Microsoft Xbox Reveal Event - May 21, 2013

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The way I see it we have two different consoles that don't even compare. Both trying to achieve different things both likely to succeed.

And I believe you see it wrong. MS is just going with the experience first and they will bring the games to E3. And if you don't think Sony wants casuals perhaps you could explain the move sensor and the cameras. They are both aiming for the same thing just a slight variance on how to get there.
 
Sony does not want to own the living room. Having been there and failed at doing that. Ms do and have gone a step further in the process.
 
because Laa-yosh pointed out some obvious bias?

I really don't think it's fair or constructive to bring up bias. The overal criticism directed at Microsoft has been leveled and for the most part presented in an unbiased, constructive way. If there are posts here and there and in between that don't meet the general expectations here at Beyond3d, there is the report button for Mods to deal with them. Or simply ignore them, like most senior respected forum members should be doing.

I've been a PlayStation customer since pretty much the beginning, but I don't believe this makes me biased or blind to discuss the reveal event of a competitor, who's ultimately fighting for my money and interest as well. What I find far more interesting is the criticism by usually more out-spoken Xbox consumers since their reveal. IMO, this shows, to some extend, that no matter how many logical reasons there were for doing things the way Microsoft did at their unreveal event, it obviously didn't exactly paint the picture most were hoping for. Heck, if roles had been reversed, I'd be as equally vocal about it, if not more, because I would hate to see my console of choice to be going in directions that pose little interest to me.

It's great that Microsoft is willing to spend a billion on new games. But this information is pretty worthless without actually knowing what they are exactly spending it on, which is a bit the point some are making here. It, to me at least, sounds like a bit of damage control after an event that perhaps set a bit of a wrong impression.

Looking at how they chose the hardware, what trade-offs they made and everything they have shown us this far, makes it pretty clear that Microsoft is indeed going after a bigger audience this time - one not only interested in games, but a market far beyond it. This would be okay with most, I bet, if most didn't feel they were doing it at the expense of their prime interest.

Considering the direction they are taking, I wouldn't be surprised (I'm not taking anything for granted just yet) if they lose a substantial share of Xbox consumers to the PC or their nearest competitor. Does this mean they won't be successful? Of course not. Nintendo showed how successful one can be by taking a completely different approach to the console business. They might have lost a lot of their GameCube userbase in the process, but they gained millions in a more casual market and trumped the odds.

That doesn't mean that existing Xbox owners (or at the time GameCube owners) need to be happy about it.
 
Well their 7 year old console is $200 . I'd suspect $400 for the xbox one vs $500 for the ps4.

Apples to apples, it is $400 now for a 360 with a HD and Kinect. The XB1 has a 500GB HD and Kinect 2. I agree, $399 is a competitive target and that will likely come with a loss.
 
Welcome to the world of...

- Turn based strategy gamers.
- Turn based RPG gamers.
- Flight simulation gamers.
- Space simulation gamers.
- Many other almost dead gaming genres from the past...

Just think, at one time, Flight Simulations were one of the top 3 game genres on PC. Now? It's barely alive.

Etc. It's interesting that when the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, Saturn, PS1, etc. were all out, PC gamers considered all of them as casual gamers because games on those systems were so simplistic and easy (except for platformers as PC really didn't have platformers back then) compared to existing PC games of the time.

Consoles were considered in the same light as the Nintendo Wii, only for casual gamers.

It's funny that current console gamers are considered core or hardcore. Compared to PC gamers from the 80's and early 90's the console gamers of today would have been considered casual or ultra-casual.

The games industry continues to evolve. Without radically increasing the price of games, the only way for the games industry to survive is to broaden the appeal of games to draw in more people.

This is now happening with hardware as well. In order for the "core" game market to survive at the current price point that "core" gamers demand (60 USD games, etc.) then the console manufacturers have to do something to bring in more revenue.

Without pursuing more casual people and media services, the "core" game market might just disappears in a similar way to how the Flight Simulation market has virtually disappeared.

Going back to what I mentioned above. The market for Flight Simulation gamers couldn't grow as quickly as the PC game industry or even more importantly with the cost of developing those extremely hardcore games. Now it's just a blip on the PC gaming radar. "Core" games aren't in that dire situation yet, but I'm sure console makers and game publishers have noticed how quickly casual gaming has been embraced on the internet (Popcap style browser games), Wii, and now smartphones.

Those are virtually untapped game markets (Kinect had some success with the Wii casuals) that I'm sure Sony and Microsoft would love to tap into.

So, basically, for the "core" game market to survive, both companies are going to have to find ways to attract non-"core" gamers into not only buying their system but buying services (media or games) on their system.

Regards,
SB
Flight simulation and Space simulation (just a demo that I loved btw) games are the only genres from your list I actually played a few years ago, and yes, I haven't seen one of them ever since, they seem to be gone forever.

Not that they ever boomed but they certainly went into a deep recession.

The only flight simulation game I ever purchased was Super Eurofighter (by DID). What a game!

I was a kid then and I was awestruck just by reading the manual of the game. A 300+ pages manual which could easily be part of a encyclopaedia.:oops:

It was a manual about avionics and models of planes, fighter planes, stealth planes, etc etc.

I gotta admit I read the manual, I was so fascinated by that stuff. The game was also fun, and everything happened in real time.

You could be traveling to a place or in a escort mission, AWACS mission, intercept mission, etc etc, and while flying you had the option to see what was happening around.

The AI handled all the planes in real time, and you could see the SU-35 (the most dangerous of the Russian planes), and others, taking off and so on and so forth.

The most difficult aspect of the game for me was getting used to the multiple keyboard shortcuts. There were so many. I could never ever land a plane safely, for some reason.

As I said I was a kid and I found out by sheer chance that I could edit the files the AI used to know which planes were functional and which ones were MIA.

By simply using the classic Windows Notepad I sent all the SU-35 to oblivion. I had never won a 1vs1 against them, once they were on my six I was fried. :cry:

The game is on GoG, I think.

Back into the subject of core gamers...

The last paragraph of your post makes me think about why consoles are designed as they are nowadays, and that's because all the potential those casual gamers have.

Some core gamers just want a powerful machine though and think that all this money is being wasted, adding to this that ultimately to them the idea of gaming itself is being lost.

It's some kind of isolation for them, but times have changed and core gamers need new blood. -what @Laa Yosh said about people with families and so on-.

Aside from that, it is interesting to debate about the semantics of what a core gamer might be… I think that there are sections within the term.

There is certainly an extreme layer at the very very core…

I consider myself a core gamer judging by the number of games I have, but sometimes I just don't play those games as much as I'd like to.

In my opinion, me (and maybe you too?) are more like the "serious enthusiast" who buys lloads of games in certain styles and genres and as you can see in the forums, gathers A LOT of information about games or a game over a particularly long period of time.
 
I can see Microsoft fronting a billion dollars for a handful of AAA titles, essentially taking the publisher role ... sinking a billion dollars just to get them exclusive not so much.
 
Apples to apples, it is $400 now for a 360 with a HD and Kinect. The XB1 has a 500GB HD and Kinect 2. I agree, $399 is a competitive target and that will likely come with a loss.

why ? What does the xbox 360's price have to do with the xbox one ? The 360 is most likely generating a profit. The Kinect and hardrive don't add $200 to $250 bucks in cost. But MS is still selling more xbox 360s at these price points than any other home console currently.

Obviously when the new systems come out they wont be able to continue with the premium on the 360.

I'd also expect a $50 to $100 price cut on the 360 at e3. So a $400 xbox one will fit in fine with a $100 xbox 360 and $200 xbox 360+ Kinect
 
any word on if the tv stuff works with media center ?

I was actually thinking last night how nice it would be if the XB1 could plug right into the Live TV, Guide, and Recorded TV from a Media center PC and not need a cable box.

It *probably* only works via MC through an app though like the 360...
 
Now uninvited guests are messing the place up all around.
Some of the new additions to the forum are pretty awesome, like astrograd and a few others.

More news.... which demonstrates that we humans sometimes lie a lot. Even after all the backlash and criticism, the Xbox One is the most pre-ordered console in the UK. (thanks Wayne_Rooney for the news)

But they should also serve as a reminder that the angry internet masses are often not representative of the wider buying public.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/xbox...s-although-ps4-enjoys-post-xbox-spike/0116289

@Phil, gotta agree with you. The problem with the Xbox reveal was the absolute lack of games and too much focus on the TV thing.

I still think though that the Xbox One is going to sell machines beyond words, whether core gamers like the approach or not.

Sony care a lot more about the core gamer but look at the PS4 and it's not much different from the Xbox One.

I think the MS approach is the right one if you want to succeed. A capable machine for games which can also make almost *everything*.

Consoles these days are basically considered essential gadgets as they do so much more than only playing games. -I can't count the times I had friends at home watching movies on my Xbox -while the GC was taking dust- and later my Xbox 360 (streaming especially)- :)

Why should we have a CD player, a VCR recorder, a DVD, a telephone, an Internet web browser, e-mail client, and last, but not least, a video games console under your TV when a shiny taped recorder like machine resembling a grill will do everything?

The problem for me is not the lack of power, but the lack of information about games, and especially some of the policies -and I am not even asking for a free Xbox Live or so, I am used to pay in order to play online, but that's not the problem for me-.

I am still buying an Xbox One. Xbox was my actual first console after all. But I only hear people complaining and jumping the bandwagon.
 
Somebody's been here for a decade and this place is like home. Now uninvited guests are messing the place up all around.
Somebody is very controlled, for now.

What I meant was you should just ignore posts like that. I said it a bit like a chop so I apologize.
 
And what exactly are these "wrong reasons"?.

That is obvious. MS's new console isn't called an "all in one" device for nothing. Its a console and a media TV intergration device/setup box. One product aimed at both Sony and Apple and the respective consumers they serve. MS scheduled two presentation three weeks apart. One a small presentation on its campus and the other at one of the biggest gaming expos in the world.

Do you present the same presentation twice with little tweaks? Or do you cater each presentation to a feature set mostly targeting a specific audience? One for the AV crowd and one for gamer crowd?

Basically a lot people are griping over what MS presented because they think that the focus of the presentation represent the overall focus of the hardware. However, TV intergration and its uses can't be a highlight of e3 conference, the highlight has to be games and their related services. So the first becomes the obvious choice for focusing on the TV integration/media feature of device. Its the reason Wired and Engadget was given first class access to the MS's XB1 R&D facilities and received personal demos to show off to their audience. Its also the reason that out of 15 first party exclusives that MS has planned for the first year, only 2-3 titles were even revealed in any form by MS.

How does 15 first party titles scheduled for the first year with a billion dollar budget for exclusive content mean MS has lost focus on gamers? You are talking about the manufacturer with supposedly the least first and second party resources and last gen used a strategy focused on third party wares. Sony's inclusion of BluRay and the premium people paid to purchase a PS3 because of BluRay wasn't readily used as evidence of Sony losing focus on gamers. Nor was UVD.

You have people up in arm over MS's DRM, which I can understand. But it hasn't been fleshed out as it is evolving as we speak. What I find ludicrous is those pushing Sony as some type of anti-DRM company because it says no "always on" while making no attempt to fully describe its solution. Never mind that Sony had one of the most robust DRM implementation last gen. It readily stripped out its linux OS feature and forced regular firmware upgrades to circumvent any attempt to defeat that DRM. It also heavy handedly sued the individuals that defeated the system. Have we forgot about Sony's rootkit fiasco? Basically a hidden DRM program that Sony didn't bother to get permission to install on people's PCs (it wasn't described in the EULA) while opening security cracks that were exploited by malware. Sony initially responded to the backlash by offering an "uninstaller" that basically only unhid the program while installing additional "hard to remove" software. Sony is no posterboy for anti-DRM as they have a history of being very anti-consumer in that regard.

If you are suspicious of MS, you should also be suspicious of Sony. Saying its up to publishers can be a simple way to avert the blame if online DRM becomes a reality on Sony's platform even though Sony has ultimate control and can make no online DRM a mandate. I, for one, am not opposed to the DRM noise because its positively affecting both companies' DRM policies.

Yes there are people with real concerns but there are others that have simply used the current situation to bash MS.
 
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@Phil, gotta agree with you. The problem with the Xbox reveal was the absolute lack of games and too much focus on the TV thing.

So 3 is absolute lack but 5 is catering to gamers? Or was it the amount of time they showed the games ? If MS has more games at E3 than Sony are any of the usual suspects going to change their tune (ok we know that will never happen) or is it too late for that?
 
So 3 is absolute lack but 5 is catering to gamers? Or was it the amount of time they showed the games ? If MS has more games at E3 than Sony are any of the usual suspects going to change their tune (ok we know that will never happen) or is it too late for that?
The Xbox reveal conference was SO BORING. What you are trying to tell me is, maybe?: "Let's try our best to pretend it wasn't." :oops:

To me it was boring, boring, boring. It made some people doze off. Thank Goodness for that special trailer of Forza 5.
 
The Xbox reveal conference was SO BORING. What you are trying to tell me is, maybe?: "Let's try our best to pretend it wasn't." :oops:

To me it was boring, boring, boring. It made some people doze off. Thank Goodness for that special trailer of Forza 5.

I dont remember too many people being fond of the PS4 reveal. They enjoyed the spec reveal but not the two hour snoozefest that it was.
 
I dont remember too many people being fond of the PS4 reveal. They enjoyed the spec reveal but not the two hour snoozefest that it was.
Well, it was the first ever videogames conference I watched live, iirc. And it wasn't that bad. It was a bit lame when Heavy Rain's director began to talk, but it was passable in general. A bit long in the end, I agree.

On the other hand, I wasn't asking Microsoft to just put all the games I wanted to see, nor to put videos of games for core gamers like me and an audience that is a bunch of fragheads but ... darn ... it was a turn off.

My favourite parts of the conference were the part where they revealed the name of the console, which I loved, the design of the console, and the Forza 5 trailer. The rest was terrible for me.

I'm sticking to Xbox One next generation (with the exception of the PS4 which I might consider 'cos of Gran Turismo and some other exclusives, but my main console is always the Xbox).

I love its technology, the games, etc, and it's only certain policies that I am sure have no plans in giving full support to.
 
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