150°

Were the Xbox One’s original policies correct?

MMGN's iamtom thinks about why Microsoft's decision to change some choices with the Xbox One was the wrong move for the gaming industry

ShugaCane3994d ago

To me, it looks as if they had planned everything from the beginnnig so that people would say "Hey, look ! Microsoft is such a great company that listens to people.". I wouldn't be surprised if they gradually go back to their original policies once the Xbox One is out.

WeaseL3994d ago

Yes its a bait and switch move

President3993d ago

No they were not correct, no need to debate whether it was good or not. It was plain evil and they got rid of it due to the backlash.

thorstein3993d ago

Certainly it is a bait and switch. Switch being the operative word. If it so easy to turn off the DRM, what is to stop them from turning it right back on?

Wintersun6163994d ago

Oh come on, that's just ridiculous. MS isn't the purest company around, but that's just stupid. I mean Ancient Aliens stupid.

If they had actually planned something like that, they would've told about the policy changes at E3 for a huge momentum boost.

MariaHelFutura3994d ago

Hey, Ancient Aliens has some great information and theories, mixed w/ some coocoo modern abduction type alien theories (which can be ridiculous). All in all they show some great locations and structures along the way, that deserve to be looked at regardless.

B1663r3993d ago

They were trying to get you more games on disk. Now you will get fewer games on disk, as publishers opt out of disk based distribution...

Silly gameAr3993d ago

Ever heard of Day 1 Digital? I'm sure if people wanted to release their games digitally, they could. It's good having options though, and MS tried to limit those options. I'm glad it backfired.

georgeenoob3993d ago

Oh, so NOW they're correct. Fanboys hate MS no matter what they do.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 3993d ago
fattyuk3993d ago

Am I the only one who think its a completly stupid article?

WalterWJR3993d ago

Yes we had another one earlier saying "don't bully kinect"

Apparently Kinect is now a 13 year old teenager, has feelings and is not immune from those bad Bullys.

crazysammy3993d ago

Maybe its so advanced it has feelings now. Maybe it wears eyeliner and cuts itself while listening to Fall Out Boy.

THIS IS THE FUTURE! :)

supaflypriest3993d ago

I would have been ok with the drm if they would have also modified the pricing structure of all games to $30 and just eliminated all used games completely. This would have justified the changes imo...

crazysammy3993d ago

I don't agree with you 100%, but yes for the digital market to take a firm hold there has to be pricing changes and policy changes. It will happen eventually because of technology, but MS tried to force it too early and we all saw what happened.

Double_O_Revan3993d ago

The only reason why this has even become a topic of discussion is because of the family share plan. That is the one positive people are bitter over losing.

crazysammy3993d ago

And if you believe the rumor mill of that posting that was found online, that program was actually not very good anyway.

I don't understand this recent flip of a minority of XB1 fans trying to say that its bad that everything switched. Its crazy talk to me. MS backing off those anti consumer practices was great for ALL GAMERS!

rainslacker3993d ago

No doubt. Can anyone recall DRM ever being praised before MS wanted to use it on the Xbox One? Just sad...especially since the sharing plan didn't necessarily have anything to do with the DRM.

Show all comments (37)
150°

10 Biggest Xbox Mistakes of All Time (So Far)

The Xbox brand has done a lot of good over the years, but their various blunders are pretty wild to look back on in their magnitude.

Read Full Story >>
culturedvultures.com
piroh5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

Ironically number 9 can save them at this point (releasing games on multiple platforms)

ChasterMies4d ago

By “save them” you mean make more profit for Microsoft. Xbox will still be a dying hardware platform.

OtterX5d ago

You could add the naming scheme for the consoles, it just confuses customers. I know they wanted to avoid traditional numbering bc it would always be lower than their competitor, but this whole 360 then One then Series thing is confusing af. Imagine a Soccer Mom trying to figure this stuff out. I still mistakenly call the Series X the One from time to time on accident.

RNTody5d ago

Don't forget about the Xbox One, Xbox One X and Xbox Series X! Good luck to Soccer moms around the world.

S2Killinit4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

They did that on purpose to confuse and direct attention away from the generational numbering.

MS doesn’t like reminding people that they joined the industry after others had already been involved in gaming.

For instance, they called the xbox “360” to combat PlayStation “3” because they wanted to seem like “more” than “3”, so instead of xbox 2, they opted for xbox 360. Also this had the additional benefit of selling consoles to uninformed parents who might purchase a “360” instead of a “3” by mistake, or because they thought 360 was more than 3. Kind of a disingenuous move.

They have been continuing with their confusing naming patterns for pretty much the same reasons. Frankly, it fits with who and what they are as a brand.

FinalFantasyFanatic4d ago

I can understand their reasoning, but whoever came up with that naming scheme should be fired, bad naming schemes have killed consoles (I'm pretty sure it was the major reason for the downfall of the WiiU). They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo and Sega have had for their consoles, far less confusing for the consumer.

rob-GP18h ago

@FinalFantasyFanatic "They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo..."

lol, you mean:

NES, SNES
GameBoy, GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy Colour, GameBoy SP
DS, DSi, DSXL
3DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS, New 3DS XL
Wii, Wii U
Switch, Switch OLED

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 18h ago
Cacabunga5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

Phil Spencer is the worst that has happened to Xbox.
They built a respectable brand up to Xbox one. Then this guy took over and things became a joke

Reaper22_4d ago

He still has his job. Something you can't say about Jim Ryan.

Cacabunga4d ago

Both bad execs. One is on job and one thankfully retired.

FinalFantasyFanatic4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

I didn't like either person, both people damaged their respective brands and produced worse outcomes, but Phil did save the Xbox brand from being retired by Microsoft. Although in hindsight, he should have just let it die, rather than languish in limbo like it is now.

Rainbowcookie3d ago

Yeah but the one that was "bad" didn't even affect sales.

bunt-custardly4d ago

Phil Spencer was also on the team back when 360 was around, alongside Shane Kim, Peter Moore etc. I think the damage that did the most harm was the Don Mattrick "Always Online" console (ahead of its time basically). They handed Sony and Nintendo a free-pass when that was revealed. It went downhill from there. Then the corporate machine went into full swing to try and recover. They have to a degree as a games company for the masses, and less so for the core gamer. Outside USA, the Xbox brand does not sell as well as Japanese based consoles (citation needed).

Cacabunga4d ago

Want a decision maker. The always online and TV plans was a disaster yes, but they caught up by announcing 1st party games that gamers actually kept the hype going.. until this moron took over and introduced the PC day one release.. e all know where that ended..

S2Killinit4d ago

I dont think they were ever a respectable brand, not since the beginning, when their goal was never to be involved and share in the gaming space. I think the OG xbox was an exception because MS as a brand was still getting its foot in and so the people behind that were people of the gaming industry.

FinalFantasyFanatic4d ago

The 360 was the brand in its prime though, everything went downhill towards the end of that generation. Its staple games like Halo, Forza and Gears are what kept the console relevant and afloat for so long.

MaximusPrime_5d ago

Really good video.

I remember the days with RRoD was big news on here, N4G.

Microsoft had it turbulence number of years.

Looking at the success of Sea of Thieves despite being 6 years old, time to release Halo, Forza horizon 4 & 5 on PS5. It'll help their revenue

shinoff21834d ago (Edited 4d ago )

2 of the 4 games they did already sold really well. So it's definitely going down. Idk about halo or forza but I feel those studios they've bought in the last 5 years, their coming

ChasterMies4d ago

I found this video painful to watch. Can someone list them out?

Top 10 for me from are:
1. 2013 reveal presentation
2. Bundling Kinect 2 with Xbox One
3. RRoD or why rushing to market with hardware is always a bad idea.
4. Buying studios only to close them.
5. Ads on the Home Screen
6. Letting Halo die.
7. Letting Geard of War die.
8. Every console name
9. Charging for Xbox Live on Xbox 360 when Sony let PS3 players play online for free.
10. Cancelling release of OG Xbox games after the Xbox 360 launched.

Show all comments (31)
150°

Microsoft to Add Copilot AI to Video Games

Microsoft recently revealed its plans to incorporate Copilot directly into video games, with Minecraft being the first showcased example.

Read Full Story >>
xpgained.co.uk
Fishy Fingers9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

F*** AI

"Hey Copilot, what's a good meme to prove I dislike AI".... https://giphy.com/clips/sou...

Einhander19729d ago

Two trillion dollar company that just can't wait to put as many people possible out of work as fast as possible.

It feels like every single thing they do is making gaming worse and destroying the industry.

9d ago
9d ago
9d ago
darthv728d ago

....you know it takes people to program the AI.... right? It isnt like it is sentient. We haven't reach skynet level of situation or anywhere close to the matrix just yet.

That's next Thursday.

Einhander19728d ago (Edited 8d ago )

It takes a people to program the AI then that AI is used for who knows how many games eliminating countless jobs which only grows as AI is used for more and more game creation functions.

What you're saying is so ridiculously short sighted and truly larking any kind of understanding and foresight.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 8d ago
CaptainFaisal9d ago

Why all the hate? Im actually excited about this! Always wanted this kind of immersion, and an AI companion with me all the time helping me out knowing the status of my skills/inventory/progress and giving me tips on the best approach or how to craft something specific is game changing for the industry.

Hate all you want about AI, but this is just the start and I can see the potential already. You wont be complaining in the next 5-10 years about this, but rather complain if a game hasn’t implemented it.

MrDead9d ago

Yes we can't wait for the work of others to be used without the need to pay them so that MS can profit even more from the people they fire.

I_am_Batman9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

There is no chance I'd ever use something like this, especially if it's not part of the core game design, but a layer on top of it. It's way too much handholding. Many games already feel like busy work, because they don't let the player figure things out on their own. Having a real-time interactive guide defeats the purpose of playing the game in the first place in my opinion.

If this were to become the standard like you predict, we'll see more and more video games get away with bad design, because people will just be used to ask for help from the AI companion anyway.

Number1TailzFan9d ago

Well Nintendo don't need this with some of their games these days, with invincible characters, items, easy bosses etc.. they do the hand holding built in

helicoptergirl9d ago

Takes "hand holding" in games to a whole new level.

BlackDoomAx7d ago

Because human nature xD Almost every new technology had these kind of comments.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 7d ago
Show all comments (19)
70°

Activision team is opening a new game studio in Poland 'Elsewhere Entertainment' to build new AAA IP

Microsoft's Activision subsidiary announced today that it is opening a new game development studio to take advantage of the huge talent pool growing in Poland. It'll be the second Activision studio based in the region, joining Infinity Ward Krakow, although this studio is, in fact, not working on Call of Duty.

Read Full Story >>
windowscentral.com
Psychonaut8512d ago

They’re not working on Call of Duty? Give it time.