MS E3 2012 conference

[Squilliam]

I think Microsoft is really starting to 'get' the idea behind a conference like this. I believe that they're moving beyond the idea of trying to appease a bunch of gaming journos and moving towards the idea of making the actual expo a show you and I would like to watch. I think that they think that the true 'value' of this press conference is to first entertain people and then use that attention to sell products and services. I wouldn't be surprised if next year they handed the whole thing off to a proffessional and let him/her do the talking.

In regards to whether or not Durango will see a 2013 release I noticed that they had a distinct absence of Rare, Lionhead was a spinoff type game and Forza 3 was again a spinoff. The rest of their first party lineup was from smaller studios and therefore not significant. If they do release next year then I would expect a full mainline Forza game on release, a couple of Rare titles for mainstream/family appeal and perhaps something from Lionhead on top of any specific third party releases. They don't seem to be bringing much in the way of content from their first party studios, especially with respect to the technical side of development, Halo excepted.

 

[Rangers]

This goes to show how jaded we gamers are becoming, methinks. A few years ago we were having to put a hardcore Mod watch on E3 discussion. This year, I hadn't really realised the conference was this week!

Nobody even bothered to make a thread for the Sony conference. I mean wow.

I am not sure why this malaise seems to be effecting console gaming I have a few thoughts. One option is that next gen is needed for new excitement. The "we're getting too old" thing may apply to a small forum like B3D but shouldn't apply in general since you know, new future 12 year olds are born every day lol.

 

[Billy Idol]

Nobody even bothered to make a thread for the Sony conference. I mean wow.

I am not sure why this malaise seems to be effecting console gaming I have a few thoughts. One option is that next gen is needed for new excitement. The "we're getting too old" thing may apply to a small forum like B3D but shouldn't apply in general since you know, new future 12 year olds are born every day lol.

Problem is: no games, no excitement! I am a gamer, thus interested in games! E3 conferences do not focus on games anymore...no real
interest, just browse through youtube or gametrailers to find the interesting gaming vids

 

[Arwin]

Nobody even bothered to make a thread for the Sony conference. I mean wow.

I am not sure why this malaise seems to be effecting console gaming I have a few thoughts. One option is that next gen is needed for new excitement. The "we're getting too old" thing may apply to a small forum like B3D but shouldn't apply in general since you know, new future 12 year olds are born every day lol.

I made a thread the last few times, but while I considered getting up at 3am, my wife kept me up until 2am (unintentionally) so by the time I did manage to fall asleep I made sure I'd not wake up again at 3am. So far I've only managed to watch the beginning with Beyond: Two Souls (which looks good), but work is very busy so I have to get back to that.

 

[Nesh]

Can someone explain me what the smartglass exactly does?

I missed the conference and I cant seem to find specific details about it.

Does it offer substantial interaction between the console and tablet/smartphone or is it just streaming of content?

Also how exactly does the console communicate with portable devices? Infrared? Wifi?

 

[Billy Idol]

Can someone explain me what the smartglass exactly does?

I missed the conference and I cant seem to find specific details about it.

Does it offer substantial interaction between the console and tablet/smartphone or is it just streaming of content?

Also how exactly does the console communicate with portable devices? Infrared? Wifi?

Well, as far as I understand, it offers substantial interaction! While you can stream stuff and get additional information in your tablet while watching a movie...they also showed a football game, where you use the tablet to setup a new attack and stuff...in real time watching the outcome.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Can someone explain me what the smartglass exactly does?
I missed the conference and I cant seem to find specific details about it.
Does it offer substantial interaction between the console and tablet/smartphone or is it just streaming of content?
Also how exactly does the console communicate with portable devices? Infrared? Wifi?

AFAICT it's more a protocol and app for sharing content across devices. You can have a piece of content like a game or film showing on one device (XB360) and have buddy content accessible on the touch device. Most importantly, the touch device can send data to the console, so we get the Madden example where you can set up plays on the pad and then execute them in the game.

It should be easy to set up some UIs and stuff for use on pads, allowing for more intuitive interaction in a complex UI like FIFA while offering exactly the same functionality to non-pad-owning gamers. It'd be a gamble to design a game dependent on a touch device though, which is where Wuu has a significant advantage.

Sony haven't announced similar, only saying PlayStation Suite has been rebranded PlayStation Mobile. So this area of cross device interactive is all MS's at the moment.

 

[rabidrabbit]

For video media Smart Glass seems to offer similar interaction as to what you currently can have with various "second screen apps" for Blu-ray movies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/may/11/apps-ipad
The advantage with SG is of course that you'd have just one app.

Seen that, done that... wasn't for me, really. I rather just watch the movie undistracted by some extra screen craving my attention instead of the film. Maybe for second time watching, but usually I've read all the extra information from the internet more conveniently. Also the Blu-ray extras are more entertaining and easier to watch than some multimedia presentation.

Maybe this is more for those Netflix, Hulu and what there is... they're very limited availability outside U.S. anyway, so... seems mainly a U.S. thing.

The possibility to continue watching a film seamlessly in another device after you've paused watching it in one. Pretty much what you can already to if you have netflix, Hulu or some other streaming service, am I correct? Also I've done more or less that already with my iPad and Air Play or some third party app like "Stream to me", if the media is on my PC or network drive.

SG for gaming, Now this seems more interesting.
I've already used my iPad for browsing tips and guides while playing, but that does not require Smart Glass.
Interactive maps on the other hand could be nice, so your iPad would replace the on-screen map. Using the pad as a controller does not really get me excited at all, you do need those analog joysticks for any serious gaming.
Also the demo they showed of Madden where you'd be able to change formations on the pad while playing... I think it still would be more convenient to do on the same screen where you play the game. Especially as the screen is not integrated in the controller, like WiiU, you'd need to put down the main controller, pick up the pad, look away from the main screen... nah, just like using a touch device as a TV remote controller just doesn't work even though it looks cool and exciting tech on paper and presentations.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Seen that, done that... wasn't for me, really. I rather just watch the movie undistracted by some extra screen craving my attention instead of the film.

I agree. We look stuff up after the film.

The possibility to continue watching a film seamlessly in another device after you've paused watching it in one. Pretty much what you can already to if you have netflix, Hulu or some other streaming service, am I correct? Also I've done more or less that already with my iPad and Air Play or some third party app like "Stream to me", if the media is on my PC or network drive.

Seemlessly throwing any content from device to device is a step up though.

Especially as the screen is not integrated in the controller, like WiiU, you'd need to put down the main controller, pick up the pad, look away from the main screen... nah, just like using a touch device as a TV remote controller just doesn't work even though it looks cool and exciting tech on paper and presentations.

I generally agree. However, some console UI's are really sucky with controllers, just like web browsing. The potential for new ideas is very good (perhaps an old-skool Molyneux God game where you can play as an avatar and interact with the world map?) or for team play, with one person on the tablet and the others in the game. Games that extend to your mobile phone in some form (talked about for this gen before it started. Whatever happened to that idea...) would also be novel, although web-based services can handle that. I think most importantly MS have a differentiator to attract attention, even if people end up not using it.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Seemlessly throwing any content from device to device is a step up though.

Agree, though the other of those South Park guys pretty much nailed it
Personally, I very very rarely feel the need to stop watching something on my TV, continue watching it on my iPad and watch the rest of it on my iPhone.
Only example that comes to my mind where it would be cool, is if I'm following some TV show after it's aired and I'm behind many seasons. It would actually be quite cool if I could seamlessly watch episode after episode in any device and those devices would remember where I was in the season or even an episode. For example, currently I'm catching up on "How I met your mothre", started from season 1, and I always forget what was the episode number I last watched. ...of course the show would need to be purchased digitally for it to work, I still prefer to buy my movies and TV shows on discs.

 

[Gubbi]

Just replicating the screen of a tablet / computer has a lot of utility.

At work, my boss uses his iPad+Apple TV and a 65" TV set for the short daily/weekly morning meetings. Smart glass offers the same functionality, but from multiple tablet vendors.

At home it has even more utility, since you can use your XBox+TV to view whatever streaming content you computer/tablet has access to, and not just Zune/Net Flix + all you locally stored media and programs.

Cheers

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Have you seen people claiming otherwise?
Because being dramatic is nice but there still is a need for a drama

I don't really get either you're joking or not, but:

1-

A nice is thing is that " xbox smartglass" works with any OSes.
It's official the Wiiumote is already outdone. Smart phones are everywhere in every hand. games developers can rely on it as it's ubiquitous.

2-

SmartGlass definitely looks like a very potent play by Microsoft and a pretty good pro-active blow against Nintendo in the process.

3-

SmartGlass has lots of potential. WiiU is less interesting now.

4-

(...)
Smart Glass - it will steal some thunder but I really dislike the open platform aspect of it (I Kind hate the PC still dont behave, "closed platforms" are much more productive, it reminds me a bit of Linux), lots of pressure on Wii U price, still I have doubts on it, maybe I am just to much of a Nintendo fan.

Again: from what I've seen, what the Smartglass does is little more than a WiFi Media controller (wihch is cool in a console but we've had that for Android/Symbian/iOS + HTPCs for years), and being able to navigate through game-specific stuff like a web browser.

It's not an additional imput method for the X360 games, the games aren't streamed to the tablet and it's not bundled in the console. It does a tiny portion of what the Wii U's controller can do, but It's nothing like the real thing.
It's like claiming a chinese 7" android tablet with a 800*480 resistive screen is going to kill the ipad because everyone can afford 60€ for that tablet and few people can afford 500€ for the ipad.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't really get either you're joking or not, but:

they weren't saying this was a direct rival to Wuupad, but it offers plenty fo the benefits making Wuupad less unique,

It's not an additional imput method for the X360 games.

Except it is. They give the explicit example of playing Madden and using a pad to input a play. It lacks the integration of Wuupad, although I'm sure someone will produce a controller with a smartphone dock. Otherwise it's a good move to capture some of Wuu's potential while leveraging people's existing devices, deferring the cost of imlpementing touch-screen interfaces away from the cost of the console, and possibly extending the console experience to handhelds similarly to PS3's remote play, which is something Wuu can't do because the touch interface is tied to the controller.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I think people just need to get over the idea that you're going to see a ton of games announced during these E3 presentations. It hasn't been like that for a while, because companies announce their games all year round on gametrailers, IGN, their own sites, Spike TV awards, other trade shows etc. There's really nothing for hardcore gamers to worry about.

 

[jonabbey]

A piece on The Verge (http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/5/3064855/microsoft-xbox-smartglass-preview) mentions that it's not clear how much functionality will be available on non Windows tablets / phones, in particular on iOS devices where Apple gets to decide what kind of functionality they want to allow MS to provide.

SmartGlass reminds me of what Microsoft did with the early Android devices on Verizon. MS made a deal with Verizon that guaranteed that the default search engine on Android phones was Bing, thereby interposing themselves into the software stack so that they could siphon off revenues.

I'm not sure whether Apple would cotton to having that done to them with SmartGlass.

 

[JB9861]

wut? 60million Xboxes hundreds of millions Android/IOS devices.. only way to do it.

The Wii U could be the biggest apocalpyse of modern times at this rate. Tech is advancing too fast for Nintendo to stay relevant

They'll live to fight another day because they're going to be making money just like the GameCube days. That's what they do. Unfortunately it's hard to follow up consoles like the Wii, PS2, etc. Nowhere to go but down. Their market share is going to evaporate next round in all likelihood.

 

[AlNom]

Folks: "<insert opinion> art direction" can be debated until I delete the forum at the end of time, so just accept that you have different preferences for art and stop messing with the thread topic.

 

[pjbliverpool]

I happen to really like those two games...and PC gaming is not generally for me. Plus the imo superior controller,

Last time I checked I have 2 xbox 360 controllers sitting on top of my PC. I'm pretty sure they work with it too.

 

[Gubbi]

SmartGlass reminds me of what Microsoft did with the early Android devices on Verizon. MS made a deal with Verizon that guaranteed that the default search engine on Android phones was Bing, thereby interposing themselves into the software stack so that they could siphon off revenues.

I'm not sure whether Apple would cotton to having that done to them with SmartGlass.

Ultimately the SmartGlass client is just similar to a virtual desktop app for XBox with some extra local frills. Apple would have a hard time arguing why it shouldn't approve it for their app-store (as in anti-competitive legislation hard). We already have iOS apps that remote desktop to Windows.

If anything it removes an incentive to buy a Windows 8 tablet if you can stick with your iPad.

Cheers

 

[Rockster]

SmartGlass is essentially an updated version of the Xbox Companion app which already exists on the iTunes and Google Play stores, however the game integration is currently only available as part of the Waypoint app ("Atlus" which is integrated with Read) and is on Windows Phone only. SmartGlass requires a dashboard update to be released this fall and opens up the api's to 3rd party developers.