Xbox One

[harv]

That'll probably change to £449.99 when the prices are announced, I'm expecting it to be $499.99 in the States. Same with the PS4.

You'll probably find both the PS4 and One doing between 1 and 1.5m before the end of the year and struggling to sell going into the launch window and beyond. The ideal price for just about everyone would be £299.99/$299.99 but I can't see that happening considering the hardware and what's bundled in the box for each. Microsoft are in the better position to have a console priced closer to that figure because they can afford to take a bigger loss on each unit sold and a GPU pushing 1.1TFlops and 8GB of DDR3 is a great deal cheaper than a GPU pushing 1.8TFlops and 8GB of GDDR5...but bundling in an updated Kinect 2 is going to up the retail price again.

[harv]

Looks like you have to pay a fee for used games. And of course this also means you can't borrow a game from a mate. Terrible decision. And with a 500GB hard drive you're going to run out of space pretty soon once games start taking up 25GB-50GB of space on discs.

What a daft decision.

Looks like I'll only be a 2 console guy this gen.

[ancelotti]

Found myself generally underwhelmed with MS's conference. "Xbox One" would be a decent name if I didn't have a HTC One.  Not enough games on show for my liking, but I'll keep an eye out at E3. The requirement for Kinect to be always on is a bit wank... I've got my 360 in the living room so space isn't an issue... but I just don't care about Kinect lol. The seamless switching between apps looked cool, can see our XBL subscription fees have gone to good use on the 300,000 new servers!

So I'm completely on the fence now. One problem with getting a PS4 would be that I love FIFA, and I play a lot of Ultimate Team... and that's going to be an Xbox exclusive.  Given what an incredible cash cow it is for EA (they bundle it with FIFA for free and made $100m off Ultimate Team in FIFA 12 alone!), MS must have chucked an insane amount of cash their way to swing it.

[AVFCRoss]

Always online connection...Except, it's not "always online", but you "still have to connect once within every 24 hours"...So, it IS always online then?

Also, 1 copy of 1 game per 1 console is a shocking idea...I always thought the pre-owned clamp down to that extent were just the top end rumours but they were actually true!

[harv]

Yup, that's going to be a dealbreaker for a fair few people.

Both Nintendo and Sony shares have gone up after that reveal, not surprising.

[harv]

Lmfao

[jman]

Not a dealbreaker for me.. personally I can see why some people are bothered.. but if your a pc gamer, its how you've been playing games for years now..  Sony will be doing exactly the same thing - you'd be mad to think otherwise - Nintendo will be left trailing again and will suffer the consequences with developers steering clear of them and higher retail prices for their games... yep Im expecting xbox one & ps4 games to be at a pc price point.

Details are still sketchy on the whole 1 game per console thing.. if I buy a game on a console, I expect all users that originated from that console to be able to play it - thats what I'd like to see... lending to a friend Im not bothered about... I just dont do that very often anyway.. again - its something I cant do with pc games.  They have stated that the game purchaser can play their games on any console as long as they are signed in, so no problem playing a game round a friends house.

Its great they have put in plans for trading and re-selling on the Xbox One... so its not the end for pre-owned games.. Microsoft haven't gone into any details on this yet.. but at least its something!  It could spell the end for retail shops that exist mainly on pre-owned game sales though.

Kenny.. is Ultimate Team a One exclusive.. I thought he said features of Ultimate Team were.. maybe I misunderstood.

Ross.. its quite simple.. it doesnt require an always online connection.. but does require a connection in some areas.. installing games I imagine will be one of them.

Harv.. the xbox one has 500gb on its HDD - and your moaning about this - when you bought a console with what.. 32gb ?? lol.. Plus the One has USB 3.0 as standard and I imagine will support pretty much any external hard drive.  Also, zavvi would of priced higher than they thought the console will cost.. otherwise they would have to honour all £399 orders.. I personally think there will be two flavours.. and they should really aim the cheapest at a kind of £249 price point.

[harv]

The difference between the 32GB and 500GB storage is that with the Wii U you aren't forced to install the entire contents of the Blu-Ray onto that 32GB. And I haven't made any comment of the speed of the hard drive, the speed of using the Cloud storage though is going to be an issue, particularly for those of us living in the UK which is practically a Third World country as far as internet speed is concerned. You're also going to find people installing their games onto the Cloud leaving those with bandwidth limits well and truly screwed. And if you're expecting to be able to install any hard drive to increase your storage capacity then good luck with that, you'll probably have to pay way over the odds for a proprietary again. I can't help feeling that Microsoft have included such a small hard drive for precisely that reason.

Unless they address the used games fee issue then the One is going to flop, just have a look at the gaming forums all over the place...just about everyone is going apeshit. I've seen plenty of people saying they're going to switch to the PS4 instead, even people that have been with Microsoft ever since the original Xbox was released.

[jman]

I know you didnt comment on the speed.. but the Wii U only supports USB 2 - far slower than USB 3, you were quite happy with that as well   Plus any external hard-drive can pretty much be used with the 360.. cant see why they would go back to using proprietary drives again - maybe you could be right - nobody knows 100% at the moment so I can only take your comments as doom mongering because you dont like microsoft.

And the people jumping ship from xbox to playstation are in for a big shock come E3 when Sony announce similar plans to microsoft in regards to used games... if the PS4 offered free online gameplay along with no fee to pay used games - then I think I'd buy one along with a lot of other gamers... its just not going to happen though - console gaming is evolving with the ps4/xone.

There is certainly a lot of nerd-rage about at the moment - no denying that... thankfully I have my own opinion about what I want and expect from a games console and theres not enough concrete information on both systems to make an informed decision - anyone making a decision at this stage is just an idiot.

[Late]

Looks like you have to pay a fee for used games. And of course this also means you can't borrow a game from a mate. Terrible decision. And with a 500GB hard drive you're going to run out of space pretty soon once games start taking up 25GB-50GB of space on discs.

What a daft decision.

My initial reaction was that 500gb was too small, too - but if you consider you don't need to keep the game installed on the hard drive if you're not playing it, then I guess 500gb should be fine. Install your game, play it for a few weeks, and a year later when you see you've not played it in 11 months and are unlikely to play it again soon uninstall it but keep the save files. You can reinstall later if you want to. Same as the current consoles, and PCs.

I've no idea if part of that 500gb is reserved for system and/or for PVR, mind. It could well be that you've only got 200gb for games - and then you might hit problems.

Looks like I'll only be a 2 console guy this gen.

I go to work all week and I'll be a 1 console guy this gen. You sit at home all day and aren't sure whether you'll have two or three consoles?
Bless. I can see why you're depressed...

There is certainly a lot of nerd-rage about at the moment - no denying that... thankfully I have my own opinion about what I want and expect from a games console and theres not enough concrete information on both systems to make an informed decision - anyone making a decision at this stage is just an idiot.

True that.
I currently have no idea which way I'll go next gen. I'll have a better idea come Christmas, when we know a lot more about price, performance, and dozens of other things we still don't know about. But even then I probably won't be certain which way I'll go and will likely wait quite a while before I buy either. I want the console that best suits my requirements of course, but I also like to see which way the wind's blowing. If, after six months, one of the machines is massively outselling the other, or one is having horrendous problems with one aspect or another then that's a factor I'll consider before taking the plunge.

[harv]

Lol, I didn't say that I'll be getting a PS4 at launch or anything, I'll have to save up for a while before I can get one. I savedup for about a year to get my Wii U. I'll be waiting for a price cut, the usual Slim SKU and get it using my mate's Sony staff discount.

And I can't see Sony being daft enough to fuck about with used games. I can't believe that Microsoft have decided to do it. A very bad decision.

[jman]

Well like I said, if Sony release a console that is free to play online and allows used games to play on it for free (as per this gen) compared to the One which costs money to play online and a fee to play used games... then that will probably be an major factor in my launch choice.  At the moment, Sony have only said that any PS4 hardware is capable of playing used games.. and nothing more - take from that what you will.. but it sounds omnious that they haven't stated whether they will be a fee or not.  I also expect them to start charging for their online service in the next gen too.

The only thing I can really compare both systems on is the controller at the moment.. and the xone controller looks the business.. in fact, even if I dont get an xone.. I'd still buy the controller for the pc, the rumble triggers will be a revelation.

[Late]

I can see a lot of rows starting with wives/girlfriends walking into the front room and saying "xbox off" 


I'm also not sure how Kinect knows when you're gesturing to it. If you move your arms apart or together whilst talking to someone you might find your screen going batty because the machine thinks you're trying to maximise/minimise what you're watching. Wave to a neighbour and you might find your volume going up and down because it thinks you're pointing up and down. Scratch your balls and you might find the telly switches to porn because it knows that's what you usually want when you put your hand to your groin...

[jman]

I can see a lot of rows starting with wives/girlfriends walking into the front room and saying "xbox off" 

lol, I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday.. I get threats all the time when I should be getting off but need to find a savepoint first which takes longer than I thought.. "I'll come and turn your xbox off"... blah blah blah.. lol.. yeah - that might get annoying quite quickly...

...but then didnt they say Kinect recognises you and your voice.. so if your signed in - it will only work with your voice ? Unsure on that.

I believe Kinect can track where your looking - so maybe thats how it knows where you're gesturing.. it also works far better in much more confined spaces and can track up to 6 people now (even at just a few feet away).. The technology in that thing is absolutely outstanding going by their conference.. it can recognise where in your body you are applying and exerting pressure, it can recognise your heart-beat (although Im not convinced on this one yet), it also works in the pitch dark and is totally lag free.. its the best motion capture tech and will blow anything nintendo/sony have out of the water.....

...however, I still cant see how its going to be that useful for gaming.. well some parts will.. exercise/dancing games will be far better on the xone for instance.. and there will be a huge host of party/mini games that will work far better with Kinect... Kinect Sports 3 is a definite I think....other than that.. Im struggling to think of any other type of game where the tech will actually improve gameplay...give me a classic game with classic controls any day of the week!

[Late]

Yeah, Microsoft and journos seem to be buzzing on mediaeval brawler "Ryse" where your movements dictate how you wield your sword and shield. Doesn't appeal to me at all. But time will tell.

I'm still intrigued to hear more about the upcoming Steamboxes. I maintain they've a good chance of eating into Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo(lol)'s console market shares.

Only console I'm likely to buy this year is the Ouya - and I'm still not 100% convinced on that. It's suffered another slight delay, and it can't afford delays. It's marketplace is untested. It's coming out with a Tegra 2 just as Tegra 3 is hitting the market. And there's a few rival android consoles coming out now (closest rival probably being the eStick).