Boston (TheNextXbox) – The successor to the Xbox 360 is right around the corner, as the Major Nelson countdown has the entire gaming world on alert. One thing that is almost a given with the successor to the Xbox 360, for the sake of this article we will call it the Xbox Next, is that it will include a Blu-ray optical drive. This is due to the fact that next-generation games are going to require a lot more space than is currently available on a DVD. This type of optical format has been utilized by Sony throughout the life of the PlayStation 3 and will continue forward to the upcoming PlayStation 4 in all likelihood as well. What many gamers are missing though, is that there is a real chance that Microsoft may opt against allowing Blu-ray movie playback on the Xbox Next.
Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"
Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”
Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever
Nice one ☝️
This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.
No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.
Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.
Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?
Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.
Microsoft's future in the video game space is murky right now, so let's break it all down.
Not anytime soon. But they're on that path.
One thing not mentioned in the article is Microsoft's money bags. If Sega had Microsoft's money, they would have still been around as a hardware manufacturer. Xbox as a platform only survives because of the money bags. They can continue making consoles for the core and port to PC.
The multiplatform strategy is only the result of arrogance and misguided leadership that blew up in their face. They thought gamers would jump on Xbox in droves if they knew that many of their favorite games would be only on Xbox. But that's not happening at all. Sales didn't increase. They decreased. Why? Because the dumb asses thought giving away these expensively made games in a cheap service would also turn the tide.
Gamers on other platforms are willing to buy quality. They don't need to be handed nearly free games in a service that aren't even finished and sometimes average in their development. Gamers buy Nintendo games. They buy Sony games. Microsoft groomed their base to not buy games. Even the quality ones. It has always been their plan to go digital. But most gamers still like single player gaming. Still like physical releases.
Microsoft's problem has always been that they don't produce high quality games at the same output as Nintendo and Sony. Actually, they should be producing quite a lot more because they're worth over 2 TRILLION. How they don't have more is ridiculous and no excuse. Buying publishers to take away from competition only backfired. Because it still takes millions of dollars to continue to make those games from the publishers they snatched. Their only choice was to crawl back to their competitors to help sustain those developers because Nintendo and Sony platforms were the ones buying games.
Am I sorry for Microsoft? Hell no! They deserved last place for putting in the least effort. They deserved the fallout for buying up the industry and didn't make a single blip on the radar against their competitors where they now need those same gamers they took away games from to support them. Part of it may have been to cash in on their competition. But the result is the slow death of their platform. They may go 3rd party. They may keep making hardware. I don't give a shit about them to worry about it. I only give a shit about the destructive nature of their industry moves that only negatively affect gamers. They could sell and drop out of the industry and I wouldn't blink. Probably laugh. But not blink. They deserve whatever comes to them. At least Sega put in the effort when it came to games. They just had poor leadership. Microsoft has poor leadership and barely makes memorable games. That's a killer combination. And not in a good way.
Not sure about that. It's been two decades and I still think about Power Stone, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Seaman and others, but I'm not sure I'll remember Xbox Series X/S games in a few years from now... Maybe I'll remember about the franchises that the Xbox brand spawned, but I don't believe that the Xbox Series lives up to the late Dreamcast or even to the Xbox name itself. I do have great memories about the 360 with Blue Dragon, Gears 2 and Lost Odyssey though
No, Dreamcast was ahead of it's time and most still have very fond memories of it that had one. It also had some good games on it even in it's short lifespan. Xbox has none of these qualities.
Microsoft has announced the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox will be discontinued in April and has confirmed that weekly streaks will also be coming to an end.
As the article noted, perhaps they'll build it in but charge you extra to use the feature like how they pointed out the original XBox had a DVD player, but wouldn't allow you to play DVD movies unless you shelled out for remote.
It wouldn't be the first time, or the last time, we've seen Microsoft charge you extra to access something you've already purchased (much like the extra fees to play multiplayer content developers included on the game you purchased). They'll keep doing it until there's enough push back from consumers. You really can't blame them if people are willing to pay.
They probably will go the same route as Nintendo. They will create their own format based on Blu-ray but with no playback of movies to not pay royalties.
i would hope the Microsoft Company realizes many people have already started adding bluray to their current DVD libraries. that being said, it would be really pointless to have a feature blocking bluray playback when people will still buy bluray movies anyway. i, along with many others have purchased a bluray player. the only thing Microsoft allowing bluray playback does for me, is allow me to choose which room i watch the movie in, either the room with the bluray player or my living room with the future xbox. i certainly do not plan on any device, to build a movie collection by buying digital movies only or really at all, that to me is beyond asinine. sure ill still use netflix and hulu, but that doesnt alter my choices as to if im going to buy a DVD or a bluray movie.
"Instead, Microsoft required gamers to purchase a little DVD playback adapter that came with a remote control. This activated the ability that the system already had to play DVD movies"
They call that a double tax don't they? Wow...how anyone could defend MS at all is beyond me. They nickle and dime for just about anything and users are so willing to give up their hard earned money.
"Xbox Live Gold subscriptions generate roughly $1 billion in revenue for Microsoft every year"
And this is the reason why Live will remain a paid for service next generation.
If MS don't offer Blu-ray playback then it could be a mistake. When Sony first released the PS3, they advertised it heavily as a Blu-ray player because they were trying to establish the format. But now it's an established format, so Sony would have a big advantage if they began advertising the PS4 as a Blu-ray player (and it was 4k enabled).