The Xbox One - Part 3

[Nathan]

Found this interesting.

www.destructoid.com/xbox-one-has-single-handedly-alienated-the-military--256457.phtml

Bwahaha!

Now we just need Jack Tretton to appear naked, wearing only the American flag and claiming PS4 is the only console to support the troops, and I'd say this generation is over. Well ... maybe without the flag bit.

No ... no, do the flag bit.

 

[Iceman]

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/...unset-Overdrive-is-an-Xbox-One-Exclusive.html

E3 2013: Insomniac Explains Why Sunset Overdrive is an Xbox One Exclusive

However, despite this Price says Insomniac hasn’t turned its back on Sony.
"While we are excited about partnering with Microsoft on Sunset Overdrive, that doesn't mean we can't or wouldn't make games with our longtime friends at Sony,” the CEO said. “That's the magic of being an independent developer."

 

[Nathan]

Yeah, sorry Insomniac, I don't buy it. There is only one reason.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Bwahaha!

 

[zenith16]

Xbox boss says $500 Xbox One is 'over-delivering on value,' name-drops Halo 5

(7 minutes ago)
8

​

The $500 price tag for the Xbox One elicited audible gasps during Microsoft's E3 press conference. Speaking to Bloomberg, Xbox head Don Mattrick defended the hefty price, saying that Microsoft is "over-delivering on value" with the Xbox One.

"It's a lower number than some of the analysts had forecasted," Mattrick said. "We're over-delivering value against other choices, I think, consumers can get. Any modern product these days, you look at it [and] $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think that they're going to love it when they use it."

What will convince consumers to opt for Xbox One, he said, is the breadth of services the console will have available. Specifically, he mentioned Twitch streaming, Skype and SmartGlass.

During the same interview, Mattrick also referred to the next Halo game as Halo 5. At Microsoft's E3 press briefing, a reveal trailer referred to the game simply as "Halo."

• Via: GameSpot
• Source: Bloomberg TV

 

[Spidey-Bat]

thats bc that was the only thing from your post that didnt make any sense. If you want to take your console to a buddy's house, you can. I dont see any reason why you cant just move it. Thats not a limitation. Its not tethered to your house and theres no rule that it can only be used in the house it was set up in.

It can be a pain in the ass to move, especially if you have a special setup where it's difficult to disconnect all the wiring. There's no reason Microsoft had to implement a 1-hour limit on using your account on a foreign X1.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

If 6 months in sales are a disappointment I wonder what the geniuses at Microsoft will do.

An industry insider said that the XB1 would reduce their price in a few months to stay competitive. The price would drop in less than a year.

 

[Kable24]

An industry insider said that the XB1 would reduce their price in a few months to stay competitive. The price would drop in less than a year.

I think it will drop $50 before it hits shelves. I'm still debating whether I get it on launch or wait until summer and pick it up when Titanfall comes out.

 

[KevanG]

I'm still leaning more towards a gaming PC despite having a 360. The XB1 is doing a very poor job of making me want one.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Xbox boss says $500 Xbox One is 'over-delivering on value,' name-drops Halo 5

(7 minutes ago)
8

​

The $500 price tag for the Xbox One elicited audible gasps during Microsoft's E3 press conference. Speaking to Bloomberg, Xbox head Don Mattrick defended the hefty price, saying that Microsoft is "over-delivering on value" with the Xbox One.

"It's a lower number than some of the analysts had forecasted," Mattrick said. "We're over-delivering value against other choices, I think, consumers can get. Any modern product these days, you look at it [and] $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think that they're going to love it when they use it."

What will convince consumers to opt for Xbox One, he said, is the breadth of services the console will have available. Specifically, he mentioned Twitch streaming, Skype and SmartGlass.

During the same interview, Mattrick also referred to the next Halo game as Halo 5. At Microsoft's E3 press briefing, a reveal trailer referred to the game simply as "Halo."

• Via: GameSpot
• Source: Bloomberg TV

It's like they want to lose the console war.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

LOL they're still letting Mattrick talk? Figured he'd be locked in the basement by now.

 

[Iceman]

http://penny-arcade.com/report/arti...ames-with-ten-family-members-but-some-details

If the family of 10 can just be your gaming friends then it will save ****loads on single player games! Multiplayer you'd obviously need a lot more copies so everyone can play at the same time. If it works out like this, that would save a lot of people (not those who only buy used and sell asap) more money than the used game policy will cost them. Plus you could keep access to a huge game collection between the group. Probalby wouldn't benefit me that directly as I pretty much buy everything eventually but it might mean I get to play some games nearer to launch than I otherwise would & I'm quite happy to let my main group of XBox friends play all my games.

 

[SolarTiger]

Could two people play the game at the same time when they are both logged in? Doesn't make sense to me, seems like that would lead to more lost revenue than used games would. If a friend could share Bioshock Infinite with 10 friends, that's 9 potential customers lost.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Game publishers remaining quiet on used game policies for Xbox One
Microsoft's used-disc-blocking option seems to have taken publishers by surprise.

Microsoft is taking a lot of heat for implementing an online check-in system that will allow publishers to explicitly block the resale of used game discs on the Xbox One. But it's the publishers themselves that will have to decide whether or not to take advantage of the ability Microsoft has given them. So far at least, no publisher has been willing to go on the record definitively stating that they are for or against the existence of second-hand game discs on Microsoft's next system.

This might be because these publishers were seemingly caught flat-footed when Microsoft announced its policy a couple of week ago. "We have not received anything from Microsoft until today on this one," CD Project Red co-founder and Joint CEO Marcin Iwiński told Eurogamer just after Microsoft's licensing policy was announced. "Before we form any definite opinions here, we would like to have this process explained in details by the platform holder."

(Later, Iwiński defended CD Project Red's decision to release on Microsoft platforms despite the system's online check-ins. "We couldn't simply not release The Witcher 3 on Xbox One. We want to make sure that every single player will have access to our game...")

Bethesda Softworks told Gamespot last week that the company "[hasn't] had time to fully understand and evaluate their policy." And Electronic Arts' Peter Moore told Polygon that the company had "not internally even begun to sit down and answer those questions [regarding used games]," also suggesting that the major publisher didn't know about Microsoft's plans ahead of time.

So if publisher pressure was part of the reason for Microsoft allowing used-disc-blocking in the first place, EA wasn't part of it. "As the guy who is the chief operating officer of Electronic Arts, I can tell you that EA did not aggressively lobby for the platform holders to put some gating function in there to allow or disallow used games," Moore said.

At least EA's Frank Gibeau told The Wall Street Journal that EA would be announcing its used games policy on the Xbox One within the next couple of weeks. That's more than companies like Konami, Namco Bandai, Warner Bros., Sega, and Capcom have said, instead offering blunt "no comments" on the matter in various press accounts. Capcom went so far as to blame the lack of concrete information on the fact that the company "has not announced any titles for Xbox One," as if its games wouldn't be coming to Microsoft's system sooner than later.

While other publishers also refuse to go on the record on the issue, a few at least seem willing to hint at which way they're leaning. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told Gamespot that they "haven't decided yet" whether they'd allow used games and that it was "too early to take a real position." But while he suggested that "lots of people are buying a game, reselling it, and buying another one... It has a very positive impact on the industry," he also said that "we have to make sure that there's not too much money lost in between so there's good efficiency there."

Take-Two hasn't publicly commented on the matter since Microsoft's announcement, but in an investor-focused call last month, CEO Strauss Zelnick stated that "our view about used games has been, as opposed to whining or figuring out ways to punish the consumer for buying used games, we've figured out we better delight the consumer." That said, he acknowledged that "if Microsoft has figured out a way to tax used games, then we should get paid, too," leaving a bit of wiggle room for the company's position.

At least one developer has been willing to speak out against used games, though. "You cannot have game and marketing budgets this high while also having used and rental games existing. The numbers do NOT work people," former Epic developer Cliff Bleszinski tweeted last week. "The visual fidelity and feature sets we expect from games now come with sky high costs. Assassin's Creed games are made by thousands of devs," he continued. "Newsflash. This is why you’re seeing free to play and microtransactions everywhere. The disc based day one $60 model is crumbling."

For all the rigmarole around the issue right now, industry analyst Michael Pachter doesn't think any publisher will be foolhardy enough to actually take Microsoft up on the opportunity to block the sale of used game discs. "In our view, any publisher that disables used gaming risks a backlash or boycott of its titles by gamers, negatively impacting sales," the analyst said in an investors note last week. Analysis firm DFC Intelligence, on the other hand, said that Microsoft's whole strategy for the system is "deeply flawed" and lowered its sales expectations for the Xbox One while raising those for the PlayStation 4.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/...ing-quiet-on-used-game-policies-for-xbox-one/

 

[Thundercrack85]

We need a law suit, is what we need.

 

[SolarTiger]

At least one developer has been willing to speak out against used games, though. "You cannot have game and marketing budgets this high while also having used and rental games existing. The numbers do NOT work people," former Epic developer Cliff Bleszinski tweeted last week. "The visual fidelity and feature sets we expect from games now come with sky high costs. Assassin's Creed games are made by thousands of devs," he continued. "Newsflash. This is why you’re seeing free to play and microtransactions everywhere. The disc based day one $60 model is crumbling."

What a fricking moron. Maybe these AAA games should learn how to budget better? These triple A games have marketing budgets bigger than what it cost to make the game. And most AAA games nowadays don't appeal to me at all.

Learn how to manage your money better developers, and stop blaming used games.

 

[Iceman]

Could two people play the game at the same time when they are both logged in? Doesn't make sense to me, seems like that would lead to more lost revenue than used games would. If a friend could share Bioshock Infinite with 10 friends, that's 9 potential customers lost.

There are still copies of the original Bioshock doing the rounds on ebay. Imagine how many times some of these have changed hands over however many years! And it can go on forever. Same with rental copies. 300 people could play your game over its life and you get the same revenue as if you sold one game. This system also results in lost revenue but it creates a culture of everyone buying new games & keeping the secondary consumers as digital-only (no cost). For the biggest games most people who buy day 1 will want their own copy anyway so they don't have to wait for others but this is great for middle tier games, which people are more likely to buy used or rent anyway. But the other thing the fact that they were planning something like this would definitely mean having to restrict used games. Steam wouldn't be able to offer all those crazy sales if people could also sell those games on. And judging by how many free top games PS + gives away every month it seems like both companies are really doing the same things, just in different ways.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

What a fricking moron. Maybe these AAA games should learn how to budget better? These triple A games have marketing budgets bigger than what it cost to make the game. And most AAA games nowadays don't appeal to me at all.

Learn how to manage your money better developers, and stop blaming used games.

But he's entirely accurate. Games cost an extraordinary amount to make. Why do you think it is that the BEST AAA games that come out are the safe, well known franchise blockbusters? They're the ones with the most money behind them. And developers ger ZERO money from used game sales. It's completely naive to just say 'budget your game better' as though that would solve the problem. Budget or not, games are expensive and used games a draining factor on that.

 

[Nathan]

Well, here is the response to that.

Used games and 'AAA' games are incompatible? Good!

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Well, here is the response to that.

Used games and 'AAA' games are incompatible? Good!

 

[Iceman]

The other option these businesses have is to cut costs. Cutting marketing has been proven to reduce revenue for these kinds of products. Cutting development budgets will result in an inferior game unless the budget was previously being pissed up the wall. And the other obvious area is jobs. People are finding themselves unemployed at developers of all sizes. And I know many people who played hundreds (300+) of 360 games last gen without buying a single one new. Either permanently renting or buying used from ebay & selling back used as soon as finished. If there was some return to developers from games rented or some limit on the number of times any physical disc can be resold (to stop it reaching the hundreds) all would be fine.

 

[StrainedEyes]

We need a law suit, is what we need.

Or, you know, if you don't agree with the policies, don't buy the console.

 

[AxlsAppetite]

Or, you know, if you don't agree with the policies, don't buy the console.

Nah man. That makes too much sense.

 

[SolarTiger]

Or, you know, if you don't agree with the policies, don't buy the console.

Agreed, vote with your wallet. This is different than complaining about Madden but buying it every year. This is a 500 dollar purchase, with a better cheaper product available at the same time. This is the perfect time for gamers to let Microsoft know what they think of their policies.

 

[SolarTiger]

But he's entirely accurate. Games cost an extraordinary amount to make. Why do you think it is that the BEST AAA games that come out are the safe, well known franchise blockbusters? They're the ones with the most money behind them. And developers ger ZERO money from used game sales. It's completely naive to just say 'budget your game better' as though that would solve the problem. Budget or not, games are expensive and used games a draining factor on that.

I'll point to a quote from the article Nathan posted:

"Do games need to be this expensive to make?" the question instead becomes, "How can we squeeze more money to keep making very expensive games?" Why are people like Cliffy B simply accepting the absolutely ridiculous high price of game development as immutable fact, quickly moving on to blame something else instead of examining the problem at its source?

If someone from Ubisoft says that in order for AC games to be successful the used game market needs to go (or be severely limited), I'd tell them to kick rocks. The reason their teams are so huge is because they try and push out a AAA yearly AC game and make them out as fast as they can. Instead, maybe they could downsize their teams and focus on making a more quality product for cheaper by taking a longer time, of rushing to meet a holiday deadline.