The Xbox One – Xbox Is No Longer A Gaming Device
I’ll be honest, I didn’t go in expecting the next Xbox reveal to be some huge megaton announcement like the PS4 was, but my god what happened to the games?
Pre-showing, Microsoft really hyped the show, even by going so far as to play fun with Sony on Twitter. The show started off with a trailer featuring developers and then it happened, they showed the console and it’s features. While many of the features are also available on the PS4, the feeling of doubt quickly began to sink in as a few words kept popping in and out of every spoke’s person mouth; Television, and Social Networking.
I’ve had my issues with the Xbox 360. It started out strong with games, but as the years passed Microsoft slowly kept integrating TV features and social features such as Facebook. It was becoming more and more clear that Microsoft was gonna leave us gamers behind as time went on. Looking at this final year for the Xbox 360, games are truly lacking. There’s no big bang to end it when you compare it to the Playstation 3.
Anyway, this conference was suppose to bring confidence back into gamers, but instead we were bombarded by social media integration and Kinect. I honestly don’t feel that anything in this conference showed us the power of the system. The majority of it was about the television aspect of the console that the Xbox 360 is leaving off at.
So what about the games? That’s a good question. They showed us a bunch of multiplatform sport titles, one new game, with barely any footage, Forza 5 (probably the highlight), and Call of Duty: Ghost, which graphically speaking still looks the same (least close). Nothing in this show concerning games was eye opening or jaw dropping, unlike the audience would have had you believe. When 343 took the stage, things started to get serious … or so we thought. Instead of announcing a new Halo they kept pushing for more TV aspects by announcing a Halo television series. Sure I’m excited seeing that it’ll have a great director, but still that’s just lame.
Microsoft tried to one up Sony by showing the console, however they lacked in nearly every department that made it a gaming console. To me, this show only proved further that Microsoft is indeed moving away from the gaming aspect and marking television as the future, something that has existed only forever. The overall taste that this conference left in my mouth is unbearable from a gaming perspective.
I know, I know, there’s always E3 to look forward to with 15 exclsuives. Don’t disappoint again Microsoft.
Daniel Flatt
May 21, 2013 @ 11:19 am
That was utterly terrible. I don’t even know what to say, they clearly weren’t showing to me. Their new console basically does everything the old one does and plays games we’ve seen on every other console. Their big announcements were Live TV and Halo TV series with a COD exclusive DLC announcement at the end.
Seriously? As little fan faith as was left going into this thing they should have blown the doors off the place. Not…this.
Shawn Pearson
May 21, 2013 @ 11:37 am
You guys clearly don’t get it they simple stated today would be about the system the features and some games. That way at E3 they dont have to spend a hr talking about the system feats etc.. Unlike sony they have to spend hrs unveiling the system and control that hype. I dont see why everybody is complaining lil babies gamers feel way tooo entitles these days always want want want now now now remind of the girl of of willy wonka. What did we learn the xbox will share gameplay by just saying xbox record no button needed no backwards comp it takes over the tv only thing diff from sony press conf was the first party games which they will show at E3 so why can’t we all as gamers feel great that this year we get 2 new great systems instead of always dick riding and looking for flaws …
Taylor Parolini
May 21, 2013 @ 12:18 pm
This announcement was supposed to give a fantastic first impression to the majority of their customer base and it was extremely lacking. End of story.
Daniel Flatt
May 21, 2013 @ 8:01 pm
You have got to be joking. This was one of the worst reveals I’ve ever seen, and that includes some abysmal E3’s. I’m surprised they didn’t trot Usher out onto stage.
First of all, they had a huge thing hanging over their head coming into this: Always Online and No Used Games. Neither of these things were addressed, left to hang over the gaming populace. Whether these issues are big to me doesn’t matter, Microsoft needed to address these things that are liable to turn away masses of fans. They also didn’t say a word about backwards compatibility so I’m not even sure where you are getting that.
Then they spend half of the announcement talking about EA Sports. Really? We get it, you are going to have football. The other half was spent talking about TV, something I don’t pay for and don’t care to pay for.
One new game was announced and it was a few seconds glimpse. They have been DRASTICALLY missing in exclusives to the system, it’s why they’ve been bleeding fans to Sony everyday in the current generation.
Bottom line? Microsoft had tons to prove going into this and they blew it, leaving a giant disappointing question mark hanging in the air for yet another few weeks till E3 after PS3 blew the doors off their announcement and left the entire world talking about it till now with Xbox playing catch up.
Craig Reynolds
May 21, 2013 @ 12:35 pm
Totally agree with this. The event was a massive anti-climax, and MS did very little to convince me that theirs is the next-gen ‘games console’ I should invest in.
In my eyes, round one goes to Sony.
steeeveeeee
May 21, 2013 @ 1:32 pm
Man, I am so disappointed, I had people at home, for dinner, spent the whole time at table with my tablet and headphones, watching the live feed.
Like everybody expected, Microsoft isn’t aiming gamers anymore.most of the show was focused on the TV features.
And the games shown, I can safely say the London level of gran turismo 5, with a nice BMW premium car , on the ps3, looks far better than what we could see, on forza 5.closeup shots of painting and tires hi-res textures is great, but when driving, its a whole different story.for me, forza 5 doesn’t look 2-3 times better than the actual forza, as we all could expect from a system at least 3-5 times more powerful than the x360.
Regarding call of duty, well, excepting the obvious higher poly-count on the main characters, everything looked like a crysis 1, on the x360, at higher resolution and better lighting. I was expecting something that would make me stop breathing, but all I got was… that.
Damn, Activision billions with each cod game sold, they had the time and resources that no one else can have, to make a state of the art new engine, but just like they used the same engine over and over, during all these years, on the current consoles, it looks like they didn’t want to spend a few more millions, and make a f#cking engine that would make 200 millions of gamers dream of, and have their jaws dropping.once again, its graphics didn’t impress me, I was expecting at least 5 times the quality of the latest cod games.
While the ps4 truly amazed me, with the new killzone or the second son gameplay, this forza 5 or the cod videos didn’t make the same effect.
Damn, Microsoft, release a console for gamers, first, and then, just sell an add-on with all the TV features.do you think the 30-50% of the x360 owners, you know, the 10-16yo young gamers that play halo and cod online, will use their system for watching TV? Do you think 50-60yo people will buy a TV system, where it is labeled on the box ‘games’, with monsters, explosions,zombies on it? Do you think these 50-60 yo people will suddenly watch TV by moving their arms or calling TV channels by their name?
People already have many little games to play everywhere, on Facebook, smart phones, tablets, etc. People buy consoles for great new games that doesn’t exist on the other platforms.gamers want games. Is it too complicated? Sure, TV featured are nice, but people want games, games, more new games. Looks like Microsoft don’t really care about games anymore.just like Nintendo only cares and relies on Mario Zelda and other Nintendo games, for selling its system, I believe Microsoft will follow the same path: let’s give gamers halo, cod new maps, new forza, new gears, these 5-10 games may and will be recycled over and over, and will sell 20-30 million consoles, and no need to make new games.will the new 15 games be AAA titles? It could be small live games, like on psn.
And then, let’s hope some people will buy kinect and use the TV features, for selling some extra million systems.
Really, I’m sad seeing Microsoft clearly not caring about games and gamers.once again, cheques will be offered here and there, for time exclusive content, like they did for cod. But where are the great new games for gamers?
Forza 5 and the new cod do look next next gen, but it doesn’t look like the system will be able to deliver games 10 times better than the current generation, until 2018-20.
Because of the DVD support, many multi platform games were made so they could fit inside a DL DVD.many games on the psn weight around 8.5gb, so they clearly were made to fit on the x360 support, with all the possible consequences it could have had. I just HOPE, if the ps4 turns out being a more powerful gaming machine(so far bandwidth, memory and ‘fastest CPU, according to AMD’, all tend to make the ps4 look a more powerful system, at least 50%. I just hope developers will use that extra power, if available, and make the games look the best the system can allow them to look, instead of making them look 100% identical.
I want developers to use all the power they have, on each system, instead of trying to match the lead console, that, most of the time, was the x360. If many multi platform games looked a bit better on the x360, its because not only the x360 was the lead system, but also developers spent more time on that system, when they should have spent more time on the ps3, being harder to code on.as a result, the ps3 versions always lacked those 2-3 extra months of polishing, and the versions were always a bit less good than on the 360.
So, studios, developers, please use each console capabilities, and stop matching x or y console graphics.
Let’s wait 20 days, to discover what else Microsoft have, to impress us even more. Hopefully we will have more games, and less or no TV features, at E3.
Now that the 2 systems are known, we should expect more info from Sony, so they gather people’s attention. Next weeks gonna be fun and interesting 🙂
Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading
Christopher Deleanides
May 21, 2013 @ 2:42 pm
Here I thought the PS4’s social networking crap during its conference was bad. This manages to be even worse, and I did not think it possible.
Charles
May 21, 2013 @ 5:35 pm
I am actually not surprised. Since rumors of the One started, it they have always said that Microsoft was looking to take over our living rooms and that a big part of the One would be social integration.
I’m guessing that Microsoft is banking on social integration really taking off.
Considering we are only 19 days away from E3, I am also not surprised that they didn’t show much games. They have another platform to do just that again.
That being said, it was a poor presentation compared to Sony’s and they could have done more to tease the audience with more information.
Taylor Parolini
May 21, 2013 @ 10:39 pm
It’s called the Xbox One because no one is going to buy one.
bleachorange
May 22, 2013 @ 2:34 pm
I actually liked the console demo. very nice. That said, I won’t be getting one for a simple reason. Always on and Kinect always on makes me think too much about people monitoring me through my device. Call me paranoid, but it’s the reason I always pointed my Kinect at the wall when I wasn’t using it. Puts me in mind of 1984. Sort of like if someone hacked your phone camera and was streaming video back, except the inside of my pocket isn’t very interesting. Oh, that and the possibility of publishers forcing always online on me (which I boycott every time).
I liked the presentation and device overall, but some of the features make me question whether I want to own one.
Robert Strick
May 22, 2013 @ 5:59 pm
“Sounds like you’re a paranoid gamer” *Takes off glasses*
Christopher Deleanides
May 22, 2013 @ 6:23 pm
Oh you
Daniel Flatt
May 22, 2013 @ 6:36 pm
Wakka wakka.
Charles
May 22, 2013 @ 6:45 pm
CSI Miami called. Even they don’t want that joke back.
MacLaren
May 31, 2013 @ 1:39 pm
Privacy? What privacy? You don’t need no stinking privacy.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/05/28/germany_privacy_chief_peter_schaar_calls_xbox_one_a_twisted_nightmare_for.html
http://geekbeat.tv/new-microsoft-kinect-patent-blatantly-plans-to-spy-on-private-viewing-habits/
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/139706-microsofts-new-kinect-patent-goes-big-brother-will-spy-on-you-for-the-mpaa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lB6H-K1rT2I
You put one in your place Bob, and I’m never coming to visit again.