. I don't remember the media doing this for PS3 when it was actually literally outselling the 360 every year from launch despite it having trouble in the US.
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Partly because a lot of the "PS3 is outselling the 360" info was based on speculative data from a source that had previously suggested that the PS3 would be the greatest-selling console of all time forever, and the Wii would sell literally nothing.

Also because the Xbox One has redeemed itself in the eyes of a lot of people, and the PS3 never really managed to improve in any sort of massive, perceptible way. The Xbox is like megaton after megaton in a lot of ways. PS3 never had that.

Seriously tho, the PS fan paranoia in these threads is fucking hilarious.

J_Viper said:
After how weak Halo 5 turned out, I have very little confidence in Microsoft's first party productions.

I enjoy the console, so I'd love for them to rebound, but if that was the best they could do with their most important franchise, I shudder to think how far their quality control has fallen.
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I wrote a whole big article on why 343i doesn't get Halo, and I stand by it. I think other teams at MS are way better than 343i is.
 
DangerMouse said:
This. It's fucking embarrassing. The timing of it all coming at once as well.

I can't believe they're getting coverage like this:
"The Xbox One has gained considerable ground over PS4 and is perhaps no longer the gaming underdog"

I mean really now? No it hasn't...

Pure bullshit. I don't remember the media doing this for PS3 when it was actually literally outselling the 360 every year from launch despite it having trouble in the US.
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I thought the Xbox 360 was the one outselling the PS3 every month...
 
I dont agree on what theyre saying that it was simply games. It was a lot more than that. Sony hasnt had a lot of exclusive games for a while now and it still sells like hotcakes. Look at what 360 did well for example:

- Intuitive dashboard that isnt slow as molasses (didnt happen on xbox one)
- Better designed system than competitor, lots of power (didnt happen on xbox one)
- Tools that made it very easy to develop PC and xbox games simultaneously (didnt happen on xbox one)
- Lots of exclusivity deals with the big 3rd party games like COD, Gears (at the time) etc (didnt happen on xbox one)
- Solid Halo games that dont launch broken as fuck for 8 months (didnt happen on xbox one) 5 was great tho.
- Intuitive store and events like the Summer of arcade (didnt happen on xbox one)

Theres a lot of stuff that MS did well with 360 that they just dont do as well now.

Heres how they can improve to me:

- Phil needs to be more "maketing" focused. Peter more was more of a marketer and Phil is more of a gamer, but i feel like Phil can benefit from being more of a marketer as well. Those commercials help, like the halo3 maquette one, Mad world, etc..

- More power: next xbox needs to be powerful period. Not like now that it struggles to hit resolutions and frame-rates.

- Dashboard needs to be intuitive and fast from the start, not 2 years after its launch.

- Price need to be competitive from the start, not 2 years later.

- Games, obviously.

- Elite controller in every xbox.

- Fuck Kinect and let us voice command with a fucking mic already.

- Incorporate MS tech (windows services and tools) a la Cortana, play versus PC etc..

- Make xbox a service, not specifically a console. Allow me to use my xbox on my pc, on my phone, on my tv, anywhere i want.

They do this, they will destroy the competition.
 
reKon said:
I thought the Xbox 360 was the one outselling the PS3 every month...
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It was. There was a point in... I wanna say 2011 or 2012 where a website that always predicted the PS3 would be the best-selling console ever (outselling the PS2!) erroneously reported that info, and PS3 fans clung to it like bloodborne fans to the idea that The Witcher 3 doesn't deserve any acclaim.
 
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