Microsoft Xbox Reveal Event - May 21, 2013

[Scott_Arm]

Sounds like a fanboy apologising for MS.

If bkilian of all people wasn't happy with the direction his division was forced to go down by management, why should we be?

Because you are an adult and you can make your own decisions about what you like and what you do not like?

 

[ERP]

No offense to bkillian, but he was one employee, who didn't agree with the direction of a project he was working on.
I've been there, and I've been on the other side of it. I wouldn't read too much into it.
Being on a project you generally have a somewhat myopic view of it, generally heavily colored by the areas and people you interact with on a regular basis.
If you have a pattern with a lot of employees bailing you can read something into it, even better if you have people in contact with the project, but not directly involved they generally have a clearer view of the project than people on it.

 

[keenism]

Yes someone with a differing opinion is bitter and entitled, or maybe they are open to better and cheaper(or free) options.

And earlier in this thread I posted about running my own dedicated server, with the expected retort.... But no I don't care for a server on their hardware, I mean MY server on MY hardware with my own custom map rotation, mods if I wish, admin rights to play with gravity, friction and all sorts of fun nonsense...not that this was ever something we could do on consoles I hoped it would surface...

And there is a huge question of ownership in this whole thing some people apparently don't understand or don't care about? I'm not sure, maybe someone who can post more eloquently can carry on about it.

 

[keenism]

Because you are an adult and you can make your own decisions about what you like and what you do not like?

So you would enjoy "suits with $$$ signs in their eyes" running a project you actually care about making as great as possible and apparently driving it in a different direction?

 

[RobertR1]

Hey, don't bring me into it. Not being happy with management was only one small part of why I left, and that was mostly about always connected and how they seemed to be completely blind to any criticism of the idea. And how HDMI in was going to magically control your whole entertainment system (Looks like they caught on and are now using IR Blasting, which is notoriously unreliable). And how they wanted you to put the box between your receiver and your TV, despite the fact that would be an unworkable setup audio wise.

I loved working in the team. The kind of stuff we did with Kinect was hardcore computer science awesomeness, and seeing the theory turn into reality was amazing. The people in the trenches building this product are some of the best I've ever worked with. I would work with any one of them again, in a heartbeat. The new Kinect is even more amazing, and if it even meets half it's potential, gaming will not be the same.

It's kind of funny how Kinect 2.0 is seeming sliding under the radar in wake of the other attention grabbers (always online, cloud, TV...) but to me, that seems to be the real leap vs anything that was available in previous generations.

Kinect V1 to V2, to me, seems more of a jump than even the console specs in going form 360 to ONE.

 

[MrFloopy]

So you would enjoy "suits with $$$ signs in their eyes" running a project you actually care about making as great as possible and apparently driving it in a different direction?

Welcome to working for someone else.

You can, as bkilian did, always leave and work on a project that does follow the direction you desire if you have those options available to you. Not everyone does.

Of course if you want to work on just what you want to and have control over this, then start your own independent studio etc.

I don't see any correlation to this and the success or validity of a given project though.

 

[MrFloopy]

It's kind of funny how Kinect 2.0 is seeming sliding under the radar in wake of the other attention grabbers (always online, cloud, TV...) but to me, that seems to be the real leap vs anything that was available in previous generations.

Kinect V1 to V2, to me, seems more of a jump than even the console specs in going form 360 to ONE.

I agree. Having had an opportunity to play with some primesense gear, I was somewhat ready for where this was going to go. The muscle force demo blew me away though. I hope they release an SDK for this one as well as I have some interesting biomechanical analysis opportunities I'd like to pursue with this.

 

[(((interference)))]

Hey, don't bring me into it. Not being happy with management was only one small part of why I left, and that was mostly about always connected and how they seemed to be completely blind to any criticism of the idea. And how HDMI in was going to magically control your whole entertainment system (Looks like they caught on and are now using IR Blasting, which is notoriously unreliable). And how they wanted you to put the box between your receiver and your TV, despite the fact that would be an unworkable setup audio wise.

I loved working in the team. The kind of stuff we did with Kinect was hardcore computer science awesomeness, and seeing the theory turn into reality was amazing. The people in the trenches building this product are some of the best I've ever worked with. I would work with any one of them again, in a heartbeat. The new Kinect is even more amazing, and if it even meets half it's potential, gaming will not be the same.

Of course MS's engineers and programmers are great and we all appreciate the work they do - I am in no way critcising them. However, you've said before that the old management made up of mostly tech people and gamers (and which understood them) has been replaced by 'MBA's with $ signs in their eyes" and that their decisions reminded you of your time on the KIN team.

So regardless of exactly why you left, you do not have a high opinion of whoever is now steering the Xbox ship and that corroborates what we saw in the reveal and what MS is doing this time around.

 

[Scott_Arm]

So you would enjoy "suits with $$$ signs in their eyes" running a project you actually care about making as great as possible and apparently driving it in a different direction?

That's a decision of bkilian's employment. I don't work there. And I don't particularly care. All I care about is whether the end product is something I want. If I worked there, it would be different, because I'd have a different investment. Xbox One might not suit my wants, so I might not buy it. That's all there is to it. I'm perfectly capable of making my own decision as to whether it is worth buying, without that being coloured by someone else's work history.

 

[AzBat]

Give it a freaking rest. Leave him be. Thanks bkilian for your efforts on this board. I don't envy all the attention you're getting though. Have a beer on me.

Tommy McClain

 

[Reiko]

Honest opinion: Not feeling the Xbox One direction at all. It's a bittersweet choice since it also means parting ways with great IPs like Forza and Halo:/

This was everything bkilian alluded to previously and seeing the conference on the 21st left a bad taste in my mouth.

Maybe I'll come back to whatever the Xbox's direction is years down the line... It just isn't a day one for me at all.

 

[Rangers]

Even if you're joking, this word is as awful as "Game-Changer" and should be banned from the internet.

it should be used a lot more, cause it's so true...

 

[AstoundingHolmes]

Yes someone with a differing opinion is bitter and entitled, or maybe they are open to better and cheaper(or free) options.

And earlier in this thread I posted about running my own dedicated server, with the expected retort.... But no I don't care for a server on their hardware, I mean MY server on MY hardware with my own custom map rotation, mods if I wish, admin rights to play with gravity, friction and all sorts of fun nonsense...not that this was ever something we could do on consoles I hoped it would surface...

And there is a huge question of ownership in this whole thing some people apparently don't understand or don't care about? I'm not sure, maybe someone who can post more eloquently can carry on about it.

Not that it's particularly relevant, but I believe Warhawk on PS3 let you do just that.

On topic, it is a bit of a shame to see XBO get steamrolled the way it has. Mostly because I think MS and its engineers deserve a pat on the back for the tech going into it. The VM setup is clever and forward thinking. Kinect looks fantastic. And the UI is pretty slick. I mean it's understandable that there's a huge knee jerk over the threat (perceived or otherwise) to gaming consumers' rights, especially when many feel abused over the business practices of the current gen, but it'd be nice if there was some separation between the two. Hopefully, it won't end up like motion controls, where most now see it as a gimmick, because Nintendo's implementation was half baked and didn't show that there's real and legitimate potential there.

 

[Scott_Arm]

It's kind of funny how Kinect 2.0 is seeming sliding under the radar in wake of the other attention grabbers (always online, cloud, TV...) but to me, that seems to be the real leap vs anything that was available in previous generations.

Kinect V1 to V2, to me, seems more of a jump than even the console specs in going form 360 to ONE.

I have a feeling E3 is going to be pretty good for MS if they can deal with the used game issue and the online connection "issue". The tinfoil-hat people that believe MS is going to videotape them with Kinect are beyond hope, and will probably be institutionalized, or die from an inability to care for themselves. MS doesn't need to worry about them. People are painting this thing as the second coming of the Wii, as if a software solution for watching tv means it is somehow going to be terrible at games, like those two things are mutually exclusive. Xbox One will be a big jump from the 360 in terms of graphics. It should have the processing power and memory to do a lot of interesting things. Yeah, it won't be top of the line in that regard, but it's not going to be the dog that Wii was. They'll show games and they'll show Kinect. It'll all be new. If we get the boxing game we want, I'm sold based on that alone.

 

[AzBat]

I'm in awe at the number of folks on this board that have privacy issues with the Kinect camera. Most of you are highly intelligent tech guys & you have a problem with a camera that you think is there to spy on you 24 hours a day when you're in your underwear? LOL If there were that big of privacy issues with it there would have been all kind of consumer rights activists looking to get the device banned & removed from homes. You guys have clearly have nothing to worry about. Go back to worrying about something more important than that. LOL

Tommy McClain

 

[Miksu]

The Halo team is using a cloud compute system. Maybe significant, maybe not.

Scott Hanselman did a podcast about that subject early this year: Halo 4 - Services in Azure with Caitie McCaffrey

 

[eastmen]

Has anyone seen a size mock up of the xbox 360 original / slim and xbox one (maybe a ps3 added in)

 

[Nisaaru]

right on queue:

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/05/xbox-one-gaming/

Say what you want about MS but they do seem to understand PR and getting their message out there. My guess we'll see a trickle of these sorts of articles from consumer electronic blogs and gaming journalist up until release. I doubt any other platform could get away with it....

Do you really see this as "understanding" PR? Even if I try to keep out my really negative bias of the product I felt the PR really bad handled. For such an event you need to know what message you want to send and be aware of how it is perceived.
But the message(s) they sent were unclear and chaotic where they either caused the impression that they didn't know or hadn't thought about issues before so their answers felt "improvised". Some might even think they were coached to give out all these conflicting messages because they knew their messages wouldn't be received well.

A few messages which rubbed me wrong after thinking about it. XBox One on one hand should say "unified" but on the other hand it erases the whole history of the XBox products by declaring it as the *first*. Some people might feel slighted by it "unintentionally".

50+ year old mom type managers also sent the exact wrong message to the fan base. You wouldn't let R. Nixon open the Woodstock festival either. You need people which relate to its target audience either by their history or by their personality.

 

[bkilian]

I have a feeling E3 is going to be pretty good for MS if they can deal with the used game issue and the online connection "issue". The tinfoil-hat people that believe MS is going to videotape them with Kinect are beyond hope, and will probably be institutionalized, or die from an inability to care for themselves. MS doesn't need to worry about them. People are painting this thing as the second coming of the Wii, as if a software solution for watching tv means it is somehow going to be terrible at games, like those two things are mutually exclusive. Xbox One will be a big jump from the 360 in terms of graphics. It should have the processing power and memory to do a lot of interesting things. Yeah, it won't be top of the line in that regard, but it's not going to be the dog that Wii was. They'll show games and they'll show Kinect. It'll all be new. If we get the boxing game we want, I'm sold based on that alone.

Did you see the Kinect demo with the muscle man stuff? It looks tailor made for a boxing game, complete with force indicators, stress indicators so they know if you're planting your feet right, and everything. It blew me away, it's easily a generational leap from Kinect one. Like comparing an Atari joystick to a dual stick gamepad. That's what having a ton of memory lets you do.

 

[(((interference)))]

The new Kinect tech was far and away the most impressive thing about the launch.