Xbox One

[DarrienEmerald]

I'd say it's similar, but not necessarily congruent, with something like Ultima Online (is that even around anymore?) or World of Warcraft.  They have to convince their target audience that's there's enough value there while they have access to it that if it was to ever go away, they won't pull out the pitchforks and torches.

The difference here being that Ultima, WoW, FFXI/XIV, etc., are online centric games.  My complaint is that, barring some kind of update disabling the check-in, every single game released for the system will stop working.  I play mostly single player games, barring a random Borderlands 2 event with my two friends, or another random game with those same two friends.  However, with Xbox One, in ten, eleven years barring that update, I'm not going to be able to play anything I buy for it, even Arcade mode or 1P VS CPU for that Killer Instinct.  And yet, I can load up any old Atari or NES cartridge I want thirty years from now (barring TVs having some kind of super awesome new inputs and all old TVs being destroyed) and play them just fine.  It's really hilarious how much technological "progress" Microsoft is making with these decisions.

That said, yes, I do plan on getting one at some point.  I'm not concerned about when though, because even the games I want are nothing new, and the downsides heavily outweigh them.  Ryse is basically a slower God of War, right down to the QTEs.  Titanfall is another FPS, now with jumping (Metroid Prime) and Mechs (Mechwarrior).  Killer Instinct is a fighting game that will prolly have some kind of brutal winning sequence (Mortal Kombat).  Crimson Dragon is Panzer Dragoon + Lair.  Dead Rising 3 is Dead Rising 2 with a mall instead of a city, but at least I don't have to go to a damn bench to make my weapons.  Now, also note, I'm not saying PS4 has any spectacular new ideas either; the games are still more or less the same we've been seeing, which makes perfect sense.  This is a new generation of consoles, but at the same time, it's still coming out alongside games this generation.  Also, pretty much every imaginable combination has been done at this point; the main thing is not "does this game have anything new" but rather "is this game fun and enjoyable?"  But the PS4 has all of the features I like (no used restrictions on at least 1st party titles, huge indie support, region free, upgrade-able hard drive, no camera required to watch me (sure, you can cut it off, but how do I know it's REALLY off?), with relatively few downsides, the only two coming to mind being the redesigned controller (I love me some Dual Shocks, and use them on everything possible) and the PS+ requirement for multiplayer, which still is not a major downside considering I've wanted at least one of the many free games they offer monthly.  Compared to Xbox Live's Assassin's Creed II and Halo 3 start-up, games I'm sure everybody that has ever wanted to try has bought, owned, beaten, and quite possibly sold by now...

[larryinc64]

http://www.p4rgaming.com/microsoft-confirms-xbox-one-will-only-work-in-21-states-in-the-us-at-launch/

Not sure if this is true or not. IF it is true, No Xbox One for me even if I wanted one. Look at CT there, surrounded by states that can get it. But not me. I feel left out.  

It's satire, checked the rest of the site, all joke articles.

[amarthar]

That article is almost accurate. Just replace "states" with "countries" and it's true:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMvOaDTX8jA

[Dravenae]

There's only one thing that would tempt me to go for the Xbox One, and that's if Microsoft got exclusive rights to all of Valves games. Hell Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Metal Gear could be all exclusives to the Xbox One, but to be honest, the recent efforts of both Konami and Square Enix, make them no big loss. Valve games bring me back to a time where games were absolutely awesome, new, and quirky. Konami and Square Enix just *CAN'T* bring that to the table anymore.

[wiggy]

I need Portal 3!!!

[scarmullet]

There's only one thing that would tempt me to go for the Xbox One, and that's if Microsoft got exclusive rights to all of Valves games. Hell Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Metal Gear could be all exclusives to the Xbox One, but to be honest, the recent efforts of both Konami and Square Enix, make them no big loss. Valve games bring me back to a time where games were absolutely awesome, new, and quirky. Konami and Square Enix just *CAN'T* bring that to the table anymore.

No Japanese company would go with the Xbox One exclusively as the Xbox has yet to break into the Japanese market, its too big a risk. The only reason Square-Enix started making games for the 360 this gen is because of the Xbox 360's market share in North America and Europe as opposed to the PS3s.

[amarthar]

Also the Xbone will not be available in Japan at launch.

[kaysow]

just read they'll still be at tokyo game show in september for some reason.

[wiggy]

of course they will.  They are still gonna want to promote it.

[Blumpkin]

There are initial reports that MS is flipping on the DRM and used game policy...

[TSOLfan]

There are initial reports that MS is flipping on the DRM and used game policy...

It's official:

http://majornelson.com/2013/06/19/your-feedback-matters-update-on-xbox-one/?utm_source=MBC

Though, an interesting concept that was a result of the DRM check-ins was the ability to define a group of 10 "friends/family" that could access your game library, though, only one person could be playing any one specific game at a time (so a friend could be playing my license of Forza, and I could be playing my license of Killer Instinct, all at the same time, though, we both couldn't play my license of Forza at the same time).  Basically, a built in way to "borrow/lend" digital copies.

I kind of thought that was cool, as I had planned on picking up an XO, as were a few friends, and we could each pick up the games that interest each of us the most, and simply ensure we were in each other's pool of 10 "family" members (almost reminds me of T-Mobile's old Fav-5 plan), and we'd have one big pool of games.  Actually, that was the plan (one person was going to pick up Forza, another Dead Rising 3, and I was going to pick up Crimson Dragon, and of course, Killer Instinct).

I wonder if that now goes away.

[wiggy]

WOW! 

Good for them.

[TSOLfan]

WOW!  

Good for them.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm not a fan of the switch, because of this:

These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

So, my game sharing example in my post above (being able to define a friends/family group of 10 and having an online pool of games to pull from), that my friends and I were excited about and looking forward to now goes away.  Downloadable copies can no longer be shared, and disc based games (where in the DRM model, they were simply a means to getting the installation files and for all intensive purposes were downloadable copies), now require the disc, just like the 360 and PS3 (and PS4 I assume).  Granted, we could technically still share games by mailing a disc it seems, though, again, I was willing to trade the DRM for the convenience, especially since we are scattered across the country.  I mean, if my friend that's a 27 hour drive away just wanted to play some Crimson Dragon for a few hours, he could, and wouldn't have to wait for me to mail him my disc, and for him to mail it back when he was done borrowing it, and for me, the same, if I wanted to play some Forza.

Lame.

Again, I can understand why some people might be excited about this (those that flip their games, and don't have a reliable Internet connection), though, for my circle of friends, where we typically hold on to our games, and we all have broadband connections, the new DRM model offered up some cool game sharing possibilities (open access to your digital game library to your circle of friends) that are now lost.

And again, lame.

[Arseen]

Win for gamers.

Still hesitant to buy BXO, they still might come up with something to screw us over.

[segamer]

DRM policies were a damning blow to anyone that collects games. Right now, if you buy a disc based game, you have equity in that game. With DRM, it's inevitable that one day, Microsoft would close down the servers used to activate Xbox One games, making games worthless.

An example of this is Phantasy Star Online for the original Xbox. The game played offline fine but required an Xbox Live account to use. Now that servers are closed for the original Xbox, there's no way to play the game even though it has an offline mode.  It's worthless. This is only a good thing. I intended to buy both Xbox One and PS4. However, I'm still putting 95% of my support behind Sony as they did the right thing to begin with.