What can Xbox one do for me?

[Something Amyss]

The biggest is that it frees you from discs.

This is something they could do without making discs install-only DRM distribution platforms. It's something they could do without daily/hourly check-ins, and something that already exists. I have trouble seeing this as a "benefit."

 

[alphamalet]

Ask not what your Xbox...

Ask not what your xbox can do for you, but for what you can do for your xbox. That pretty much sums up microsofts attitude!

DAMN! Ninja'd!

The sentiment is so damn appropriate though! The shit the Xbox One is pulling isn't for the consumer; it's for Microsoft.

 

[Olas]

The Xbox One game licensing system benefits you in a number of ways. The biggest is that it frees you from discs. You buy a game disc, install it, and you put it back in the box and never have to worry about it again.

Ya, that is a very burdensome ordeal, taking disks in and out of cases occasionally, I have to move my arms and shit to do all that, it's almost like using the kinect.

I'd much rather be dependent on a separate server that could shut down or stop working at any time. Thank you Microsoft, for limiting our options for us. We never really wanted to own the games we payed for anyway, apparently.

Making Kinect mandatory gives developers the confidence that every Xbox One owner has a Kinect

If the Kinect comes with the console, why wouldn't every XBone owner have one?

which means they are going to build Kinect functionality into every game they make.

Oh thank god.

This doesn't just mean having you flail your arms around. It also means voice chat and voice command and gameplay based on facial emotions. PS4 developers will not be sure that every PS4 owner has a PS Camera, so they will be less likely to build similar functionality. Basically, PS4 games will pretty much be PS3 games with better graphics, while Xbox One games will incorporate voice, gesture and emotion, giving you gameplay that Xbox 360 could never do. That's a big benefit.

And what about games developed for multiple platforms, like... ...you know, most of them? You really think someone making a game for the PS4 and PC is gonna bother trying to find a use for my "facial emotions" in the XBone version? Not that I'd even care if they did.

 

[IronMit]

In regards to the popular pro-MS argument; no discs and no pre-owned game's will increasing publisher revenue whilst reducing prices (like the steam model)...

...can't Playstation do this too? I mean all you have to do is make digital download games $10 cheaper (probably even more cheaper when you factor in shipping, packaging and retail costs)...and immediately you cut the pre-owned market in half by reducing supply.

Sony can deliver most of the same benefits of digital games without all the MS drawbacks.

The thing about steam is it doesn't stop you from walking into a shop and buying a hard copy of a PC game (except the ones that need a steam client anyway). It doesn't cut off GOG or GMG.
Buying a PS4 and Downloading games from PSN doesn't stop you from buying another PS4 game from a shop, without having to worry about registering online or the value of it falling immediately due to the future pre-owned charge if you have the audacity to sell it on.

But apparently freeing yourself from discs on the Xbone means all these extra sacrifices....and the kinect always looking at you. Then on top of that the xbone has only 500gb hardrive when it wants you to install the entire game on it...just doesn't add up. These benefits sound like more of an after thought and not the primary motivator ....I mean all they had to say was 'all our games will be cheaper' and they would of actually got some good publicity. very very strange they didn't say anything.

 

[NoeL]

I could literally care less (and I'm using this in it's correct sense) about certain features benefit Microsoft.

The phrase is actually "I couldn't care less", as in "I have so little care about this thing that I couldn't care to a lesser extent than I already do". It's always irked me how many people get that wrong - saying "I could care less" doesn't even make sense, as it's implying you already have a degree of care for it.

Ehem... UnnDunn makes good points but ultimately misses the mark. The game sharing system doesn't justify 24 hour check ins. All you need is an authentication system whenever the user chooses to use online functionality. The number of people that will extort the system by adding their 10 friends to a share list then never going online again will be incredibly small. Regarding the Kinect, if it comes packaged with the Xbone then developers ALREADY know the user will have access to it, and can force users to plug it in in order to play the game - or not, if they don't want to use that functionality. I'm sure there's a ton of people that DON'T want to have to use voice commands - like if their kid is sleeping in the next room.

 

[commasplice]

Snip

How do you know all of this, exactly? It's awfully specific knowledge for some random dude in New York who apparently makes websites and doesn't work for Microsoft.

Anyway.

The biggest is that it frees you from discs.

I don't want to be "freed" from my disks. I never asked to be "freed" from my disks. I like my disks basically for the same reasons that SpunkeyMonkey said. The slight convenience that not needing the disk provides doesn't really outweigh my desire for the disk. Say, here's a though: they could have implemented a system whereby some people could download the game, but others could still have the option to play from the disk, itself. Maybe only the first install would work, so that way you could pass the disk off to someone else for whatever reason, but it wouldn't amount to multiple installs or anything unless the original instance was uninstalled? I know it's not a perfect solution, but it makes more sense to me than the system they've got running now. And I know there was some excuse about "blah, blah, load times would be awful, blah, blah," but to me, that seems like a fixable problem; develop better disk reading hardware. Besides, I've sat through awful load times (PS2 launch titles were funny like that). That's a compromise I'd be willing to make in order to own my games as opposed to license them.

Making Kinect mandatory gives developers the confidence that every Xbox One owner has a Kinect, which means they are going to build Kinect functionality into every game they make. . . . That's a big benefit.

Is it, now? See, I own a Wii. I also own a DS and a 3DS. Each of those systems have somewhat unique hardware that lends to a certain degree of gimmickiness. I guess what I'm saying is that not every game on the DS needs a minigame where you draw stuff. Not every game on the 3DS needs an entire level where you have to turn the 3D on to complete tasks properly. Not every game needs motion controls or voice input or heart rate monitoring. You posit that including a Kinect in every console natively will inspire developers to make good, interesting use of it. I posit that developers (particularly of AAA games) are encouraged just as much, if not more, to include an aspect of gameplay to use as padding or as a gimmick as opposed to something that actually enhances the experience.

The 3DS gyroscope is a good example. Man, that thing is cool, right? Have you tried it? Have you played Star Fox 64 with it? You can fly your ship by flailing and tilting your 3DS instead of using the circle pad. I mean. It's a nifty concept, but in practice, it's kind of hard to play like that. It's hard to maintain the precision you need sometimes, and swinging your game around doesn't always turn the camera fast enough. Even aside from that, it's kind of disorienting. See, it's much easier to focus on stuff on a screen when that screen is staying still. Every time you move it, your eyes have to readjust.

And that's just a case where the gyroscope was kinda wonky to use. In Ocarina of Time 3D, it actually hindered my experience. I once stood in a dungeon for, like, five minutes, wasting arrows trying to shoot one of those eyeball switch thingies because every time I'd line up a shot with the circle pad, the gyroscope would pick up tremors from my pulse and my breathing, which would screw up my shot.

I guess my point here is that Nintendo spent what I assume to be a buttload of money to design and implement a hardware system that a) won't see use in every game on the platform because it just doesn't make sense, b) can actively detract from a gaming experience, and c) may only be used sparingly, even in cases where it does make sense.

It remains to be seen how the game resale situation on Xbox One will play out. It's possible publishers will keep the current status quo, allowing you to resell any game at any time through any retailer, free of charge. Or they could do something completely off-the-wall. Who knows.

Yeah, I get that you don't have the answer to that, but that's a pretty big "who knows" as far as I'm concerned. See, with any other system, I know what I'm getting. I know that I can resell my games or whatever. With this, though, it'll be a case-to-case thing. I'm confident that some publishers will be all like "yeah, sure, do whatever," but I don't that any that made games I'd like to buy would do that. Microsoft kind of unnecessarily made the whole thing a crapshoot for the consumer. So, like. Maybe every single publisher will let us resell games. That's cool, but the uncertainty of that is enough to keep me from preordering or even buying an Xbox One until well after launch.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

The worst part about this is the consoles they make now are such pieces of crap compared to what they made years ago and cost much more. It is sad that I still have an original Nintendo ( non refurbished) that had beer spilt on it at a party that still works fine. The original games still work. So does my Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, turbo graphix 16, Sega genesis, Sega dreamcast, Playstation2, and Playstation 3 ALL still work, Hell that Pong my Dad gave me still works!!!. ALL of those had more use than the THREE Xbox 360's that died. They build them like crap and want people to pay more for them. The last one still works, just the on board network card is malfunctioning. It won't even allow for an external xbox network adapter to work, so that one will only play games from disc that do not require internet access. Funny they put crappy networks cards into machines that require network access to work! LOL! After you reset all he network info for the external adapter it comes on for a couple of seconds then shuts off again. The xbox will only stay on if you don't connect to the internet.

So what happens when the Xbone dies like the rest of Microsoft's products? So what does it actually do when the network card goes bizirrk and then wont even allow for you to connect an external one? It becomes a $500 coaster? Oh and that POS Kinect we used once and put back in the box collecting dust in the corner, they actually made it so you can't take it out now? WHY would I want this? Seriously?

I love being able to play old games, hell many of them are better than what they have out now. Which is sad considering the amount of money they spent creating them. If they make games that are fun people don't want to sell them. The problem being they don't want to make games that people want to keep so they have to penalize them to play crappy games so they don't lose their ass.

What is the deal with a 10 person limit? Who the hell has 10 people at a party? That isn't even a party. That is a few friends over. Did these guys not play games in college?

 

[ThatLankyBastard]

I love how someone asking a question has turned into a real shit storm...

... then again, I only clicked on the thread in case of the off chance no one mentioned the word "TV" this far down...

... please continue

 

[Whoracle]

The cloud computing feature is powered by Windows Azure, which Microsoft sells to hundreds of thousands of customers around the world for lots of different things.

You mean the same Azure that was down 3 days this January (or February, I forgot...) because Microsoft, one of the biggest IT companies on this planet, FORGOT to renew their SSL certificats? Y'know, the ones that they issue and sign themselves? For their BUSINESS cloud? MWHAHAHA!

Microsoft may be many things, but they're not reliable. Maybe others are even more unreliable *cough*sony*cough*PSNoutage*cough*, but the others at least try to minimize the impact their inevitable incompetence will have this time around...

 

[UnnDunn]

The cloud computing feature is powered by Windows Azure, which Microsoft sells to hundreds of thousands of customers around the world for lots of different things.

You mean the same Azure that was down 3 days this January (or February, I forgot...) because Microsoft, one of the biggest IT companies on this planet, FORGOT to renew their SSL certificats? Y'know, the ones that they issue and sign themselves? For their BUSINESS cloud? MWHAHAHA!

Microsoft may be many things, but they're not reliable. Maybe others are even more unreliable *cough*sony*cough*PSNoutage*cough*, but the others at least try to minimize the impact their inevitable incompetence will have this time around...

That was certainly embarrassing for Microsoft. But compare it to Amazon's cloud service, which routinely goes down for hours at a time.

 

[Gorrath]

The cloud computing feature is powered by Windows Azure, which Microsoft sells to hundreds of thousands of customers around the world for lots of different things.

You mean the same Azure that was down 3 days this January (or February, I forgot...) because Microsoft, one of the biggest IT companies on this planet, FORGOT to renew their SSL certificats? Y'know, the ones that they issue and sign themselves? For their BUSINESS cloud? MWHAHAHA!

Microsoft may be many things, but they're not reliable. Maybe others are even more unreliable *cough*sony*cough*PSNoutage*cough*, but the others at least try to minimize the impact their inevitable incompetence will have this time around...

That was certainly embarrassing for Microsoft. But compare it to Amazon's cloud service, which routinely goes down for hours at a time.

The difference being that the things I bought from Amazon don't stop working when their cloud goes down. Trying to compare the two is apples and oranges. Microsoft can spin this however they like but freeing us from discs is simply intended to free us from ownership, and that's it. Steam does this to us as well, but Steam offers incentives that far out strip the negatives. The benefits that Microsoft is offering for removal of my ownership are paltry at best.

 

[UnnDunn]

The cloud computing feature is powered by Windows Azure, which Microsoft sells to hundreds of thousands of customers around the world for lots of different things.

You mean the same Azure that was down 3 days this January (or February, I forgot...) because Microsoft, one of the biggest IT companies on this planet, FORGOT to renew their SSL certificats? Y'know, the ones that they issue and sign themselves? For their BUSINESS cloud? MWHAHAHA!

Microsoft may be many things, but they're not reliable. Maybe others are even more unreliable *cough*sony*cough*PSNoutage*cough*, but the others at least try to minimize the impact their inevitable incompetence will have this time around...

That was certainly embarrassing for Microsoft. But compare it to Amazon's cloud service, which routinely goes down for hours at a time.

The point isn't that others aren't worse. The point is that Microsoft is hardly infallible and every time they mess up it good bye games.

Well the last few times that happened, they gave everyone free games as compensation.

 

[lacktheknack]

The cloud computing feature is powered by Windows Azure, which Microsoft sells to hundreds of thousands of customers around the world for lots of different things.

You mean the same Azure that was down 3 days this January (or February, I forgot...) because Microsoft, one of the biggest IT companies on this planet, FORGOT to renew their SSL certificats? Y'know, the ones that they issue and sign themselves? For their BUSINESS cloud? MWHAHAHA!

Microsoft may be many things, but they're not reliable. Maybe others are even more unreliable *cough*sony*cough*PSNoutage*cough*, but the others at least try to minimize the impact their inevitable incompetence will have this time around...

That was certainly embarrassing for Microsoft. But compare it to Amazon's cloud service, which routinely goes down for hours at a time.

The point isn't that others aren't worse. The point is that Microsoft is hardly infallible and every time they mess up it good bye games.

Well the last few times that happened, they gave everyone free games as compensation.

The fact that it happened "the last few times" is not exactly a point in their favor.

 

[piinyouri]

I love how someone asking a question has turned into a real shit storm...

... then again, I only clicked on the thread in case of the off chance no one mentioned the word "TV" this far down...

... please continue

Yeah, the demographic here can sometimes be akin to piranhas in a feeding frenzy.

OP has an XBL avatar and likes the Xbox One....therefore they are a paid Microsoft employee/unofficial spokesperson?

That's similar to the line of thinking paranoids have.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

The cloud computing feature is powered by Windows Azure, which Microsoft sells to hundreds of thousands of customers around the world for lots of different things.

You mean the same Azure that was down 3 days this January (or February, I forgot...) because Microsoft, one of the biggest IT companies on this planet, FORGOT to renew their SSL certificats? Y'know, the ones that they issue and sign themselves? For their BUSINESS cloud? MWHAHAHA!

Microsoft may be many things, but they're not reliable. Maybe others are even more unreliable *cough*sony*cough*PSNoutage*cough*, but the others at least try to minimize the impact their inevitable incompetence will have this time around...

That was certainly embarrassing for Microsoft. But compare it to Amazon's cloud service, which routinely goes down for hours at a time.

The point isn't that others aren't worse. The point is that Microsoft is hardly infallible and every time they mess up it good bye games.

Well the last few times that happened, they gave everyone free games as compensation.

Xbox live has been down for this area repeatedly this year, with notifications on their site, but they have never offered us any compensation. They just state that it is down and they know about it, do not give us an estimation on when it will be back up , and it usually takes several hours to get it back up. When they did manage to get it back up we now have had a permanent issues with the Black ops II game that will no longer play multiplayer. The disc works fine on other accounts, No discs work on the account that was playing on that machine at the at the time xbox live crashed, nor did downloading it directly to the console resolve it, nor did deleting everything and reloading. This happened in Jan/Feb, still was not been fixed on that account in May and it was reported repeatedly.
Others had reported the same issue at the time:
http://www.callofduty.com/thread/200625160
We finally just said to hell with it, sold the disc because it was fine for xbox 360, due to some freak glitch in the account and just kept it for the PS3, we actually had both, but with the trouble with xbox live made it not worth waiting.

What exactly do they think is serious enough to warrant compensation? Also if you have a situation like that on Xbone you will be stuck with games you can't even play due to some freak glitch they don't fix and then not even be able to get your money back?

 

[ThatLankyBastard]

I love how someone asking a question has turned into a real shit storm...

... then again, I only clicked on the thread in case of the off chance no one mentioned the word "TV" this far down...

... please continue

Yeah, the demographic here can sometimes be akin to piranhas in a feeding frenzy.

OP has an XBL avatar and likes the Xbox One....therefore they are a paid Microsoft employee/unofficial spokesperson?

That's similar to the line of thinking paranoids have.

I'm assuming you're referring to UnnDunn, as OP doesn't have an avatar and was asking for opinions on ThaBone.

... If people actually went and actually looked at his previous posts, they'd see that he seems pretty neutral on the PS4 and Xbox One. It's my guess that he's probably just relatively well versed in the new gen consoles and is spreading his knowledge.

Spoiler: Conspiracy Time

OR he is a representative for the secret organization SonySoft!!! A company that pretends to be the rival corporations Microsoft and Sony in the public's eye, but in actuality are working in secret towards the same goal... total world domination...

*dons tinfoil hat*

YOU'LL NEVER GET ME, I'M A PC GAMER!!!