Latest xBox live CNet release

[carpanfan96]

Some information, all be it vague information from MS on the always online and used games issues.

 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/features/xbox-one-microsoft-talks-used-games-always-on-6408725/?tag=Topslot;Slot1

 

 

 

 

Is the console always connected?

So the box was designed as a connected device. We thought about people's worlds today. Whether it's on their phone, their PC, their tablet, people are always connected. And their experiences with it, things like Twitter, Facebook, Skype, [they] rely on a connection to the outside world. We're seeing more and more of that in gaming as well. All that said, we understand sometimes you lose connection. There's certainly functionality that happens in the box that if you lose a connection [it] shouldn't stop whether I'm playing a movie, playing a single-player game. So if you lose your connection, the box will continue to perform and you will be able to watch your movie, play your single-player game. We wanted to build a fault-tolerant system. That said, a lot of experiences are multiplayer in nature. Obviously, your multiplayer experiences aren't going to work if your Internet goes down; Skype stops working, Netflix stops working if the Internet goes down.

 

I have to ask about used games. Will the box support used games and how is that model going to work?

So we'll talk about some of the 'how' at a later date, but I will say that we understand the importance of the secondary market. The secondary market was important in the current generation. We designed Xbox One understanding secondary market would be important in the new generation as well. We'll share more details, but people should know that it is a design criteria for us on the new box.

 

I think it was mentioned that all new games have to be installed.

Yes.

 

Is there any kind of DRM or anything that's happening where you're prevented from playing a game, a single-player game even maybe, if you're offline?

So one of the advantages in the Xbox One generation, the reason we're looking at installing and understanding which games are yours and you own, is the ability for your games to roam with you. And you can go to a box and the box knows which games you have and you can take those games with you and move around. I think that's a real strong component of the platform and it obviously requires some local version of the game because you don't have to carry your disc around with you, as you're kind of bringing your content with you. So I think it's going to unlock a lot of capability for the gamer, much like they walk around with their gamerscore and their Live ID

 

 

 

[carpanfan96]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/just-cause-dev-ps4-more-powerful-than-xbox-one-right-now-6408781

 

 

In terms of raw power, the PlayStation 4 currently beats the Xbox One. That's according to Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios' chief technical officer Linus Blomberg, who explained to Edge that he's not ready to declare Sony's console the better performer just yet.

 

"It's difficult to say, as it's still early days when it comes to drivers," Blomberg said. "With each new driver release, performance increases dramatically in some areas. The PlayStation 4 environment is definitely more mature currently, so Microsoft has some catching up to do. But I'm not too concerned about that as they traditionally have been very good in that area.

"The specs on paper would favor the PS4 over the Xbox One in terms of raw power, but there are many other factors involved so we’ll just have to wait and see a bit longer before making that judgment," he added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[carpanfan96]

If your into Tech this is a really good article.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-spec-analysis-xbox-one

 

 

 

In terms of the GPU hardware, hard information was difficult to come by, but one of the engineers did let slip with a significant stat - 768 operations per clock. We know that both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are based on Radeon GCN architecture and we also know that each compute unit is capable of 64 operations per clock. So, again through a process of extrapolation from the drip-feed of hard facts, the make-up of the One's GPU is confirmed - 12 compute units each capable of 64 ops/clock gives us the 768 total revealed by Microsoft and thus, by extension, the 1.2 teraflop graphics core. So that's another tick on the Durango leaked spec that has been transposed across to the final Xbox One architecture and the proof we need that PlayStation 4's 18 CU graphics core has 50 per cent more raw power than the GPU in the new Microsoft console. Now, bearing in mind that we fully expect PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to launch at similar price-points, how did this disparity come about?

The answer to that comes down to a specific gamble Sony made that Microsoft could not - the utilisation of a unified pool of GDDR5 memory. In the early days of PS4 development, only 2GB of this type of memory looked viable for a consumer-level device. As higher density modules became available, this was duly upgraded to 4GB. By the time of the reveal back in February, Sony had confidence that it could secure volume of 512MB modules and surprised everyone (even developers) by announcing that PS4 would ship with 8GB of unified GDDR5 RAM. The design of its surrounding architecture would not need to change throughout this process - one set of 16 GDDR5 chips would simply be swapped out for another.

Microsoft never had the luxury of this moving target. With multimedia such a core focus for its hardware, it set out to support 8GB of RAM from day one (at the time giving it a huge advantage over the early PS4 target RAM spec) and with serious volume of next-gen DDR4 unattainable in the time window, it zeroed in on supporting DDR3 and doing whatever was necessary to make that work on a console. The result is a complex architecture - 32MB of ESRAM is added to the processor die, along with "data move engines" to courier information around the system as quickly as possible with bespoke encode/decode hardware to alleviate common bottlenecks. Bottom line: if you're wondering why Xbox One has a weaker GPU than PlayStation 4, it's because both platform holders have similar silicon budgets for the main processor - Sony has used the die-space for additional compute units and ROPs (32 vs. 16 in One), while Microsoft has budgeted for ESRAM and data move engines instead. From the Xbox perspective, it's just unfortunate for Microsoft that Sony's gamble paid off - right up until the wire, it was confident of shipping with twice the amount of RAM as PlayStation 4.

 

 

 

 

 

[carpanfan96]

More details of the Xbox One trade in/ used games system.

 

 

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/publishers-to-receive-cut-of-xbox-one-pre-owned-sales-at-retail/0116137

 

 

 

 

This is how we’ve been told it will all work:

A gamer walks into a retailer and hands over the game they wish to sell. This will only be possible at retailers who have agreed to Microsoft’s T&Cs and more importantly integrated Microsoft’s cloud-based Azure pre-owned system into its own.

The game is then registered as having been traded-in on Microsoft’s system. The consumer who handed it over will subsequently see the game wiped from their account – hence the until now ambiguous claim from Phil Harrison that the Xbox One would have to ‘check in’ to Microsoft’s servers every 24 hours.

The retailer can then sell the pre-owned game at whatever price they like, although as part of the system the publisher of the title in question will automatically receive a percentage cut of the sale. As will Microsoft. The retailer will pocket the rest.

Unconfirmed reports on ConsoleDeals.co.uk suggest that retail’s slice will be as little as ten per cent. That’s a significant cut from what it has become accustomed to from pre-owned sales and more in line with what they would receive from the sale of a new game – hence, the value of the pre-owned market to the retailer is effectively destroyed.

 

 

[RedMage138]

The lesson is, if you haven't already ditched your Gamestop stock, now is a pretty good time.

 

The more local outfits in this area are switching over to a focus on retro games.  While they've said they'll still carry games from new system, their focus will be on older games and console repair.

[Zaximus]

Yup, figures.  Good luck GameStop, although they DO rip people off, I just feel bad about the jobs of those people.   There is too much double dipping going on here, the greed is crazy.  They make money off new games, but I see MS selling digital stuff for cheaper, combined with training everyone to be "online" and use "cloud" people are going to start shying away from buying physical media.

[carpanfan96]

Yea, if that's the way it works. Gamestop's going from 100% profit on used games to like 3-5% and this is the market that accounts for 90% of Gamestop's profit.  It's also going to make the cost of Used games go up, so more people are going to likely go with new ones, which I guess is the intent and purpose of doing this. 

[Wyank]

So far it is looking like a PS4 household for me.

[Zaximus]

Right and of course they won't make them lower than $60, maybe a bit, but yeah.

 

As much as I want to be apart of a console launch, I'm just not sure about this.  I feel way more freedom on PC using Steam, even though it has DRM of its own.  I may go PS4 also, they seem to be focused on actual gaming, I'll wait for prices.

[dos poptarts]

More details of the Xbox One trade in/ used games system.

 

 

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/publishers-to-receive-cut-of-xbox-one-pre-owned-sales-at-retail/0116137

 

Looks like I won't be getting the next gen console.

 

On the surface I'm not sure how this would work. Essentially you don't own the game at all, only a license. I would guess that this violates some State's consumer protection laws and the State AG will be forced to step in.

[carpanfan96]

Looks like I won't be getting the next gen console.

 

On the surface I'm not sure how this would work. Essentially you don't own the game at all, only a license. I would guess that this violates some State's consumer protection laws and the State AG will be forced to step in.

 

 

It will work similar to how PC games work, the license or key it what activates the game. In this case, your disk being downloaded to your xbox one will be the key to activate the game. All the games that you buy and download to your system are tied to your xbox live account which will be attached to the cloud servers which authenticate games. 

 

 

Of course non of this is 100%, but I think it's probably pretty accurate if that's what they are telling retailers. It's also telling on how quite MS is being about this and the online connectivity issues make it seem even more likely. Gamestop refused to comment about it and didn't seem to thrilled, but they are pushing the system so who knows. 

[carpanfan96]

Wow, I really like MS and was hoping that the One would knock it out of the park and make me want to buy it....... Yeah, not likely going to happen at this rate.

 

It just keeps getting worse for MS and the bad part is they could fix most of this by being honest and open about what they are planning, the fact that they are being tight lipped about it or beating around the bush on these type of issues makes them seem even more and more likely.

 

I'm honestly not sure what to even think about this one. Through the Kinect, the Xbox One features a visual DRM that prevents movies and content from playing if there's more people in the room then the license premits. Duh What??????????

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/24/xbox-one-will-kinect-2-use-visual-drm

 

 

 

 

Microsoft has responded to fresh privacy concerns over a patent from 2011 that suggests Kinect 2 may be used as a form of visual DRM, should the company decide to implement such a measure in Xbox One.

ExtremeTech discovered the filing back in November, which is labelled as covering "content distribution regulation by viewing user." Theoretically, if the Kinect establishes there are more people in the room than is permitted according to the licence that users agree to when renting of purchasing content, the movie won't play.

 

"The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken," it reads.

According to unverified "industry sources" spoken to by MCV within the last month, this is a real thing Microsoft is planning to implement on Xbox One using Kinect 2.

 

Today, however, the company has responded to speculation with the following statement: "Microsoft regularly applies for and receives patents as part of its business practice; not all patents applied for or received will be incorporated into a Microsoft product."

That appears to be all the information the company is sharing for now. While there's no guarantee it's true, if it is then it's latest instance of a potentially concerning encroachment into privacy. Seeing as we already know that the Kinect 2's microphone will always be on and the new console won't function without the device, such a measure isn't out of the question.

 

 

 

 

 

[C47]

I'm sure I'll pick up an Xbox One eventually when an exclusive I want comes out, but it won't be like the PS4 which I'm psyched to get at launch.  Sorry, but M$ took the anti piracy and anti used games poo WAY too far....

[RedMage138]

lol

 

http://me.ign.com/en/news/11383/fyi-the-xbox-one-voice-commands-weren-t-in-real-time