2947

Particularly damning:

Sony has run rings around MS when it comes to first-party software. Halo-GOW-Forza can only get you so far.

2948

Looking at the list of games that EDGE brings to the the cover there is not a single PS4 exclusive so it’s weird that they say is such a clear cut decision to buy a PS4, I can agree that theoretically you should chose a PS4 instead of the X1 but if they are giving out consumer advice at this stage is not an fully informed advice. I’m on the side just don’t buy anything until is actually been tested by independent reviewers given that they are publication that does just that seems like that is the best approach, but this industry thrives on previews and pre-orders so they are just playing to their base.

2949

Okay, so there’s no exclusives listed on the mag cover. So what’s left? You have a device that is significantly more powerful and thus may get higher graphics fidelity or at least more consistent framerates and on top of that it’s $100 less expensive. That’s a pretty clear-cut choice, if you ask me.

2950

Transistor is as exclusive as Titan Fall is, and that’s the only XB1 listed. They are all multi-plats essentially, the only real true exclusives on the cover are the WiiU games.

2951

Well, we won’t have to worry about how the new person in charge gets along with Ballmer:

2952

Always a great idea to have two persons jobs in any workplace!

2953

That is… well, that’s basically right out of the script for the Horrible Bosses movie, isn’t it?

2954

This to me is a pretty clear indication that this was a very sudden move, either by Mattrick or Microsoft - but likely Mattrick. Even if Ballmer wanted him gone because of the DRM fiasco, he wouldn’t toss him out without a replacement in hand. Either way, I am glad he’s gone. J. Allard, please come back, Steve Jobs style.

2955

That title seems a little misleading. If you read the email, the only thing Ballmer says with regards to his relationship with the XBox group is:

“Don’s directs will report to me and will continue to drive the day-to-day business as a team, particularly focused on shipping Xbox One this holiday.”

That’s not unexpected at all in a situation where there’s no one in place to take over for Mattrick yet. He’s basically putting the business in the hands of the second-in-commands while overseeing them.

2956

In my organization it would constitute naming yourself acting chief of that division.

2957

Just like the consuls of Rome! That’s never gone wrong. :)

2958

The Tale of M and S, by Yahtzee.

No one is actually suggesting collusion between console manufacturers. Right? Although at least that would mean there may be some hope for M’s marketing department, which otherwise just looks incompetent in the extreme.

2959

Had their been collusion this mess never would have happened in the first place.

2960

Yeah, that’s asinine. They were both going to do it, MS just happened to announce the policy first, the backlash was larger than expected, and Sony seized the opportunity.

2961

Source?

2962

I don’t think it’s clear Sony would do it- as the Japanese market is higher game prices but a robust used market, and consoles are less connected than the US. Sony still cares about the Japanese market enough that I don’t think it would have happened.

2963

The only source I saw so far (Polygon interview with some Sony guy) explicitly denies that. Sony was going to stick to its PS3 policies anyway, then decided to play up that angle in the E3 presentation when they saw how poorly Microsoft’s plans were received. Certainly nobody saw a PS4 that had the Microsoft kind of DRM in place (which MS now needs to patch out), so that corroborates the story that Sony had no such plans.

2964

Some people need conspiracies when there are none and the fact there are none is a conspiracy in itself.

2965

Sure I can see that after the X1 announcement they would wait for E3 for a bigger impact on there policy announcement, but they unveiled the PS4 in February and they talked around the subject when asked, that would be a very long con to say they were waiting for E3. I’m sure they were considering the idea but to their credit went against it, also they know that a year or two from now there will be a paltry number of games that people can actually trade freely on disc when compared to the overall library you can buy on PSN, and if by then the retail market is still bigger then the digital market, has is today on consoles, then I think the console business is in big trouble.

2966

You are misunderestimating the importance the retail market will still have for the next 10 years. There are not that many people in the world who would gladly want to download 10 or more gigabytes for many reasons. First, high bandwidth is really not that common. Second, even when people do have the bandwidth and are prepared to buy a download, the concept of buying something and then only being able to play it a day later (when it’s a big game) needs to be explained first to most console gamers.