Xbox One Limited To 21 Countries At Launch

[Dangit2019]

You know, I know its pretty much standard for Africa to be the butt monkey of the world in all things, but really, couldn't even throw South Africa a bone? Not even?

Well, I wasn't going to buy it anyway, but it still urks me just a little. Silly, I know, but there it is.

"South Africa? Isn't that where they put District 9? Why would a bunch of aliens need Xboxes?"

OT: You know, it's not like this is a striking blow, but they just keep adding small contributions to a mounting pile of shit.

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

so that leaves the rest of the countries to who can afford to get games the choose between the a pc, a ps4 or the wiiu without any competition from the xbox 1. Well that sounds like a bad idea.

Hey, Microsoft! Looks like you're gonna need this:

Ya know, for all them holes your digging.

that ladder is not big enough

 

[Vegosiux]

So basically you have no vested interest in what's taking place whatsoever, but you feel it necessary to jump on the hate-wagon. Isn't there something that would be a better use of your time?

My time is mine to use. Quit being so smug. If you don't like reading my posts, put me on ignore or something, but you do not get to insinuate I shouldn't be making them.

I can insinuate what I please and your time is poorly spent.

Maybe it didn't get through the first time:

My time is mine to use. Quit being so smug. If you don't like reading my posts, put me on ignore or something, but you do not get to insinuate I shouldn't be making them.

 

[Yossarian1507]

It's not changing the topic. It's the original point. People are acting like because the Xbox One wont launch day 1 in their country they're not going to EVER buy it. Which is retarded. A lot of movies launch in Europe or the UK earlier than they do in North America, do people start acting like babies and say "damn I'm not gonna watch Dredd now because the UK got it first?" Who cares. Wait an extra month, or two, or whatever. Your country will get its launch day.


And as for another window for Sony, that's the thing:

I'm not impressed by Sony.
And why?

Because they're reacting.

Any dumbass can say the opposite of what their opponent is saying. Anyone can say what the masses WANT to hear. But it takes balls to actually lead and stick with what you've got planned.

Until Sony actually starts leading, rather than reacting, why should anyone care? Their reveal was first but they didn't reveal shit at the time, not even the design of the console. "Here's some pre-rendered cinematics of a couple of games, be impressed please!"

The problem is that gamers are people, and people are naturally reluctant to or scared of change. So when Microsoft starts breaking ground everyone's gut instinct is to recoil and dismiss everything they're saying, then PS4 starts totting the status quo and everyone cheers. Why? Because it's more comfortable?

I don't care if another country gets the Xbox One first.
I don't care if some people buy it to watch movies and TV instead of games.
I don't care if at 3am when I'm asleep the console tells Microsoft that it's okay to let me play my games.

All I care is if the thing has good games and it doesn't get in the way of me playing my game. And from the E3 vids, it looks like it will have some good games so I will get it at some point. Just like I might get the PS4 or the PS3 if I want to really play some of the games available for it.

But then again I've got 12 360 games or more that I haven't played so even if it did launch 4 months late in my country I would still be occupied with what I've already.

But one thing I'm not going to do is become personally offended when the intended scope of a product aims to cater to larger segment than me.

You are completely missing my point. Movies, games, books are completely different story than console systems, because they are unique. Consoles are different. Sure, there are exclusives. If I'll want to play Quantum Break, then I'll wait for XB1 however long it will take to launch in here, same with Killzone or new InFamous on PS4. BUT, majority of games will be available on both consoles, so it's a direct competition, on which one you will play all those Call of Duties, Battlefields, Assassin's Creeds etc. Why should I wait a week, month, whatever to play, say... Watch Dogs on XB1 which still isn't here, if I can buy PS4 and play Watch Dogs on it RIGHT NOW? That's the problem. Microsoft risks losing all of the customers in not supported countries, unless they are hell bent on the exclusives.

Also, apparently you really bought this "education" stuff from Yusuf Mehdi. Innovation is good, we shouldn't be afraid of change, sure. But what Microsoft presents is NOT an innovation. All of those things, except from the cloud thingy maybe, are RESTRICTIONS. Once a day online, or you cannot play. If you'll buy console in England, you cannot play on it in Germany. Kinect, a technology which is yet to prove to be better experience in any game (except Dance Central) than a controller in hands, shoved down the throat for an extra 100$? If this is innovation, sign me out. "Don't fix what isn't broken" is a popular proverb for a reason. Innovation is good, but this isn't innovation. In fact, I think it's a huge step back. Sony doesn't innovate. For me it can react all day instead of leading, but at least I know they won't fuck things up, like MS is doing right now.

I agree with you on one thing - I want to play good games and don't want the console to negatively interfere with it as well. The first point - as in first paragraph, both systems will have the same games, except XB1 players will have Halo, while PS4 players will have their InFamous: SS, new releases from Naughty Dog etc, so unless you are really hell bent on a certain exclusive, it doesn't matter. As for the second point - well, guess which console is MORE likely to interfere with your experience. Yep, XB1.

That's the thing that baffles me the most in this discussion. You stated this two times:

All I care is if the thing has good games and it doesn't get in the way of me playing my game

And yet, you say you don't mind a system that can lock you down from playing your games (so it'll get in the way of you playing the game), if your internet will go down for any reason, or if MS servers will crash.

 

[Neonit]

damn... now im just waiting till they announce that xbox one dispenses huge spiders en std's..... sometimes both at the same time....

anyway - good on you microsoft, you were doing far to well financially, its time to switch to hard mode.

also, i find it quite ironic. not so long ago they said that they dont give a damn about people without internet - because they are in minority. 21 countries doesn't seem like majority to me.....

 

[VeoKye]

It's not changing the topic. It's the original point. People are acting like because the Xbox One wont launch day 1 in their country they're not going to EVER buy it. Which is retarded. A lot of movies launch in Europe or the UK earlier than they do in North America, do people start acting like babies and say "damn I'm not gonna watch Dredd now because the UK got it first?" Who cares. Wait an extra month, or two, or whatever. Your country will get its launch day.


And as for another window for Sony, that's the thing:

I'm not impressed by Sony.
And why?

Because they're reacting.

Any dumbass can say the opposite of what their opponent is saying. Anyone can say what the masses WANT to hear. But it takes balls to actually lead and stick with what you've got planned.

Until Sony actually starts leading, rather than reacting, why should anyone care? Their reveal was first but they didn't reveal shit at the time, not even the design of the console. "Here's some pre-rendered cinematics of a couple of games, be impressed please!"

The problem is that gamers are people, and people are naturally reluctant to or scared of change. So when Microsoft starts breaking ground everyone's gut instinct is to recoil and dismiss everything they're saying, then PS4 starts totting the status quo and everyone cheers. Why? Because it's more comfortable?

I don't care if another country gets the Xbox One first.
I don't care if some people buy it to watch movies and TV instead of games.
I don't care if at 3am when I'm asleep the console tells Microsoft that it's okay to let me play my games.

All I care is if the thing has good games and it doesn't get in the way of me playing my game. And from the E3 vids, it looks like it will have some good games so I will get it at some point. Just like I might get the PS4 or the PS3 if I want to really play some of the games available for it.

But then again I've got 12 360 games or more that I haven't played so even if it did launch 4 months late in my country I would still be occupied with what I've already.

But one thing I'm not going to do is become personally offended when the intended scope of a product aims to cater to larger segment than me.

I don't normally butt in these sorts of arguments, but I simply cannot control myself here. I'll start with a disclaimer:

I do not own, and have never owned any home console manufactured by either Sony or Microsoft (that's either the X-Boxes or Playstations) and the last home console I owned, that I have any recollection of, is the Sega Genesis, back when I didn't even know it was called a Genesis because where I live consoles never truly caught on as a gaming platform. Here in Romania, it's all about the PC, even though consoles still have some users.

Now, the reason why I'm so interested in this is that I've been considering purchasing a console and was, for a while, broken between the X-Box 360 and PS3. Then the new console generation started getting advertised and I decided that waiting is probably better, not only because "Hey, new console!" but also because older ones would sell cheaper.

Then Sony came on and presented their all-new... controller. And that was the moment I knew that it really was best that we all stuck to PC gaming over here. I honestly considered that to be idiotic, really didn't want anything to do with this generation, and switched my interest over to the Vita since, P4G. When I first heard of the X-BONE and its marvelous capabilities, I honestly thought it was an April's Fools joke. Still do, actually, since it doesn't seem to me that anyone with even a shred of cognitive capacity would consider anything MS is doing to be a good move.

Let me just number my points for ease of reading:

1) You bought it, you own it! Once I buy my stuff, I like the idea of actually owning it, mostly because, you know, that's how ownership works. You shouldn't jump though hoops just to use something you pay money for. That's like buying a shirt and once home, the closet wanting to authenticate the brand-name and make sure it wasn't pre-owned every day or else it locks its doors on you. That would be only somewhat understandable, but if the phone lines are down, well then I guess I'll just have to go to work naked tomorrow, won't I? And why is this system in place? Two reasons: to make sure their console isn't hacked (it will be regardless, they really should just stop caring about that stuff) and to make sure the plague that is pre-owned games doesn't spread. Which reminds me:

Why is that a thing? If you bought a game, shouldn't you be allowed to do with it as you please? On-line passes I can get, since on-line games can be installed once and then the disk is useless. If you want to use it on-line again, you have to pay. That I get, and doesn't offend me. But why all of this fighting with secondhand single-player games? If the game was bought once, then the developer and publisher got the money they were going to get. If the owner decides to sell the disk, they're not selling what's on the disk, but the physical disk itself. What's on it is only added benefit. It sort of boggles the mind, honestly, but I guess I'm just stupid that way...

2) Kinect sucks. Next!

3) Back to topic: only 21 countries on launch. You'll notice Romania is not on there, so this is could just be bitterness talking but WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT ALL ABOUT?

Here's the thing, the authentication is not the same as actually using Live. It's just checking in, saying "hi!", making sure the games and console are both fine, asking about dad and how he's been doing since the lay-offs and then that's it. WHY IN THE NAME OF FUCK SHOULD TWO THIRDS OF THE WORLD NOT BE ABLE TO DO THAT? Is Romanian Internet poisoned and we just can't have it communicating with American net or else it might get cooties? Fuck's up with that? Surely they could just allow the console to connect using a guest account to any of its overseas servers. So I can only see two reasons to this:

a. It's logically limiting releasing the consoles to a number of countries as there will not be sufficient units to satisfy the great demand coming from all over the world (sh'yeah right, and Bush jr was the most charismatic US President in history!) but if that's the case then it's even MORE IDIOTIC. Look: I can, right now, buy a console from the States and have it delivered here in a couple of days to a week. But if I were to do that with the BONER I would get fucked because I wouldn't be able to use it. But I would have bought it! See, the problem wasn't that the console won't be released here, but that it CANNOT PHYSICALLY BE USED HERE. THAT IS STUPID!

b. Rather than limiting the number of consoles, MS is trying to limit the number of concurrent logins in an effort to save their servers the strain and prevent potential downtimes. Do I even need to explain how stupid that is? If the system you're trying to impose is so imperfect that it needs limitations to handle the LIMITATION YOU'RE IMPOSING, THEN DON'T FUCKING IMPOSE THE LIMITATION TO BEGIN WITH! If MS has deemed their servers to be so flimsy and easily crashed that having too many people logging in at once would drop them, then what WILL happen once the rest of the world gets the BONER? Doesn't that smell just a bit dubious? I'd be scared as hell by that prospect.

There was someone who mentioned that Sony releases their console and the games come out for it in Japan before they do in the rest of the world and to that I say: WELL -FUCKING-DUH! It's a Japanese console, remember? English is spoken officially in a large number of countries over the world, and unofficially in even more than that. Japanese... not so much. It stands to reason that Japanese games would be released for a Japanese console before the console and the games are localized. You don't have to localize an American game, just release it in English and it will still sell. Japanese games on the other hand, well try and play MGS in Japanese and then tell me how good the story and characters are...

Now moving on to the stuff you said in your post:

"I don't care if another country gets the Xbox One first."

Irrelevant. Not the issue. The issue is that you can't USE it in another country. The issue is not AVAILABILITY but USABILITY.

"I don't care if some people buy it to watch movies and TV instead of games."

You should and should hold interventions for people displaying such financially crippling disabilities. That someone would pay for a 500$ console to do what a DVD or BR player can do for much cheaper is not something so easily glossed over. Besides, you completely missed the point. It's not that there are people who will do that, but that people who cannot connect to the Internet for the authentication are FORCED to resort to that on a piece of hardware THEY LEGALLY PURCHASED. DO YOU NOT SEE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS????? HOW CAN YOU NOT???

"I don't care if at 3am when I'm asleep the console tells Microsoft that it's okay to let me play my games."

I'm sure you also wouldn't care if by some freak coincidence there was a power outage at that time and the BONER couldn't connect leaving you stranded. Maintenance, server downtimes, DDoS, cat nibbling on a cable, broken modem and other such mundane things can mean that you cannot access content you OWN.

About Sony:

"I'm not impressed by Sony.
And why?

Because they're reacting.

Any dumbass can say the opposite of what their opponent is saying. Anyone can say what the masses WANT to hear. But it takes balls to actually lead and stick with what you've got planned."

I will agree with you that it does take balls to stick with your plans through thick and thin. However when soooooooooooo many people keep telling you that your plans are stupid and will likely result in you dying a horribly agonizingly burning... -ly idiotic death and your family will suffer for years to come and the Lord of All Darkness and Evil And other Nasty Stuff will take over the world because no-one will be left to stay in his way and also that nobody will feed your cat anymore, THEN YOU SHOULD RE-EVALUATE YOUR PLANNING. There's gutsy and ballsy, and then there's completely, ludicrously, stupidly, moronically insane. IF A PLAN IS NOT WORKING, IT SHOULD BE CHANGED. THAT IS THE BASIS OF PLAN-MAKING!
Why should Sony even change their platform? Seems to be doing just fine. I used to think they were money-grubbing leeches with their proprietary cables and memory cards, but apparently they were the lesser evil in all of this. Hell, they may even be the hero if they manage to strike down the dragon of stupid business-making that is MS's BONER Squad. Sony may not be making waves, but that's only because they're smart enough to let MS crash and burn on their own. Microsoft is doing nothing but advertising the advantages of the PS4 over the BONER by negatively adding to the comparisons that can be made between the consoles. There is no doubt whatsoever that if Sony continues this policy and doesn't come out saying the same stuff that the PS4 will DOMINATE the market and completely eliminate the X-Box from existence and memory.

I do however stand against the argument that in 10-15 years the servers will go down and the BONER will not be usable anymore. Beside the fact that they could just make their servers accept authentication calls from the BONER, they could just release a firmware update that removes the need for the authentication before they take the servers off-line. It's not like they're not planning on making future consoles, anyway. With a name like "X-Box One" it's like they're saying: "sure there will be a "Two" and a "Three" and an "Infinite". Just you wait!" For me, it's more along the lines of "X-Box(The Last)One". I think they're aware of that but are simply incapable of doing anything about it, this all being some sort of executive mandate with the PR department going the we-can't-mask-this-with-pretty-words-so-we'll-just-come-out-with-it-and-hope-people-will-give-us-points-for-honesty strategy with the added subtitle "like a bandage, like a bandage" written all over that particular proposition.

But, you know what? If all of this idiocy doesn't affect you negatively, then you should go and buy the thing. I'm sure everyone else who will buy it will appreciate the company. After all, playing multiplayer games is hard with only 5 people present. The only reason I wrote this was because your post was absolutely laden with misconception and misinterpretation. If you think that everyone who is upset is simply upset because they will be negatively impacted by the BONER (heh!) then you're wrong. People are upset on principle. I've been a gamer for quite some time now and it honestly hurts to see game developers and console makers go this route. It will kill gaming in general before all the other bullshit going on in the industry even has a chance.

It's just sad is all I'm sayin'

 

[Snazzymathematics]

Keep hammering Microsoft, you'll have that coffin sealed in no time.

At this point they're already seven feet under in four coffins.

 

[Auron225]

Huh, no Japan means no games from their studios on the console unless they are foreign studios. Considering the fact I actually play those games, I've now got yet another reason not to buy this natural disaster of a product.

Which makes me wonder, isn't Final Fantasy Versus XIII meant to be coming out for it? o.0 I know it's coming out on the PS4 as well so they can still release the game in their own country. So in that case, wouldn't it be "no Xbox exclusives from Japan, just Japanese games that are also out on the PS4 or Wii U"?

 

[Colt47]

Huh, no Japan means no games from their studios on the console unless they are foreign studios. Considering the fact I actually play those games, I've now got yet another reason not to buy this natural disaster of a product.

Which makes me wonder, isn't Final Fantasy Versus XIII meant to be coming out for it? o.0 I know it's coming out on the PS4 as well so they can still release the game in their own country. So in that case, wouldn't it be "no Xbox exclusives from Japan, just Japanese games that are also out on the PS4 or Wii U"?

Everyone made their gaming announcements before knowing what countries were going to be on the list at launch. I don't even think Square Enix was aware that the console wouldn't be supported there on release so it is likely a situation similar to the Witcher 3 creators.

 

[Yossarian1507]

And you're thinking short term.
These consoles will likely be around for 6-8 years.

If someone decides to get a PS4 instead of an Xbox One at launch, to play ONE or TWO launch games, they're an idiot because they're not thinking long term. Someone should take into consideration what the console does, what the controller feels like, what games are likely to be available down the road, etcetera.

Personally I suspect both consoles will sell out on launch day anyway, so, if Xbox hurts their market share in certain countries that's their problem.

Ugh... How can someone be an idiot for buying the only console right now, on which he can play it? As I said, unless someone is really hot for Halo, Killer Instinct, Quantum Break, etc. there is no reason for him to wait this additional time, because you'll play all other games (+ exclusives from reliable companies making good games for Sony consoles like Sucker Punch, Naughty Dog, Media Molecule, SCE Santa Monica, Quantic Dream etc.) on device that is already available. Same with other features. I'm yet to see someone hyped about other features rather than games. Smart TV won't be even available for people outside US, and it's been on the market there for a lot of time already.

I'm glad that we agree, that it's MS problem if they'll lose profits in regions not supported at launch. And it will be a problem. If there's demand for a next-gen gaming console, people will buy from someone who supplies it, so in case for 2/3 of the world - from Sony.

Kinect is an innovation. It may be commonplace in other devices now (smart tvs?) but it is still something that other devices cannot do. Also the individual things a console can do are less relevant than the sum of what it can do. What's available, etcetera.

As I said, it's yet to prove to be an innovation, and not a gimmick. See below for the explanation.

You do realize that Dance Central represents an entirely separate segment of the market? There are people who will play a game like that, and not play any so-called "hardcore" game, ever.

Kinect isn't about games either, it's about navigation, voice commands, etcetera. Hand controls. Things which are accessible and popular with smart phones and other such devices (tablets).

The thing is, Siri on iPhone, and hand controls on tablets are refined devices, that WORK. I played Dance Central with my friend in his house. Kinect has a major detection issues, which resulted with the guy on the left always winning, because guy on the right wasn't as well detected, no matter how we positioned the device or our bodies. It also have a delay in recognizing what did you just do, and if you ever played an online game with a lagging Internet, you know how frustrating it is. Then, there are disasters like Steel Battalion Heavy Armor, which are almost unplayable thanks to Kinnect.

Sure, having voice commands and "Minority Report" style interface navigation seems sweet, but MS is yet to prove the thing works like advertised. Unless someone will prove me otherwise, it's a gimmick that stands in the way of using the bloody thing.

You base this on what? Fear of the worst case scenario?
Let's examine history.

Has everyone forgotten the huge PSN blackout? Did Xbox Live ever have such a comparable problem? No.

And here you are telling me that the Xbox is less reliable than the playstation for playing my games? Frankly I would be inclined to go with the track record to see who has better servers, connectivity, etcetera.

PSN blackout was the work of hackers. That's like telling me that Boston, NY, Madrid, London etc. are not a good place to live, because terrorist attacked there at some point. After this stunt, Sony really tightened up their security and servers. Are they immune now? No. But neither is MS.

Because I have faith in the product quite frankly.

I know, that Microsoft knows, that if a lot of people get locked out of their games and it's the fault of Microsoft then people will be pissed. People wont buy their products. So Microsoft will do everything they can to ensure that doesn't happen, because if they did so, it would . . problematic?

I have faith that Microsoft will cover their ass. Because if they don't, their ass is toast.

I believe that:

They've looked at Steam, and have realized that people will forgo ownership if they believe there's enough value.
They've looked at past connectivity problems, like Ubisoft or SimCity or Diablo III, and have taken the relatively safe approach of "always active, but only must be active once a day".
They see the love people have for all-in-one devices and are trying to market the Xbox this way.
They include Kinect because they know controllers and even remotes are very unintuitive for navigating UI and that many people will use connect or voice commands instead.

Etcetera.

That's a lot of faith you put in it, and I can respect that. The thing is, I don't have that faith, and judging from Internet opinions, neither does many other people, and I don't think you can actually blame us for not having this faith, after all we heard so far.

The device is going to sell.

Probably. But in this brutal economic times, the question is rather "How Well? And how did our competition did?". Only time will answer that.

People say "who pays 500 for a Blu Ray or DVD player?". The answer is a family.

Parents want blu ray. Kids want games. Buy the Xbox and get them both. And then with kinect even grandma can navigate the menu to her Coronation Street episode or whatnot.

Blu-ray + gaming console combo is available on the market since 2006, it's called PS3. I know my uncle bought PS3 over Xbox, because it had Blu-Ray (also, he asked for my advice, and I told him I like PS3 games more), so what you are speaking is true. The thing is, since that kind of device is already available for years (and so is smart TV in US), how will you convince them to actually buy XB1 as a family system? Who wanted those features, already have them for years. I don't think adding Kinnect will be enough to make them pay again for the same.

XB1 and PS4 are gaming consoles. Their main focus should be games, because new, better, unique games will be the main selling point of them, and gamers are still (or should be) their main consumer base. I'm working at CD Projekt, in games/movies distribution branch. Most of the people working here (we, CD Projekt Red, and GOG.com guys) are gamers at heart, and I've already witnessed many discussions on topic of new consoles. Small sample group, but with exactly ONE exception of a friend, who is wet at the though of new Killer Instinct, everyone is really dissatisfied (some even disgusted) with everything MS presented up to this point, and Poland not being supported at the launch date despite company making The Witcher 3 on it is just additional salt in the wound. You see the same reaction all over the Internet. As many people stated - we as a passionates WILL often be asked about choosing the console by people not so informed in the topic (like the aforementioned uncle who called me before buying console to hear my advice). You have faith in Microsoft and it's console. Many don't. If MS is really clinging on faith here, then unpleasant surprise is waiting for them.

 

[Xarathox]

Damn, my country is included on that list

The main headquarters of these motherfuckers is in my country. <.<