Xbox One!

[Never thirsty!]

It's coming out later this year If you didn't stream the announcement go to youtube and search for xbox one preview it's pretty sick or at least what I saw was I now know what I'm buying with the birthday $ I've been saving

[Mullet Death]

Whether or not I care at all about this this year is dependent a great deal on price and such, which, of course, was nowhere to be found on the website. :-/ To be perfectly honest, I'm not that excited about this upcoming console generation. I mean, I didn't care about Kinect at all, and now every person that buys an Xbox One will have to pay for one as part of the price of the console? Just how far are companies willing to go push gimmicky stuff on me? And the rest of the info had me saying the whole time, "How is this any different than what we've had this whole time?" Like with the mention of achievements on one of the official pages as if they were making it into something new.

I hope I'm wrong about this and Microsoft somehow finds a way to blow me away at E3.

[Xeno]

This pretty much sums up the XBone: http://youtu.be/KbWgUO-Rqcw

No games. Just sports. And TV. And COD...with a dog.

[Mullet Death]

Ahahhaahaha, I'm glad Microsoft has invented the television for us.

[Xeno]

Seriously, this thing looks like a Betamax player from the 80s, and half the TV case is ventilation slots for its jumbo heat sink. The used game fiasco that is being cooked up is going to be a nightmare too. I mean, I have no problems with companies like GameStop and BestBuy going out of business, but MS helping to drive them out of business by charging consumers extra money to "activate" a used game on their console is ridiculous.

[ADXC]

Xbox, go home.

[Peanut]

Seriously, this thing looks like a Betamax player from the 80s, and half the TV case is ventilation slots for its jumbo heat sink. The used game fiasco that is being cooked up is going to be a nightmare too. I mean, I have no problems with companies like GameStop and BestBuy going out of business, but MS helping to drive them out of business by charging consumers extra money to "activate" a used game on their console is ridiculous.

Pretty much this though I would kind of miss the GameStop and BestBuy's of the world. Its unfortunate that there isn't a way for developers to sell games that didn't require hard copies so they could get the majority of the profit, eliminate the used game market, and not tick off their consumers. Guess I'm just dreaming though...

[Xeno]

Pretty much this though I would kind of miss the GameStop and BestBuy's of the world. Its unfortunate that there isn't a way for developers to sell games that didn't require hard copies so they could get the majority of the profit, eliminate the used game market, and not tick off their consumers. Guess I'm just dreaming though...

Thing is, is the used game market is pretty huge. Once a lot of people have beaten a game they don't hold onto it, they trade it in or they loan it to friends or family. This cuts that ability out. And with developers directly selling games to gamers, (via things like Steam or EA's hilariously thought out Origin store) you have no way to give your copy to someone else. So someone who wants to pick up a copy of a game that has been out for a few months, but doesn't want to drop full price on it is just out of luck.

The best part will be if MSFT does go through with this plan, and then Sony decides not to have anything like this along with Nintendo (who also doesn't but basically has no games for the WiiU anyway). Completely leaves the Microsoft WinBox One Eight with Bing Live Essentials Media Center Edition out in the cold.

[Peanut]

Thing is, is the used game market is pretty huge. Once a lot of people have beaten a game they don't hold onto it, they trade it in or they loan it to friends or family. This cuts that ability out. And with developers directly selling games to gamers, (via things like Steam or EA's hilariously thought out Origin store) you have no way to give your copy to someone else. So someone who wants to pick up a copy of a game that has been out for a few months, but doesn't want to drop full price on it is just out of luck.

The size of the used game market is why something like this really isn't much of a surprise, its just hilarious how Microsoft is initially dealing with companies desire to get something from used game sales. Digital distribution solves this problem immediately by cutting out the used game market entirely and its not like its new technology or anything like that. Plus you aren't making people pay twice (once for the game once to activate it) to play your product. Yes the other problems you mention still exist but I think people would be able to cope as long as Microsoft would run their digital store similar to how Valve runs their's. I think if they had announced a program like that instead of what they did, people would not be as up in arms as they are now. There would still be questions and complaints but I don't think it would be with the same sort of rage that this has produced.

[QUOTE=Xeno]The best part will be if MSFT does go through with this plan, and then Sony decides not to have anything like this along with Nintendo (who also doesn't but basically has no games for the WiiU anyway). Completely leaves the Microsoft WinBox One Eight with Bing Live Essentials Media Center Edition out in the cold.[/quote]

Nintendo's too busy stealing money from youtube let's players to make games. Sony would have to seriously screw up right now to loose this round in the console war. Maybe ship their first set of consoles out with live hornets in the box or something.

[Xeno]

The size of the used game market is why something like this really isn't much of a surprise, its just hilarious how Microsoft is initially dealing with companies desire to get something from used game sales. Digital distribution solves this problem immediately by cutting out the used game market entirely and its not like its new technology or anything like that. Plus you aren't making people pay twice (once for the game once to activate it) to play your product. Yes the other problems you mention still exist but I think people would be able to cope as long as Microsoft would run their digital store similar to how Valve runs their's. I think if they had announced a program like that instead of what they did, people would not be as up in arms as they are now. There would still be questions and complaints but I don't think it would be with the same sort of rage that this has produced.

So I go into GameStop and pick up a used copy of Call of Duty 24 with the new RoboCat add on, I pay them $20, but then I also have to pay a fee to activate that game on my Xbox One. And we don't know how much that fee is, or that used game shops are going to even take that fee into account when discounting the used game.

Nintendo's too busy stealing money from youtube let's players to make games. Sony would have to seriously screw up right now to loose this round in the console war. Maybe ship their first set of consoles out with live hornets in the box or something.

Legitimately not clear on how Nintendo is stealing money from people who do let's plays on youtube. Can you explain that?

[Davidizer13]

Legitimately not clear on how Nintendo is stealing money from people who do let's plays on youtube. Can you explain this?

On Youtube, if you make videos, you might be eligible to receive a cut of the ad money that comes in from your videos, and this is called monetization. One of the things that makes a video ineligible for monetization is if it contains copyrighted material. Lately, Nintendo's been registering its newer games with the system YT uses to detect whether something's from a copyrigted song or a movie. This means that a recording someone playing through that game can no longer monetize those videos, because they're piggybacking on Nintendo's content. The argument against this is that in Let's Plays, playthrough videos with some sort of running commentary, the creator's commentary is a form of unique content that should be eligible for monetization. Make of all that what you will.

[Peanut]

So I go into GameStop and pick up a used copy of Call of Duty 24 with the new RoboCat add on, I pay them $20, but then I also have to pay a fee to activate that game on my Xbox One. And we don't know how much that fee is, or that used game shops are going to even take that fee into account when discounting the used game.

Yep. It is possible that the fee could be small and places like Gamestop will take it into account when pricing games but these are businesses and they have to turn a profit so I will believe that the price of used games for the Xbox One won't be hire then other systems when I see it.

[QUOTE=Xeno]Legitimately not clear on how Nintendo is stealing money from people who do let's plays on youtube. Can you explain that?[/quote]
Davidizer hit it pretty much on the head. The rest I have to add has mostly already been said better by this guy. I don't know how much money you make from ads on youtube but I know on Twitch its pretty negligible. Youtube might be different since they don't have a subscription system but even then, the money Nintendo will be making off of ads is probably less then the money they perceive they have lost because of this.

[Xeno]

Okay, and I think this is starting to get a bit off topic, but is Nintendo monetizing on Let's Plays really that huge of a deal? I mean, are people making a living by doing those on YouTube? And if they are, is it going to crush them that badly that they can't do it for all of the 12 titles Nintendo has for the Wii U?

[Davidizer13]

Okay, and I think this is starting to get a bit off topic, but is Nintendo monetizing on Let's Plays really that huge of a deal? I mean, are people making a living by doing those on YouTube? And if they are, is it going to crush them that badly that they can't do it for all of the 12 titles Nintendo has for the Wii U?

I don't see a problem with what Nintendo's doing. Let's say they make a linear, story-driven game: you can experience what the game has to offer through watching a video of someone playing through it, and therefore you don't have to buy it because you've seen it all. Nintendo loses a sale, but the player who posted it on Youtube gets paid for it. That's really what I think Nintendo's trying to stop; it's probably less of a problem with more freeform games like Minecraft, where a player makes their own experience unique every time they play.

Here's what Youtube has to say about this whole thing:

What can't I monetize?

Without the appropriate license from the publisher, use of video game or software user interface must be minimal. Video game content may be monetized if the associated step-by-step commentary is strictly tied to the live action being shown and provides instructional or educational value.

Videos simply showing a user playing a video game or the use of software for extended periods of time may not be accepted for monetization.

(They used to say that any video game footage is ineligible for monetization, though I don't know how long ago the rule was changed.)

[Peanut]

Okay, and I think this is starting to get a bit off topic, but is Nintendo monetizing on Let's Plays really that huge of a deal? I mean, are people making a living by doing those on YouTube? And if they are, is it going to crush them that badly that they can't do it for all of the 12 titles Nintendo has for the Wii U?

Last comment cause yeah, we're getting off topic. Yes, there are people who make a living doing this. I do not know enough about Youtube partnerships to talk about how they make money or how much comes from ads, but ad revenue is a part of their livelihood. They are relying on this money to pay bills and other things. Will it crush them? Probably not. In the end they will just move on to other games. On top of this, I don't think Nintendo can ever hope to prove that they are loosing a significant amount of sales as a result of Let's Players. The bigger issue is the principle behind this and its unforeseen effects. We are talking about companies that are trying to make money and if they can get free money from the work of other people and if Nintendo gets away with this I see no reason why other companies won't try to do the same. If that starts happening, then it could very well be crushing for them. I also have to wonder if this will push over to twitch as well which gets a considerable number of views (not youtube level but still very high) and operates similarly to Youtube. I know all of this sounds like making a big deal about people who basically play video games for a living but what's actually going on here is that Nintendo is (hopefully unintentionally) hurting an industry that has only recently come into being and is expanding at an impressive rate. It is an industry that is highly built on personality. People like ManvsGame don't get close to 2000 views per stream because they are playing the latest greatest game, they get that number because they are engaging, enjoyable personalities who go out of their way to interact with their fans. In many ways, they are providing a form of free advertisement (in fact a number of companies have taken advantage of this and used them to hype their big games on release day). It's an industry that is still in a sort of state of infancy and it wouldn't take too much to really wreck it since it is mostly comprised of people working independently to create their own names. They don't have a union or some mass employer who can stand up against a company like Nintendo. They, at best, are teamed up with a group of like minded people who, given time could become a force but right now are nothing more then a blip on the radar. Hopefully things won't go down this route but its a possibility that has to be considered.

[GeneD]

I know next to nothing about console and Let's Play issues, but isn't this

get free money from the work of other people

what the Let's Players are doing too? Obviously they don't rake in millions but still. I see it as similar to how the Rifftrax guys can only sell their commentary without the movie footage (unless it's a public domain film). They can't capitalise on the content they haven't created themselves and it goes both ways.

[Never thirsty!]

It comes with a kinect sensor and it does play games although I'm mad I can't play DBZ Raging blast anymore :p the only fighting game I like left is the UFC undisputed series

[Nate]

I don't mind that video game consoles are becoming more than just gaming consoles. I don't think there's a problem with that, and in fact I'm hugely in favor of it. I watch stuff on my TV with Netflix on my PS3, and sometimes watch it on my 3DS too if my mom is asleep. I also use the internet browser on my 3DS from time to time.

Now that said, I still think the Xbone is terrible and stupid. Voice commands are almost always a bad idea for a lot of reasons. One, because of accents. Two, because casual conversation carries the risk of activating features you didn't want. "Honey, I wanted to use the Xbox to watch TV!" Now your Xbone switches to TV, when that's not what you wanted it to do. Three, this "You are the controller" crap is still terrible and not useful for people who have cramped living spaces. Like me for example, there is nowhere near enough space in the living room for Kinect to work.

That's not even getting into the stuff like the fact that those without cable TV are screwed as far as the system goes, oh yeah, and guess how many people outside of the US are going to get this stuff to work? None. Microsoft is going to lose massive sales outside the US, because the crap they're putting in the console just flat out will not work at all in European countries. Oh yeah, and let's not forget Microsoft's stupid, terrible strategies such as "Pay us a monthly fee to pay a monthly fee to watch Netflix." Sorry, I can watch Netflix on my PS3 for free, why should I have to pay Microsoft for the ability to use my Netflix subscription that I already pay them for? Not to mention "Pay us a monthly fee to play online." And anyone whining about server costs and all that can shut their stupid mouths because the Xbox dashboard is absolutely littered with advertisements. Unless they're putting up these ads out of the good of their heart for free, they're getting ad money and that should be more than enough to cover costs, especially since the PS3 has no ads and somehow manages to provide PSN for free!

In conclusion, I hope this fails and Microsoft pays the price for their idiocy.

[Xeno]

This post was pulled from another forum:

Microsoft Expects to sell "A Billion" Xbones.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/24/microsoft-over-1-billion-next-gen-consoles-will-be-sold

"Every generation, as you’ve probably heard, has grown approximately 30%. So this generation is about 300 million units," he shared. "Most industry experts think the next generation will get upwards of about 400 million units. That’s if it’s a game console, over the next decade.

"We think you can go broader than a game console, that’s our aim, and you can go from 400 million to potentially upwards of a billion units. That’s how we’re thinking of the Xbox opportunity as we go forward."

For scale: There's 2 billion households in the world, and more than half of those don't have power. A large percentage of the world's population live in China and India, markets the Xbox never entered into.

For more scale: There are 250~ million iPhones in the world. The PS2, the highest selling console in history sold 155 million.

[Davidizer13]

And I thought the PS3 pre-launch publicity was a hilarious disaster. It's like Microsoft picked all the worst aspects of this console generation and decided to base their whole system around those things.

[mechana2015]

Maybe they're preloading for something similar to the red ring of death, where there'll be a billion sales due to the fact that everyone will have to buy like...10 over the consoles lifetime.

[Nate]

For more scale: There are 250~ million iPhones in the world. The PS2, the highest selling console in history sold 155 million.

And as the article says, the only system to come close to that was the Nintendo DS, which is short by a million and some change...which means even with the power of Pokemon behind it, Nintendo couldn't come close.

Somehow I highly doubt without any IPs like that, the Xbone will reach even this goal.

The problem is as I said before that practically all of the features Microsoft has revealed flat out will not work outside the United States. This is going to absolutely murder their worldwide adoption rate, as without all these features they're going to have to rely solely on the strength of their games...and oops, Microsoft isn't saying anything about those! Even when they do I highly doubt that anything they have is going to light Xbone sales on fire. The biggest name Microsoft has is Halo. Unlike Nintendo, they don't have instantly recognizable properties like Mario/Zelda/Kirby/Pokeymanz, and unlike Sony they're not getting support from Japanese developers which is why games like Dynasty Warriors have more or less stopped coming to the 360 completely.

The only real advantage Microsoft has is XBL games, and that's not enough to carry the system in my opinion. There's literally no way they can sell a billion units. I realize that their strategy is "appeal to the casual market and get some of their sales" but this strategy fails in a multitude of ways. One, as said before, their big features are unusable outside of the US, which kills sales in other countries. Two, the Wii played to the strategy of appealing to the casual market and pulling in non-gamers, and it didn't cause them to dominate the console market. Three, the price tag on the console is going to be a large obstacle to the supposed casual crowd they want to appeal to. There's literally no way this console will launch for less than 400 dollars and I'm willing to bet it'll probably be closer to 500. You can pick up an iPhone or iPad for much cheaper. The reason casual games do so well on things like that is because it's not as high of a cost barrier to entry (some phone companies even have special deals where you get an iPhone or Android for free, or for 50 bucks as long as you sign a contract), and the price of most casual games in the app store is fairly low too.

Microsoft clearly has no idea what they are doing right now.

[Mullet Death]

For years, the game franchise that made me stay "faithful" to the 360 was the Gears of War series. Now that Gears officially sucks and has for a while now, I can say with certainty that for me personally there aren't big-name franchises that make me want to buy or keep using a Microsoft console, especially not for a bare minimum of $60 a year, plus the price of the brand new console. That's if I could even make my Xbox One work at home, where I have no internet. Not worth it, period.

[Crossfire]

So, Microsoft's E3 presentation.

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: I think they've unofficially lost this gen's console war.

[mechana2015]

It's pretty sad when you lose the war before your console or your main competitors console have been released.

[Crossfire]

Sony will have to do something extremely stupid to sit on-par with the X1, but it's always a possibility I suppose. Albeit an unlikely one.


As for games, the only three that looked semi-interesting to me were Ryse (Call of Duty: Roman Legionnaire), Halo 5 (Halo tends to have pretty decent trailers), and Titanfall (Because CoD's creators are doing something a little bit original).

[Kingdom]

Hmm, Titanfall looks pretty amazing.. so does Ryse Son of Rome.. and Dead Rising 3.. Crimson Dragon.. PROJECT SPARK (is awesome) ... Quantum Break.. .Sunset Overdrive.. Forza 5.. Halo.. I think I am going to have fun with the Xbox One.