Xbox One

[AVFCforever1991]

**** it, I'm out 

 

[Dodgyknees]

They're really not doing a very good job of making people want this console huh... 

 

I can live without the XBLA, can live with it actually having a few things I am not keen on, hell.. that is pretty much always the case. But there are way too many things that go in the negative column for me.

[villarule123]

I'm quite happy to switch allegiance to the PS4, I just get the feeling they'll have something up their sleeve too.

 

I'm going to wait until all these things reported are verified, and see what the PS4 has too.

 

I like the PS+ idea, and would probably get a Vita too if I had a PS4.

[Chindie]

I wouldn't count on Sony doing many things markedly differently. They may not go to the lengths of using a camera to spy on people (which is something) but a lot of the other stuff is going to be on their console too - anti-preowned etc etc.

 

I'm just getting off the console train. Steam has a number of the same issues but frankly, I'm buying things on Steam so cheaply (and Valve has done little to make me believe they're as evil a corporate entity as Microsoft) I don't really care.

[PieFacE]

I've never really understood why some people are so pro-steam but so anti-everything else. Like you said, Steam have a number of issues, like buying second hand games for starters... AFAIK, you can't. But when this happens in the console world everyone is up in arms about it. Every time i've looked on Steam to buy a game it's always the full cost same as it would be on a console. Unless you're looking a year after it's release where it's almost not relevant anymore. (TBF I dont mind that, the few games I buy every year are worth the money).

[Davkaus]

Steam gets away with it for two reasons, firstly there's never really been a second-hand PC game market, at least not to the extent that there has been for consoles. People are pretty used to things being as they are.

 

Secondly, even brand new PC games are much cheaper than console games, usually cheaper than you can even pick up console games up second hand. And that's at the full price, almost every game can be picked up with a huge discount within a few months in one of their sales. And any more than a few months and the game prices are absurd in sales, it's possible to pick up AAA games for a few pounds a year or two after release. People will put up with a lot if they can get stuff that cheap.

Edited May 26, 2013 by Davkaus

[PieFacE]

Steam gets away with it for two reasons, firstly there's never really been a second-hand PC game market, at least not to the extent that there has been for consoles. Secondly, even brand new PC games are much cheaper than console games, usually cheaper than you can even pick up console games up second hand. And that's at the full price, almost every game can be picked up with a huge discount within a few months in one of their sales.

 

Really? The games which i've bought for PC over the last few years have had no discount, though, it's only been a few CODs, Battlefields & Football Managers. They've all been full price. Guess that's down to the type of game they are though.

Edited May 26, 2013 by PieFacE

[Davkaus]

Steam prices aren't great generally, it pays to wait until one of there sales which tend to come around every 3 months or so (with smaller weekend sales regularly).

 

Buying games away from Steam through Amazon or GreenManGaming is cheaper when there's no sale, a lot of them can be redeemed on Steam anyway.

[Ghost]

Turns out Microsoft don't even own the XboxOne.com or XboxOne.net websites.

Some dude from London is apparently squatting on the site names.

 

You'd think they would've sorted this out before they announced the name. 

 

Microsoft Files Complaint To Acquire Xbox One WebsitesConsole

[Genie]

Hope the guy cashes in. I know cyber squatting is frowned on but when in comes to making a mint out of MS I say fair play.

[The_Rev]

They will just continue to use Xbox.com anyway, won't they? Even if they get the Xboxone.com domain it will just be used to redirect to the main site. 

[Chindie]

I've never really understood why some people are so pro-steam but so anti-everything else. Like you said, Steam have a number of issues, like buying second hand games for starters... AFAIK, you can't. But when this happens in the console world everyone is up in arms about it. Every time i've looked on Steam to buy a game it's always the full cost same as it would be on a console. Unless you're looking a year after it's release where it's almost not relevant anymore. (TBF I dont mind that, the few games I buy every year are worth the money).

It's a combination of things.

 

As said, theres not been a PC second hand game for a very long time and with good reason - piracy was so rife and so easy with PC gaming that they came up with ways to combat it and that largely killed off any second hand market along with the PC market share at the time shrinking to near insignificance compared to the consoles.

 

Steam is also regularly significantly cheaper - I have in the region of 40 titles on my Steam library and I don't think I paid over £20 for more than 2 of them (and in the case of one of those, the title came with 3 other games chucked in). With Steam there are sales constantly - from daily deals to periodic large scale sales that see prices slashed to such a degree the purchase becomes impulse rather than considered. Even outside of sales, besides a couple of big hitters (COD etc) prices are usually set at a not insignificant amount below their console equivalent. And with retailers like GMG and Simpygames there is the ability to pick up bargains on new releases anyway - I got the new Devil May Cry for £13 about 2 weeks after launch.

 

Steam/PC doesn't quite have the problems with backwards compatibility a console does either. A game I bought on steam years ago still works because the PC doesn't change very often, theres not really the issue with playing your old back catalogue there is with, say, the 360's XBLA titles onto the new console. Even where there is a problem, the PC community usually finds ways around it. System Shock 2, a donkeys years old game that pretty much won't work on a modern PC was recently cobbled together to work on a new rig, for instance. 

 

And a real big reason why Steam gets a reasonably easy ride - Valve generally have peoples faith. They do things right by their userbase more often than not. Theres even been talk of what happens if Steam ceases to exist, with suggestions leaning towards Valve effectively 'flicking the switch' and having the games you already have downloaded no longer require to sync up to their servers to authenticate and what not - meaning what was there on your harddrive is yours.

 

If Microsoft followed Valve's lead, I'd have far fewer issues with their new console. But they haven't, and they won't.

[PieFacE]

 

I've never really understood why some people are so pro-steam but so anti-everything else. Like you said, Steam have a number of issues, like buying second hand games for starters... AFAIK, you can't. But when this happens in the console world everyone is up in arms about it. Every time i've looked on Steam to buy a game it's always the full cost same as it would be on a console. Unless you're looking a year after it's release where it's almost not relevant anymore. (TBF I dont mind that, the few games I buy every year are worth the money).

It's a combination of things.

 

As said, theres not been a PC second hand game for a very long time and with good reason -piracy was so rife and so easy with PC gaming that they came up with ways to combat it and that largely killed off any second hand market along with the PC market share at the time shrinking to near insignificance compared to the consoles.

 

 

 

Great post Chindie and an interesting read. Just wanted to bring you up on one point though, and that's in bold about piracy. Do you not think Microsoft have taken such a hit on piracy over the past few years with the 360, that it warrants them to put in a similar system to Steam? 

[Chindie]

I don't think they've taken that big of a hit in truth - certainly nothing like the piracy that was running around on other consoles before now. And even then they have already combatted it, somewhat, with the cutting off from Live and so on.

 

I don't have issues with Microsoft combatting piracy at all... however, they need to give and take. Steam gives little as I said, that softens a blow I otherwise dislike (downloads tied to an ecosystem). I don't see where Microsoft are giving in whats been talked about, I do see them taking a lot, particularly grimly consumer rights.

 

I'd also contend that Microsoft are actually less concerned with combatting piracy and rather more concerned with kicking the preowned market into touch. Everything that has come out about this console regarding accounts and licenses strike me rather more to be about the trade in market than it does shady copies, which is ultimately in my view born of misguided corporate greed.

[Daniel]

Xbox One Kinect 'can be turned completely off', confirms Microsoft rep

[Kwan]

Well of course you can always turn everything off though I'd still fail to see how they would function the "Xbox, On" command without it passively listening

[Chindie]

Xbox One Kinect 'can be turned completely off', confirms Microsoft rep

Misleading title there. What he actually says is you can turn the system off, which of course includes the Kinect. That's not exactly a revelation (shock horror you can pull the plug on it...) nor is it exactly a a rebuttal to the stories that the thing is constantly listening and watching and monitoring. It's quite clear the console has been designed to be usually left in standby/sleep, with the Kinect sat waiting to hear a command. And when it is on it basically a monitoring device with the potential (if not already realised) to report numerous things back to base...

Very much damage limitation PR.

[Daniel]

I only posted it because some people were saying it might still be active even when the system is on standby. As for it always watching you or listening, could you not just put something over the lens?

[PompeyVillan]

Microsoft are doing a very job of alienating a large proportion of customers with their inability to listen to the people who will buy or ultimately not buying their new console. It may just turn out to be bad PR, but Microsoft are not doing a lot to stem the tide. 

[The_Rev]

Judge them after E3 for that.  Nobody will remember these couple of weeks of silly season after E3.