The Annual E3 Microsoft press conference thread, 2015 edition

Shifty Geezer said:
What constitutes a 'good presentation'? I think for many looking at E3, it needs to be something spectacular like new hardware. In all the other E3s, critique of the presentations has always been fair from what I can see (save PR misunderstandings), based on subjective feedback. People want to see games, want stuff that excites, and want (classy) spectacle. If a presentation is just a list of 'okay' games, it probably won't excite.

Looking back through replies in this thread, there's no anti-MS sentiment (save maybe one or two posters) and just a disappointment with the titles shown as not being of their tastes. eg. Where's QB? I expect the same from other presentations where tastes/hopes aren't met.

tl;dr - my cynicism is contagious and everyone's becoming jaded. :p
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Quantum break and other games are being shown at Gamescom. They mention the Gamescom lineup at the end of the presentation.
 
Ok it does say BC is out sometime today for Preview Members, so that will be cool to mess around with for a bit. Honestly this is huge for my kids, I wonder if Media Center is on the BC list... ;)
 
dobwal said:
We are not limited to physical distribution anymore, which limited the utility of BC to playing your old games or may be digging through some bargain bins looking for something interesting. So, how we look at BC can move beyond a feature that lets you play your old games on your new gen console.
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And.... Games with Gold? All those free 360 games that I didn't bother to "purchase" for free that MS gives out? Those will be playable on the Xb1, and if they were done through GwG they'll also be digital and remove the entire question of physical disc verification.

So, it's just a way to expand the Xb1 library. Hell, half of the comments on here about The Division, Gears 4 and Tomb Raider stated that they looked like those games could "all be done on the 360", anyway.
 
Dave Baumann said:
Current list of titles for Beta Preview is very limited:

http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_early_a...iew_forums/wave_15_1507/f/5375/t/1988469.aspx
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Yes, and that is what gives me pause. They made it seem like you throw the 360 disc in, wait for a few days while the new Xb1 version downloads and installs (like any other Xb1 game), and then away you go. The games' developers didn't need to do anything, only have their publishers allow MS to let this happen.

If that's the case, and it's some overriding algorithm that "just works" by adding some sort of programming layer that the Xb1 can understand, why are the games for the preview members so limited and why are there only going to be "hundreds" and not "all" available holiday 2015 when it goes live for everybody?

Seems like there still must be some individual, title specific tweaking going on.
 
I enjoyed the conference. Unlike others I thought there was a good variety displayed. I was surprised that they had the Dark Souls III reveal at the MS conference. Having that here and COD at Sony is the inverse of what one would expect based on prior years.

There were indie games and AAA studio games, games with realistic and stylized graphics, single-player and massively multiplayer games, shooters and RPGs (and combinations of the 2), new hardware (the Elite controller) and new system software features (360 BC).

Most importantly, though, I think they showed they have found their course after all of the 180s. This new leadership group seem to me to have a better understanding of the market and so far seem to be better in their execution. They've come a long way since 2013.
 
Dave Baumann said:
Current list of titles for Beta Preview is very limited:

http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_early_a...iew_forums/wave_15_1507/f/5375/t/1988469.aspx
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave that was nice. :)

The original Xbox 360 Guide is there(Menu & View buttons at same time). Plus, it supports cloud saves! :) Time to go to my 360 & move my saves to the cloud.

Here's the list of initial games...

  • A Kingdom for Keflings
  • A World of Keflings
  • Banjo Kazooie: N n B
  • Banjo-Kazooie
  • Banjo-Tooie
  • BattleBlock Theater
  • Defense Grid
  • Geometry Wars Evolved
  • Hexic HD
  • Jetpac Refuelled
  • Kameo
  • Mass Effect
  • Perfect Dark
  • Perfect Dark Zero
  • Small Arms
  • Super Meat Boy
  • Toy Soldiers
  • Toy Soldiers: Cold War
  • Viva Piñata
  • Viva Piñata: TIP
  • Zuma
I might have almost half of them. Would like to see more larger games like Red Dead Redemption & Halo games(since I have games saves there that I want on my XB1), but understand that it could take more resources to get those going. Hopefully they will give us a chance to request specific titles for launch later this year.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/backward-compatibility/available-games

Tommy McClain
 
RancidLunchmeat said:
Yes, and that is what gives me pause. They made it seem like you throw the 360 disc in, wait for a few days while the new Xb1 version downloads and installs (like any other Xb1 game), and then away you go. The games' developers didn't need to do anything, only have their publishers allow MS to let this happen.

If that's the case, and it's some overriding algorithm that "just works" by adding some sort of programming layer that the Xb1 can understand, why are the games for the preview members so limited and why are there only going to be "hundreds" and not "all" available holiday 2015 when it goes live for everybody?

Seems like there still must be some individual, title specific tweaking going on.
Click to expand...

Because nothing just works.

I expect any 360 game that a dev/pub/MS wants to be compatible with the X1, has to go through a QC/QA process. Even games that meant for the current gen consoles go through a quality process and still release with a ton of bugs. So if they are not using 360 hardware to offer BC then a quality process is a must.
 
I think some people need to get their expectations in check. Go into a list war all you want, I'm not biting.

Tommy McClain
 
Marketplace is now down for me.

Edit: I should add I am excited for what we are getting and what is to come, my wish was that more unknowns could have been shown. Twisted Pixel, Press Play, Eden Falls, etc - but I guess maybe that is for this week. Gamescom, or they are just not ready to be shown until next E3.

Plenty to play this year and next I guess, but that little part of me wants to know what is hidden inside (not the console, the other games).

Edit 2: Controller is $150 USD - maybe I will wait a bit before I bite.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Looking back through replies in this thread, there's no anti-MS sentiment (save maybe one or two posters) and just a disappointment with the titles shown as not being of their tastes. eg. Where's QB? I expect the same from other presentations where tastes/hopes aren't met.
Click to expand...

I count 3, but it seems everyone in the thread knows who they are and they are being ignored which is a nice change from the norm. Hopefully this carries over to the other 2 platform conferences/presentations.
 
rokkerkory said:
Thank goodness the age of Don Mattrick is now officially over with BC. I can't believe that guy said buy a 360 if you want to play 360 games.
Click to expand...

Not to defend the guy who is "obviously" responsible for absolutely everything which ever went wrong there...ever, but imagine you were in his situation and though they worked on the 360 emulation it wasn't by far ready. Would you discuss the issue publicly and rise expectations or give hints to their "competition"? At that moment of time such question is a no-win case imho.
 
dobwal said:
Because nothing just works.

I expect any 360 game that a dev/pub/MS wants to be compatible with the X1, has to go through a QC/QA process. Even games that meant for the current gen consoles go through a quality process and still release with a ton of bugs. So if they are not using 360 hardware to offer BC then a quality process is a must.
Click to expand...

I fully understand that, it just means that reality of the backward compat feature is a bit more involved than what was presented at the show. It doesn't seem to be a matter of "if the publishers give us approval - viola! stick the disc in!"

It seems like each title does need to go through some degree of QA process, and the process is probably title-dependent. Which means the announcement should be couched with a bit of caution. The 360 had BC too, but it's per game QA process was too cumbersome so they just gave up. I'd like to think they've found some other, more advanced, more automatic procress, but....
 
AzBat said:
Yeah, the cynicism on here & the rest of the places I visit is really starting to grate on my nerves. It's like why do developers even try when they know everybody is going to crap on what they do anyway. Grrrr. :-x

Tommy McClain
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For a 1 hr presentation that is trying to cover a lot of bases, I thought it was a pretty good event. Some things interest me, some don't, but there is enough there to get me excited for this year. I'll chosen to ignore some of the usual suspects that I feel are trolling this thread.

I'm OK with MS not shooting their entire load in this one conference as they've already said there will be more to come this week and at Gamescom. Personally, KI Season 3 was really the one big thing I was hoping to see announced.
 
Nisaaru said:
Not to defend the guy who is "obviously" responsible for absolutely everything which ever went wrong there...ever, but imagine you were in his situation and though they worked on the 360 emulation it wasn't by far ready. Would you discuss the issue publicly and rise expectations or give hints to their "competition"? At that moment of time such question is a no-win case imho.
Click to expand...

I will not disagree, there were far off whispers of BC, and when everything was announced it was not mentioned. I took it to mean it was all false (some sites that picked it up were not always great at source checking). It would be hard for to announce BC in that position, but they did prance around with "Cloud" stuff. We do not really get to see Crackdown for a tad bit more time, to see how that is coming along. Cloud had immediate uses inside Titanfall, so I can see that being a case to make.

Saying we have BC, it works at 3fps and we hope inside 10-years to get to 60fps might have been a tough sell for an already negative press situation. Interesting to think about though. Have a disclaimer on the launch boxes - BC arriving soon, we hope, we are crossing our fingers and not pestering the engineers ever five minutes for updates..

AzBat said:
Up close video of the Elite Controller on One Drive. No wonder it costs $150. Not for me! :D

Tommy McClain
Click to expand...

Sometimes I have a hard time justifying purchases like that, here buy a console for $399 that has cutting edge silicon vs the controller that my wife thinks is just something with buttons and a plastic shell. $99 would have been stretching it, but I guess where they are aiming this for the market it will probably do well enough.
 
RancidLunchmeat said:
I fully understand that, it just means that reality of the backward compat feature is a bit more involved than what was presented at the show. It doesn't seem to be a matter of "if the publishers give us approval - viola! stick the disc in!"

It seems like each title does need to go through some degree of QA process, and the process is probably title-dependent. Which means the announcement should be couched with a bit of caution. The 360 had BC too, but it's per game QA process was too cumbersome so they just gave up. I'd like to think they've found some other, more advanced, more automatic procress, but....
Click to expand...

Personally I didn't have that expectation. So I'm fine with the small library now(especially since it's only for preview users). MS sees that the 360 catalog is worthy of doing the extra effort since they know they sold a lot of games & it would be silly not to entice those 360 owners back to the XB1. MS didn't have near the success with the original Xbox & after they got done with their list of backward compatible titles they had around 500 or so. If they don't get that many 360 titles backwards compatible, then I think you could see it as a failure. Would be interesting to see how many Games on Demand games they get versus Arcade/XBLIG.

Tommy McClain
 
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