Wow. I am stunned.
After I recovered from the glut of buzzwords like "all-in-one" and "entertainment center" and "future of media", I realized that what I had watched wasn't a console reveal. It was a media box reveal.
The first half hour was spent talking about non-gaming menu features, video-watching, fantasy league, and Bing integration. "Where are the games?" I thought.
And then Microsoft delivered. Please welcome to the stage....EA Sports? What? This is the future of the Xbox brand? Okay, so then I watched as EA gave lip service to the Xbox One, knowing full well that these games would be available on every other console (except for Wii-U, of course).
More video streaming. More media integration. I do like how they announced 8 gigs of RAM (but nothing else about the hardware power), but then my hopes were dashed when they subsequently announced three (yes, THREE) operating systems working in tandem. Programming nightmare aside, this is going to take a huge bite out of those 8 Gigs, leaving very little for actual gaming power.
Oh! Turn 10. Forza 5 as a launch title. That's pretty cool.
Studio 343! Heck yeah! A new Halo.....TV show? Wait. WHAT? Did Microsoft seriously just announce a Halo TV show instead of showing off the next Halo title? This has to be a joke. Maybe they have another big-hitter.
Oh. Call of Duty. Call of Duty timed exclusive DLC, something we all knew was coming. It's going to be multiplatform anyway.
What the heck did I just watch? I knew Microsoft was going downhill since their shift in focus to Kinect, but I didn't realize they were this crazy. News flash: we want a game console, not a media box. When your console announcement shows off two - TWO - exclusives (Forza 5 and Quantum whatever), there's a problem. When the first publisher you bring to the stage is EA Sports, there's a problem. When you bring 343 Studios and Steven Spielberg up to talk about a TV show, not a game, there's a problem.
I know what Microsoft defenders will say: "Wait for E3!" Well guess what? The console reveal is a window into the direction, focus, and philosophy of the console. Microsoft spelled out their focus in black and white: media center. You think games are the focus? Not even Microsoft seemed to think so.
I was willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt. I figured Kinect was a stop-gap while they shifted development to the NextBox (I guess I should start calling it the Xbox One). But apparently, Kinect is even more of a focus this time. And games? 15 exclusives in the first year (the number Microsoft announced) is nothing if they're just Kinect Sports 2.0.
Where are the games? Seriously? Is this how Microsoft wants to expand the gaming audience? Several people keep saying "it was about the hardware! Wait for E3!" Really? It was about the hardware? Do tell! What sort of processor does it use, and what is the speed? What sort of RAM will it use? What is the read speed of the Blu Ray drive? What is the speed of the 500 GB hard drive? Is the 500 GB hard drive a standard feature, or a premium feature? Those are a lot of hardware questions, and I'm not a very tech-saavy guy. I'm sure others with a better grasp of gaming hardware could come up with a dozen more questions to ask.
I also know what others will say "but PS4 announcement sucked! But Wii-U announcement sucked!" First of all, this isn't about other consoles. Second of all, those consoles actually showed off games.
No backwards compatibility (doesn't bother me, but it does bother some others):
http://www.theverge.com/201...
And guess what? No used games is confirmed, or at least, no used game installs:
http://www.wired.com/gameli...
You can install games to the hard drive (cool) but once a game is used by the first person, you "would be given the option to pay a fee and install the game from the disc" if you bought the game used or rented it.
(Thanks BitbyDeath)
IGN also confirms that Kinect is required. R-e-q-u-i-r-e-d.
http://au.ign.com/articles/...
If this is the future of Xbox, I want no part in it.
We were expecting problems with mod support, but there are a lot of other issues.
Not accidental, they want modders to stop modding their older games to force them to mod Shitfield.
Over 14 GBs and doesn't change much at all? What? Taking up that much drive space for a pathetic 'remastering' is shameful.
Par for Bethesda.
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
A voice actor from The Coalition's third-person shooter series, Gears of War, has hinted at a new game announcement coming in June.
Hopefully Microsoft will go back to the original story line and get away from that woke nonsense from the last Gears game Gears of Woke! But were talking about Microsoft so all the betting money is on more of the same woke nonsense.
Needless to say, I'm shocked a user blog is up on this so soon. :P
Also, didn't they mention Remedy's Quantum Break was an exclusive to the system or did they make no statement regarding that?
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
It is what it is.
It's going to get messy in here though when the people (You know who you are) who were BSing about specs get called to account.
Edit: WTF?! Beans, you're a mod now? I'm so screwed!
Edit 2: Dedicated, the two links you added have really brought MS down. Before reading those I just thought it was a crappy show. Now I'm genuinely disheartened.
"XBOX GO HOME"
That made me lol, kept expecting them to say "you're drunk" after it :P
OT - It was really dissapointing from a gamers perspective and it doesn't bode well that the first people to demo on it were EA. Just seems like nothing was really answered, we didn't even get decent spec details.
To be fair regarding the Halo TV show, if they have any big news regarding actual software, it will probably be at E3.
@dedicattogamers
That's a fair point. Can't really argue with that.
You only get one chance to make a first impression, in my personal opinion Microsoft delivered a poor one.