"A sucker is born every minute" (I think that's the phrase)
~P.T. Barnum

 

The Dudebro market alone was going to ensure the success of the Xbone; never underestimate their insatiable appetite for $60 DLC for their favorite franchise.

 

Apple's demographic will never buy anything but Apple.

 

Most of what you said is opinion, and I'll respect that, but I've got to call you out on this one.

Nintendo forced everyone's hand by releasing the WiiU as early as they did. They were first to market by an absolutely massive margin, and if they'd had anything decent out for launch, like a new LoZ or a non-shitty console Metroid game, they would have won the beginning of the next gen race by default.

I'll eat my keyboard if the Bone and the PS4 aren't out in time for Christmas 2013. They literally can't afford to release any later. They're already lagging behind as it is. A whole year from now would be Summer of 2014, and if they release that late, they might as well not release at all.

 

The chances of the Xbone or the PS4 not being out in November are virtually nonexistent, yeah.

 

For a more humorous look at the prospects for next gen consoles:

Yahtzee's Next Gen Buyer's Guide

 

Cross-posting with the PS4 thread: Sony apparently has 40 games between their three platforms for E3.

I'd imagine most of these are indies and minis, but seriously, 40 fucking games. Microsoft has to have something special to match up to this.

 

So Microsoft released an article detailing connectivity, licensing, and privacy features. I'll copy and paste the highlights from reddit.

Xbox One: A Modern, Connected Device
A new generation of games with power from the cloud: Because every Xbox One owner has a broadband connection, developers can create massive, persistent worlds that evolve even when you’re not playing.

Your Xbox One is always ready: Xbox One is designed to run in a low-powered, connected state. This means your system, games and apps are always current and ready to play—no more waiting for updates.

Stay connected to your friends: Never miss an opportunity to play games with your friends or to catch up with family on Skype. Use Skype in Snap mode to chat while you play games or watch TV. Or enjoy group video Skype calls with people around the world, all from the comfort of your living room.

Access your entire games library from any Xbox One—no discs required: After signing in and installing, you can play any of your games from any Xbox One because a digital copy of your game is stored on your console and in the cloud. So, for example, while you are logged in at your friend’s house, you can play your games.

Buy the way you want—disc or digital—on the same day: You’ll be able to buy disc-based games at traditional retailers or online through Xbox Live, on day of release.

With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies.

How Games Licensing Works on Xbox One

Buy the way you want—disc or digital—on the same day: You’ll be able to buy disc-based games at traditional retailers or online through Xbox Live, on day of release. Discs will continue to be a great way to install your games quickly.

Access your entire games library from any Xbox One—no discs required: After signing in and installing, you can play any of your games from any Xbox One because a digital copy of your game is stored on your console and in the cloud. So, for example, while you are logged in at your friend’s house, you can play your games.

Share access to your games with everyone inside your home: Your friends and family, your guests and acquaintances get unlimited access to all of your games. Anyone can play your games on your console--regardless of whether you are logged in or their relationship to you.

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.

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.

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.

Give your games to friends: Xbox One is designed so game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends. There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once.

Privacy by Design: How Xbox One and the New Kinect Sensor Put You in Control

You are in control of what Kinect can see and hear: By design, you will determine how responsive and personalized your Xbox One is to you and your family during setup. The system will navigate you through key privacy options, like automatic or manual sign in, privacy settings, and clear notifications about how data is used. When Xbox One is on and you’re simply having a conversation in your living room, your conversation is not being recorded or uploaded.

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.

You are in control of your personal data: You can play games or enjoy applications that use data, such as videos, photos, facial expressions, heart rate and more, but this data will not leave your Xbox One without your explicit permission. Here are a few examples of potential future scenarios: A fitness game could measure heart rate data to provide you with improved feedback on your workout, allow you to track your progress, or even measure calories burned. A card game could allow you to bluff your virtual opponent using your facial expressions. You can use other inputs to control your games, TV and entertainment experiences: While it’s faster to find what you’re looking for using your voice and gesture commands with Kinect, you can use a controller, your remote controls or your smart devices instead. And you can use all of these devices when Kinect is paused.

 

Just wow. Microsoft really is all about the hubris.

They know every future XBone owner has broadband.:facepalm

 

Mother. Fucking. Dammit.

 

Well to be fair, why would you even bother getting one if you didn't have broadband? I mean the thing revolves entirely around being connected to the internet.

 

I can think of quite a few good reasons to get a console if I didn't have an internet connection.

 

Sure, if the console you had in mind didn't require that internet connection to actually work. But if you know that you need a reliable high-speed internet connection to use the XBone and you don't have that internet connection, why would you even bother buying it? You might as well just get a Blu-ray player for a fraction of the cost.

Hopefully the XBone fails and no one ever tries this always online shit again.

 

We know that, but not every single person will know that. There is going to be some some older parents and grand parents that buy the console for their kid(s)/grandkid(s) not knowing that this particular console requires internet connection.

 

It's a poor wording choice to explain an even worse decision. A broadband connection is required to use the Xbone, so therefore, every Xbone user must have a broadband connection - which is gonna alienate a lot of people.

That's not to say that it won't sell well - the market of people without a stable internet connection is pretty low compared to the total pool of Xbox users, and most consumers are pretty mindless about buying the latest and greatest version of whatever they like - but it will lose them a lot of good will at the very least, and they definitely won't enjoy the universally broad sales base that they had with the 360.

The 360 had the advantage of being cheap, with a large pool of good, popular games, all in a relatively portable package. They're maintaining the cheap part, and they'll probably still be getting a lot of popular games (though we haven't really seen this at all, so who really knows?), but the portability aspect is all but gone. You have to carry more components with you (Kinect), and the dependence on an internet connection pretty much cripples it in that regard. That kills the military market, a large chunk of the rural market (those who don't have good/stable internet), and even some of the college market, since many colleges are starting to block gaming on their networks. And that's just in the US. I can't really speculate on the viability of other countries' networks, though I've heard that it will be all but unusable in NZ, large areas of Australia, and parts of SE Asia.

 

Yeah, I suppose there's that. I foresee a lot of disappointment come the holidays on that front, and a lot of returned XBones.

Also, even if you can supposedly turn the sensor off, I don't understand how you could possibly trust having an infrared camera in your house that's always connected to the internet.

 

I'm just imagining in my head all the uneducated consumers who are going to buy an X1 without an internet connection, and the absolute shitstorm that's going to occur when they can't do anything with the box.

 

Does this mean that Halo 5 and 6 will only be XB1 games? Because at this point not even that will convince me to fork out for this console, and I've been a Halo fanboy for years.

 

Cross-posted with the E3 thread:

The Microsoft E3 Conference will take place at 9:30 AM PDT today. That's 12:30 Eastern.

 

Pretty hilarious reaction stream