Microsoft: Xbox One's Lifespan is 10 Years "Conservatively"

[CriticalMiss]

Bullshit PR for people to buy their console, much like how they lied about this generation.

I gotta say... The Escapist seems to be shilling quite hard for the Xbox One... They haven't reported on recent negative news about the Xbox and there's a feature for the system right on the front page. I don't see a PS4 launch titles splash screen anywhere...

Considering they had some sponsored articles for Xbone launch titles a while back I'd say that money has exchanged hands to give the Xbone more coverage. Expect some 5/5 reviews post launch.

"Xbox One is going to start ahead, in terms of the experience we can deliver," Flannagan boasts

Sorry, I lost it at this. 'Start ahead'? Pahahahaaa!

 

[FPLOON]

My Dreamcast has lasted for over 10 years... and my friend's N64 has lasted longer...[footnote]Granted, you're talking more about the Xbox One's console gen length... But, I digress...[/footnote]

Your move, Xbox One... I'm dying to see if you're willing to increase your lifespan so that you can live "forever" in game console years...

Or, stay with me here... You do not announce how long the Xbox One will last... Not again... It's sounding more snarky the more I think about it...

 

[DrOswald]

The Xbox 360 was not known for its reliability - I'm not convinced that there are any original 360s in existence that haven't suffered a Red Ring of Death in the eight years since their launch - but Flannagan says he feels "great" about the Xbox One's hardware.

Weirdly, I was over at my girlfriends house yesterday and her brother has a working original Xbox 360. I asked him about it and he said it has never suffered an RROD in its entire lifetime. He must have just been one of the lucky ones!

Well, one of them was bound to work, if only by sheer chance. Maybe something went wrong in the manufacturing process?

All joking aside, I seriously hope the Xbox One doesn't last 10 years. 10 years is a very long time in the tech industry and that simply is too much time. I mean, the current generation is 8 years old and that is a real problem. Multiplatform games are built around the lowest specifications and I don't want my games 10 years from now built around what is, lets face it, only pretty good tech today.

I am primarily thinking of small developers here who don't have the skills, time or money to do proper optimization. Having a lot of memory and processing power to work with, so much you don't really have to worry about it, is a huge boon for indie developers trying to get their first project off the ground and the ability to release on as many platforms as possible is vital to success.

 

[Something Amyss]

But if games are struggling to get beyond 720p and in some cases (looking at you, DR3) 30FPS now, where's that going to leave the console in a few years time? Never mind 10 years, the Xbox One is going to struggle to keep up for even five at this rate.

Comparing what I've heard of the xBone's specs compared to PC hardware this makes me shiver.

Let's hope to God this trend of sub-1080p games are due to poor optimization and not the actual hardware.

Don't worry, guys. the PS3 was going to last for 12 years before a new model. This is the usual hyperbole from a company that wants to promise longevity it can't actually guarantee.

 

[DrOswald]

Bullshit PR for people to buy their console, much like how they lied about this generation.

I gotta say... The Escapist seems to be shilling quite hard for the Xbox One... They haven't reported on recent negative news about the Xbox and there's a feature for the system right on the front page. I don't see a PS4 launch titles splash screen anywhere...

Considering they had some sponsored articles for Xbone launch titles a while back I'd say that money has exchanged hands to give the Xbone more coverage. Expect some 5/5 reviews post launch.

Well, there is nothing wrong with paid advertising. That is, after all, the business model The Escapist follows.

Second, Jim Sterling just took over the reviews for the site (he is the boss man) and while you can justly accuse Jim of many things I don't think sell out is one of them.

As for the Xbox news, it is their job to do features on video games. I mean, it is possible that Microsoft is providing them with the materials they need to do this at this time while Sony is not. I follow several gaming news sites and PS4 news isn't on any of them, while Xbox news is on all of them. While I do believe Microsoft is willing to pass around some bribe money I doubt they could be bribing all the outlets at once. I think they would run out of money.

My guess is that Microsoft is making a big marketing push trying to make up for their previous marketing failures. I don't think it will work, because everyone who is going to buy the thing at launch already has preordered it, there wont be any units on the shelf left for them to buy. Better to build the hype just before launch and during those first few months when it cannot be purchased. The precisely timed hype and perceived rarity causes people to want the console more than they otherwise would. (think how the Wii was constantly sold out for about a year and a half.) I think this is going to turn out to be Sony's strategy, and I think it is the better strategy.

Unless things are much worse than I understand and the X1 wont even sell out on day one. That would be embarrassing.

"Xbox One is going to start ahead, in terms of the experience we can deliver," Flannagan boasts

Sorry, I lost it at this. 'Start ahead'? Pahahahaaa!

Yeah, it's cute. It's like watching a puppy run enthusiastically head first into a wall because it hasn't learned how to stop on a wood floor. Its fun to watch but ultimately pathetic.

 

[oversoon]

Just like when Sony talked about the longevity of the PS3, I'm sure Microsoft includes the years that overlap the next-next generation in those 10 years... Just like the PS2 sold up until not very long ago.

 

[clippen05]

It doesn't have enough staying power to handle 1080p COD, I can hardly believe that it will be doing well 10 years from now, let alone 5 years from now.

 

[Lightknight]

10 years? Maybe if they'd started with a better machine.

EDIT: Hold on, I just figured it out. That's why Microsoft feels that the XBO is a machine of the future. Because it's going to be around for so damn long.

 

[Britishfan]

Xbone's hardware is going to stay ahead of what exactly? PS4 has better hardware and surely they don't mean the PC?!

 

[TKretts3]

My current computer cost about as much as an xBox One at EBGames ($499.99), and it completely outclasses or matches it in every way, AND I don't have to have an extra subscription to play online or use things like Skype or Netflix (I mean, there is internet costs and Netflix costs, but with an xBox One you need that AND xBox Live).

 

[Jingle Fett]

Hmm, now where oh where have I heard that before...Oh yeah, that's right I remember!
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/307428/ps3-will-last-a-minimum-of-10-years-sony/

The $600, top of the line, "most powerful console ever made" PS3 made that claim too.

 

[Strazdas]

They are releasing an underpowered machine that already works on borderline-to-obsoletion delivery, when mobile phones are almsot as powerful as you, and they want to stay 10 years with this? well then i guess game market will be throttled down by MS for 10 years. On the bright side, Sony and PC may flourish and leave MS in the dust. (aid i didnt forget nintedo, but nintendo seems to be doing its own thing and not getting into this fighting).

And lets not forget hardware wear. While i do have a 10 year old PC that is still runing (New HDD, GPU and cooler though), its really old from hardware perspective to the point of noone even making parts with such connections anymore, and its power right now is so low it cant play modern flash games or even watch youtube without lag. Same ahrdware staying relevant for 10 years is irrational claim.

Any product in this industry staying relevant for 10 years?

PS2 did.

I seem to recall both Sony and Microsoft saying something similar about the PS3 and 360. Although it was more like 13 years.

They may be hopeful but I think developers will start to get a bit impatient in terms of hardware capabilities like they have with the current generation. 7 or 8 years will be my bet.

Thing is, with current consoles the tecnology was different from PC and it took developers some tuning to, but once they did they could force ahrdware to do more much more directly, thus extracting more power. with new consoles the architecture is very similar, so any optimization done for console will also be available for every PC built, say, after 2009 or so. Thus the gap of performance will become limited only to extra programs running in the background (as we know, consoles still are unable to multitask). So while we will see some increase in output, i wouldnt bet on it being a lot.

What this means is, my computer still won't need an upgrade Go shitty non future proof consoles

More like what this mean is that gaminig industry, or at least the part that is dominated by consoles (for example strategy games are dominated by PC gamers) will be artificialy stagnated to keep the requirements low enough for consoles to run it.

The PS3 had a cell processor for christ sake and it got ousted in 5 years.

Well, theretically PS3 processor is still faster than modern top of the line CPUs. Though, theoretically, as noone has ever came clsoe to utilizing half of that on an actual game.

If anyone here is still getting productive use out of a P4 (without having converted it to a Linux box or something), I'll eat my hat.

Athlon XP, but a healthy alternative to P4 id say. My dad still browses the web with it almost every day. Do you count that productive use? In fact, Mine is older than P4s, made in 2003, 1,4ghz singlecore.

I can see this being true if they go an all digital and all streaming route in the next 5 years. The hardware doesn't have to match PC specs in 10 years, it just has to be able to stream from the servers that are actually processing the game in 10 years. That is already possible, they just need to build up the infrastructure for a while. Specs of the XBone and PS4 don't matter if none of the actual processing/rendering is happening on that machine.

This is true. however as sad as it is only few countries in the world have the infrastructure to actually do it, and those arent the biggest costumers.

Hell, they might have some sort of VR visors like the Rift while Microsoft will still be playing only on laughably old HD TV's.

Funny thing is, Xbox One does not support SDTVs, yet it cannot run HD either

Unless things are much worse than I understand and the X1 wont even sell out on day one. That would be embarrassing.

Well from what news we are getting, companies are no longer accepting PS4 preorders because they ran out of stock. Xbox however? preorder 50 if you want. S there will be plenty on the shelves.

The $600, top of the line, "most powerful console ever made" PS3 made that claim too.

Well, technically PS3 still is most pwoerful console ever made. Problem was when coding for cell processor.