Xbox one in serious trouble!

[Fonejackerjon]

So out for less than 6 months and it get a price drop of £125!! (Xbox one £425 no game then £349.99 plus a £50 game free in April) I'm not a fanboy but how can anyone with a straight face think that the xbone has a long term future.

But its more than that this gen has been without a doubt the most underwhelming of all time. Not one single game has shown a significant leap. And dont get me that crap about 'give this generation time to shine. Snes, Ps1 and PS2 all had early release games that showed that wow factor but not one single game on PS4, Xbox one or even the almighty PC has shown ANYTHING that has caused any jaws to drop.

So where do we go from here, I really don't know where gaming is gonna go do you guys? for the first time in gaming history I honestly believe we have hit the ceiling.

 

[tippy2k2]

Gaming itself is going to be fine. Yes, there is a ceiling graphically that we're going to hit to make (while remaining cost effective that is) but I don't think that's going to be a problem. Hell, if anything, that's going to be a great thing since innovation through a slightly shinier engine will no longer cut it.

That said, I think consoles period are in trouble (and before the pitch forks come out, anyone here who has followed me at all (for some reason you strange strange person) that I am 100% console gamer). Sony/Nintendo are a bit less susceptible to what I'm about to say but they are not invincible to it either.

At this point, a console seems to be becoming much more PCified. As in, they are getting a lot of the negatives (like constant patches and updating being needed) with none of the positives (like much cheaper pricing and the ability to use whatever control system you want). Really, exclusives are the only thing keeping consoles off of life support (which is a HUGE positive so don't get me wrong; consoles are not going anywhere this generation at least).

I'm at my own crossroads with it where I want to continue with my console ways but I don't like the Xbox One (no thanks Kinect) and I don't like the PS4 controller. As I stated, I think they're all safe from elimination...this generation. In a decade? The console as we know it may be dead.

 

[Fonejackerjon]

Gaming itself is going to be fine. Yes, there is a ceiling graphically that we're going to hit to make (while remaining cost effective that is) but I don't think that's going to be a problem. Hell, if anything, that's going to be a great thing since innovation through a slightly shinier engine will no longer cut it.

That said, I think consoles period are in trouble (and before the pitch forks come out, anyone here who has followed me at all (for some reason you strange strange person) that I am 100% console gamer). Sony/Nintendo are a bit less susceptible to what I'm about to say but they are not invincible to it either.

At this point, a console seems to be becoming much more PCified. As in, they are getting a lot of the negatives (like constant patches and updating being needed) with none of the positives (like much cheaper pricing and the ability to use whatever control system you want). Really, exclusives are the only thing keeping consoles off of life support (which is a HUGE positive to don't get me wrong; consoles are not going anywhere this generation at least).

I'm at my own crossroads with it where I want to continue with my console ways but I don't like the Xbox One (no thanks Kinect) and I don't like the PS4 controller. As I stated, I think they're all safe from elimination...this generation. In a decade? The console as we know it may be dead.

Consoles I think are in trouble. Gaming seems to have completely split in half. Those who like the casual scene go to mobile and tablet gaming those who are hardcore go to PC. Where does that leave consoles??

 

[Racecarlock]

I want a MAME arcade machine with a throttle button on it (The throttle feature in mame makes the game run really fast so you don't have to sit through arcade boot ups) and a menu button on it so I could spend the rest of my life playing arcade games with cheats.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I want a MAME arcade machine with a throttle button on it (The throttle feature in mame makes the game run really fast so you don't have to sit through arcade boot ups) and a menu button on it so I could spend the rest of my life playing arcade games with cheats.

I had this exact fantasy as a kid. I bet those machines consume a lot of electricity though.

 

[MysticSlayer]

But its more than that this gen has been without a doubt the most underwhelming of all time. Not one single game has shown a significant leap. And dont get me that crap about 'give this generation time to shine. Snes, Ps1 and PS2 all had early release games that showed that wow factor but not one single game on PS4, Xbox one or even the almighty PC has shown ANYTHING that has caused any jaws to drop.

If you were to actually look at games that released around 2005-2006 and compared them to games from 2011-2013, you would actually see just how far we came in the last 6-7 years. You could also compare those same 2005-2006 games to 6th generation games from 2004-2005 and see that we made almost no significant graphical leap between the late-6th generation and early-7th generation. This isn't anything new to gaming. Yet, regardless of seeing this during the 6th-to-7th generation transition, we still saw considerable graphical upgrades over the course of the 7th generation, and we also saw gaming grow at an exponential rate. With that in mind, it hardly seems like we have anything to worry about just because games aren't wowing us the same way they did when they finally made the transition to 3D graphics.

It also should be noted that even if we are reaching the point where graphical upgrades can't come as fast anymore due to cost constraints, there are other areas to improve technologically. We could see incredible improvements in AI, which arguably hasn't gotten any better since 2004-2005; physics, which many companies are already focusing on; and other areas that could drastically improve gameplay quality. Graphics have long since passed their point of being important to gameplay advancement, and we really should stop looking for massive graphical leaps like we did during the early days of gaming. Games aren't going to improve just because we can make them look better. They will, however, improve if we can finally start finding ways to improve technology that can actually improve the gameplay itself.

Finally, we should also remember that the 7th generation really took off a couple years after it started. 2007 was when we saw many of the major franchises that dominated the generation get their first installment. This included games like BioShock, Assassin's Creed, and Crysis. It was also the year we got games like Halo 3, CoD4, and Super Mario Galaxy, which are themselves major hallmarks of the 7th generation. It also took until 2010 for Battlefield to really take off despite having two releases on 7th gen consoles beforehand. Really, there wasn't a whole lot that happened between 2005-2006 for 7th gen consoles. There were some games like Oblivion, but not many. With that in mind, we again see that this slow time for the consoles is hardly anything new. The same thing happened last generation, and it did very well for itself in the end.

Does this mean that this generation will see the same exponential growth that last generation saw? Not really. However, it does mean that the "wait and see" comments do have a lot of merit. If we had had this discussion back in 2005-2006, the naysayers would be looking very stupid right now, probably laughing at how pessimistic they were.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Gaming itself is going to be fine. Yes, there is a ceiling graphically that we're going to hit to make (while remaining cost effective that is) but I don't think that's going to be a problem. Hell, if anything, that's going to be a great thing since innovation through a slightly shinier engine will no longer cut it.

That said, I think consoles period are in trouble (and before the pitch forks come out, anyone here who has followed me at all (for some reason you strange strange person) that I am 100% console gamer). Sony/Nintendo are a bit less susceptible to what I'm about to say but they are not invincible to it either.

At this point, a console seems to be becoming much more PCified. As in, they are getting a lot of the negatives (like constant patches and updating being needed) with none of the positives (like much cheaper pricing and the ability to use whatever control system you want). Really, exclusives are the only thing keeping consoles off of life support (which is a HUGE positive to don't get me wrong; consoles are not going anywhere this generation at least).

I'm at my own crossroads with it where I want to continue with my console ways but I don't like the Xbox One (no thanks Kinect) and I don't like the PS4 controller. As I stated, I think they're all safe from elimination...this generation. In a decade? The console as we know it may be dead.

Consoles I think are in trouble. Gaming seems to have completely split in half. Those who like the casual scene go to mobile and tablet gaming those who are hardcore go to PC. Where does that leave consoles??

Consoles are for fans of Japanese games since most if not all of em never make it to the pc. Nintendo handheld + sony home console + pc will cover 95% of everyone's gaming needs. X1 and pc overlap and pc is much superior so naturally xbox is in hot water and will stay there.

 

[st0pnsw0p]

Consoles I think are in trouble. Gaming seems to have completely split in half. Those who like the casual scene go to mobile and tablet gaming those who are hardcore go to PC. Where does that leave consoles??

Umm, no. Maybe the Escapists huge pro-PC community has you fooled, but console gaming is just as popular in the "hardcore" community as it was in the previous generation, if not more so. Both the XBOne and PS4 have sold more units so far than their predecessors at this point in their lives, and the PS4 has even sold more than the Wii did at this point in its life. Only Nintendo is down from the previous generation, but that's just because the market that made the Wii such a success has moved on to mobile gaming.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

So far, this generation doesn't even seem to have even begun. There hasn't been that obvious jump in my opinion. Based on the PC games I've seen from the past couple of years it just looks like current consoles are able to run those PC games with all of the bars on MAX. The games themselves seem to be getting smaller and fragmented further by publishers who want to sell bits and pieces as DLC.

Honestly, I don't see why we had to leave Gamecube-level graphics. They're perfectly serviceable and at this point we could make truly gargantuan games that look nice instead of gorgeous corridor-fests made up mostly of cutscenes and QTEs. I really want to want a PS4 but a lot of the games I could get for one are on the PS3 and, Wii U. The XBone has a few more exclusives than PS4 but Forza wouldn't like my poor ass, Ryse doesn't want to be played and, Dead Rising 3 is made by Capcom so it's probably already being ported to other consoles. We already know Titanfall 2 and Titanfall DX are going to be multiplat too...but those are multiplayer exclusive and thus not at all for me.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Consoles I think are in trouble. Gaming seems to have completely split in half. Those who like the casual scene go to mobile and tablet gaming those who are hardcore go to PC. Where does that leave consoles??

In the dustbin of history where they belong. PCmasterrace4life!

In all seriousness this AAA drought will eventually fade, despite companies pumping out yearly sequels it can take on average two years for a big budget, graphics heavy game to come out.

Your Xbone price drop aside (which in my opinion doesn't really count as that POS is overpriced due to the Albatross that is the Kinect anyway) the two 'next gen' consoles are doing as well as to be expected.

As for jaw dropping I would like to point you in the direction of 4k gaming combined with the newer TV's that are being produced.

 

[Savagezion]

So where do we go from here, I really don't know where gaming is gonna go do you guys? for the first time in gaming history I honestly believe we have hit the ceiling.

We aren't even close to the ceiling. For graphics, we are close but even then we still aren't there. All I need to say is hair. (Which may prove me wrong later in the generation, not exactly sure what Frostbite is capable of yet.) However, I am hoping the industry gets at least a little smarter and realizes gameplay mechanics make fans loyal while graphics only sell the game. A game with great mechanics makes people want to buy your next game. (Admit it, Obsidian is awesome ) Perhaps now that graphics are getting harder to push in our faces, perhaps now they can actually push awesome design in our face. CoD did exactly that last generation. CoD4 was hands down an awesome new take on online FPS gameplay. Goldeneye was great in its own right but CoD4 made people like me, that don't really like shooters, want to play that shooter.

I give props to Guitar Hero last gen too. It's just a shame that such a good design was squandered for a quick buck only to be left dead on the road just because it "isn't worth the money." (Activision: "Hey fans - tough shit.") Hell, I think artists today should consider selling their new albums as games. 20 bucks for the CD and 25 bucks for the game. Maybe record labels could offer that, I dunno. But seriously, I think there is a market in that idea.

The third person action genre as a whole got a nice boost from Naughty Dog, Epic, and Rocksteady coming out of nowhere. Inspiring the Tomb Raider reboot no doubt. Civ 5 helped the turn based genre as a whole I think. I love how many turn based strategy games hit the market last gen. The AAA market actually got some very unique titles like Heavy Rain, L.A. Noire, Catherine, etc. Plus they all made some decent profits. I want to see Whore of the Orient get finished still. But I am pretty sure it died. I want to see what their second game was. Would be awesome if it 'leaked'.

Even if there is a ceiling and we are at it there is still a whole ocean out there. Games are probably the most flexible media out there.

 

[FPLOON]

Consoles I think are in trouble. Gaming seems to have completely split in half. Those who like the casual scene go to mobile and tablet gaming those who are hardcore go to PC. Where does that leave consoles??

Consoles are for those that are either casually hardcore and/or hardcore in the casual department...

OT: I was going to say to give it a full year or two to start saying that the Xbox One is in "serious trouble". Sure, they've been in trouble in the past, but I wouldn't necessarily label it "serious trouble" since they still have time to bounce back before they dig more holes like the main characters of Holes...

That's right... I'm still saying it's too close to call... Don't sue me...

 

[RandV80]

If you were to actually look at games that released around 2005-2006 and compared them to games from 2011-2013, you would actually see just how far we came in the last 6-7 years. You could also compare those same 2005-2006 games to 6th generation games from 2004-2005 and see that we made almost no significant graphical leap between the late-6th generation and early-7th generation. This isn't anything new to gaming. Yet, regardless of seeing this during the 6th-to-7th generation transition, we still saw considerable graphical upgrades over the course of the 7th generation, and we also saw gaming grow at an exponential rate. With that in mind, it hardly seems like we have anything to worry about just because games aren't wowing us the same way they did when they finally made the transition to 3D graphics.

Yep, I was never impressed when we made the jump from PS2/Xbox to PS3/360, I was expecting a legitimate leap forward like you'd normally see with a console, but the games were more or less the exact same except now in HD for those big screen TV's. Always kind of felt like I was the only one noticing this.

I guess from a consoles war perspectve maybe it was because the 360 had briefly but surely taken center stage from Playstation, so all the Xbox fans had the pom poms out full force while Playstation fans hid in shame, And taking it even further you had the new threat of the Nintendo Wii with it's 'casual' gaming making huge waves in society.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Consoles I think are in trouble. Gaming seems to have completely split in half. Those who like the casual scene go to mobile and tablet gaming those who are hardcore go to PC. Where does that leave consoles??

Console gaming isn't going anywhere.

It's just about to change drastically. What we're seeing is the last justifiable console generation before console become one fuck of a lot more like PCs market wise.

There's no way you can justify another console generation after this with the level of tech we're at. Graphically, it's not going to get any better, and console tech will have no choice but to be as good as a gaming PC by next generation. What we're most likely going to see is the "Sony Box" and the "Microsoft Box". We won't see Sony and MS make console after that. They just be remodelling those consoles and upgrading tech in smaller increments. We're going to see consoles sold like iPads. Every 2 years will be the new editions of "the Box" with updated tech alongside external hard drives.

Consoles won't have major leaps in tech anymore, so I think the market isn't going to see major console announcements in the same way.

 

[NiPah]

Oh hey, it's a thread where:
People talk about the graphical ceiling of current gen graphics
People talk about how much more money games cost and how it's unsustainable
People talk about how much more like PCs gaming consoles are becoming
People talk about how mobile games are taking the market shares from consoles
And as always people talk about how none of those really matter...

I'd complain about how many times I've seen threads like this, but even posts complaining about these threads are becoming cliche.

On the plus side I looked up MAMEs because it sounded interesting, so thread wasn't a complete loss.

 

[st0pnsw0p]

Consoles I think are in trouble. Gaming seems to have completely split in half. Those who like the casual scene go to mobile and tablet gaming those who are hardcore go to PC. Where does that leave consoles??

Console gaming isn't going anywhere.

It's just about to change drastically. What we're seeing is the last justifiable console generation before console become one fuck of a lot more like PCs market wise.

There's no way you can justify another console generation after this with the level of tech we're at. Graphically, it's not going to get any better, and console tech will have no choice but to be as good as a gaming PC by next generation. What we're most likely going to see is the "Sony Box" and the "Microsoft Box". We won't see Sony and MS make console after that. They just be remodelling those consoles and upgrading tech in smaller increments. We're going to see consoles sold like iPads. Every 2 years will be the new editions of "the Box" with updated tech alongside external hard drives.

Consoles won't have major leaps in tech anymore, so I think the market isn't going to see major console announcements in the same way.

I don't think so. Or, at least, I don't think Sony will go down that route. Maybe Microsoft could do that and I have no idea what Nintendo could do.

I think Sony will try to push PSNow until it's the Netflix of gaming in terms of library size and userbase size. They might do some other gaming-related thing on the side, but I think that's going to be their main focus post-PS4.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I actually hope that the power of the new consoles is used for anything at all besides graphical enhancement. We need strides in AI, larger level design without loading screens, more NPCs (imagine if Skyrim's towns looked anything like the lore says they should), and advances in the way we interact with the games.

There have been great games that have a lot of graphical prowess, but they also cost 500 million dollars or some shit to make. Bioshock 1 used a modified Unreal 2 engine, and I can't say that the advancements in moving to 3.0 with Infinite was really worth the extra costs, crunch time, and smaller areas.

Unfortunately, the "hype machine" as it were is always pushing how close they've come to "emulating reality". The PS2 was called the "emotion engine". Killzone 2 used fake bullshit in the name of graphics. We've seen it recently with Watch_Dogs and to a lesser extent Dark Souls 2. The thing is, I've seen visuals and art direction make a game great (Rez, Ni no Kuni, Journey), but I can't think of a game that compensated for shitty mechanics/story/design with eye-popping graphical power.

I'm rather cynical about these "definitive editions" on PS4/X1, I understood HD collections but the OP has a point about the difference seeming a little marginal here. Developers will learn the hardware more, and the best looking stuff is never during the first year or two of a system's launch (if you're into that sort of thing).

It's important to note that all consoles are going to be limited by this fact - they display video onto a flat surface that 95% of the time isn't capable of a resolution higher than 1080p. I think that's why Sony has the right idea with developing an Oculus rival, and why Nintendo's heart was in the right place with the different gimmicks they deployed (likewise for the Kinect, I guess).

Since I babbled on about a bunch of nothing, I'll make my last point. My favorite games ever of all time are Chrono Trigger, Dark Souls, Brothers, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Binding of Isaac. None of them make my eyes bleed when I go back to play them (in fact I think Chrono Trigger still looks gorgeous), and none of them are graphical powerhouses unless you count SotC bringing the PS2 to its knees. Developers should be thinking about how they can use hardware to create experiences, and there's so many areas in need of advancement besides texture quality and lighting engines. This got me thinking about MGS1, particularly that I hadn't played it in like 10 years. In my mind's eye, it looked fucking fantastic, almost realistic even. It was hilarious when I popped in the PS1 disc and saw what I should have been visualizing, something very blocky and blurry by today's standards. The story, characters, and great stealth was what ingrained itself in my mind, and the graphics were just a means to deliver all of that.

Sorry about the general tangent on graphics...I'd say it's too early to call any console "in trouble" yet (at least besides the Wii U), and I wouldn't say a price drop + game inclusion is any kind of sign of defeat. The 3DS didn't take off until the price drop and big game, and Microsoft really did need to do something to narrow the price gap between it and the PS4. If I were to prognosticate though, I just don't see the X1 ever outselling the PS4 this generation but it will do well enough to keep Microsoft in the business if consoles even exist 5-7 years from now.

 

[asdfen]

all the gamers I know have both PC and console(s)
however I am not sold on either xbox1 or ps4 at this time. Its bad set hardware imo and already dated at the time of release. I also dont understand the need of new console especially since games still dont run at 1080p and bare minimum fps at default onx1/ps4. in 2014 I expect 1080p and 30+fps on games. call me crazy. Any budget gaming pc has been able to manage that for years at around the same price range as consoles.

 

[Maximum Bert]

As much as I dislike the Xbox One they are not in serious trouble they were just seriously overpriced they needed to at least match Sonys price and lets not forget the ridiculously overpriced PS3 received a price cut pretty quickly as well.

I will admit that I also have yet to see anything that has blown me away I quite like the new Killer Instinct but the content is pathetic and the price is laughable even with the recent updates they should have kept it back and released it when it was finished. It also dosent look that impressive apart from the particle effects theres really no reason it couldnt run on the 360 with the smallest of downgrades in visuals that wouldnt be noticed anyway.

I also quite like the look of Titanfall but again the content is pathetic oh and that goes for the Metal Gear Solid game that just came out seems like we are going to have to pay more for less this gen. If this trend continues I will just continue abstaining although I am not getting the Xbox One anyway on principle.

Now if Sony cuts the price of the PS4 then they may start feeling the pressure I cant see that happening though with the state of Sonys finances and how well the PS4 is doing sales wise but I do reckon they will make a bundle up to match the Titanfall bundle although there are no games that would tempt me atm.

EDIT: looks like this is coming from retailers and not Microsoft so in that case MS may be in more trouble than I said earlier if they dont officially make the price drop as it seems retailers are struggling to shift the consoles at the recommended price point.