There Will Likely Never be Another Xbox One Exclusive

[Rangaman]

Also, this is not the end of the Xbox. There are millions of people out there who will still buy an Xbox, regardless of this announcement, simply because they don't want a gaming PC. It's just a means of increasing profits in areas like Japan and S. Korea, where Xbone sales have been horrendous and PC gaming is the dominant force.

I, for one, support this move. It means that I don't have to have a game confined to one system.

 

[Leg End]

Might as well hit the meat here.

-To start, a regular Xbox One is cheaper than a gaming PC. Note, I'm not saying the Xbox One is BETTER. I'm saying that it's CHEAPER. $300 won't get you a very good PC.

I'll basically give you this one because Microsoft is offloading these things to make way for the S and at these prices, you can't really match Microsoft having bulk prices.

-When you buy a PC, you either need to pay an inflated price for a prebuilt flashy PC which isn't overly powerful (e.g. an Alienware), or you need to have a relatively good amount of knowledge as to what components you need, which are better etc. To buy an Xbox, you just go into a store and pay for it.

You can buy a powerful Alienware but you'll be paying about twenty times the cost of any recent console. You can however just not go through them because they are an evil company.
Otherwise, you can make it yourself, yes, or just buy a prebuilt or custom from someone who doesn't suck and charge about a thousand dollars for a CPU upgrade.

-On PC, games are primarily bought digitally, and are generally all over the place. You'll be using Steam, Origins, Games for Windows, Battle.net, etc. Xbox games are either physical, or all stored in a singular location.

Let's be serious here. Steam is where probably everybody is going to be getting all of their games, Origin only for recent EA titles and you still need to make an Origin account on consoles to even start with online play for EA titles. GFWL is actually dead and you'll only be dealing with that for older titles, probably Dark Souls.
Battle.net is for Blizzard games and you deal with extra crap for MMOs on consoles anyway if we're talking WoW which I believe does go through Battle.net, that or Hearthstone but now we're getting into exclusives or all of the same mess you generally need to go through on any platform for any of these. I don't even want to remember the hell that was managing to get Metal Gear Online(MGS4's) to even let you play.

-When you play a game on PC, you'll need to mess around with the settings configuration to try and find the setup which best works on your PC at the best quality.

And on a console you typically need to adjust simplified settings for video and audio. Even then on a PC, most games can, like mentioned by someone above, spit you a detected preset.

On Xbox, all of the settings are already configured to be as good as the system can handle it.

Or can't, when a game pushes the system too hard at the "configuration" they chose because looking pretty took priority over performance. Not having an option in this situation is not necessarily a good thing.

The convenience level is pretty much on the line depending how much you're willing to pay, ultimately. You can go into a store and buy an Xbone and just plug it in, but deal with game installs, updates, accounts, settings when the audio output isn't working correctly and you can't hear people speaking(damn the PS3), the remnants of Project $10, ect.

There is borderline nothing more complicated about a PC's use and setup that isn't done on consoles these days, and it's disgusting because none of it is needed and all of it is basically a hassle.

 

[nickpy]

I don't understand why people are so against Microsoft trying to create a walled garden but then brick themselves willingly into Valve's jungle.

I won't buy a game unless it is on Steam. Why? When did Valve become this massive consumer champion? You can even add non steam games to it and make use of all its features.

Hell I could understand people saying "GoG or nothing" because of the lack of DRM but Steam is DRM.

I can only speak for myself, obviously, but I think many people are of a similar mind:

I don't think that Steam/Valve are perfect, by any means, and infact I will always buy from GoG first if I can, but I would much rather buy a game on Steam than any of the other alternatives (Whatever Microsoft's current store is called, uPlay, Origin, etc) because it is - let's face it - where the majority of games are, its where my friends are, I like steam chat integration, and its just easier to have everything in one place.

I don't like the DRM aspect of steam at all, hence why I buy GoG when I can, but at least Steam isn't overtly intrusive - The only time I've ever had a problem with steam DRM actually turned out to be my fault for doing something a bit screwy to my system, whereas I could tell you some real horror stories about my experiences with uPlay and GFWL. Even when I do buy from GoG, I usually add them to steam as a non-steam game anyway, so I get the Steam Overlay.

Also, Valve is not deliberately trying to create a walled garden. Yes, they have various business practicies designed to encourage people to use their platform, but then everyone does. They don't, however, try and hoard important features (OpenVR and Source will both work just fine without Steam itself), they don't sign exclusivity deals (the game dev is always free to sell on other platforms if they wish, even if many choose not to do so). Basically its a difference of approach - Valve tries to win gamers and devs over by being the best without inherently stifling competition, admiteddly I would say GoG is actually the best but steam ranks a close second and it has more games. Conversely, Microsoft is trying to win by locking things into their ecosystem both contractually and technically, thereby forcing us to use their store and all the restrictions that comes with it whether we like it or not.

 

[votemarvel]

Thanks for the reply nicky.

I'm not a fan of the Windows Store either but people are giving Valve what Microsoft wants to create. If they don't want a single PC store front, then why refuse to buy from anywhere but Steam.

And you nail it on the head. You can add non Steam games to Steam, I run Mass Effect 3 through it to make use of the screenshot feature, hell you can even add Windows Store games to Steam if you wanted.

You're not the type of person I am talking about though nickpy, as you do go elsewhere to buy. I have a friend who despite loving the first two Mass Effect games, and seeing me play the third through Steam, refuses to get the game because he can't buy it from Valve's store front.

 

[Fhqwhgod]

I have a friend who despite loving the first two Mass Effect games, and seeing me play the third through Steam, refuses to get the game because he can't buy it from Valve's store front.

Your friend is just like me. And I use several stores but they all sell Steam keys.

 

[Saulkar]

I am "easily wiping it out" by exercising my right to choose to not install Win10 so the problem doesn't arise in the first place, a right that MS apparently doesn't think I should have, based on their aggressive upgrade practices.

The thing is (and I have already disabled it all manually plus a sweep by spybot anti-beacon for good measure) that microsoft added all of the spying to windows 7/8/8.1 so you do need to be proactive on those as well.

Something not often touched upon is that upgrading to Windows 10 can break the licenses of many commercial products. 5 people I know had trouble with Autodesk products that could not be solved. Let's see if I had a comment jotted down that noted all of the issues...

Here it is!

It fucks with Autodesk licensing software (as well as Sitni Sati plugins). Clean installations make no difference. 4 people I know tried to install 3DS Max, 1 2013, 2 2014 (The copy I own), and 1x2015, and only one copy of 2014 could be licensed. 2 Tried Maya 2013 and 1 2016 (The copy I own) and all three could be licensed but installing the latest service packs undid that for 2016 and bricked both copies of 2013. Blender 3D (a free 3D program with a fast polygon modeling ethic and second only to Max in tools) actually runs perfectly fine. One could not get Zbrush to work (all five of us use it). The only commercial software that none of my buddies had trouble with was Mari and I do not even own that one. Lastly, while updates installed the same telemetry as windows 10 on the previous two O.S.s it is easy enough to use 3rd party programs to block it.

So yeah. It breaks programs and their licenses/licensing software.

 

[rgrekejin]

And no, consoles don't tend to come with options. Aside from one or two on the system settings. It's nothing compared to configuring a menu for EVERY. FUCKING. GAME.

My choice of console is PC and Wii U FYI. I own neither an Xbox One or PS4. I'm just smart enough that I can easily see the advantage.

If PC is your console of choice, how is it possible that you don't seem to know that GeForce Experience and Gaming Evolved are things that exist? They're free software that come with your graphics card that you can use to auto-optimize graphics settings in games for your PC's specific configuration. GeForce Experience has updates for pretty much every major release, and if you want to make some pain-free adjustments, it has a slider you can use to choose between fps performance and graphical quality, automatically altering settings to achieve your desired level of quality based on their level of impact. I have an Nvidia card, so I only have experience with Geforce Experience, but I imagine Gaming Evolved works much the same way. In the dozens of games I've played in the last two years, the only time I've ever actually had to use a game's configuration menu was when I wanted to turn off hairworks in Witcher 3 because I thought it looked worse than the default hair even though it was technically a "higher quality" setting. Sure, PC purists may not like them because they don't optimize games exactly the way they'd do it, but they're more than good enough as a first approximation for someone who knows nothing about settings.

 

[nickpy]

The thing is (and I have already disabled it all manually plus a sweep by spybot anti-beacon for good measure) that microsoft added all of the spying to windows 7/8/8.1 so you do need to be proactive on those as well.

Yes and no. Its true they've added some extra telemetry stuff to Win7/8, but most of those updates are marked as optional so they never get installed unless you specifically tell it to do so, and in any case all telemetry in Win7/8 is tied to the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) which is a single check-box to switch off, and more importantly is off by default anyway. As I do not participate in CEIP, I have made a point of not installing the relevant updates as that's just using up space unnecessarily, but ultimately no harm is done by installing them if you have CEIP switched off.

 

[rgrekejin]

If PC is your console of choice, how is it possible that you don't seem to know that GeForce Experience and Gaming Evolved are things that exist? They're free software that come with your graphics card that you can use to auto-optimize graphics settings in games for your PC's specific configuration. GeForce Experience has updates for pretty much every major release, and if you want to make some pain-free adjustments, it has a slider you can use to choose between fps performance and graphical quality, automatically altering settings to achieve your desired level of quality based on their level of impact. I have an Nvidia card, so I only have experience with Geforce Experience, but I imagine Gaming Evolved works much the same way. In the dozens of games I've played in the last two years, the only time I've ever actually had to use a game's configuration menu was when I wanted to turn off hairworks in Witcher 3 because I thought it looked worse than the default hair even though it was technically a "higher quality" setting. Sure, PC purists may not like them because they don't optimize games exactly the way they'd do it, but they're more than good enough as a first approximation for someone who knows nothing about settings.

Thanks for defending my original point, that consoles are more convenient than PCs. You're claiming that you now need extra software for auto detect, which the audience I'm describing won't use unless someone instructs them to.

Oh come off it. You're deliberately misrepresenting how things work to try to score rhetorical points. I wonder whether you actually game on PC, because you don't seem very familiar with how the process actually works. No, you don't need additional software to autodetect settings. Autodetect still works just like it always has. I'm addressing your complaint that, for some hypothetical audience who apparently care about getting the absolute optimal graphics settings out of their PC rather than just accepting the presets despite the fact that they'd apparently be quite content with whatever locked-down settings a console game chooses to use, autodetect sometimes doesn't do quite a good enough job of optimizing graphics. So I pointed out that there are additional programs that you can use that allow you to use a more refined version of autodetect tailored to your specific hardware. And before you complain about your very strange hypothetical audience having to go look for more programs and having to use extra software, I'd like to point out that a. the software in question comes bundled on the install CD that comes with your GPU and auto-installs along with the drivers unless you specifically tell it not to b. the software also auto-runs and takes you through a tutorial upon installation unless you specifically tell it not to c. optimizing your settings (and changing whether you prefer fps or eye candy) is literally a two-click process. In the process of following the instructions for normally installing your GPU, you get the optimization software and are taught how to use it. It's no more complicated than learning how to navigate a console's menu system.

Auto-detect is okay, but it's far from perfect. I still always have to modify settings for the best graphics/framerate. Just because you *claim* that you don't need to touch menu settings ever does not mean that others don't.

But we're not talking about you, remember? We're talking about some hypothetical tribe of techno-savages from Papau New Guinea who apparently really want to play the latest AAA titles but can't be bothered to turn down the AA if the game starts to chug. I have news for you - if you're playing on console, you probably don't really care that much about fiddly differences in graphics, or whether the game is running at 60fps or 50 (or 30). Consoles are all about delivering the minimum playable experience, and autodetect is more than good enough to deliver that. The optimization profiles something like Geforce Experience offers are significantly more than good enough to deliver that. Who is this audience that you're supposedly speaking for, that they're willing to put up with the muddy textures, frame-rate dips, and texture pop-in commensurate with a woefully underpowered console trying to play a modern AAA game, but when on PC, they demand that all settings be set to their theoretical optimum, rather than just using autodetect and calling it good enough?

 

[rgrekejin]

-Snip-

A large portion of people are either comfortable with consoles, and don't commonly use a PC for anything more than internet access. Or, they're literally just getting into gaming. Try going outside and talking to real people. If your social experiences is confined to people who are like yourself and are already comfortable with PC gaming. Then of course none of my points apply to them.

But of course, that concept is so foreign to you, because like most PC fanatics, you're so collected in your own little world, that you forget that not everyone on the planet is like you. There are literally soooo many people who don't want to put in the time or effort into buying a PC, messing with game settings, and messing with a plethora of clients when there's a far easier option for a much lower price point.

I indicated that auto detect isn't the fucking miracle cure you make it out to be. In my experience, I have to mess with the settings after auto correct to get my games to a point where they both don't look like shit, and are at LEAST console standard. Just because YOUR experience says otherwise does not mean that EVERYONE'S experience is perfect. I indicated my own experience as a singular example of that. Unlike you, I never stated that my experience was fucking unanimous with everyone else.

And don't doubt my experiences. I don't have to resort to lying and fallacies to defend my arguments.

Spoiler

And for the last. fucking. time. At no single point have I said that people CAN'T build their own PCs, or that they're incapable of PC gaming. I've merely indicated that consoles are currently a purchase of convenience, and until PC gaming is simplified quite a lot, or until consoles are pushed to being "PCs with exclusives", then my point will forever stand.

Setting aside your tantrum about how no one is allowed to say anything about anything until they've walked a mile in everyone else's shoes or whatever the hell that was, I'd like to point out that I've never been making a general PCs versus Consoles argument. I've merely been pointing out that one very specific point of yours, that PC games are intimidating because they have a lot of settings you can change, is largely bullshit. I mean, sure, there probably are a lot of console gamers who feel intimidated by the massive number of settings PC games have, but that's only because there are people like you out in the world perpetuating this myth. Autodetect works reasonably well most of the time, especially if you're not super picky about your graphics settings and frame rate, which a console gamer really can't be in the first place. And even if that's not good enough for you, both major GPU manufacturers have invested significant time and effort in making one-click optimization possible on all modern hardware. No reasonable person would see this as a significant barrier to entry. I'm perfectly willing to grant that there are a number of valid reasons that someone might prefer a console to a PC, but fear of the settings menu really isn't one of them any more.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

I don't get why Windows 10 is so hated. Okay, sure, the updates are a little aggressive, but that's fixable. Also, I wouldn't be waiting for a workaround any time soon.

Well, you hit on the aggressive updates problem, but there's also a slew of privacy concerns. Yeah, Windows 7 and 8 both sent data back to Microsoft, but Windows 10 is far more aggressive on that front, too. Simply having Cortana active sends back browsing habits and program usage data. You can turn it off, but it's my understanding that Windows 10 sends it back anyway.

I will not, and never will, support such aggressive data gathering on me. That's not to mention the whole UWP fiasco, with Microsoft using their near-monopoly on operating systems to force everyone to buy from them.

I'd rather be a generation or two behind than support that.

 

[votemarvel]

I have a friend who despite loving the first two Mass Effect games, and seeing me play the third through Steam, refuses to get the game because he can't buy it from Valve's store front.

Your friend is just like me. And I use several stores but they all sell Steam keys.

I tend to forget reseller sites I confess.

However you can't buy Mass Effect 3 from Steam, even through a third party reseller, so my point still remains.

 

[littlebunnyfuufuu]

No, that was a new one. It's incredibly easy to turn off though, and really isn't as big a problem as people have made it out to be.

Only what it lets you turn off, and even then it still sends information you tell it not to. If Microsoft wasn't pulling that, I'd be putting 10 on my new rig.

Im logging in for the first time in half a year to say Bless you for your patience in trying to talk to him sir. (Kilbeth in future posts, I quoted a shorter post because im trying to post on a tablet, and the escapist.....isnt the best for posting on my tablet lol

You gotta give him this though, you can walk into almost any store and buy a console.....motherboard, not so much. only that one though.

And if price is really such a big deal-
$300 for a platform that will be, supported, and able to play games with no problems, and Current for what-half a year for the current consoles?, maybe another 3 more years for whatever stop-gap platform they come up with?

Or

$500-$800 for a platform that wont need a significant upgrade for at least 6 years or so? (Todays current graphics cards and processors are complete beasts at 1080p, and you only need to upgrade if you want more than 1080p) at least.

Nobody makes a large purchase without knowing what they are getting, and what their options are

And if price is still an issue

-the potato masher- a computer that can be built for $350 that outperforms todays consoles.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/33rw4e/the_potato_masher_is_a_350_pc_that_can_run_gta_v/

(I thought I was supposed to be an escapist plus member from when a lot of staff got let go in about February? Or did that run out or something?)

 

[Leg End]

Im logging in for the first time in half a year to say Bless you for your patience in trying to talk to him sir. (Kilbeth in future posts, I quoted a shorter post because im trying to post on a tablet, and the escapist.....isnt the best for posting on my tablet lol

I pretty much gave up when he was copypasting the same block of text, but bless you for taking the time to log in and post.
Also, try doing it on a phone sometime! Makes you want to stab your face off.

You gotta give him this though, you can walk into almost any store and buy a console.....motherboard, not so much. only that one though.

Or general components really which can make life a *****. I know of only two places around here that sell components and both are special order and are staffed by assholes.

(I thought I was supposed to be an escapist plus member from when a lot of staff got let go in about February? Or did that run out or something?)

I have no idea actually. I think it only applied to users active within a specific period or a certain amount of posts. Doesn't look like we're losing it anytime soon either which is odd because the site is not getting conventional ad revenue either as a result.
Makes you wonder where the money is coming from to feed the hamsters.

 

[Saulkar]

The thing is (and I have already disabled it all manually plus a sweep by spybot anti-beacon for good measure) that microsoft added all of the spying to windows 7/8/8.1 so you do need to be proactive on those as well.

Yes and no. Its true they've added some extra telemetry stuff to Win7/8, but most of those updates are marked as optional so they never get installed unless you specifically tell it to do so, and in any case all telemetry in Win7/8 is tied to the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) which is a single check-box to switch off, and more importantly is off by default anyway. As I do not participate in CEIP, I have made a point of not installing the relevant updates as that's just using up space unnecessarily, but ultimately no harm is done by installing them if you have CEIP switched off.

Thank you for the heads up. I know some optional updates (besides the Windows 10 updater) were moved over to the recommended section. None of the telemetry updates made their way over there, it is still all good?

 

[Tilly]

This seems rather damning for Xbox as a long term brand. Is there still any point in buying them?