Microsoft unifying PC/XB1 platforms, Phil implies Xbox moving to incremental upgrades
- Thread starter dancrane212
- Start date
Disaster Nebraska
Banned
Xbox is no longer a "console" in the traditional sense under this new model, though.
Obliterator
Member
Another thing to consider is this, the actual cost of upgrades wouldn't be as steep as it seems. Just think if you could upgrade every 2-3 years and trade in your older model system for $200 off the cost of you upgrade. Essentially spending only around $199 every 2 to 3 years for better performance. Its perfectly sustainable
Ask ten random people in the street who has a phone. Then ask 100 who has a console. Then tell us the result.
Xbox still has consoles. What they're getting rid of is fixed hardware consoles.
Graphics Horse
Member
New hardware should just behave like an original XBO in the case of original XBO games unless someone goes back and patches them. UWA games will see the benefits.
That's my guess.
reptilexcq2
Neo Member
What about PS4...they should do the same. I would like to play some of the PS4 title on PC like Resogun....which has been tied down to the console for ages.
McHuj
Member
Realistically, they'll have to give up some performance by introducing some abstraction. However, you can still achieve better performance/optimization if you only need to target a few specs, versus infinite combinations of CPU's and GPU's.
Daffy Duck
Member
Because phones are subsidised by carriers, you won't get a large proportion of phone users dropping £600+ every twelve/twenty four months upgrading their phones.
Bits N Pieces
Member
Interesting and exciting times ahead 
Shpeshal Nick
aka Collingwood
I said it when the PS4 was mentioned as doing this and I'll say it again. Won't happen, won't work if it did. Dumbest thing they could do.
Comparisons, how do they work? Yes, lol.
It's still simple. Do people get all confused by the newest phones, tablet or computer?
Of course not. It's still plays the same games.
Opus Angelorum
Member
Most people sell their phone when the contract is up, and use it towards a new one. Anyone on the iPhone / Galaxy train certainly do.
Plus unlike consoles, phones are seen as an essential device.
But it will become obsolete faster. That is the point.
You can replace phone with tablets and achieve the same point you are trying to make.
Movalpolos
Banned
mysteriousmage09
Member
Goes against the entire purpose people buy consoles over building gaming pc's.
Wouldn't it be quicker to just PM a mod?
Plus, Phones are seen as a status symbol/something to brag about.
vpance
Gold Member
$100 more hardware won't do much. Certainly not 30 to 60 fps boost
Ninja Scooter
Member
Phones are a neccessity. You might as well be saying that people buying milk or laundry detergent every month means they will be willing to upgrade their consoles. Most people can justify in their minds spending a few hundred dollars every couple of years on something they are going to use every single day (and it helps that carrier plans are set up to help them hide the real cost, out of sight out of mind). versus something in a game console the general public still largely probably views as a toy and something that, at best, most will probably use once or twice a week. People don't even upgrade their televisions that often and those are probably much more essential than a video game console.
Then only buy once every five years or whatever and play the same games that the rest of us would be playing only at a lower resolution or graphics setting.
Not seeing why this model has any negatives other than a marginally increased testing overhead for developers.
Why? The way we currently do it is absurd. Let's play a system for 10 years invest dollars in games and then poof! They are all gone and we start over.
Doug Heffernan
Member
How so?
PS4 will remain stagnant for 5-7 years as the XB1 gets more powerful with each iteration.
As long as the trade in upgrade path is somewhat affordable this could be a game changer.
It doesn't sound like Microsoft is proposing console revisions. Simply expandability off of an existing baseline SKU to theoretically expand the console's processing/graphical capabilities. We know people are willing to do it for PC gaming, and that might be due to the fact that there's an existing precedent to do so - but who knows? The closest thing we have is the introduction of a new 'platform' within an existing platform, ie. Kinect, Morpheus, etc.
They need to have some sort of upgrade program for me to be interested in this. If I can trade in my current console to get more than 50% off the new one, I might be down with this. However, I don't know how much of a market there is for this type of things. Phones are necessities for a lot of people, Xbox Ones are not.
dancrane212
Member
Speaking of phones I wonder if a console subsidised by Xbox Live will happen again? Perhaps if multiplayer on console is brought out to silver members that would be a new way to use that service.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Replacing phones with tablets completely destroys the point you and he keep trying to make because consumers are NOT upgrading their tablets with anywhere near the frequency of their phones. It's like, only the biggest issue facing the tablet market.
Daffy Duck
Member
Why are they all gone? Keep your console and you still have them.
Captain Tuttle
Member
Neither did paying for online at one time.
As I said it depends on how many times they bring out newer models. If it is yearly by time the 3rd or 4th year Xbox comes the launch one would run like crap. I buy a console because I like to be able to make it last 5+ years. Upgradiing it all the time would make me think twice before buying one.
Opus Angelorum
Member
Indeed, quite a few people said Sony would never do an Xbox Live.
A Polaris AMD APU in the same class as the PS4s, except improved on a smaller die, slightly, more shaders, faster clocks, etc, could beat the ps4 I'm assuming fairly easily. A $250 Xbox One and and $400 higher performance model doesn't sound preposterous to me in 2017. In 2017 a $400 upgraded Xbox sku should easily beat the PS4.
Consoles are not phones and tablets. Consumers invest a few hundred dollars for 1 box that plays games and last at least 5 years. That is and will always be the expectation.
LoveCake
Member
The thing is the parts that need to be changed for upgrading is the CPU, GPU & RAM so how is this going to be done, being able to swap out the CPU, GPU & RAM if this is the case then MS/XBOX are going to have to have some special designs to stop third parties getting involved in supplying the components because it will otherwise be a game of never being able to catch up.
They are saying that it's going to be backwards compatible, but what about forwards compatible, will the latest releases still work on un-upgraded Xboxes (by latest release I am talking about a game that pushes the console to it's limits, like GTAV on the PS3/X360) I just think that all this will do is fragment the market way too much, the point of a console is that you spend £300 in it & you know that all the games will work as best as they can for the next six years or so.
They are saying that it's going to be backwards compatible, but what about forwards compatible, will the latest releases still work on un-upgraded Xboxes (by latest release I am talking about a game that pushes the console to it's limits, like GTAV on the PS3/X360) I just think that all this will do is fragment the market way too much, the point of a console is that you spend £300 in it & you know that all the games will work as best as they can for the next six years or so.
Graphics Horse
Member
No it does sound like what they're proposing. You won't be sending your XBO back in a coffin for them to stick an updated motherboard in it. They want it to.be more like selling tablets/notebooks etc.
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
The main problem doing incremental design is that a lot of the Xbox crowd picked the console up because it dropped so fast in price. I'd reckon that those are the people who'd fork out cash in order for the best possible experience. Heck, I'm not cheap and I'd still think twice about upgrading a console.
StrongBlackVine
Banned
This isn't a port begging topic.
Okay, then you upgrade less on tablets. Cool. Then you'll upgrade less on consoles. Again, cool. It's your choice, but at least I want that choice.
SneakersSO
Member
Yeah, they upgrade them on subsidized plans for a fraction of the phone's cost. Unless MS pursues something similar, and console subsidization catches on (remember, the 360 had a subsidized plan through Best Buy after 2010 that didn't catch on), then consoles will never have the same iterative release schedule as smartphones & tablets. Phones & tablets are just infinitely more versatile & valued as such when compared to a console. It would never work.
Astral Dog
Member
Nintendo unifying their handheld/console, Microsoft their Xbox/PC what will happen next!?
Uno Venova
Banned
I just trade it in to the carrier, how do you know most people do this?
And it will still be that. That won't change.
For lack of a better term this seems desperate. If Xbox was the platform leader this generation there would be none of this talk, especially this early in the console lifespan.
Phil should just keep building the Xbox brand, make great games and have good PC support. Build back the trust with the consumer, which I think they have been doing, so that when the next Xbox is coming out they get a great start.
Phil should just keep building the Xbox brand, make great games and have good PC support. Build back the trust with the consumer, which I think they have been doing, so that when the next Xbox is coming out they get a great start.
Graphics Horse
Member
Sony PSVita4 Tablet!
Ninja Scooter
Member
This is another issue. We are at a stage in this co sole life cycle, two years in, where a lot of the people making purchasing decisions are much more price conscious. They are looking for price drops and deals. Introducing a brand new $400-500 console and expecting these consumers to jump at it seems crazy. So you are left asking the early adopters who just dropped $300-400 on a new console in the last 18 months to do it again. Just don't see it happening.
ZombieSupaStar
Member
As a primarily pc gamer I'd love this if it means I'd get basically any Xbox exclusive on PC.