"continuing ripping off with gold subscription i was fully converted to Sony"

PSN+ is required and costs slightly more at the moment, if you count XBL as being £26 as it is on amazon once a month.

"GOW10, Halo 15 and Forza 42.5 have got boring"

Definitely better than their sony counterparts.

"And i can only see it getting worse - as a gamer who has seen every launch of big things online they all have one thing in common - server problems for the 1st few weeks/months of life. Just wait for the PR storm when Johnnys new xbox stops working on Xmas as it cant connect to the servers etc."

Microsoft better have an almighty fix up their arsé when this does happen.

"
I agree with the general idea of what the OP is saying - but M$ forgot to look in the history books, it pretty much took Sony 4/5 years to recover from the £600 console, it took Steam 5 years or more for everyone to accept it. These things need to be integrated but slowly."

Completely agreed. Microsoft should have made it more optional. Not sure how though

"GOW10, Halo 15 and Forza 42.5 have got boring"

Definitely better than their sony counterparts.
======

They might have been at one point but now they're tired old titles.

Gears should have stopped after the 1st. Halo after the 3rd and Forza is just boring, full stop. Burnout is far, far superior.

GT >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Forza

Little Big Planet is the best exclusive ever as well.

Penguin i am talking as of atm why i am moving for Sony Vs M$ - Gold atm is a rip off and has no benefits that i can see and hasnt almost since its conception - PS+ at least changed.

The future is looking better for Gold with PS+ being needed (though not for PS3) for PS4 multi and by all accounts free games like PS+

Looks like I will definitely be getting a PS4 as everyone I play with is now! And we have all been Xbox through and through! Going to be interesting to say the least! One thing I hate are the Playstation controllers!

^^^yeah, if I do end up opting for the ps4 I don't know how I'll ever adapt to the controller.

It's so small! Terrible for FPS and FIFA imo. It's ok for driving games though.

I like how the Xbox has vibrating triggers now.

Both fell fine in my hands.

feel*


I wouldn't say that the Xbox controller had any distinct advantage over the Playstation controller on any given genre.

yeah, if I do end up opting for the ps4 I don't know how I'll ever adapt to the controller.

---

Custom controllers

"Penguin i am talking as of atm why i am moving for Sony Vs M$ - Gold atm is a rip off and has no benefits that i can see and hasnt almost since its conception - PS+ at least changed."

It had one pretty major advantage for me, which was not losing their customers credit card data...

If the reports are true about the sheer volume of dedicated servers Microsoft are putting in, that will be a big advantage surely?

Microsoft get worse and worse

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1gamtm/in_case_you_havent_had_enough_microsoft/

Just seen this on reddit. Given some further clarity on some of these, it actually all sounds fine to me.

USED GAMES

One of the X1's main feature is the ability to install the disc directly to the hard drive and play it without a disk. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a feature many asked for when the feature was added to 360, but it was only to allow the game to run better.

Contrary to popular believe, the used game does exist in the X1.
"Trade-in and resell your disc-based games: Today, some gamers choose to sell their old disc-based games back for cash and credit. We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers. Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games."
What can we take away from this? Easy. If you bought a disc based game, you can sell and trade it to any participating retailer. It means that game publishers will work out deals with retailers in order for the developers and publishers to take a cut of used games sales. Microsoft will not receive any money from these transactions. If you bought a digital copy, just like any digital copy, you will not be able to do this.

FIRST PARTY GAMES

"In our role as a game publisher, Microsoft Studios will enable you to give your games to friends or trade in your Xbox One games at participating retailers. Third party publishers may opt in or out of supporting game resale and may set up business terms or transfer fees with retailers. Microsoft does not receive any compensation as part of this. In addition, third party publishers can enable you to give games to friends. Loaning or renting games won’t be available at launch, but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners."
All first party games will be allowed to be resold and be given away (more of this below).

RENTING GAMES

"Loaning or renting games won’t be available at launch, but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners."
Microsoft and companies such as Gamefly are working on a system to make this work.

DRM--WHY?

As we saw above, you will be able install your games to your hard-drive and have your entire library available to play without putting the disc in the disc tray.

This is why the 24-hour check is required. Without this, many copies of the same game could be installed into multiple X1's and it would be absolutely crumble game sales.

The drawback to this is not being able to game offline. Microsoft has said that the final decisions to this issue have not been final. I believe if they allow you to play offline with the disc in the disc tray, this would become a non-issue.

PRIVACY

This is one of the biggest things people have been complaining about. Microsoft has already addressed the issue, but of course it fell on deaf ears. People already had their pitch forks out and had Sony on a pedestal by this point.

"You are in control of when Kinect sensing is On, Off or Paused: If you don’t want the Kinect sensor on while playing games or enjoying your entertainment, you can pause Kinect. To turn off your Xbox One, just say “Xbox Off.” When the system is off, it’s only listening for the single voice command -- “Xbox On,” and you can even turn that feature off too. Some apps and games may require Kinect functionality to operate, so you’ll need to turn it back on for these experiences."

As I've stated before, you will have the control to everything that the Kinect has to offer. If you don't want it to hear you? You can do that. If you don't want it to see you, you can do that. Don't want it to listen for the "Xbox On" while it's off, you can also do that.

If you want to learn more about the Kinect's privacy settings, you can click this link: Kinect Privacy

XBOX ONE- A GAME OF CIRCLES

Now onto the other things. As some of us know, you will be able to have a "circle" of friends, 10 people to be exact, that will be able to access your game library from anywhere (in the same region, I'm assuming..still not clear about this) at anytime (as long as you or someone else in your circle isn't playing it). This is of course how things work now, two of your friends can't play the game at the same time from one disc on two separate consoles.
This is a feature that is absolutely wonderful, but the people raging about it had not heard about it before.

"Give your family access to your entire games library anytime, anywhere: Xbox One will enable new forms of access for families. Up to ten members of your family can log in and play from your shared games library on any Xbox One.

Just like today, a family member can play your copy of Forza Motorsport at a friend’s house. Only now, they will see not just Forza, but all of your shared games. You can always play your games, and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time."

I absolutely love this feature. For example, my cousin is 200 miles away when he's away to college and I've let him borrow LA Noire and Dead Rising. I've yet to receive those games from him. With this feature, we don't have to be close in order for him to borrow any of my games! It's crazy as to how so many people dismissed this feature because it's a big jump forward in digital technology. No longer will my friends or family have to be close to me in order for them borrow one of my games.

GIVING AWAY GAMES

Do you have a game that you will no longer play? Your friend can still play it off of your Xbox (if they're in your circle). What if they're not? As long as they have been in your friend's list for 30 days, you can give a game away to your friend, free of charge! This can only be done once per copy.
Disclaimer: Microsoft has left it up to the publishers to decide whether or not you will be able to give your games to your friend. As stated above, first party games will allow you to this.

AFTER-THOUGHT: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The big change in the Xbox Live system is the feature to allow all users on one console to have gold by just one user having it. For example, if I have Xbox Live Gold and my brothers also use the same console, they will also be able to use all the perks of a Gold account. They will have access to all the games on the console even if it was installed through my account.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA

What happens if you don't check in once every day?

@The Artist - Enjoy your £429 Blueray player

I haven't read all the comments (and will do later), I gave the article one star because of one point.

If the XBone is only going to be sold in England and the states and countries with stable net connections, then fine.

But for people who travel, for people who live in other countries for periods of time and do not or may not have a stable connection, MS leaves them in the cold.

And even then, this doesn't take into several other issues that could happen. Such as the servers going down, changing homes and needing to set up your broadband could take a week. During these periods you're left with a glorified blu-ray player.

The point about sharing games...you basically lend your XBone to your friend instead of the game to get around something like borrowing the games from your friend.

The other thing, the games industry isn't unique. The film industry, the book industry and the music industry are also in entertainment medium. Buy DVD and you can only use it on your DVD at home, which has to connect every24 hours in order to connect to check for 'updates' and making sure you are using your own Dvds. You can lend it once to your friend, etc.

If this happens in the game industry and we allow it to happen, expect this to spread to other entertainment, if it hasn't already. Even Adobe are now starting a subscribtion based service and no longer developing their software as they could make money charging 30 quid for 30 days use of one of their software.

I have said this myself, things like this make me want to pirate legit things because their developers/publishers are wakners.

It depends what Microsoft decide to do. The reason it needs to check in once a day is because games are stored on the hard drive ether than on the disc - it is to check that it isn't just copied then passed on. The way around it is easy, just give the option to play by the disc and then there is no need to check in.

The idea of being able to play used games (from friends or bought 2nd hand) has always been an important feature to people. Most of my games are bought 2nd hand from places like CeX.

If they wish to do away with this, then they have to introduce a system whereby people are allowed refunds on games which they buy but then realise is rubbish. And that will never happen!

I really don't get if people are actually looking at what ms are offering or not. The ability to play games on your friends library is a massive step forward

How come Microsoft didn't mention any of this in the conference? Or I just totally miss it?

"You know how you can't just give games to your friends on the Xbox ONE? You don't need to. You have a 'family' of 10 friends you can add, where you can share all your games online without having to trade discs and stuff. So if you want to lend someone Forza, you just have to add it to the list and they can play it, as if you had given it to them in real life."

Why don't Microsoft make more of things like this? They must have a really, really crap PR team.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

good article

Thanks Digby

Good point Simon If they go the steam approach it will succeed, otherwise it will fail.