Xbox One System Discussion

[blue devil]

The family sharing plan might still happen with digital downloads. So the internet whiners didn't completely win.



https://www.heyuguysgaming.com/news/12507/heartbroken-xbox-one-employee-lets-rip-must-read

 

[plasmid303]

The family sharing plan might still happen with digital downloads. So the internet whiners didn't completely win.

https://www.heyuguysgaming.com/news/12507/heartbroken-xbox-one-employee-lets-rip-must-read

Yes, but did you read the actual article?

I was just about to post that article. I recommend everybody read it. READ IT. It's incredibly revealing. The TLDR of it is that a disgruntled Microsoft employee who worked on the Xbox One DRM policy reveals a bunch of stuff about the policies, including the...

Family sharing program, which had a catch all along:

"When your family member accesses any of your games, they’re placed into a special demo mode. This demo mode in most cases would be the full game with a 15-45 minute timer and in some cases an hour...When the time limit was up they would automatically be prompted to the Marketplace so that they may order it if liked the game... The difference between the family sharing and the typical store demo is that your progress is saved as if it was the full game, and the data that was installed for that shared game doesn’t need to be erased when they purchase the full game!"

The family sharing plan wasn't all that great to begin with. Wow.

 

[blue devil]

I did read it all. I just didn't want to come across as negative regarding the details.



I agree that everyone should read it fully.

 

[plasmid303]

It was too good to be true.

 

[blue devil]

Yeah, I rarely get the chance to lend out games and when I have it was just to one maybe two people. I never understood how 10 people getting to play it for free was better for publishers.

 

[user 1190]

I can only take so much of that guy.. Maybe. Minute or two.. Then my head hurts.

You made it a min or two more than me. I got to "part".

I can't understand the obsessin with these people who have a camera and YouTube account. Most seem so full of themselves and like they are some sort of celebrity. They are worse than the reality tv people, but just barely.

 

[user 1190]

If that's how the family plan was truely than it wasn't very good. It my impression it was a way for a single family to share a game for family with multipile systems. It also wasn't 10 people playing for free completely, it was going to be one person could play one game from the library at a time. So letting one person play a game at a time was really no worse for developers than lending a game to a friend really.

 

[GasparZizou]

Well it's hardly an obsession, the guy just makes videos, he makes good points (mostly), and people follow his videos , it's not neuroscience.

He doesn't seem full of himself to me , just angry most of the time, cause he's Angry Joe, he's always angry...

 

[jye4ever]

I'm not sure how the cloud will work for real-time stuff, but I can see how it could work for non-real-time stuff where you need a lot of calculations."

Battlefield executive producer Patrick Bach

Bach says calculating AI in the cloud sounds "gimmicky" because "it needs to be real-time". "It doesn't matter if you send it up to a cloud and it takes only a second, it's still a second too late. I want it the next frame."

Rather, Bach says cloud computing will be effective for calculations that would otherwise be slower on a local computer. "But real-time and cloud to me sounds right now very tricky. I haven't seen an actual application for it. I'm not sure how the cloud will work for real-time stuff, but I can see how it could work for non-real-time stuff where you need a lot of calculations."

In the wake of E3 and its hundreds of announcements, Xbox One's cloud remains a murky, troublesome concept. What happens if your internet connection cuts out? Do physics and AI suddenly act dumber? How will the various versions of multiplatform games differ because of it? How will the Xbox One version of Titanfall differ from the Xbox 360 version? Who's going to pay for all of these servers? Publishers? Gamers? And what of the PlayStation 4? Will Sony offer a similar "power of the cloud" pitch, perhaps fuelled by Gaikai? Microsoft's solar system prototype helps us better imagine how games may benefit from the cloud, but it seems we'll have to wait a couple of years before its power manifests itself - if at all.

"I can spin up 10,000 virtual servers per host. They would just all suck. Saying 300k when they are virtual is a lie."

The Witness developer Jonathan Blow

Some see no need to sit on the fence. The Witness developer Blow took to Twitter to criticise Microsoft's 300,000 servers claim. "I can spin up 10,000 virtual servers per host," he said. "They would just all suck. Saying 300k when they are virtual is a lie."

At the end of the Xbox 101 presentation, Henshaw is asked whether the 300,000 servers that will be available when the Xbox One launches are all physical servers or a combination of virtual machines. "We haven't gone into that level of detail yet," is all he'll say, somewhat tellingly.

"Game developers are some of the most creative people on the planet, and they create games with requirements to light up some of the most brilliant, imaginative experiences," Henshaw concludes.

"Sometimes those will work totally fine locally. Sometimes they will go beyond what an individual device can do to use the cloud. But different games will have different requirements and different behaviours based on the imagination of the developer of the game."

 

[Solidus]

That was one of the most disingenuous articles I've ever read. He made it sound as if DRM was the only way for them to make a true leap into next-gen gaming. The family sharing plan is also a complete joke. And just to imagine, that it was touted as one of the biggest selling points of the new Xbox.

I really can't find myself supporting Microsoft any time soon (at least with consoles). There's also talk around the net, that they might try to slowly phase DRM back into the X-Box One. Nothing by leaps-and-bounds. Just baby-steps at first - enough so that people will slowly adjust and get used to it. Sort of like a slow-acting poison. I get the sense that they've back-peddled, but haven't abandoned their vision for their console, and the announcement from yesterday about new changes to Xbox One was just a temporary set-back for them. The way that the Xbox employee worded his article, especially at the end, made me even more suspicious of their intents:

We at Microsoft have amazing plans for Xbox One that will make it an amazing experience for both gamers and entertainment consumers alike. I stand by the belief that Playstation 4 is Xbox 360 part 2, while Xbox One is trying to revolutionize entertainment consumption. For people who don’t want these amazing additions, like Don said we have a console for that and it’s called Xbox 360.

 

[snappahead]

Well it's hardly an obsession, the guy just makes videos, he makes good points (mostly), and people follow his videos , it's not neuroscience.

He doesn't seem full of himself to me , just angry most of the time, cause he's Angry Joe, he's always angry...

And he's not even angry that often. It's not a schtick. He only does the pissed off thing when there's a reason. Like Aliens Clonial Marines for example. Otherwise, he's happy to give glowing reviews of games he enjoys.

 

[user 1190]

That was one of the most disingenuous articles I've ever read. He made it sound as if DRM was the only way for them to make a true leap into next-gen gaming. The family sharing plan is also a complete joke. And just to imagine, that it was touted as one of the biggest selling points of the new Xbox.

I really can't find myself supporting Microsoft any time soon (at least with consoles). There's also talk around the net, that they might try to slowly phase DRM back into the X-Box One. Nothing by leaps-and-bounds. Just baby-steps at first - enough so that people will slowly adjust and get used to it. Sort of like a slow-acting poison. I get the sense that they've back-peddled, but haven't abandoned their vision for their console, and the announcement from yesterday about new changes to Xbox One was just a temporary set-back for them. The way that the Xbox employee worded his article, especially at the end, made me even more suspicious of them:

Legitimate talk( I mean good sources with inside infor) or just people talking?

 

[jye4ever]

I've decided to hold off on the X1 until 4-12 months after release.

Something just doesn't feel right about buying it for launch.

 

[user 1190]

I've decided to hold off on the X1 until 6-12 months after release.

Something just doesn't feel right about buying it for launch.

Why? Your giving them money either way, does it really hurt or help them that much if you wait to dont wait if you buy it regardless?

 

[Solidus]

I've decided to hold off on the X1 until 6-12 months after release.

Something just doesn't feel right about buying it for launch.

You said it. It's best to wait it out and see what happens. But, as of now, I don't think I'll ever get a Xbox One. Microsoft isn't as forthcoming as they should be, on the plans that they have for their console. And I can choose not to do business with a company that I can't trust.

 

[snappahead]

You said it. It's best to wait it out and see what happens. But, as of now, I don't think I'll ever get a Xbox One. Microsoft isn't as forthcoming as they should be, on the plans that they have for their console. And I can choose not to do business with a company that I can't trust.

Probably best to not trust any company. I'll be getting both though. It's just another toy to me.

 

[Spartan Rex]

Why? Your giving them money either way, does it really hurt or help them that much if you wait to dont wait if you buy it regardless?

To make'em sweat!
"Hey we changed our policies, how come no ones tripping over themselves to buy our console?"
It's best to see how things shake out.
You don't want those asshats pulling any policy shenanigans again after they got yer dough.

 

[GasparZizou]

That was one of the most disingenuous articles I've ever read. He made it sound as if DRM was the only way for them to make a true leap into next-gen gaming. The family sharing plan is also a complete joke. And just to imagine, that it was touted as one of the biggest selling points of the new Xbox.

I really can't find myself supporting Microsoft any time soon (at least with consoles). There's also talk around the net, that they might try to slowly phase DRM back into the X-Box One. Nothing by leaps-and-bounds. Just baby-steps at first - enough so that people will slowly adjust and get used to it. Sort of like a slow-acting poison. I get the sense that they've back-peddled, but haven't abandoned their vision for their console, and the announcement from yesterday about new changes to Xbox One was just a temporary set-back for them. The way that the Xbox employee worded his article, especially at the end, made me even more suspicious of their intents:

It doesn't seem too far fetched...

 

[plasmid303]

I'm not sure how the cloud will work for real-time stuff, but I can see how it could work for non-real-time stuff where you need a lot of calculations."

Battlefield executive producer Patrick Bach

Bach says calculating AI in the cloud sounds "gimmicky" because "it needs to be real-time". "It doesn't matter if you send it up to a cloud and it takes only a second, it's still a second too late. I want it the next frame."

Rather, Bach says cloud computing will be effective for calculations that would otherwise be slower on a local computer. "But real-time and cloud to me sounds right now very tricky. I haven't seen an actual application for it. I'm not sure how the cloud will work for real-time stuff, but I can see how it could work for non-real-time stuff where you need a lot of calculations."

In the wake of E3 and its hundreds of announcements, Xbox One's cloud remains a murky, troublesome concept. What happens if your internet connection cuts out? Do physics and AI suddenly act dumber? How will the various versions of multiplatform games differ because of it? How will the Xbox One version of Titanfall differ from the Xbox 360 version? Who's going to pay for all of these servers? Publishers? Gamers? And what of the PlayStation 4? Will Sony offer a similar "power of the cloud" pitch, perhaps fuelled by Gaikai? Microsoft's solar system prototype helps us better imagine how games may benefit from the cloud, but it seems we'll have to wait a couple of years before its power manifests itself - if at all.

"I can spin up 10,000 virtual servers per host. They would just all suck. Saying 300k when they are virtual is a lie."

The Witness developer Jonathan Blow

Some see no need to sit on the fence. The Witness developer Blow took to Twitter to criticise Microsoft's 300,000 servers claim. "I can spin up 10,000 virtual servers per host," he said. "They would just all suck. Saying 300k when they are virtual is a lie."

At the end of the Xbox 101 presentation, Henshaw is asked whether the 300,000 servers that will be available when the Xbox One launches are all physical servers or a combination of virtual machines. "We haven't gone into that level of detail yet," is all he'll say, somewhat tellingly.

"Game developers are some of the most creative people on the planet, and they create games with requirements to light up some of the most brilliant, imaginative experiences," Henshaw concludes.

"Sometimes those will work totally fine locally. Sometimes they will go beyond what an individual device can do to use the cloud. But different games will have different requirements and different behaviours based on the imagination of the developer of the game."

I like the ideal of what cloud computing could bring to games, but I haven't seen nor heard of any good examples that aren't just like what MMOs are doing.

 

[SAB]

I'll buy as soon as the games are ready that I actually want to play.