If you were hoping to play your vast collection of Xbox 360 games on Microsoft's latest creation, we've got a spot of bad news. Microsoft Xbox Live VP Marc Whitten confirmed to The Verge that the new Xbox One console will have no backwards compatibility whatsoever.
"No, there's not," said Whitten, when we posed the question. "The system is based on a different core architecture, so back-compat doesn't really work from that perspective."
That means that Xbox 360 discs won't work, but also extends to Xbox Live Arcade downloadable titles. Anything that was designed for the Xbox 360 will have to be rebuilt, and it sounds like Microsoft doesn't plan to do so.
Wired asked Microsoft if installation would be mandatory. “On the new Xbox, all game discs are installed to the HDD to play,” the company responded in an emailed statement. Sounds mandatory to us.
What follows naturally from this is that each disc would have to be tied to a unique Xbox Live account, else you could take a single disc and pass it between everyone you know and copy the game over and over. Since this is clearly not going to happen, each disc must then only install for a single owner.
Microsoft did say that if a disc was used with a second account, that owner would be given the option to pay a fee and install the game from the disc, which would then mean that the new account would also own the game and could play it without the disc.
But what if a second person simply wanted to put the disc in and play the game without installing – and without paying extra? In other words, what happens to our traditional concept of a “used game”? This is a question for which Microsoft did not yet have an answer, and is surely something that game buyers (as well as renters and lenders) will want to know.
Installing a used game on your Xbox One will not require a fee, says Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Harrison. At least, not exactly.
Speaking with Kotaku, Harrison expounded on data already gleaned from Official Xbox Magazine, that Xbox One games must be registered with a single-use code tied to the player's account. To install the game data on another Xbox One, the owner of the new machine pays the game's list price on Xbox Live.
"The bits that are on that disc, you can give it to your friend and they can install it on an Xbox One," says Harrison. "They would then have to purchase the right to play that game through Xbox Live."
With the physical game discs essentially worthless without an activation code, this may have profound implications on the used games market.
Harrison also hinted at an additional feature to be explored later, which would allow players to trade and sell their games -- or rather, the right to play them -- through Xbox Live. Details on that will presumably arrive close to or during E3 in a matter of weeks.
In regards to Always-Online DRM, it doesn't look like the new console will require an Always-Online connection for the console to function, but it will at least require one for installing every game and registering it to peoples Xbox Live account.
Additionally it is apparently up to publishers if they want to force an "Always-Online DRM" or not, Microsoft is offering a feature which sounds very similar to what EAs Sim City was doing and is "hoping they use it": http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/05/x … -analysis/
Quote:
And what of the persistent rumors that Xbox One games will be “always online” – that is, that single-player games would require a constant online connection to function? As it turns out, those rumors were not unfounded, but the reality is not so draconian. Xbox One will give game developers the ability to create games that use Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service, which means that they might be able to offload certain computing tasks to the cloud rather than process them on the Xbox One hardware itself. This would necessitate the game requiring a connection.
Are developers forced to create games that have these online features, and are thus not playable offline? They are not, Xbox exec Whitten said to Wired — but “I hope they do.” So the always-online future may come in incremental steps.
"There are many devices in your life that require the Internet to function," he said. "Xbox One is no different in that it requires, at some point in the beginning and at various times through its on state, to connect to our cloud and to our Internet. That is to deliver Xbox Live functionality, that is to deliver download content to you, that is to deliver some of the innovations around TV and entertainment that we showed today. But it doesn’t require it to be online all the time."
So how often does it check your connection? "Depends on the experience," Harrison said.
"For single-player games that don’t require connectivity to Xbox Live, you should be able to play those without interruption should your Internet connection go down. Blu-ray movies and other downloaded entertainment should be accessible when your Internet connection may be interrupted. But the device is fundamentally designed to be expanded and extended by the Internet as many devices are today."
And here's the bombshell:
Kotaku: If I’m playing a single player game, do I have to be online at least once per hour or something like that? Or can I go weeks and weeks?
Harrison: I believe it’s 24 hours.
Kotaku: I’d have to connect online once every day.
Harrison: Correct.
On top of all of that it doesn't seem to be as much of a "game console" as an "entertainment center" and Microsoft is branding it that way, seeing as the Reveal was 3/4 about TV/sports and movie content (how great the Xbox One is for watching TV and talking on Skype).
Quote:
Wired editor Peter Rubin spent multiple days at Microsoft’s Redmond campus learning all about Xbox One in advance of the announcement, and most of what the Microsoft execs wanted to talk about was entertainment as a whole, not just games. “The decision wasn’t ‘we need a gamebox,’” Xbox executive Marc Whitten told Wired.
So in the grand scheme of things, Microsoft isn’t any more interested in hardcore gamers than it is any other potential consumer. But that doesn’t go both ways: Gamers are very, very interested in what Microsoft is doing. Because how Xbox One’s gaming ecosystem works will likely play a big part in laying down the new rules for how games are made, bought, and sold.
The Xbox One's next-generation Kinect has a greater interest in your facial features, and is capable of discerning your identity, even if you hand off the controller.
[...]
Microsoft also demonstrated a few more tricks made possible by the new Kinect's enhanced sense of depth, its greater field of view - which does make closer gaming in smaller apartments a more feasible – its ability to see in the dark via infrared, and its flattering scrutiny of facial features. By examining your face's skin color and transparency, the Kinect and Xbox One are able to estimate your current heart rate. Whether or not someone puts that information to good use in Kinect games or fitness programs is another matter, as we've learned from Nintendo's flatlined "vitality sensor."
I don't think the Xbox looks good but the looks is not bad because now a the gaming system finally fits in your living room.
If you own a home theatre system you are going to want that boxy look that easily blends in. With the new XboX design they have removed the old retarded design that never looked good ever.
I don't think the Xbox looks good but the looks is not bad because now a the gaming system finally fits in your living room.
If you own a home theatre system you are going to want that boxy look that easily blends in. With the new XboX design they have removed the old retarded design that never looked good ever.
@Dexter: That stocks pic is also used in many other places for another reason, the rumour of sony announcing its splitting its business.
/offtopicish
That lounge looks fucking shite for sound, infact, given that much wood it probably is, the echo and reverb would be annoying as fuck.
(As someone thats redoing their hall atm and had to move the bookcases out so i can get to the walls and i currently have no floor except for the concrete with sealant over, i notice the diff in sound coming from the lounge, which is directly attached, louder, tinny and ughhh take it away )
I don't have some million dollar setup but i do have a nice onkyo surround for gaming and half decent stereo linked with comp for music, in the lounge they sound perfect, 2m in the hall its cringe worthy, i was shocked how much taking the books out changed the whole dynamic of it, (i know furniture etc changes sound completely same reason recording studios have walls like they do) spent a while playing around with sounds yesterday seeing the difference to what i knew to how it used to sound. All before reading read this so was just my curiosity and coincidence ;o
The "stand" or "wall rack" thing looks like a giant game of Jenga lol That could be fun lol
Do like some of the style, but those floors are annoying to clean Can run a hoover over carpet, run a hoover over that and everything you are about to pick up "runs" lol
These architectures are a generation ahead of the highest end PC on the market (...) Our benchmarks on just the video and audio performance are 8-10 times superior to the current gen. The compute capabilities of these platforms and the data transfer speeds we can now bank on, essentially removes any notion of rationing of systems resources for our game engines.
A content presentation system and method allowing content providers to regulate the presentation of content on a per-user-view basis. Content is distributed an associated license option on the number of individual consumers or viewers allowed to consume the content. Consumers are presented with a content selection and a choice of licenses allowing consumption of the content. The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken.
Well, games can be optimized pretty heavily on these consoles as opposed to PC's because of the fact that you're developing for 1-3 platforms instead of ranges of configurations.
This makes sense. They'll earn more money if people need an all around entertainment box, rather than just a gaming box. The parents get the TV functions and the kid gets to game. There's a lot more people watching TV than there's people playing games. So this is a smart move to compete with future Apple and Google home entertainment, whilst still being a little weaker than the PS4 on the gaming specs.
Very profitable, but I'd still rather have a PS4 since I never watch TV.
It was said that the 360 was weaker than the PS3 yet more often than not the 360 produces slightly better visuals with many cross platform games.
Not saying that this will be the same this generation but I wouldn't be too quick to judge the actual real life performance of the two machines.
If anything I think that the PS4 might have a slight edge but as was the case with the current generation the differences will be so minimal it will be largely irrelevant.
It was said that the 360 was weaker than the PS3 yet more often than not the 360 produces slightly better visuals with many cross platform games.
Yes this may still be the case if all games, that are not PS4 exclusives, are still made for the Xbox. The PS3 platform was so hard and confusing to make games for, most developers made the games for Xbox and ported to PS3. But they said that the PS4 was now easier to use and make games for.
We'll see what the devs have to say about that =).
''These architectures are a generation ahead of the highest end PC on the market''
Architectures yes, raw performance no.
Except they are more like PCs than previous generation consoles... so... what?
Neither are they better in performance (unless we're talking about the cheap Dell laptops moms use) or architecture (unless we're talking about old Pentium 2's). Or did you mean "aesthetics" when you wrote "architecture"?
(Power User) at 2013-05-22 17:54:29 (2 months ago) - [
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lol
(User) at 2013-05-24 09:34:20 (2 months ago) - [
(User) at 2013-05-24 11:18:36 (2 months ago) - [
(Power User) at 2013-05-24 12:46:09 (2 months ago) - [
