What can Xbox one do for me?

[Austin Manning]

We don't know yet. However, the first product Microsoft did any sort of online DRM for was Office XP, which was released in 2001 (12 years ago). While the product has been discontinued, the Product Activation servers for it still work. I'd say that's a pretty good track record.

Have you heard of the original Xbox? Are it's multiplayer servers still running? No? Well I think we have our precedent then. I wouldn't trust Microsoft to not do the same to the Xbone whenever they attempt to launch a successor console.

 

[rob_simple]

Even worse, with a 500GB hard drive that can't be replaced, forcing everyone to install all of their games means that thing is going to get full pretty quickly. Especially several years down the road. Have fun deleting things when space is low and reinstalling them when you want to play them again because Microsoft didn't want to let you just buy a 1-2 TB hard drive and not have to worry about it.

Wait, you can't replace it? Why the hell not? My PS3 has a 140GB hard drive and I can only install half the games I own, I'm constantly having to delete old games to make space for new ones; I'm assuming with all the next-gen graphical polish 500GB is going to disappear in no time.

Any word on if the PS4 is going down the same road?

 

[Something Amyss]

Wait, you can't replace it? Why the hell not? My PS3 has a 140GB hard drive and I can only install half the games I own, I'm constantly having to delete old games to make space for new ones; I'm assuming with all the next-gen graphical polish 500GB is going to disappear in no time.

Any word on if the PS4 is going down the same road?

I'm moving half speed today, so apologies if this has been answered already.

Microsoft is either really stupid when it comes to storage or just thinks it's a trivial issue. The 360 still tops out at 250 GB for a price higher than it costs to buy your average 1 TB drive. The question of "why" has always seemed to be answered with "because shut up."

The Sony model for the PS4 is the same as the PS3, according to what they said. You can drop in a larger HDD of the appropriate size (I'm not sure if they said which size SATA drive it'd be, but I'd assume 2.5"). You're safe there, too.

Microsoft's answer to the fixed HDD is that you can use USB storage. However, for the 360 that tops out at 2X 16 GB. I don't know what we'll be able to use, but they're not filling me with confidence.

No. It hasn't. It has been DDoS'd, it has gone down due to bugs, and for a while there were a spate of socially-engineered account thefts, but it was never hacked.

To be fair, most people don't know the difference between a DDOS and hacking. This is really the only way 95% of what Anonymous does sounds impressive.

Herein lies the problem. Assuming we don't all just off ourselves one day before Microsoft goes bankrupt over something some day, Microsoft WILL shut down. Maybe not for many years, but at the very least, eventually. And then your 'digital' sales are useless, as the server you get them and play them on are gone.

The real problem is that the technology might stop being used here before it ever goes down.

The idea of Microsoft as a company going down in any even remote future is pretty laughable. It's probably going to outlive the actual hardware of the Xbone. However, Microsoft and other companies HAVE pulled the plug before, regardless of whether the tech is still viable.

In short, it's pointless to say "Azure isn't going anywhere."

 

[Chappy0]

Wait, you can't replace it? Why the hell not? My PS3 has a 140GB hard drive and I can only install half the games I own, I'm constantly having to delete old games to make space for new ones; I'm assuming with all the next-gen graphical polish 500GB is going to disappear in no time.

Any word on if the PS4 is going down the same road?

The PS4's hard drive is confirmed as removable and upgradable.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/11/e3-2013-playstation-4-hard-drive-is-removable-upgradable

 

[___________________]

It can watch you sleep.

 

[Hero of Lime]

What can Xbox One do for me? Halo, literally just Halo, that's about all I'm interested in as far as the next generation of Xbox is concerned. WAIT! I just realized I really need a nice new door stop.

I hate to be mean to Microsoft considering how much I love the 360, but Xbox One is such a turn off to me at the moment so I can't help it.

 

[faefrost]

The Xbox One game licensing system benefits you in a number of ways. The biggest is that it frees you from discs. You buy a game disc, install it, and you put it back in the box and never have to worry about it again. If you want to play that game, you have immediate access to it, no matter where you are or whose Xbox One you are using. The shared library feature means you can give up to 10 friends access to your games, without passing discs around. If you have that one friend who always scratches your discs when you lend him your games, that will no longer be a problem. Simply put him on your shared library list, and he can download your game and play it without ever touching your discs. You don't have to ever worry about the dog chewing up your discs, or a burglar stealing them, or getting them scratched or dirty, or devoting space to storing them near your console.

Making Kinect mandatory gives developers the confidence that every Xbox One owner has a Kinect, which means they are going to build Kinect functionality into every game they make. This doesn't just mean having you flail your arms around. It also means voice chat and voice command and gameplay based on facial emotions. PS4 developers will not be sure that every PS4 owner has a PS Camera, so they will be less likely to build similar functionality. Basically, PS4 games will pretty much be PS3 games with better graphics, while Xbox One games will incorporate voice, gesture and emotion, giving you gameplay that Xbox 360 could never do. That's a big benefit.

It remains to be seen how the game resale situation on Xbox One will play out. It's possible publishers will keep the current status quo, allowing you to resell any game at any time through any retailer, free of charge. Or they could do something completely off-the-wall. Who knows.

Well spoken and some great arguments in favor of the XBone. There are some counter points to them.

1. The game licensing system and the not needing disks. Yes this is a perfectly valid point. And it is one that Steam, iTunes and SONY PSN have all used and benefited from. But at least in those platforms the use of it is a choice. You can either take full ownership of the product in the form of the physical media or you can choose to go digital for the convenience and accept the risks and the limited ownership. MS has stripped out one of the choices. The one they left was already there. This new change really doesn't offer anything to the consumer that they did not already have as an option. So the entirety of the benefit is the producers not the consumers. The consumer simply lost an option and gained nothing in return.

2. The Kinect. Yeah it sounds good on paper. But some of it's features are just really really creepy. I don't want my games reading my facial expressions while I game. I certainly don't want them broadcasting my facial expressions or heart rate or whatever out to online strangers. And it watches me in the dark? It hears my heartbeat and measures metabolic and biometric data based on skin tones? This is like inviting the creepy sparkly vampire dude from Twilight into your house. As far as developers making use of it? As someone above pointed out, the big money really is in multi platform games. Most game developers tend to shy away from single console gimmicks. This is why 3rd party developers tend to avoid Nintendo consoles, and certainly why they aren't messing much with the WiiU. This turns the whole thing into a self fulfilling downward spiral much as we saw with all of the motion gaming fad.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Do we know what happens yet to your ability to keep playing these games when the console's servers are taken down in how ever many years?

It is a long long way off, that's true, but it will come around one day, and I imagine people would not be very happy to find their entire library worthless 10-13 years down the road.

We don't know yet. However, the first product Microsoft did any sort of online DRM for was Office XP, which was released in 2001 (12 years ago). While the product has been discontinued, the Product Activation servers for it still work. I'd say that's a pretty good track record.

Hi, we haven't met yet. I'm Escapist Microsoft Detractor #4367, if the trends around here are to be believed. My special power is that I talk about the Zune HD, and when Microsoft bailed on that product, they made it impossible to reload or change the videos that you bought legally from their website onto your zune, stopped your ability to communicate with your friends or contact list, and took away the ability to load apps onto your zune product [http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-closing-some-zune-music-features-after-friday]. All things you paid money for and expected to you via the Zune. No reason to take some of these things away, like apps since they have to be loaded on your computer to actually be loaded onto your Zune. They just figured they should do that to us.

Well, my special power is all used up. Since I bought a Zune myself, I'm very skeptical and wary to put down money for a product that the company feels it has the right to take away functions that really doesn't involve them any more randomly. But I do hope other people have more luck than we Zune owners, and I mean that.

 

[rob_simple]

Wait, you can't replace it? Why the hell not? My PS3 has a 140GB hard drive and I can only install half the games I own, I'm constantly having to delete old games to make space for new ones; I'm assuming with all the next-gen graphical polish 500GB is going to disappear in no time.

Any word on if the PS4 is going down the same road?

I'm moving half speed today, so apologies if this has been answered already.

Microsoft is either really stupid when it comes to storage or just thinks it's a trivial issue. The 360 still tops out at 250 GB for a price higher than it costs to buy your average 1 TB drive. The question of "why" has always seemed to be answered with "because shut up."

The Sony model for the PS4 is the same as the PS3, according to what they said. You can drop in a larger HDD of the appropriate size (I'm not sure if they said which size SATA drive it'd be, but I'd assume 2.5"). You're safe there, too.

Microsoft's answer to the fixed HDD is that you can use USB storage. However, for the 360 that tops out at 2X 16 GB. I don't know what we'll be able to use, but they're not filling me with confidence.

Thanks for the information, I've already suffered at the hands of Microsoft's custom HDD's when I bought my 4GB new model to replace my original RRoD'd model and was delighted to discover the spare 320GB HDD I had for my PS3 wouldn't fit in it.

Obviously the old gigantic HDD for the original 360 was no use, until I took matters into my own hands:

Spoiler

Still, it's good to know I'm safe with Sony --yet another reason for me to stick with them next gen-- as opposed to Microsoft's revolutionary idea to essentially bring back the memory card system from the late 90's (because who doesn't have fond memories of trying to remember which card had which games on it.)

 

[Something Amyss]

Still, it's good to know I'm safe with Sony --yet another reason for me to stick with them next gen-- as opposed to Microsoft's revolutionary idea to essentially bring back the memory card system from the late 90's (because who doesn't have fond memories of trying to remember which card had which games on it.)

I honestly have to say, I was kind of hoping for Microsoft to put on a good showing. I don't completely LOVE them, and I don't hate Sony. My belief in the last gen was that the perfect console fell somewhere between them. But I've got a lot invested in the 360 because al my friends play it and I worry that all my friends will upgrade to the One despite their hemming and hawing.

However, Sony had some real good things going for it last gen and it looks like it rectified some of the biggest flaws (RAM issues being the biggest, though I'm not sure 8 GB is futureproof). If I get a console this gen, which is still up in the air, it's probably going to be the PS4. Retrospectively, the PS4 might have even been my primary console last gen, but...Hindsight and all that.

The only thing I'll really miss is the controller. I like the 360 controller. It's one of the best I've ever used. I don't like sony controllers. I tolerated them since the PS1, but I don't like the size, the feel, and now the squishy triggers everyone uses for shooting.

I don't like deleting stuff I'm still playing. Or REASONABLY might play. I don't have installs for my earlier games on my XBox, but if it's something I go back to? Damn right I do. This is actually my major problem with the PS Vita right now. Between sales and PS+, I have a ton of awesome games, and only an 8 GB card because it's so expensive. I'd probably buy even more games on the Vita if they just used standard SD cards and I could run a 64 GB card for less than a 32 Sony card. Or even if they dropped their prices. As it is, I have to be very frugal about the games I play, and since a lot of them are PSP titles, I have to go hooking my Vita up to my PS3 every so often just to get the games.

This is tangential, but I think it proves the point about the HDD issues with the One at least somewhat. I'm reticent to buy digital games on a unit that has space issues. This is a bigger deal for me with a handheld, but still a big deal. And how big are Xbox games going to be? Sony's are going to be 50GB dls. That's not quite as big a deal to me if I can drop in a new HDD when I need the space, but with Microsoft? 500 GB fixed will be eaten up fast by games if they're close to a 50 GB install.

And again, not so big a deal if it's not MANDATORY. I install a few 360 games I want to run quicker, and I buy a few if I want to quickplay them or they're on sale (Another place where Sony trumps Microsoft, BTW...Almost all my digital games are sale games from Sony because they do a damn fine job of good sales). Capping out at 250 GB isn't so bad on a 360 unless you want to go all digital. Personally, I'm fine with that. On the other hand, I only have like four retail PS3 games.

Anyway, that was long and sort of ranty, so I'll just end it with a summary of "I don't know what Microsoft is thinking."

 

[Commerford]

Question quickly about the Xbox One that i'm abit confused about.

Say I buy a game disc, install it to my Xbox, what happens if my Xbox goes bust? I seem to remember the games are saved to my Live account, so I can just buy a new one and then link it with my Xbox Live account and download it again? Or is there some BS where it goes 'HEY THIS AINT YOUR XBOX ENJOY SOME RESTRICTIONS' and I have to pay Microsoft money?

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Question quickly about the Xbox One that i'm abit confused about.

Say I buy a game disc, install it to my Xbox, what happens if my Xbox goes bust? I seem to remember the games are saved to my Live account, so I can just buy a new one and then link it with my Xbox Live account and download it again? Or is there some BS where it goes 'HEY THIS AINT YOUR XBOX ENJOY SOME RESTRICTIONS' and I have to pay Microsoft money?

Yea that was an issue when they changed the hard drives on the 360 from the earlier version to the slim. When the first one died and I couldn't transfer the data to the slim, I made sure I bought a few of the 320g hard drives (http://www.amazon.com/320GB-HDD-Hard-Drive-Xbox-Slim/dp/B007JM8ULS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371262167&sr=8-1&keywords=xbox360+hard+drive+320gb ) and was very glad I did when the second and third xbox crapped out I was able to just take it out and put it in the new one. Although how poorly made the 360 was, I am not confident that the durability of this product will ensure you do not have to do that every year or so. The hard drive not being removable IS a huge issue considering how frequently their products die.

With it only being a 500g hard drive and it not being removable I would think that to be a huge concern. Even worse though you can't just reset their data when they have a glitch that messes up an account. That was already an issue play Black Ops II with xbox live accounts. If the accounts got bugged, you couldn't play multiplayer at all, for months, if at all, we finally gave up waiting and sold Black opsII for xbox last month after waiting for a fix sine Jan/Feb.