Canuck
3889
They should call it the IGN Titanfall Not-coming-out-on-PS4 (for a while) hands on.
IF microsoft did the right thing and made the kinect optional, i’d probably lean towards xbox one now, but i’m not spending $100 for a paper weight and meh sounding tv features.
Sony seems to have adapted this weird strategy of making their console better for cheaper, but not bothering to secure any exclusives. I really hope this isn’t the case because it isn’t a working strategy. Microsoft’s exclusives might be decent at best, but i’ll take some decently fun exclusives over no exclusives most days of the week.
Nesrie
3891
It seems unlikely the JRPGs will show up on Xbox. That only matters, of course, if you want that genre. There are many games out of Japan i am waiting to see which system they fall on.
Sony’s strategy has never relied on paying third party publishers not to release games on other systems. All the dozens of “exclusive console debut” indies were basically free because they’ve been courting those devs for over a year and MS is just now getting around to saying they’re invited to the party. And keep in mind, as of now MS has basically announced just about every exclusive they have while the majority of Sony’s first party output has yet to be announced. We’ll hear about more games at TGS, at the VGAs, at GDC.
As for it “not working”, they still seem to have an enormous advantage in pre-orders, and MS won’t be able to buy up that many more exclusive if PS4 becomes the decisive sales leader in the first year. In fact, Titanfall and Below, the two Xbox One “exclusives” I’m actually excited by are both confirmed to be coming to other platforms.
I’m from Europe and I couldn’t care less about FIFA. But then again, I think I’m not in Microsoft’s target demographic anyway (is there such a creature?).
Razgon
3894
9-14 year old boys who loves Call of Duty? :-) Thats probably biased, but how I see it.
jpinard
3895
The Manchurian Candidate <— that was Microsoft PR a few months ago? Deliberately put in place by Sony to sabotage the entire XBox release? Nothing else makes sense. Maybe we’ll find out Phil Harrison is secretly working for Sony still… because MS PR specifically stated no self-publishing because only “publishers” had the proper QA for software slated on the Xbox One. They also mentioned how most of the indie stuff on the indie channel was crappy and MS was “classing up the place” ie. no more trailer trash programs.
I love what they’re doing with the program… but it is simply mind boggling (I’ve used that word a hundred times in this thread) how this could happen.
It’s like a chicken with it’s head cut off — running around the room bleeding out. Farmer then finds guests are vegan & horrified with the fresh meal he’s preparing. So he chases the runaway legs, with the head in tow, grabs em and does magic emergency farm surgery. The kind with twine, cotton rags, and thick needles. Through s miracle the head is back on, but at a jaunty 34* angle. BUT… it walks and clucks just like normal, except it trips and has a bad tick.
I use that story because it feels to me like Microsoft was headless outside of Dan Mattricks, and no one seems to know if he even knew what the box was going to be doing beyond “Xbox Go Netflix” But as he ran away a lot of work was done to try and recover the massive damage he left behind.
Teiman
3896
This article has inspired to find how much of what Xbox Live users pay goes to actually pay for servers.
All NCSoft games need 2 millions to pay for the bandwidth. How much has to pay Microsoft for the bandwidth of Xbox Live, and renting the servers?
I am not very good at that. In part because I don’t speak english, and I absolutely no speak beancounter english.
Anyway, I have followed the rabit hole to this document:
http://www.microsoft.com/Investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/SegmentResults/EntertainmentAndDevicesDivision/FY13/Q1/performance.aspx
Based on how much “operating income” have this division of Microsoft, that is the one that pay for the servers, and how much it cost. IMHO, servers cost to Microsoft about 19 million dollars, and produce a income of 9000 million dollars. They pay the servers with pocket change.
Anyway this is the old system, now they will have his own cloud service, so will not be paying others for it. And will be a service that will share cost with Office.
What you pay to Microsoft with Xbox Live is not the servers, but you are generating profit for Microsoft. The biggest expenses seems paying salaries, and buying Skype.
note: I am probably very wrong on all or big part of this, but I share this anyway,because searching it was fun, and maybe somebody can see the correct values for me.
RickH
3897
Yep. The “mandatory gratuity” that is XBL Gold is essentially the Xbox’s profit margin. Without this revenue stream, they couldn’t function. Unfortunately, they couldn’t seem to provide actual value (versus other platforms, which could provide peer-to-peer matchmaking and Netflix access for free) to justify the price in the 360 era.
We’ll see whether this changes in the Xbone era. I doubt it, since MS will almost always err on the side of contempt for the consumer, or as I call it, that good old “fuck them if you can” MS sprirt. Hell, it’s what Gates founded the company on.
I have a hard time buying this if Sony survived without it this generation.
I prefer to think of it as (near) free money.
So, I took another look at the recent Playstation 4 interface reveal and noticed a few things the second time around:
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Playstation apparently boots into either your gaming library or the Playstation store (or the machine was waking from sleep mode and it was last on that screen)
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Not clear if you can pin favorites to a homescreen a la the Xbox One (and heck, even the 360)
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Sony still has not shown whether the UI does instant, fluid switching between apps a la the Xbox One; if you watch this carefully, they only show the game integration portion (jumping into a game and sharing footage from it) but not what it’s like to switch from a gaming session to watching Netflix. And before anyone says, “OF COURSE, you will be able to do this.” that’s not my point. You can switch between gaming and other apps now on the Xbox 360 or the PS3. My point is that it is a complete pain in the neck to do this now - and I’m definitely hoping both next gen machines fix that problem.
How is it a “pain in the neck” to go from gaming to Netflix?
Really? On the current gen consoles it is SUCH a pain to do this. Say you come home and decide you want to play a game. If after a few minutes of gaming, you change your mind and decide you would rather keep watching a show you were watching on Netflix, prepare for a 2-3 minute process to switch (with the PS3 being two minutes and the 360 being closer to 3).
They simply don’t have the memory to auto suspend programs. My iPad can do this. I fully expect the next gen consoles to do the same. Xbox One has confirmed it can. I really think Sony is being coy as to whether or not the PS4 can. And dear lord, if it cannot, what are they doing with all that system memory?
Wow. I guess waiting just doesn’t bother me as much as it does you. I just don’t think it’s a big deal. Of course, no wait at all is nicer, but I don’t think I’ve ever gotten frustrated by the time to switch between a game and going to Netflix.
I have gotten frustrated with the time it takes just to sign in to the Xbox 360. Sometimes the damn login screen takes a minute or more.
Why you posting that ginned up fake video?
I have a hard time buying this if Sony survived without it this generation.
They didn’t. They lost boatloads of money.
From February this year
“PS4 radically reduces the lag time between players and their content. PS4 features “suspend mode” which keeps the system in a low power state while preserving the game session. The time it takes today to boot a console and load a saved game will be a thing of the past. With PS4, gamers just hit the power button again and are promptly back playing the game at the exact point where they left off. Additionally, users can boot a variety of applications including a web browser when playing a game on PS4.”
Yeah they sure are being coy, stop with the FUD already Jake.
I think in today’s smartphone, tablet world consumers fully expect to be able to do multiple things at once or at a minimum be able to switch between tasks quickly and easily.
Forgeforsaken, I ALSO have doubts about the Xbox One video. That OS is buttery smooth… but frankly, it looks too buttery smooth. So far, I’ve not seen any reports of anyone trying the app switching yet on either console.
This is from the Wired hands on right after that conference, everyone here can judge how real that video is
Yes but Sony’s servers are so slow that they feel like they’re about to collapse any time I start a download.
Maybe if they’re making money from it the service wont suck so much. I hope :/
