Jimquisition: Xbox One out of Ten

[Fiairflair]

Overall, I felt let down by the XboxOne presentation. 1 out of 10 is a bit rough. 5 out of 10 seems fair, and that isn't enough for me.

Don Mattrick started it off, and the sales points that appear around the XBOXone in the video were reasonable enough.
'Ready when you are'
'Instantly responds to you'
'Ultimate precision' - referring to the controller
'Cloud powered'
'All your entertainment. All in One'

Everything except that last point appeals to me as a gamer. They are things I want, but what I want most is to see what the console can do with games. I wasn't to find out yet, though.

In the spoiler is more detail of how this presentation made this gamer dread the coming console generation.

Spoiler: More details

Yusuf Mehdi came out and showed how the voice and motion controls work. He used the console to access live television, to watch films and to browse the internet. All of these things have been around for a while and the most impressive bit, the films, has been around the longest. Skype was just Skype, and the call he made was painful to watch. I have a mobile phone that I use to call people and I carry it everywhere. I don't want or need Skype in my lounge room.

Marc Whitton spoke about the tech, and as far as I could tell it was pretty impressive. The voice control/motion control gaming that he hinted at is of no interest to me but I thought to myself that others might like it. More servers were promised and more servers is good. Record and replay was pushed as an innovation, but that has also been around for ages. Achievements were mentioned, but surely nobody actually cares about XBOX achievements. I sort of liked this guy talking tech to me, but then he said that EA create games and I stopped liking him.

Andrew Wilson comes out and, 27 minutes in, makes the first reference to a game by its title. Yay! I'd been waiting for that. Except... damn it, four sports games. I don't like sport. I don't play sports games because I don't like sport. So, just for me, he played a clip of some sports athletes talking about sport. Oh goodie.
There was one bit about true player motion that peaked my interest, but it wasn't expounded.

Then Phil Spencer decided to state the bleeding obvious. Better tech allows for greater variety and creativity. That's true, but I felt like someone should point out to him that variety and creativity depend on other things far more than they depend on graphics and processing power.

Fonza MotorSport 5 and Quantum Break are showed. I don't like racing games, but Quantum Break looked interesting. A pity, then, that I didn't have a clue what it was about. Not even a premise. But Phil promised lots of games and that is good. I just have to trust him to make them and release them and tell me more about them later. Great.

Nancy Tellen and Bonnie Ross talk about television again. Sadly Halo, scope, scale and Steven Spielberg just didn't do it for me.

Don comes back and outlines an ambitious vision. He wants XBOXone to be everybody's sole entertainment system. I hate that idea. I don't want to be dominated by one system that I don't trust and then pay for the privilege.

Finally, I got to watch Eric Hirshberg talk about CoD: Ghosts. Amazingly, this was the best bit. Actual games! I don't play CoD, but after the previous 50 minutes anything other than sport and tv looked pretty damn good. Dynamic maps is something I would love to see applied more broadly in gaming.

It would seem I'm not alone. http://au.ign.com/articles/2013/05/23/ign-poll-result-75-disappointed-with-xbox-one-reveal

The majority of gaming genres were absent and those they showed were of no interest to me. The presentation missed the ball and the console failed to excite me.

 

[ShadowHamster]

Hopefully this will lead to more people trying out the Wii U. A system actually offering something new for gaming.

Seriously, my friend just got one, and between playing Monster Hunter with him on my DS, playing Nintendo Land, and Mario Wii U, I have had such a blast. I'm picking up a wii U, and I recommend it to anyone else. Between this new Xbox peripheral, and PS4 showing us maybe 7 new games(and not necessarily impressive ones), and Wii U getting the one game out of those that I was most excited about(Watch Dogs on wii u? Yeah baybee!) I think it will be two years or so before I even consider purchasing a PS4 or an XB1.

 

[Bindal]

Hopefully this will lead to more people trying out the Wii U. A system actually offering something new for gaming.

Except games.

 

[punipunipyo]

I smell the return of PC gaming!~ STEAM IS MY FRIEND!~ and screw Origin (only have one game on it; DeadSpace3, only because it's exclusive...)

PS4 is still going to be my buy~ lets hope IT don't screw up...

WiiU is considered to me "last gen", so... I've out grown it...

EPIC games... please come back to the PC/Mod community~ I want to see Bulletstorm2 on PC!~

 

[Twinmill5000]

Well, I guess it's time to start saving for the GTX770 when it comes out. Oh wait. I already was!

 

[Magmarock]

PS4 presentation made me nervous. The XBOX ONE presentation made me facepalm myself to ancient egypt. Good that I have all current gen consoles and a nice GTX680 in my custom built PC for Watch_Dogs.

Lol same here and you read my mind.

 

[Strazdas]

Are Sony and Microsoft trying to make PC gaming superior?

Trying? It always was. And now even JIM is recruited to our master race. Though i felt that the previuos episode seem much more sincere, it felt almost like a real anger back there, this one seemt just yeah you said what everyone already though.

What I'm wondering is if it's too late for them to backtrack on a lot of this. How hardwired is this online pass-ish system and the mandatory install they have set up? Will they see the torches and shelve that idea, will they release it and update the used-fee system out of it if they aren't selling units, is that even possible???

Its not. so far all they need to do is go to E3 and say "yeah we were jut kidding, gotcha?". Now WILL they is another question.
Also, not much torches really. here at the escapist a lot of people complain about it, but thats the escapist, which is in no way representation of average gamers. most average gamers dont really care that much about stuff like tv stuff and all. in fact my cousin who is a Xbox/pc gamer actually use the xbox nongaming crap.

As I somewhat said in another thread, I would like to see a bunch of publishers and developers collaborate and create the console they're looking for instead of just trying to work with the Big Three.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124152-Ouya-Holding-Public-E3-Booth-in-Parking-Lot

and contrary to what Microsoft might believe, we don't live in huts or conjure up internets through the powers of the voodoo,

i almost spit my lunch, well played.

RIP Console Gaming: 1985 - 2013

long time coming?

Sad thing is, this still isn't making the Ouya look any better.

thats because ouya isnt really good to begin with. it would ahve been good it it launched 2 years ago, now its, well, a device to play mobile games cheaper than owning a mobile.

It's both funny and sad to see just how out of touch MS apparently is. Be it ignorance or just plain contempt for gamers I don't know. Apparently "needing time to respond to Sony" meant thinking of how they could make it as unappealing as possible in comparison.

No, Gamers are just out of touch on what sells on mainstream and what mainstream consumers demand.

And just what is that exactly? Something that does what everything else out there already does?

and everyone else does it because that is what the consumer wants. i think his comment woudl be better phrased by stating "Gamers on escapist are just out of touch on what mainstream gamers want", because lets face it, we are far from beign the average joe who comes home grabs a beer and plays COD while wife nags at him.

 

[themilo504]

How nice of Microsoft to eliminate themselves from the next generation console war before it has even started.

Seems like i?m going to stick with pc this generation.

Yeah it's expensive, and it's very annoying when you buy a game and it simply doesn?t work, forcing me to look online for the reason why, I might get a Wii u and maybe a Playstation 4 if the games are good enough.

 

[Griffolion]

Best episode ever just for the Interstella 5555 image!!!

Totally agree. It's an awesome film, with awesome music.

OT:

I guess I have to thank Microsoft. I went with PC Gaming a number of years ago and stuck to it, not touching the consoles. That decision has now been validated (alongside the slew of other reasons). PS4 will be interesting, I've always been on Sony's "side" in the console war, and I hope it trounces the One for the reasons Jim put far more eloquently in his vid. But I'm sticking with my gaming PC and Windows compatible Xbox controller for my gaming needs. I guess MS wins either way, because I'm using Windows 7. Bring on the day the publishers finally start seeing Linux as a viable platform, and not just have its library restricted to Valve and their crusade & smaller devs who are corporately mobile enough to develop cross-platform.

 

[sagitel]

so i guess Microsoft in closing in fast in the "stupidest games and/or consoles company ever"

first we had ea/blizzard/ubisoft with their always on DRM then blizzard and ubisoft were thrown out of the competition by EA.
after that Nintendo came in with their stupid copyright claims and wanting the profit of LP s on youtube. and now seems Microsoft is in the competition and it had a great start!

 

[idodo35]

dance monkey dance! haha!
ehm... the xbox one is indeed shit, not really impressed with the ps4 either but at least its not as bad... i think id just save for a good gaming PC...

 

[MrBenSampson]

I already have an HD DVR, and a smart TV with a Netflix account. The Xbone sounds as pointless to me as Nvidia's Shield. If the PS4 doesn't appeal to me, I'll take that as an excuse to focus on current gen and retro gaming. Once the next gen consoles hit the shelves, I'll go to a bunch of stores to collect discounted 7th gen games. After a few years, I'll consider investing in a powerful PC.

 

[theriddlen]

Seriously, I don't get all the Xbox One hate. It's a console, no worse or better than PS4. Sony has f***ed their customers multiple times throught the PS3's lifetime, enforcing restrictive DRMs, suing people for just tinkering with the device, introducing gimmicky controllers that only copied others, and finally allowing gigabytes of customer data to be compromised by hackers - and all of that did not cause everyone to think Sony's going to die or the device itself sucks. Microsoft's new console is faster, it's more polished than the previous one, it's based on everything good that was in 360, and also lets the device to become more of a home entertainment system.. what's up with that? Even if it does require you to be online once a day - let's be real here, everyone has internet connection, and such requirement does not pose any problem to the customers.

Oh, and just to clarify (because if I don't, some people automatically assume things that fit your point of view), I'm not an Xbox fanboy, I don't own one, and contrary to what my avatar could lead you to believe, I use a Mac, I just think the Windows 7 logo looks nice.

 

[___________________]

I think I know where MS is going with this.

 

[Jhooud]

Wow, this coming (or already here if you count WiiU) generation is really, really depressing. Microsoft has an at best poor reveal (although to be fair, the PS3 reveal was pretty awful too - Get a second job! It's tech is so advanced the sale might be restricted! GIANT ENEMY CRAB!), WiiU is struggling in the market, and Sony is going through some rocky financial waters while struggling with their Vita launch.

Ugh. Here's hoping E3 makes a (please be positive) difference. For all of them.

 

[Sam Rothrock]

As a college student, all of the tv-sports-kinect stuff could actually be helpful. The tv I have isn't one of the smart tvs mentioned in the video, and in many ways, the "all-in-one" idea is, for me at least, pretty sensible. I will agree though that the deciding factor as to whether it's crap or not will be if they can come out with a good showing of games. Proving that you are indeed going to release call of duty ghosts with your new console is a bit like saying "I am human, and I have genitalia" It's wonderful to have the reassurance, but it doesn't say anything new and raises questions as to why you chose that particular phrasing-or game-as your big introduction.

 

[sagitel]

Seriously, I don't get all the Xbox One hate. It's a console, no worse or better than PS4. Sony has f***ed their customers multiple times through the PS3's lifetime, enforcing restrictive DRMs, suing people for just tinkering with the device, introducing gimmicky controllers that only copied others, and finally allowing gigabytes of customer data to be compromised by hackers - and all of that did not cause everyone to think Sony's going to die or the device itself sucks. Microsoft's new console is faster, it's more polished than the previous one, it's based on everything good that was in 360, and also lets the device to become more of a home entertainment system.. what's up with that? Even if it does require you to be online once a day - let's be real here, everyone has internet connection, and such requirement does not pose any problem to the customers.

this is not about how awful or stupid sony is. its about Microsoft. and the reason people get angry about Microsoft and not sony is that they are costumed to Microsoft not being idiot. they like (or liked) the company. the games it released were good, the console was good (never owned one but i heard about others),the OS were good(not counting vista and 8) but sony was just fucking up so much after a while people were like "Meh".

please tell me how you didnt find that revealing ... bad? it only had CoD as a game for a GAMING console!(i think the right name should be tv-ing console?) in my idea Microsoft is somehow suddenly became stupid and not any stupid, EA level of stupidity.(i still cant believe the exec called their customers backwards!)

 

[BBboy20]

PS4 presentation made me nervous. The XBOX ONE presentation made me facepalm myself to ancient egypt. Good that I have all current gen consoles and a nice GTX680 in my custom built PC for Watch_Dogs.

Watch Dogs is going to become a reality for Zero owners.

They really had and go ahead and do it...the dream is over...

 

[Rad Party God]

Miscrosoft's plot all along was to actually make the wiiU and PS4 look good by comparison... I can't imagine they had any other motive at all from what I saw.

CoD Dog

But Jim! THE EMOTION!!! That dog is EMOTION!! It craps EMOTION! It's feces Spell out EMOTION! Emotion Emotion Emotion Emotion.

Relevant gif is still totally relevant.

 

[Baldr]

It's both funny and sad to see just how out of touch MS apparently is. Be it ignorance or just plain contempt for gamers I don't know. Apparently "needing time to respond to Sony" meant thinking of how they could make it as unappealing as possible in comparison.

No, Gamers are just out of touch on what sells on mainstream and what mainstream consumers demand.

And just what is that exactly? Something that does what everything else out there already does?

The number one demand out there is convenience and ease of use.
Then look at the top 10 games of 2012:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/184637/

Call of Duty and Sports games.

They hit the nail straight on the head.

Go where the money is.