[Archived] Xbox One

[Mike E]

So you think pound shops are a good idea then?

As a student: Hell yeah! Best shops going for most hardware and kitchenware.

[Tom]

Microsoft have back peddled on the drm stuff it looks like

May be a closer battle now

[DE.]

How humiliating for them they've really, really @#/? up and better hope the negative vibe around the X1 clears up now that they've held their hands up and admitted they were wrong.

• No more always online requirement
• The console no longer has to check in every 24 hours
• All game discs will work on Xbox One as they do on Xbox 360
• Authentication is no longer necessary
• An Internet connection is only required when initially setting up the console
• All downloaded games will function the same when online or offline
• No additional restrictions on trading games or loaning discs
• Region locks have been dropped

So basically... "Xbox, erase E3."

[Tom]

I wonder if the game sharing will be left in

[Stuart]

http://kotaku.com/microsoft-is-removing-xbox-one-drm-514390310

http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/19/rumor-claims-microsoft-abandoning-most-of-its-xbox-one-drm-policies/

The big changes are as follows:

- Microsofts new stance will drop the always-online requirement.

- Xbox One will no longer have to check in every 24 hours.

- Game discs will work just as they do on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

- An Internet connection is now only necessary for the initial console setup.

- Microsoft is even drop region locking.

- Rental games are allowed.

[M-K]

I wonder if the game sharing will be left in

Game sharing is gone, it's just like current gen consoles now.

Knock £100 off it and I'll pre-order one.

[Tom]

Game sharing is gone, it's just like current gen consoles now.

Knock £100 off it and I'll pre-order one.

Price won't come down as kinect is still required

Seems like a fairly straight battle now with only the price difference and preference of games being the decider

Ill preorder both on amazon then make a decision I think

[Biddy]

Guess who's going to end up with both and a huge credit card bill

Personally I think its too little too late from Microsoft. Trying to take everyone for mugs.

[DE.]

The thing to remember about the X1 is that they haven't removed the ability of the console to do all the restrictive things they were initially going to implement. If in the future they want to reintroduce these policies then it will be easy enough to do. And let's face it, this is Microsoft we're talking about... how likely is it that they're just going to let this go?

[Tom]

Guess who's going to end up with both and a huge credit card bill

Personally I think its too little too late from Microsoft. Trying to take everyone for mugs.

Ha ha I ended up with all the consoles from the current gen, my main console is the 360 and got the ps3 as a blu ray player but had some great fun with some of the exclusives, and the Wii is just the Wii

Not being a fan of FPS and racing games there is very little in the way or exclusives that appeal either way at the moment so I don't know which way I will go

Lets hope they are more reliable this time around, I must have had 3 or 4 xboxs get the red ring of death (but my Amiga 500+ still works)

[M-K]

The thing to remember about the X1 is that they haven't removed the ability of the console to do all the restrictive things they were initially going to implement. If in the future they want to reintroduce these policies then it will be easy enough to do. And let's face it, this is Microsoft we're talking about... how likely is it that they're just going to let this go?

I don't think it will come back - this is a fundamental change to the way the games were going to be licensed. Originally you'd buy a disc, install it to the hard drive and never touch the disc again unless you took it back to a shop to have the licence transferred.

Now you have to keep the disc in the drive to prove you bought the game - unless you buy it as a download, in which case you can never sell it (you could before). It's a step backwards, in many ways. They wanted to go all digital, basically, and if they'd been allowed to do that then we might have seen prices reduced, as shops got cut out of the equation and the second-hand market became less significant. Look at the price of games on Steam, for example. They wanted a console version of that.

[DE.]

I just can't see MS dropping this entirely. This was quite clearly the direction they wanted to go in, and whilst they've dropped their radical changes for now I fully expect them to reappear in modified/disguised forms in 2 or 3 years time, when the console is established. By then, with the upcoming Steam console likely having taken a chunk out of the market, the policies may not appear as awful as they do now.

[Biddy]

and if they'd been allowed to do that then we might have seen prices reduced, as shops got cut out of the equation and the second-hand market became less significant. Look at the price of games on Steam, for example. They wanted a console version of that.

I don't think so to be honest. Look at the prices of things like FIFA 13 in the Sony or MS online stores and they have consistently been higher then charged by Amazon (or even game) for the disc based version. I honestly don't understand why or indeed why anyone would buy at the inflated prices.

[M-K]

I don't think so to be honest. Look at the prices of things like FIFA 13 in the Sony or MS online stores and they have consistently been higher then charged by Amazon (or even game) for the disc based version. I honestly don't understand why or indeed why anyone would buy at the inflated prices.

I can't imagine many people do choose the download versions, especially for older games that were discounted by Amazon six months earlier.

As far as I'm aware, they have to keep the prices high because undercutting their retail 'partners' would have severe repercussions, such as retailers refusing to stock an item. Microsoft's original plan would have seen retail marginalised and customers pushed towards digital delivery.

People obviously aren't ready to accept digital as the main way to buy console games. Look at PC, though, where digital is pretty much the only way it's done now. People accept some pretty severe restrictions on how and where they can use their games, in exchange for the kind of prices you can only get when you no longer have to support the retail middlemen.

I'm not suggesting we'd have seen any of those 'pay what you feel like' bundles on Xbox One, but they did have a plan where you could give up the licence for a downloaded game in exchange for money off a new one. Digital trade-ins - even Steam doesn't have that.

[DE.]

The thing is, some of MS's policies did have some good potential... they just completely failed to explain them in any reasonable form. They had two chances at the unveiling and at E3 and blew their chance both times.

[Amo]

My thoughts on the whole dealie.

[M-K]

My thoughts on the whole dealie.

You said that they might change the deal in the future, and if you don't accept it you could lose access to all you games. That's simply not true. They changed it so you're buying the disc, not the licence.

When you buy an Xbox One game from a shop, it will be exactly the same as buying an Xbox 360 game, with all the pros and cons - it will be very expensive, because there's a whole retail chain that needs to be paid, and you can sell it back to Game for less than half of what you paid for it two weeks later.

I worked as a games buyer for HMV in the 90s, and we'd typically pay no more than £25 for a Playstation game that sold for £40. I don't know what the current margins are like, but retail certainly took the lion's share back then. Cutting them out is the single biggest way to reduce prices.

[M-K]

[Baz]

With the changes, basically its the same price as the ps4 if you add in the ps eye thingy, only that that is optional.

Its a brave decision, but if either of the companies had gone down the app route of much lower priced games, but no 2nd hand market, i honestly think they would clean up. Imagine how many more copies of the games they would sell at £10-15 for top titles, and £5 for the lower costs / not new games. They would encourage impulse buying, and cut out a lot of the piracy issues too. The digital costs would be massively reduced meaning the distributors and retailers who make up a lot of the margin & costs at present.

Look at the explosion in apps in the past 5 years. Thats the model Id be looking to exploit.

[Amo]

Xbox One vs. PlayStation 4

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[M-K]

So Kinect is no longer compulsory. Is there anything left to distinguish Xbox One from PS4?

[Biddy]

It's still got the Kinect, just because it now doesn't have to be on doesn't stop it being different to the PS4.

To be completely honest though, there's not much difference between the PS3 and the XBox360. Both consoles that play games to a pretty similar standard. There won't be much between the 2 new consoles either when all said and done.

[Baz]

So Kinect is no longer compulsory. Is there anything left to distinguish Xbox One from PS4?

About £80. And a few exclusive games.

[DE.]

Microsoft have come out of this looking like an utter wreck. Proudly announce various new features that you say are going to revolutionise gaming... then proceed to withdraw them all they've made the right decision, for what it's worth, but it's incredible that they've handled the introduction of the new features/hardware so badly. Very amateur from a company that should know better.

[Biddy]

Now the Kinect is not actually required, what's the betting that a Kinect-less version gets released soon after launch to compete on price with the PS4.