Xbox one: It might not be *as* bad as you think.

[MrWunderful]

Isn't everything hearsay until official, concrete details are released?

That's the problem. MS almost refuses to explain anything else on the matter, and when they do finally explain something, their responses are so wishy-washy that nobody knows what to believe anymore.

There's a common phrase in the [US] military: "Hope for the best, expect the worst." The numbers that partake in the latter far outweigh those in the former and for good reason.

My question is why are they required to explain anything just yet? A release date has not even been announced yet, and E3 is still a while away.

I never understood the gamer paradigm of "you gave us a little taste of this new game/console, NOW ANSWER OUR EVERY QUESTION ON IT OR YOU ARE THE WORST COMPANY IN THE WORLD AND WE ARE GOING TO SPREAD RUMORS ABOUT HOW TERRIBLE EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING"

 

[TehCookie]

I wouldn't say I came to its defense, just clarified something based on my personal experience in the interest of knowledge for you or anyone reading. I don't run it in the background if I'm not playing anything. I have msconfig setup to not allow it to start when Windows starts, and I only open Steam when I run a game that uses Steamworks. I don't like anything using processor cycles and taking up RAM if I'm not actively using it. I'd say the longest I've gone without connecting, and then launching a game without any internet, is about 2 weeks. If I had previously launched that game before while online, it let me do it.

I really only like it because of the sales. I actively fucking hated it when Half-Life 2 launched, and deemed it as the start of insane DRM and unnecessary roadblocks between me and my PC games. I had dial-up back then, and it took like 2 days before I could launch and play Half-Life 2. The account stayed dormant for years until boxed copies of games used Steamworks as DRM and I had to go back to using it in order to play those games.

To clarify, I don't like what Steam represents, or how Valve held Half-Life 2 ransom to force our hands into installing a separate program, or the gamification/trading card crap and how it's become the Xbox Live of PC gaming. But it's one of those "I pretty much have to use it a lot, and it could be a hell of a lot worse" kind of things. What makes the thing about boxed copies using Steamworks even funnier is that the DRM sucks as far as protection goes. It's a security blanket at best, like paper armor against a Dark Souls drake. But I digress, and probably clarified and qualified myself to much farther an extent than was necessary.

And to think I thought I finally knew the reason why Steam enjoyed fucking me over. Now I have no idea why Steam hates me and will work for you.

 

[SageRuffin]

My question is why are they required to explain anything just yet? A release date has not even been announced yet, and E3 is still a while away.

I never understood the gamer paradigm of "you gave us a little taste of this new game/console, NOW ANSWER OUR EVERY QUESTION ON IT OR YOU ARE THE WORST COMPANY IN THE WORLD AND WE ARE GOING TO SPREAD RUMORS ABOUT HOW TERRIBLE EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING"

All anybody wants is some answers. MS had the prime opportunity to debunk some of the more damning rumors at the reveal - a few quick one-off statements that might've taken a full 5 minutes out of the program - but they didn't even try to address any of that. Instead they devoted almost the entire program to clamoring on about a bunch of stuff the average gamer could give a fuck less about, assuming said gamer had any fucks to give in the first place.

Remember, the gaming populace at large is a very loud, very angry, very impatient bunch. All you need to do is look at the recent kerfuffles with Tomb Raider, DmC, and ME3 to confirm that. And, dare I say, it's human nature to expect something to be fixed immediately if there's something wrong with it.

Again, all people want is some answers to the rumors/reports. MS seems to be going out of their way to not confirm or deny anything, so people are getting impatient and fearing the worst.

 

[Madman123456]

The 360 is basically a multimedia machine. So is the PS3.

True, they are now. They where marketed as gaming machines. Focus on the gaming part.
Any machine that was marketed as being capable to do all of the things you can already do better with other devices failed pretty badly.
Most of your netflix watching friends probably bought the console because they wanted to play games. I doubt anyone says "this netflix on the xbox thing is so convenient, i'll have to buy that!"


If microsoft marketed the xbox360 as something you can watch netflix People would've just waited until the price went down. Doing something that you already can do in a way that might be more convenient wont sell units. Telling people they'll be able to play entirely new games may just do that.

 

[patsavanna]

Everyone has a pretty good point when comparing xbox one to steam. However, I believe there is a bottom line to this argument and that is you don't pay $500+ for steam. It is true that hard copies of games go through steam but you don't pay steam for their permission to play it after you have bought the game. It is also true that steam locks the game to your account but according to what i understand (I might be mistaken) is most hard copies of games that operate through steam is $20 or less. So its cheap enough for almost anyone to buy. However, when i compare xbox one, we're talking $50+ games and i don't know about anyone here but, I prefer to at least test out a game before I Spend the said $50+ to buy it. And more often then not, I borrow the game from a friend to get a taste of it. There is one plus side to xbox one doing this. And that is if someone were to break into my home and steal all my games, then that guy will never be able to play them lol.
DISCLAIMER: All that was said above is assuming that all information from the previous posters is correct and if said information does turn out to be true then GO PLAYSTATION!!! LOL!!

 

[WeepingAngels]

Steam is a great model, and MS should use it. Like steam, when people buy a game off Xboxlive, they dont moan that they cant lend it to a friend. Ever. People accept this is the case as its digital. When you are told you cant lend a physical disc that you bought and own - then thats just wrong.

I can't loan anyone my physical copy of Skyrim.