Microsoft Xbox Reveal Event - May 21, 2013

[RenegadeRocks]

That video is lacking some emphasis on the dog though...

It felt like copying Fable's dog was a huge achievement or something...

Not just that, they are calling character customisation as an innovation . And dynamic maps existed even in Gears, didn't they ? COD looks bad this time around. Everythinkg felt forced in this whole conference,except for the part when they were explaining the hardware.

 

[GrimThorne]

gaf has a rate the xbox conference poll stickied

so far 47% of people rated it a 1/10. 15% a 2/10, and 13% a 3/10. those were far and away the most popular choices, in fact except for a slight blip at the top, the poll perfectly follows a lower number=more votes model.

this is getting pretty ridiculous. unless people are just doing their usual nonsense of "i heard something about always online no used games 1/10" there's no way that show was that bad.

some site also had a twitter poll, ps4 vs xbone, 86% chose ps4 14% xbone.

like i said, getting just out of hand.

Rangers what were you expecting? Intelligent conversation with witty analysis and a civil tone of respect and admiration? LOL! It's Gaf. That community has been polarized for so long that they are to the point where they are are incapable of recognizing their own petulance. Forget about it.

 

[Cjail]

Not just that, they are calling character customisation as an innovation . And dynamic maps existed even in Gears, didn't they ? COD looks bad this time around. Everythinkg felt forced in this whole conference,except for the part when they were explaining the hardware.

Well new is always relative but at leas they are adding something that wasn't there before.

 

[dagamer]

Gamers online are irrational. I think the mistake wasn't all the Kinect stuff but not realizing how not spending more time on games would send the Internet into a frenzy. Though we all forget people were complaining the Sony press conference was too long at 2.5 hours.

Anyway, most of this will be forgotten after they show off new games at E3.

 

[Rangers]

Gamers online are irrational.

Yeah. It's actually starting to really bother me.

I mean, if we could focus you know, 10% as much energy on actual meaningful things in the world as "ALWAYS ONLINE RAGEEEE!!!!" we could probably solve a lot of the world's real problems.

In the grand scheme of things, a first world console being always online (when there is other competitors to choose anyway! even if it DID matter) is so irrelevant it's almost unimaginable. I mean, really. Yet, I bet a LARGE chunk of internet traffic is dedicated to whining about it.

 

[dagamer]

Yeah. It's actually starting to really bother me.

I mean, if we could focus you know, 10% as much energy on actual meaningful things in the world as "ALWAYS ONLINE RAGEEEE!!!!" we could probably solve a lot of the world's real problems.

In the grand scheme of things, a first world console being always online (when there is other competitors to choose anyway! even if it DID matter) is so irrelevant it's almost unimaginable. I mean, really.

The mood would be completely different if Microsoft showed off a new IP that was the equivalent of Gears of War playable by someone on stage for 2 minutes. Like I said, irrational.

The good news is that they basically explained what Microsoft's 1st party studios have been up to, making 15 exclusive games for the Xbox One. People have been complaining about the lack of 360 games from them last year and this year.

 

[Nesh]

Why do I feel like MS pulled a Nintendo Wii U?
Lets see...Nintendo lost itself by making a console that is basically a PS360Wii with a tablet.

It doesnt give much reason for the PS360 owner to get it because there isnt much of a difference in terms of performance and games. These people wait for the next PS and XBOX instead

It doesnt give much reason for the casual to get it because the tablet is complicated whereas the Wiimote was not and games are either hardcore or not so different from Wii. The casual doesnt care to get better technology. The casual likes playing easy and fan games. He already has Wii and tablets

Nintendo is lost between harcore-casual. What is it trying to do? Offer a tablet-controller-motion control gaming experience? What am I an octopus? It doesnt do any of these any better

Now what MS did?

Another double personality device

A box that doesnt know who its target market is. The TV coach potato or the gamer?

A TV BOX is something the TV coach potato will want....well....can MS convince the TV coach potato to buy XBOXOne?
He wouldnt even care to look because he already has his solutions and the name XBOX alludes to a gaming device. It doesnt replace any of the existing TV devices in the living room. It needs them to communicate so that it changes the way you control your TV experience. By talking to it......FASCINATING. Yeah lets pay $$$ extra so I can talk to my TV. Why would he want to pay premium for that or for games?

The GAME BOX is something the gaming guy will want. Lets see...there is competition.....and the XBOXOne. What is the primary new feature on XBOXOne? TV viewing...because watching TV improves my gaming experience and I just dont have a clue yet how.
What else does it offer? A more powerful kinect....which I already tried and the excitement wore off? The gaming guy isnt interested much to pay premium for a TV feature. Its the games he is after.
And I am not even sure the casual gamer will pay premium for this device either.

And this will make it even worse for EU and other territories where the touted TV integrations cannot be experienced by almost none.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I'm starting to understand that the hardcore gamer is a person that doesn't have interest in anything outside of games. It's not so much the badge of honour they like to think it is. It's more of a negative quality.

That said, I cancelled my cable tv service years ago. For me, the tv features have little value. I'd imagine there are a lot of gamers that are into tv, so I have no idea how this will go over. Not really understanding how tv is being taken as such an offensive addition to the box. It's basically just an extra piece of software. Console gaming and tv watching are done, mostly, form the same seat in the house, so it seems like a fairly natural extension of features.

I thought they tried to do an Apple-ish reveal, but there were too many holes in the story. They needed to show Kinect the way they demoed it to the press after the show. There should have been a lot more talk about Xbox Live and the UI. Maybe those things aren't ready to show yet. No talk of the app ecosystem at all, but there was an apps view on the main UI screen. I think parading a bunch of game demos and cutscene reveals is pretty much the laziest presentation you can do, so I'm happy they tried to do something else, but the execution was off.

I guess they're hoping that they generate interest and E3 will fill in those gaps.

 

[Rangers]

The mood would be completely different if Microsoft showed off a new IP that was the equivalent of Gears of War playable by someone on stage for 2 minutes. Like I said, irrational.

Yeah, that woulda been awesome! They hardly had any gameplay at all.

The sony conference wasn't much better, with the notable exception of solid real gameplay of shadowfall.

Part of me is mad now I have to start yet ANOTHER waiting game to e3 to finally get all that gameplay I crave.

 

[dagamer]

Why do I feel like MS pulled a Nintendo Wii U?
Lets see...Nintendo lost itself by making a console that is basically a PS360Wii with a tablet.

It doesnt give much reason for the PS360 owner to get it because there isnt much of a difference in terms of performance and games. These people wait for the next PS and XBOX instead

It doesnt give much reason for the casual to get it because the tablet is complicated whereas the Wiimote was not and games are either hardcore or not so different from Wii. The casual doesnt care to get better technology. The casual likes playing easy and fan games. He already has Wii and tablets

Nintendo is lost between harcore-casual. What is it trying to do? Offer a tablet-controller-motion control gaming experience? What am I an octopus? It doesnt do any of these any better

Now what MS did?

Another double personality device

A box that doesnt know who its target market is. The TV coach potato or the gamer?

A TV BOX is something the TV coach potato will want....well....can MS convince the TV coach potato to buy XBOXOne?
He wouldnt even care to look because he already has his solutions and the name XBOX alludes to a gaming device. It doesnt replace any of the existing TV devices in the living room. It needs them to communicate so that it changes the way you control your TV experience. By talking to it......FASCINATING. Yeah lets pay $$$ extra so I can talk to my TV. Why would he want to pay premium for that or for games?

The GAME BOX is something the gaming guy will want. Lets see...there is competition.....and the XBOXOne. What is the primary new feature on XBOXOne? TV viewing...because watching TV improves my gaming experience and I just dont have a clue yet how.
What else does it offer? A more powerful kinect....which I already tried and the excitement wore off? The gaming guy isnt interested much to pay premium for a TV feature. Its the games he is after.
And I am not even sure the casual gamer will pay premium for this device either.

And this will make it even worse for EU and other territories where the touted TV integrations cannot be experienced by almost none.

Because they didn't cater to your every whim and desire. Again, this wasn't E3 where you would get the red carpet treatment as a "hardcore" gamer. I do find it disturbing when that group of people basically say "screw the casuals" but seem to forget that they are the majority of the market.

As anyone would have told you as soon as the event was announced, games will come at E3. In fact, Microsoft promised 15 of them by holiday 2014, 8 of which are new IP, but that gets drowned out in the fanboyism. Get excited about that. Get excited about how the system isn't so dreadfully slow anymore switching between tasks. And honestly, all it takes is the same integration of FIFA as shown with the NFL and Europe will perk up (not that far-fetched really). Similarly with baseball in Japan (though I think that's a lost cause already with only 1.7 million out of 77 million 360s sold there).

 

[Kaotik]

The box actually looks bigger than it is - for example the fat PS3 is wider than it

 

[Arwin]

Fortunately, E3 isn't too far off.

Does the box have a power-brick? It sort of gave the impression that the PU is internal this time.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Fortunately, E3 isn't too far off.

Does the box have a power-brick? It sort of gave the impression that the PU is internal this time.

Everyone seems to be saying external because of the type of plug on the back of the console.

 

[DJ12]

And its seen in a wired photo from their teardown.

 

[Jubei]

. And honestly, all it takes is the same integration of FIFA as shown with the NFL and Europe will perk up (not that far-fetched really). Similarly with baseball in Japan (though I think that's a lost cause already with only 1.7 million out of 77 million 360s sold there).

Yeah except it wont happen. Xbox Live 360 in most euro countries lack most of the available US services, and Microsoft had 7 years to change that and they didnt. Its not just Xbox, Bing is completely worthless outside the US, most of the Windows Phone services dont exist outside the US etc

I have more faith in the cloud computing special sauce giving it 5 teraflops of powwah than Microsoft offering the same online services worldwide

 

[Phil]

Because they didn't cater to your every whim and desire. Again, this wasn't E3 where you would get the red carpet treatment as a "hardcore" gamer. I do find it disturbing when that group of people basically say "screw the casuals" but seem to forget that they are the majority of the market.

I don't quite agree. The very first presentation is here to outline what exactly your product is aiming at. Sorry to mention Sony, but at least in the reveal of the PS4 - we effectively had a console revealed in the traditional sense (because it is a console in the traditional sense). All the loops are filled with current experiences. Everything that was left out there, will be bonus but isn't crucial to the grand scheme of who that machine is targeting.

The Xbox presentation main points were the TV features, some kinect stuff, cloud explenations and few games. Logic tells us that there will be games, but the presentation clearly showed that their focus isn't as focused in one area. Makes it IMO even more important that you know how to address the crowd.

I would bet most people at that event have something to do with games - either broad interest or press side. I feel that in the area that matters most, it was an event that left a lot to be desired. Not because the TV stuff isn't interesting, but mainly because the Xbox brand name is associated with gaming which is their prime audience. One way or the other, if you don't cater for them at events such as these, it's not surprising if there will be some backlash or general disinterest.

One things for certain: After todays (well yesterdays) event, I'm actually glad I'm not an Xbox consumer. Aside from the cloud stuff where I see immense potential (and that potential is up in my head, not anything they effectively showed), the rest left me seriously underwhelmed to the point that I simply don't see me as the main target group for this thing (and I'm not talking about the specs). And I'm not saying this as a biased consumer - if Sony would have followed the same path, I'd be equally vocal about it. As a puristic gamer, I think there are a lot of unknows surrounding the future of the Xbox brand.

The new Xbox appeals a lot more to the technology geek in me, then as a gamer.

For the record, I don't think the Xbox will be a bad game console - it's just that at the moment, they haven't portrait is very well. And I think that is a mistake.

 

[MrFox]

The core gamers needs were gimped in order to push non-gaming, casual gaming, and the gimmick features of an expensive peripheral. Sounds familiar, it's what Wii and WiiU did.

If they bundle, and focus on, a peripheral that core games don't want, they obviously have to lower the graphics performance, the specs are telling. This is what makes cores gamers angry, the low performance to pay for features they don't want. They wouldn't care about it if the specs were great.

It's not gamers saying "screw the casuals". It's MS who's saying "screw the core gamers, they'll take what I give them". If they had any respect for their established base, kinect would be optional and the specs would be 50% higher.

 

[Scott_Arm]

The only difference is in horsepower. Wii and Wii U really didn't give any kind of graphical upgrade over what was already available at the time. At least this one is still a significant jump over PS360. I think once the games start showing, they're going to look good.

 

[MrFox]

The only difference is in horsepower. Wii and Wii U really didn't give any kind of graphical upgrade over what was already available at the time. At least this one is still a significant jump over PS360. I think once the games start showing, they're going to look good.

Fair point, I guess if they have a lower price and absorb the BOM of kinect themselves, it could work, core gamers will not feel they get a raw end of the deal if MS convince them they get it "for free".

 

[dragonelite]

The core gamers needs were gimped in order to push non-gaming, casual gaming, and the gimmick features of an expensive peripheral. Sounds familiar, it's what Wii and WiiU did.

If they bundle, and focus on, a peripheral that core games don't want, they obviously have to lower the graphics performance, the specs are telling. This is what makes cores gamers angry, the low performance to pay for features they don't want. They wouldn't care about it if the specs were great.

It's not gamers saying "screw the casuals". It's MS who's saying "screw the core gamers, they'll take what I give them". If they had any respect for their established base, kinect would be optional and the specs would be 50% higher.

Same here make kinect optional release a cheaper sku without kinect cheaper then ps4.
Then im fine with. I don't like the fact kinect monitors me in my room i like my privacy. The online stuff i can life with it internet is pretty stable here in the Netherlands. No used games sucks don't like paying $60 for not owning it and microsoft giving me permission to play it. What if you get banned from live and then how do you play your games on a new account. Have to buy them again

I think microsoft made a huge mistake for going for the living room they should have go for the television screen because we already have like 5 tv here and there is only one tv in the living room.