But seriously, I cannot see Microsoft recovering enough PR to not piss everyone off at E3. Unless Billy Gates can afford to bribe God/Doctor Manhattan/the Luteces for a miracle.
I'm loving it.
Takes me back to the Sega vs Nintendo days.
This is different, though. No one will be fighting about "Xbox vs PS4 - which is Teh Greatest ???"
People are shouting "Console A looks bad, I'm thinking of jumping ship to console B" or vice versa. I've also read a lot of "Well, Microsoft seem to be saying their new console isn't FOR ME anymore, so I'm thinking of going PC Only next gen."
I've got to say, I've been considering a move to PC only after all these announcement and snippets of info. It's not happening soon, and we have 6 more months before launch and I'm sure a lot will be revealed/updated before then...But I'm not excited at all for the new Xbox so far.
cwgabriel @cwgabriel:
Fact: The Xbox One's Kinect camera sends an unstoppable 24/7 live stream of your living room to Obama's Blackberry. #thanksobama #m$
That made me laugh
You laugh, but I have no doubt that, following the announcement, the NSA, FBI, etc are already looking into it, and the drafting the legal framework to request accessing of Kinect 2 to their current requests for things like wiretaps, email access, etc from a judge.
Why the hell wouldn't you ?
"Hey Bob - you know those students we're looking into at that college, the ones browsing Muslim websites and viewing Youtube vids about The Jihad ? Turns out they just got a XBone !"
"That's great news Phil ! Why yes, I would 24/7 video stream from their front room. Oh, and it also monitors for audio even when it's off ? Yeah, lets go ahead and tap that, too. I'll go write the request, you mail it to the judge."
But wouldn't it be great, you know, as a piece of cultural impact for Microsoft, if the intelligence business started using "throw them a bone" as another way of saying "plant a bug on them"?
"Dear [suspect] - Congratulations! You've won a brand new Xbone Xbox One - thanks for playing."
The best part ? It would fucking work.
Say the DEA or police are watching a gang selling drugs, and are gathering evidence before making the arrests.
Send a Xbone to their house, via Amazon, and put the wrong address on it. The gang find it, go "Woo a free next gen console !" Plug it in, then it;s 24/7 video and audio in their living room.
I don't doubt that MS's desire here was for us to shorthand it as The One, which is... ambitious, at least.
And the reason we see fanboyism flare up with new consoles is because the Venn diagram of people who follow industry news, people who shoot the shit on forums, and people who are children is just shy of being a simple circle. There's a tiny sliver where we all get together and mock the rest of the circle, but there will always be more ten year olds (or twenty year olds, if we want to get real age smug) than reasonable adults with free time to be ridiculous about games on the Internet.
I still think the whole thing hinges on how much if a wow factor MS can pull off with the new Kinect tech. Their decisions are already alienating the more hardcore crowd, and the first Kinect's fire is pretty spent in the wider casual sphere. They need mainstream enthusiasm and some kind of meaningful and positive differentiation to keep Sony from gaining serious ground that they never should have had an opportunity to so much as set foot on.
This cleared up most of my fears about the reveal, I am back to being genuinely excited. As long as they deliver on the promise of nothing but games at E3 and they deliver on their promises with Kinect I'll be happy.
Arkyris on
0
Options
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
So it sounds like the "once every 24 hrs" thing is something somebody made up in their stupid heads
They still don't have a firm idea about a bunch of this shit.
But neither did Sony when they announced. Still don't afaik.
It feels like both of them are playing some insane game of chicken, with each waiting for the other guy to announce some policy or feature first so they can go "Just like them, but better!"
That reads like a whole lot of "Yes. No. Maybe. Maybe? Maybe."
Wired: I’ve heard that if your Xbox One does not connect with Xbox Live at least once a day, the machine becomes inoperable and you’re not able to play any of the games that you’ve paid for. Is that true?
Harrison: I don’t think that’s what was said. Let me try and clarify what is happening.
So, there is a lot of anxiety about “what if my Internet connection goes down” and you don’t have connectivity for a period of time. There are a host of features which will be usable without an Internet connection — watching movies, playing certain single player games… all of which will operate offline. We expect most of the more advanced experiences, like online multiplayer games, or games which have a lot of connected features… those games won’t operate if you don’t have an Internet connection. We designed the system to take advantage of a connection to the cloud, and all that that means. But no, it’s not required that you are connected all the time, every second of every day.
There is some technology about how often, or how frequently the device has to ‘ping’, but that has not been… we have not talked publicly about that yet, but it will be very user-friendly.
Meaningless pablum.
Edit: Seriously, he's addresses a totally different question (or course online games need an internet connection, and nobody said it was always-online 24/7), and only returns to the one actually asked in the last line, and hedges like crazy. How is that an answer at all?
KetarCome on upstairswe're having a partyRegistered Userregular
Yeah, I don't see how you could read that and believe that everything people have been worried about with the 24 hour check-ins is a misunderstanding. The only thing he definitely says you'll be able to do without checking in is watch movies and play certain single-player games - pretty much exactly what has been said already.
More interesting to me: "We will announce details on pricing and availability and configuration later on, but the current plan is to offer one SKU."
One SKU doesn't sound promising for those who were hoping for a Live subscription subsidized Xbone.
That reads like a whole lot of "Yes. No. Maybe. Maybe? Maybe."
Wired: I’ve heard that if your Xbox One does not connect with Xbox Live at least once a day, the machine becomes inoperable and you’re not able to play any of the games that you’ve paid for. Is that true?
Harrison: I don’t think that’s what was said. Let me try and clarify what is happening.
So, there is a lot of anxiety about “what if my Internet connection goes down” and you don’t have connectivity for a period of time. There are a host of features which will be usable without an Internet connection — watching movies, playing certain single player games… all of which will operate offline. We expect most of the more advanced experiences, like online multiplayer games, or games which have a lot of connected features… those games won’t operate if you don’t have an Internet connection. We designed the system to take advantage of a connection to the cloud, and all that that means. But no, it’s not required that you are connected all the time, every second of every day.
There is some technology about how often, or how frequently the device has to ‘ping’, but that has not been… we have not talked publicly about that yet, but it will be very user-friendly.
Meaningless pablum.
No, not really. The clues assembled over several days, from several sources seem to delineate that, apparently, it's developer's choice whether your game requires internet access, putting burden of DRM on them. Movies will be excluded from that, and so will their brilliant TV functionality.
But let's not forget that the 360 without internet access is about as uninviting as their structure permits - which is just saying that it looks shit, but might be worse next generation.
I'm just wondering why MS doesn't just shut up, if they have nothing to say. Their message was vague and they failed to cover it up with exciting games. Sony will potentially have to deal with the same issue, once they reveal more details (perhaps not, in which case, good for them), but at least they didn't put a fucking searchlight on it and keep feeding it batteries.
If MS didn't keep saying stuff, yet in very vague ways, this thread, and a lot of others, would most like be 30 pages less. MS would keep marinating in their bad news, but they wouldn't add to that flame, and perhaps sizzle out after E3. I'm having a hard time what what you would think are season professional marketing and communications staff are thinking. Because, right now, I don't care about any specifics. Right now I'm just thinking MS doesn't actually have a plan for their console, because their original plan was so bad it had to be scrapped months before release. That's what it looks like right now. And that's what's worrying. Anything beyond that is conjecture.
Except that's what was already known, insofar as requiring a constant connection for some games. The question that was asked, is what breaks if the Xbone can't connect to their servers once every 24 hours. The answer was "We're not telling".
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.
These same unconfirmed reports also suggest that the activation cost for consumers buying or borrowing pre-owned software will be £35.
This would theoretically mean that a failed ping to the Xbone servers would make all games unplayable, as it would seem necessary to prevent resale and playing the original by not connecting to the internet.
So a huge amount of infrastructure and faffing around, just to get a cut of used sales. If this is all true, that is, and it has to be taken with a grain of salt.
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.
These same unconfirmed reports also suggest that the activation cost for consumers buying or borrowing pre-owned software will be £35.
This would theoretically mean that a failed ping to the Xbone servers would make all games unplayable, as it would seem necessary to prevent resale and playing the original by not connecting to the internet.
So a huge amount of infrastructure and faffing around, just to get a cut of used sales. If this is all true, that is, and it has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Wasnt Gamestops CEO in the dark about the used game situation? This seems suspect as shit.
I know that WE ARE NOT DISCUSSING THE XBOX ONE'S PURPORTED INABILITY TO PLAY USED GAMES, but can we instead discuss Xbone's purported ability to play used games? From MCV UK:
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.
These same unconfirmed reports also suggest that the activation cost for consumers buying or borrowing pre-owned software will be £35.
Question does anyone know is MS can get into trouble with the Kinect being always on from a privacy standpoint? I mean like with already established laws and not wiretapping from the feds or anything like that.
Question does anyone know is MS can get into trouble with the Kinect being always on from a privacy standpoint? I mean like with already established laws and not wiretapping from the feds or anything like that.
If you knowingly buy the wiretap and bring it into your home and set it up and calibrate it and all that other stuff I don't think you can whine about privacy.
Question does anyone know is MS can get into trouble with the Kinect being always on from a privacy standpoint? I mean like with already established laws and not wiretapping from the feds or anything like that.
If you knowingly buy the wiretap and bring it into your home and set it up and calibrate it and all that other stuff I don't think you can whine about privacy.
That only counts for the owner. If you have guests over, they can have privacy concerns (especially if audio is recorded as well as video). It really depends on if the Kinect is actually recording full time and saving that data. If it is, then yeah, Microsoft could be in for a big lawsuit potentially.
Question does anyone know is MS can get into trouble with the Kinect being always on from a privacy standpoint? I mean like with already established laws and not wiretapping from the feds or anything like that.
If you knowingly buy the wiretap and bring it into your home and set it up and calibrate it and all that other stuff I don't think you can whine about privacy.
So anyone buying a laptop with a camera and microphone/speakers has by default accepted privacy invasions?
Downloading skype and installing it means you've abrogated your right to privacy?
What, what.
Philippe about the tactical deployment of german Kradschützen during the battle of Kursk:
"I think I can comment on this because I used to live above the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar that was once frequented by bikers in lower Manhattan."
They still don't have a firm idea about a bunch of this shit.
But neither did Sony when they announced. Still don't afaik.
It feels like both of them are playing some insane game of chicken, with each waiting for the other guy to announce some policy or feature first so they can go "Just like them, but better!"
No. What they're doing is that thing my cousin used to do when he was six years old.
He'd come to me and, being a kind person, I would say 'I've got some M&Ms here, Tim, how many would you like?'
And he'd say 'a hundred'.
He knew he wasn't going to get a hundred, he saw that I didn't have that many even on me. He just said it and wore this expression of nervous anxiety, hands clasped, eyebrows lowered. He said a hundred because one day I will have a hundred and think 'fuck it' and just give them all to him. What does he lose by reaching for the top like that?
So all I do is say 'No, you can't have a hundred, you can have twenty', even though before he even approached me, I was thinking about giving him ten.
Microsoft says 24 hours and passes it off like a goof, just to see what the reaction is. The reaction has been universal outrage. So they say 'no no, that was a mistake. It's not 24 hours, don't worry. It's actually only once per month'. Making it seem like a concession to the fans, making it seem like the policy was designed to accommodate our needs, when in fact if they had asked us outright before any of this crap, we would not have accepted any time period at all.
People say Microsoft's PR these last few days has been shambolic. That's one way to interpret it. Another is that it is a devious scheme to test the waters, see which one of their anti-consumer policies is the most reviled, then dial that one back a little, having primed their audience for an ass fucking.
Mark my words: Microsoft will announce at E3 that the Xbox One only, fucking only, checks online for authentication every thirty days. And the gaming press will portray that war crime as Microsoft caving to community pressure. We won, guys! We forced this super-giant-evil corporation to bend to our will. We're the best!
And somewhere, in some black obsidian vault, Phil Harrison reclines in a marble throne, ten exquisite virgins gently waxing his head, Adam Orth chained in the corner, wafting him with a palm frond. And he'll take a sip of wine from a crystal goblet and then start laughing and never stop laughing until the end of all time.
Question does anyone know is MS can get into trouble with the Kinect being always on from a privacy standpoint? I mean like with already established laws and not wiretapping from the feds or anything like that.
If you knowingly buy the wiretap and bring it into your home and set it up and calibrate it and all that other stuff I don't think you can whine about privacy.
So anyone buying a laptop with a camera and microphone/speakers has by default accepted privacy invasions?
Downloading skype and installing it means you've abrogated your right to privacy?
What, what.
"Yes I bought the system. Yes I installed it of my own free will. Yes I was aware that it would record everything that happened In my living room. I calibrated it myself to make sure it was recording me properly. Yes I was aware that it could send this information to a third party without my knowledge, and signed a EULA to that effect, but I didn't think they'd actually do it!"
This isn't someone hacking your webcam so much as a fundamental feature of the system.
Now visitors to the house I could see having an easier time.
There have been times I have regretted not having a console. This is not one of those times. As a long time PC user, watching Microsoft has been like reading Fahrenheit 451, concerning but removed. If I had a horse in the race I would be furious.
Question does anyone know is MS can get into trouble with the Kinect being always on from a privacy standpoint? I mean like with already established laws and not wiretapping from the feds or anything like that.
If you knowingly buy the wiretap and bring it into your home and set it up and calibrate it and all that other stuff I don't think you can whine about privacy.
So anyone buying a laptop with a camera and microphone/speakers has by default accepted privacy invasions?
Downloading skype and installing it means you've abrogated your right to privacy?
What, what.
"Yes I bought the system. Yes I installed it of my own free will. Yes I was aware that it would record everything that happened In my living room. I calibrated it myself to make sure it was recording me properly. Yes I was aware that it could send this information to a third party without my knowledge, and signed a EULA to that effect, but I didn't think they'd actually do it!"
This isn't someone hacking your webcam so much as a fundamental feature of the system.
Now visitors to the house I could see having an easier time.
I'm guessing here but I presume the US much like NZ, that contract law is in place to prevent and punish illegal contracts.
Philippe about the tactical deployment of german Kradschützen during the battle of Kursk:
"I think I can comment on this because I used to live above the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar that was once frequented by bikers in lower Manhattan."
Microsoft says 24 hours and passes it off like a goof, just to see what the reaction is. The reaction has been universal outrage. So they say 'no no, that was a mistake. It's not 24 hours, don't worry. It's actually only once per month'. Making it seem like a concession to the fans, making it seem like the policy was designed to accommodate our needs, when in fact if they had asked us outright before any of this crap, we would not have accepted any time period at all.
People say Microsoft's PR these last few days has been shambolic. That's one way to interpret it. Another is that it is a devious scheme to test the waters, see which one of their anti-consumer policies is the most reviled, then dial that one back a little, having primed their audience for an ass fucking.
Mark my words: Microsoft will announce at E3 that the Xbox One only, fucking only, checks online for authentication every thirty days. And the gaming press will portray that war crime as Microsoft caving to community pressure. We won, guys! We forced this super-giant-evil corporation to bend to our will. We're the best!
This is pretty obviously the most accurate set of events. They are testing the waters to see how hard they can fuck consumers.
I hope their authentication servers are more reliable than the-service-formerly-known-as-Hotmail-now-called-Outlooks servers.
They won't be. It will be the same as every bullshit online authentication system that's ever been launched. Want to play the midnight launch of (hottest game this year)? Fuck you.
+3
Options
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I'm not taking the pessimistic route that Microsoft is testing the waters on controversial things.
I'm taking the pessimistic route that Microsoft was completely and utterly blindsided by the backlash against an always-on console, and are trying their best to roll it back but not really.
There is NO WAY to have a Microsoft controlled digital market without the system talking to Microsoft's servers every day. You know, sort of like how my copy of Office 2013 went from authenticated to invalid to completely broken over the course of a week because the Office 365 authentication tool didn't install things properly and no amount of repairing got it to work.
AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
Honestly, nobody who isn't living in an igloo should be surprised at a backlash to anything always on. The igloo guy only has an excuse because he doesnt know what the internet is.
Microsoft says 24 hours and passes it off like a goof, just to see what the reaction is. The reaction has been universal outrage. So they say 'no no, that was a mistake. It's not 24 hours, don't worry. It's actually only once per month'. Making it seem like a concession to the fans, making it seem like the policy was designed to accommodate our needs, when in fact if they had asked us outright before any of this crap, we would not have accepted any time period at all.
People say Microsoft's PR these last few days has been shambolic. That's one way to interpret it. Another is that it is a devious scheme to test the waters, see which one of their anti-consumer policies is the most reviled, then dial that one back a little, having primed their audience for an ass fucking.
Mark my words: Microsoft will announce at E3 that the Xbox One only, fucking only, checks online for authentication every thirty days. And the gaming press will portray that war crime as Microsoft caving to community pressure. We won, guys! We forced this super-giant-evil corporation to bend to our will. We're the best!
This is pretty obviously the most accurate set of events. They are testing the waters to see how hard they can fuck consumers.
I hope their authentication servers are more reliable than the-service-formerly-known-as-Hotmail-now-called-Outlooks servers.
They won't be. It will be the same as every bullshit online authentication system that's ever been launched. Want to play the midnight launch of (hottest game this year)? Fuck you.
Are you saying that the same people who are so hype about hating the xbo and swearing off buying it are in fact going to buy it? Because the enthusiast gamers would make up a fair chunk of the people who play midnight launch games. :P
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Honestly, nobody who isn't living in an igloo should be surprised at a backlash to anything always on. The igloo guy only has an excuse because he doesnt know what the internet is.
The amusing thing about that is how many people suddenly care about the plight of low income families without regular internet access... :P
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
The worst aspect is they are literally, fucking literally, attempting to use the same explanation EA used for Sim City being online required. That the cloud will be able to handle computations and increase the performance of the game. Something that has essentially no basis in fact or reality. Furthermore, because their online authentication is, reportedly, mainly used to preserve a customer-run aftermarket, it's got all the aspects of Diablo 3s online requirement too.
At this point, who would be surprised if the Xbox One's packaging wasn't literally horse armor?
I'm not convinced they can do a thirty-day authentication in any case. The 24 hour thing makes sense as a way to prevent people playing something they shouldn't be playing (whether it's a game they sold, pirated content, or whatever). Stretch that to thirty days, and someone can just unplug their console and play through their game completely by the time it needs to auth.
Honestly, nobody who isn't living in an igloo should be surprised at a backlash to anything always on. The igloo guy only has an excuse because he doesnt know what the internet is.
The amusing thing about that is how many people suddenly care about the plight of low income families without regular internet access... :P
The only company I'd be okay with instituting any device that requires an always-online connection is Google, and that's because they are getting into the fiber business.. And we need more fiber in our lives. Plus, Google's invasive tech is all used to offer up advertising, and they are up front about it.
And then it gets hacked to remove this shit and those people have a better everything than everyone else by leagues. And it's supposed to REDUCE piracy...
This cleared up most of my fears about the reveal, I am back to being genuinely excited. As long as they deliver on the promise of nothing but games at E3 and they deliver on their promises with Kinect I'll be happy.
The only concrete thing said there was that all games will be available digitally. Which is actually pretty interesting.
Posts
But seriously, I cannot see Microsoft recovering enough PR to not piss everyone off at E3. Unless Billy Gates can afford to bribe God/Doctor Manhattan/the Luteces for a miracle.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
This is different, though. No one will be fighting about "Xbox vs PS4 - which is Teh Greatest ???"
People are shouting "Console A looks bad, I'm thinking of jumping ship to console B" or vice versa. I've also read a lot of "Well, Microsoft seem to be saying their new console isn't FOR ME anymore, so I'm thinking of going PC Only next gen."
I've got to say, I've been considering a move to PC only after all these announcement and snippets of info. It's not happening soon, and we have 6 more months before launch and I'm sure a lot will be revealed/updated before then...But I'm not excited at all for the new Xbox so far.
The best part ? It would fucking work.
Say the DEA or police are watching a gang selling drugs, and are gathering evidence before making the arrests.
Send a Xbone to their house, via Amazon, and put the wrong address on it. The gang find it, go "Woo a free next gen console !" Plug it in, then it;s 24/7 video and audio in their living room.
And the reason we see fanboyism flare up with new consoles is because the Venn diagram of people who follow industry news, people who shoot the shit on forums, and people who are children is just shy of being a simple circle. There's a tiny sliver where we all get together and mock the rest of the circle, but there will always be more ten year olds (or twenty year olds, if we want to get real age smug) than reasonable adults with free time to be ridiculous about games on the Internet.
I still think the whole thing hinges on how much if a wow factor MS can pull off with the new Kinect tech. Their decisions are already alienating the more hardcore crowd, and the first Kinect's fire is pretty spent in the wider casual sphere. They need mainstream enthusiasm and some kind of meaningful and positive differentiation to keep Sony from gaining serious ground that they never should have had an opportunity to so much as set foot on.
And that stupid somebody was Phil Harrison.
Microsoft really should have got their talking points into order before revealing their new console.
But neither did Sony when they announced. Still don't afaik.
It feels like both of them are playing some insane game of chicken, with each waiting for the other guy to announce some policy or feature first so they can go "Just like them, but better!"
Meaningless pablum.
Edit: Seriously, he's addresses a totally different question (or course online games need an internet connection, and nobody said it was always-online 24/7), and only returns to the one actually asked in the last line, and hedges like crazy. How is that an answer at all?
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
More interesting to me: "We will announce details on pricing and availability and configuration later on, but the current plan is to offer one SKU."
One SKU doesn't sound promising for those who were hoping for a Live subscription subsidized Xbone.
But let's not forget that the 360 without internet access is about as uninviting as their structure permits - which is just saying that it looks shit, but might be worse next generation.
I'm just wondering why MS doesn't just shut up, if they have nothing to say. Their message was vague and they failed to cover it up with exciting games. Sony will potentially have to deal with the same issue, once they reveal more details (perhaps not, in which case, good for them), but at least they didn't put a fucking searchlight on it and keep feeding it batteries.
If MS didn't keep saying stuff, yet in very vague ways, this thread, and a lot of others, would most like be 30 pages less. MS would keep marinating in their bad news, but they wouldn't add to that flame, and perhaps sizzle out after E3. I'm having a hard time what what you would think are season professional marketing and communications staff are thinking. Because, right now, I don't care about any specifics. Right now I'm just thinking MS doesn't actually have a plan for their console, because their original plan was so bad it had to be scrapped months before release. That's what it looks like right now. And that's what's worrying. Anything beyond that is conjecture.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
This would theoretically mean that a failed ping to the Xbone servers would make all games unplayable, as it would seem necessary to prevent resale and playing the original by not connecting to the internet.
So a huge amount of infrastructure and faffing around, just to get a cut of used sales. If this is all true, that is, and it has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Wasnt Gamestops CEO in the dark about the used game situation? This seems suspect as shit.
In other news, have a ludicrous patent about the Kinect identifying the number of people watching media, and potentially locking it based on viewer count.
I can't imagine this is anything but a protective patent rather than a technology actually intended to be used. Interesting, though.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Say a game is £50 new.
Used:
£35 to activate it
£15 to buy it?
Well... now you may as well buy new. So... £10 to buy it? Save £5? How much did the previous owner sell it for? £5?
Unless games this generation are going to be £60 new?
If you knowingly buy the wiretap and bring it into your home and set it up and calibrate it and all that other stuff I don't think you can whine about privacy.
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
That only counts for the owner. If you have guests over, they can have privacy concerns (especially if audio is recorded as well as video). It really depends on if the Kinect is actually recording full time and saving that data. If it is, then yeah, Microsoft could be in for a big lawsuit potentially.
So anyone buying a laptop with a camera and microphone/speakers has by default accepted privacy invasions?
Downloading skype and installing it means you've abrogated your right to privacy?
What, what.
"I think I can comment on this because I used to live above the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar that was once frequented by bikers in lower Manhattan."
God, it's called "the XBOX", Mom. Make sure you get the right thing for me for Christmas.
Merry Xmas Son
No. What they're doing is that thing my cousin used to do when he was six years old.
He'd come to me and, being a kind person, I would say 'I've got some M&Ms here, Tim, how many would you like?'
And he'd say 'a hundred'.
He knew he wasn't going to get a hundred, he saw that I didn't have that many even on me. He just said it and wore this expression of nervous anxiety, hands clasped, eyebrows lowered. He said a hundred because one day I will have a hundred and think 'fuck it' and just give them all to him. What does he lose by reaching for the top like that?
So all I do is say 'No, you can't have a hundred, you can have twenty', even though before he even approached me, I was thinking about giving him ten.
Microsoft says 24 hours and passes it off like a goof, just to see what the reaction is. The reaction has been universal outrage. So they say 'no no, that was a mistake. It's not 24 hours, don't worry. It's actually only once per month'. Making it seem like a concession to the fans, making it seem like the policy was designed to accommodate our needs, when in fact if they had asked us outright before any of this crap, we would not have accepted any time period at all.
People say Microsoft's PR these last few days has been shambolic. That's one way to interpret it. Another is that it is a devious scheme to test the waters, see which one of their anti-consumer policies is the most reviled, then dial that one back a little, having primed their audience for an ass fucking.
Mark my words: Microsoft will announce at E3 that the Xbox One only, fucking only, checks online for authentication every thirty days. And the gaming press will portray that war crime as Microsoft caving to community pressure. We won, guys! We forced this super-giant-evil corporation to bend to our will. We're the best!
And somewhere, in some black obsidian vault, Phil Harrison reclines in a marble throne, ten exquisite virgins gently waxing his head, Adam Orth chained in the corner, wafting him with a palm frond. And he'll take a sip of wine from a crystal goblet and then start laughing and never stop laughing until the end of all time.
"Yes I bought the system. Yes I installed it of my own free will. Yes I was aware that it would record everything that happened In my living room. I calibrated it myself to make sure it was recording me properly. Yes I was aware that it could send this information to a third party without my knowledge, and signed a EULA to that effect, but I didn't think they'd actually do it!"
This isn't someone hacking your webcam so much as a fundamental feature of the system.
Now visitors to the house I could see having an easier time.
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/02/school-district-accused-of-issuing-webcam-laptops-to-spy-on-students/1#.UZ9GUJWBJaE
"I think I can comment on this because I used to live above the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar that was once frequented by bikers in lower Manhattan."
This is pretty obviously the most accurate set of events. They are testing the waters to see how hard they can fuck consumers.
They won't be. It will be the same as every bullshit online authentication system that's ever been launched. Want to play the midnight launch of (hottest game this year)? Fuck you.
I'm taking the pessimistic route that Microsoft was completely and utterly blindsided by the backlash against an always-on console, and are trying their best to roll it back but not really.
There is NO WAY to have a Microsoft controlled digital market without the system talking to Microsoft's servers every day. You know, sort of like how my copy of Office 2013 went from authenticated to invalid to completely broken over the course of a week because the Office 365 authentication tool didn't install things properly and no amount of repairing got it to work.
Are you saying that the same people who are so hype about hating the xbo and swearing off buying it are in fact going to buy it? Because the enthusiast gamers would make up a fair chunk of the people who play midnight launch games. :P
The amusing thing about that is how many people suddenly care about the plight of low income families without regular internet access... :P
At this point, who would be surprised if the Xbox One's packaging wasn't literally horse armor?
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
The only company I'd be okay with instituting any device that requires an always-online connection is Google, and that's because they are getting into the fiber business.. And we need more fiber in our lives. Plus, Google's invasive tech is all used to offer up advertising, and they are up front about it.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists