Microsoft had an amazing turn of events this year. After a great showing at E3 2015, the Redmond based company carried their momentum with a fantastic showcase of games at Gamescom last month.
Microsoft India's director of interactive entertainment business talks everything Xbox-related.
Microsoft's current strategy with the Kinect is the complete opposite of what we witnessed during the Xbox 360 days.
It takes time to shine! X1 will eventually show its true colors. Either things will stay the same or like the Crackdown 3 demo "shake them haters off"!
It's taking along time to show its true colors. And don't even try to bring demo presentations after Kinect and Project Milo fiasco.
at above.
Exactly. Also, Crackdown 3 demo looks neat, but we still dont know much details about it... I mean it seems like it is taking a huge hit on hardware and resulting in weaker graphics.
This gen we have been chasing on secret sauce after another until nothing comes to fruition.
Just enjoy the great games coming out. instead of waiting secret sauce to shine...
A sentiment to be shared for all manufacturers right now. Given time, competition, and talent, we're all going to be some well taken care of gamers before we know it.
@beans. No haters here. We just see the truth, unlike you with your wishful thinking.
^^
Actually beans is right. The Xbox One has been showing more and more of its true colors since launch. It's almost a completely different system than it was at launch. Backward compatibility and an improved UI is happening this year alone. DX12 and the cloud will bring even more positive changes for gamers. Doesn't seem like wishful thinking to me...
My theory is that they put Kinect games on the shelf when they repackage the Xbox one without the Kinect. Why would they release games for the Kinect when a lot of the people were buying a Kinectless Xbox One? MS is now biding their time until people without a Kinect will feel more comfortable buying one and not feel burned for not buying the packaged Xbox One with Kinect. I say by next E3 we'll see some Kinect stuff. The user base will there for MS. This Xmas a lot of people are going to upgrade to this gen. Halo will help that.
@magiciandude
"The Xbox One has been showing more and more of its true colors since launch"
Actually, one could argue that XBOX 1's pre-launch showed more and more of MS true colors up until the actual release where they had to put some grey in the mix (pun fully intended) and essentially pull a 180 just in time to avoid total meltdown.
What benefits/improvements came after were actually side effects of MS's efforts trying to pick up the pieces of them showing too much of their true color palette at once.
Dont ever make the mistake of believing that they changed and that they 'love you long time'.
@beans as pointed out the Crackdown 3 shown was a tech demo and we need to see the real thing in the wild.
Here a PS4 tech demo to go with Crackdown - https://youtu.be/bYDBP947ec...
Both demos tell us what is potentially possible if NO trade-offs were made. But the reality is game development on any platform is *always* about trade-offs in the real world, before a final game ships.
The question is how few trade-offs you can get away with dependent on all the variables involved in shipping a game.
I don't think he knows what the word "phenomenal" means, because no phenomenon is happening with Kinect this generation, or making it desirable enough for people to choose that experience over the competition in any big way.
I get that it allows some extra non-gaming features for those that want that, but it would be good if there were still developers making games for it, in all honesty.
I'd like to see Microsoft try to make the Kinect relevant again. I still think the tech is conceptually very impressive, and if used properly could usher in new and exciting gameplay elements.
I wonder if there's a chance of Halo Wars 2 having some sort of Kinect optional functionality? That could be interesting.
It's hard to believe at this point that the Xbox One is actually beginning to build momentum against the PS4.
3 price cuts in less than 2 years helped. But they have changed a lot for the better in other ways too.
The crazy thing is that it could've been a lot worse but they changed everything before the console launched. On top of that add the fact that it dropped the price drastically and it's easy to see how they overcame the 2013 blunders. Just like the ps3 the Xbox one had bad unveiling but the difference is that Sony stood their ground. Wonder if the Xbox one would've been as successful if it would've done the same.
Yeah they really turned the Xbox around quite remarkably.
A lot of damage is done though and irreversible.
But the right thing happened. MS deserved it. Now I'm set to enjoy a brilliant gen
..minus the dlc fiascos and all the other toxic falafel trends.
Still waiting for Xbox One sexy AAA Exclusive JRPG, but Fanboys be like "Xbox One no need no JRPGs". If Xbox One don't start being inclusive with all developers, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Asian, African, South American, All. Xbox One ain't gonna beat PS4. JRPGs with Cloud Tech, Do it!
Sony stood their ground because they could due to brand strength and because of years of arrogance culture within the company. The Playstation brand is so strong due to domination in PS1 & PS2 era.
Even to this day, many people have fond memories of Playstation the same way Nintendo has. MS just got this to some degree with the Xbox 360.
In short though, if you look at the Xbox history, it is filled with a very agile practice filled with trying new things, pushing boundaries and innovation. MS really pushed console gaming industry forward in many positive ways even today with Xbox Live Cloud Compute initiative.
Unfortunately even with the turn around on Xbox One, the damage done by themselves and perpetuated by the media will weigh down MS this entire console generation.
MS is in a comfortable position right now and that is - 3rd party devs cannot ignore the existence of Xbox1 unlike Wii U.
Having said that i really don't see anything coming out for Xbox1 after 2016. Nothing has been announced for PS4 either but at least we know Sony has enough first party devs. MS cannot match the numbers and even if they do make games - will xbox community buy them if it's not shooters or racing games?
If MS is planning to sell as much as they can this Holiday and planning to see themselves through with the help of 3rd party games like in the last gen, then it's going to be tough because 3rd party games are looking better on PS4. And the generation has just begun.
MS has no great exclusives apart from GeOW, Halo and Forza. They have no more 3rd party advantage. They can't introduce new exclusives that are not shooters or racing titles successfully because the Xbox crowd don't buy them enough and very few ppl will want to buy xbox for an exclusive or two.
If i was an Xbox executive, i would be looking at these facts and be little worried about its future.
I had to laugh at the description,
"the Xbox One is actually beginning to build momentum against the PS4"
Soundso more like wishful thinking than facts
Sony didn't stand their ground they had big price cuts, a redesign, and removed features. Not only that the DS3 controller was pure junk. Especially when compared to the 360 controller.
All of that combined caused Sony to lose almost 50% market share. Just like MS mistakes have cost them the same.
@pope
PS3 outsold xbox 360 every month it was on the market worldwide. They made changes but what was a huge install issue was 360 being out a year to a year and half with 0000 zero competition. It still lost though.
Mixdup,
It's not that he said something negative....he laughed at the description which you even admit is incorrect it says against the ps4, you said against itself. So he is right to make his comment because the description is inaccurate. Nobody has to hold a comment for inaccurate information just for xbox sake.
@Blacktar
Thats funny if it was outselling it since day one why would they cut the price so fast and so many times (two total in a year) and release a slim within two? For fun? Out of love?
The PS4 fanboys have been trying to claim this since the beginning but its just not true.
Oh the Xbox lost. I suppose it only saw a 500% increase over the original xbox and sold basically the same number of consoles as the PS brand (taking 50% of the market share from them) which had been around for 10 years before the first xbox but sure if a few thousand more PS3 counts as a win. Its all yours. In real life its a MASSIVE win for the Xbox brand. But hey you don't live in real life. nor do most PS fanboys.
@pope the ps3 sold faster then the xbox 360 did <=== Fact
PS3 has more sales then xbox 360 lifetime with 1 yr less and 1.5 yrs less in EMEA<==== fact
So yea the ps3 was blown up in the media about being a bust etc. etc yet it's sold faster then the xbox one or at the same pace yet xbox one is what in a great spot? The xbox truly would have been lost in the dust if the ps3 released at the same time.
Also PS2 i believe in the same time frame only sold 20more million consoles year for year. The ps3 will probably hit 100million before it stops selling. THe xbox360 did not take 50% of the market share it took 50% of the market share int he USA and did so with a year head start. Anyways you throw around the fanboy title all the time, LOOK in the mirror for once.
@thepope
Please stop. I can't help but think you're trying to make Xbox sound like the OG Nintendo. Xbox isn't the savior to gaming.
@mixdup
You really live up to the name friend. What Heavy said is true. There's nothing wrong with stating the obvious around here. Of course, many won't like that but it's life
OT I think these articles are kind of funny. IMO the only reasons MS has helped their cause IS because of price cuts and backtracking. How many times do we need to be reminded of that stuff? Now for those that want to start arguing, yes Sony did drop the price of the PS3. They did what they had to do to sell systems against one that was already on the market AND cheaper. Some of the whistles were gone, but the bells were still there. It was still the cheapest BR player on the market at the time. It was still updated constantly. I honestly don't think if MS stood their ground they'd have half as many systems sold. People buy on price, sometimes solely on that. It tells a lot when Sony can sell as many PS3s at the price they did. X1 had to drop the price when it was already cheaper than the PS3 was
@shyronnie
WHy you lying dude? Sony never said they removed DRM from their presentation. That is 100% BS what they did say is they rewrote the preso to sound off on them not having it after MS shot themselves in the foot. I swear people just lie for no reason. It doesn't even hint at it as removing the DRM all it says is they rewrote it to pile on to the MS snafu.
You people.
http://ps4daily.com/2014/07...
@Famous
Created your account a day ago and have been trolling since then. You must have few N4G accounts by now.
Now in relation to the so called 3 price cuts?
Microsoft launched a X1 SKU with Kinect for 500€. Microsoft later on launched a X1 SKU without Kinect for 400€. Do you consider that a price cut?
When the X1 SKU without Kinect went from 400€ to 350€, that's a price cut.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the X1 only had 1 price cut until now.
You're not wrong.
The trolls must think that if they repeat a lie often enough people will start believe it.
Replies(2)Not one price cut. They just unbundled kinect smh. So explain the 3 price cut. This site is ridiculous
Phase 1: Fire Don Matrick.
Phase 2:__________
Phase 3: Profit.
Seriously though, promoting Phil was a smart move on Microsoft's part.
I still believe that Xbox One should have launched in Q4 of 2014 but obviously didn't want to give PS4 a year head start.
Crazy how much it has evolved since 2013. Going from the Titanfall hype to almost Halo 5's launch has felt like 2 different consoles.
I really like the direction Xbox is heading in and glad the PS4 played a big part in shaping that direction.
Next generation should be interesting.
"Next generation should be interesting."
Pretty much what I been thinking. some interesting seeds were sewn this gen. I think the next xbox is going be an absolute beast. They will never allow themselves to be the lower specced console again....
They were weaker in specs last Gen too so don't know what you're referring too
@dboyc310
Not entirely true. The xbox 360 had the faster GPU and its approach to RAM usage was better, hence why so many multiplats performed better (google it yourself). Of course PS3 eclusives shined better due to the Cell being the better CPU, but the flip side of that is MS hardly had any 1st party devs that were pushing the console on the graphics front, but thats another conversation..halo 4 was a great example of what could be done with the x360 and its one of the best looking games last gen.
Both had their advantages but better GPU potentially means better graphics..the X360 had the better GPU. simply was not really pushed. funny thing is the PS4 has the same advantages over the X1 that the X360 had over the PS4: easier to develop for. better GPU. better RAM solution.
And as I said in my initial post..which you seems to have gone over your head. MS are more active in their 1st party activities. Crackdowns cloud tech will be game changer for how 1st part xbox games are developed. these things will only mature with time and experience and will shape the next xbox. That is why I think people who think otherwise will be in for quite a shock...especially if anything comes of those AMD rumours..and AMD are ripe for purchase right now....
Its all speculation right now. I dont have a crystal ball.But Im usually pretty close ....maybe Im just lucky at guessing these things though.
Flex the PS3 was the more powerful console, the problem especially for 3rd party developers was accessing that power, the 360 was certainly easier to develope for and that was it's biggest advantage, but in terms of raw potential the PS3 was the clear winner.
I may be wrong but i think the original Xbox was more powerfull than the ps2, but the 360 and One have been down on raw power compared to the playstation rivals.
"It's hard to believe at this point that the Xbox One is actually beginning to build momentum against the PS4."
....It's not. PS4 has outsold it every single month this year(except for April) and with Octobers price drop, even Halo 5 might not be enough to finally outsell the PS4. Then there's the upcoming Star Wars and Call Of Duty bundles for PS4 in November. Again I ask, how exactly is XB1 building momentum agains the PS4?
Your definition of momentum is sales. As a console the xbox one is building momentum as a viable option compared to the PS4 or as a worthwhile second console for PS4 owners who like the look of this years xbox exclusives and next years. If anything xbox one is starting to resemble the original xbox's approach.
What you just said makes no sense.
You just said momentum doesn't doesn't mean sales, but then said momentum will lead PS4 owners into buying an Xbox One for exclusives.
@famous
He was talking in terms of the xbox one beating the PS4 in sales. I was defining the xbox as an appealing platform someone may consider. I'm not saying everyone is going to buy one and it will out sell PS4. I'm saying it's momentum as a desirable platform is building.
.....its always been a viable alternative to the PS4. Always.
There fact is that the PS4 has and always will be seen as the better choice by most. This is why I'm talking about sales. Because momentum = Sales.
A console can't have any momentum if it sells like crap.
@ItechHeads
So you value momentum on sales? What ever happened to games, features, etc. Are you that blind to sales that you rather point to sales in every Xbox article instead of actual games.
Why do you mention Starwars and Call of duty like they are not coming to Xbox One. You did the same last year with Destiny stating it would sell more on PS4, how did that turn out?
In response to your question Xbox One continues to build Momentum by offering fantastic games with great value, reviews and most importantly overall fun, Xbox live has more then 39 million active users and that's with sales decline on Xbox 360. Last but not least look at the awesome features the Xbox One offers that is not possible on your PS4. I call that building momentum.
Keep holding onto sales I still have 4 more exclusives to play by the end of the year. Halo 5, TombRaider, Gigantic and Fable Legends add in third parties games like, Assassins Creed, Battlefront, Rainbow Six, COD, fallout, Just Cause That's 10 games I play compared to 6 you play. You can keep your sales I rather have the games. That's what I call building momentum.
Funny how many Xbox fans say that Sony fans play sales, not games, yet forget that the Xbox One didn't have a single exclusive since November 2014 (unless you count Ori) until the Gears and RARE remasters launched. Now you get 3 exclusives (one being a timed exclusive) and all of the sudden you gloat about games.
Destiny only sold more on Xbox in NA. Worldwide PS4 has sold more copies. That doesn't even include the copies that were with Destiny PS4 bundles.
@Heavyx
Try harder in 2015 Xbox One has had
ScreamRide-March
Ori and the Blind Forest-March
State of Decay- April
Halo ODST-June
Rare Replay-August
Gears of War UE-August
Forza 6-September
Halo 5-October
TombRaider-November
Fable Legends-December
Gigantic-December/January
Did I mention Xbox also had the most MMO's in history this year.
Dungeons and Dragon Neverwinter-March
Happy Wars-April
AirMech Arena-May
World of Tanks-July
Smite-August
Onigiri- September
BattleIsland- October
@Heavy if you see a shortage of games please advise. LOL
Lol, ScreamRide? Seriously? You should be ashamed, and State of Decay is not even exclusive.
It's funny how you totally ignored my point about no games between November 2014 and August 2015 (oh, wait, you got ScreamRide, LOL) but you listed games that either recently launched or haven't even launched.
@ MichaelLito79:
I see you listed both console exclusives and indie exclusives on console. So let us put the PS4 console exclusive list:
1. The Order 1886 (February)
2. Bloodborne (March)
3. MLB The Show 15 (April)
4. Omega Quintet (April)
5. J-Stars Victory VS + (June)
6. Onenchabara Z2 Chaos (July)
7. Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess (July)
8. God of War 3 Remastered (July)
9. Until Dawn (August)
10. Everybody's Gone to The Rapture (August)
11. Tearaway Unfolded (September)
12. Disgaea 5 (October)
13. Dragon Quest Heroes (October)
14. Uncharted: Nathan Drake Collection (October)
15. Earth Defense Force 4.1 (November)
This are all the known games. All retail releases with the exception of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.
Fable Legends-December
Gigantic-December/January
These 2 need to be updated. Fable Legends might not release this year. It still has no release date. All the ones I mentioned already released and the last one has set release date 11.3.15
By the way onigiri is on ps4 and world of tanks is coming soon. the rest may happen as well.
***It’s hard to believe at this point that the Xbox One is actually beginning to build momentum against the PS4.***
I get what they're trying to say, but it's failed to gain momentum so far. In order to gain momentum, it has to sell more than the PS4 for at least one month. And then we can say there's some momentum. And, having said that, outselling for two months still isn't momentum.
***What motivated the company in that direction?***
Losing in sales. As long as they continue to lose in sales, they continue to focus on what gamers want. If they had come out of the gate winning and maintained it even slightly above the PS4, what you have now would have now would have been drastically different.
***that listen to the consumers and if you know wherever we can you know tweak the product and the functionality to offer what the consumers want.***
Too bad they don't have this policy prior to creating something that users don't want and without listening to users. Windows 8 was reviled, so a quick Win 8.1 and a full Win 10 to fix some of those issues (and create a few more, though very minor in relationship). XBO at release was reviled and forced a product most people didn't want, so finally listen to "users" when they fail to equal up to the competition.
What would it be like if they listened to customers prior to encountering major issues?
Par for the course really. Sometimes people learn off others mistakes. Others clearly aren't clever enough to do that.
Hey, it makes the gossip more entertaining.
"In order to gain momentum, it has to sell more than the PS4 for at least one month"
Exactly. The Xbox One's momentum is in relation to what it was selling before. Not in relation to the PS4 because the PS4 itself is also selling more than it was before.
In their NPD statement, Microsoft said they were up YoY so this is in fact what they meant by momentum. Its not a comparison to Sony. Its a self assessment.
It was the "users" who didn't understand things like the relevance of the cloud, or that you could play used and share games just like any other console(in fact, better). "Users", who never used the console(?), acting like entitled brats through their ignorance.
MS should have been more clear, TBH, but everything was detailed at the E3 reveal. Besides that, Sony had DRM policies in place like MS did, but since they went second they were able to use the confusion and DRM backlash against MS just like most ignorant people still do today.
1. I don't think users were at all ignorant. Users pretty much know a tactic to trap how you use your content when they see it. That's exactly what it was.
2. Sure, they should have explained things better, but the fact that they didn't have answers told users exactly the pitfalls that would exist with that sort of system. Why didn't they come out from the get-go with exactly how users would be able (or not able) to share or sell games?
3. Sony didn't have any DRM policies in place. Stop spreading lies. You're just mimicing idiotic journalists who draw their own conclusions from Shuhei saying ---
"There were lots of people who gave their opinions on that issue to my Twitter account before E3," SCE Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida told Famitsu magazine this week. "It's not that our hardware policies are decided strictly based on user reaction like this, but when we were thinking about what we had to bring across and how to bring it across, it was a very useful source."
If you don't think MS didn't do the same thing in this regard as Sony, you're mistaken. But, at no point has Sony ever stated they had plans for DRM or said that they nixed it because of MS. All they said was they used feedback from MS to help direct how they tell users about their console and its tools. Same thing everyone else does and not a sign of a drastic change in policies.
For those people who don't think drm was ready and in place for ps4 please do your ressearch as evidence was found in the terms and use agreement I believe.
Sony always goes second. Which to me is a safe route.
MS has balls so they go first.
@ ScaReCrow90:
Sony did not hide it. They left it there for publishers and continued to say it would be up to publishers. There is no evidence, unless you can provide it, that it was going to be implemented. Maybe in the future and once again up to publishers. Microsoft had balls, you are correct. They also got broken by the wave of discontent to the point that many switched over to Playstation. There was nothing noble about the Xbox One reveal. That was one of the most arrogant spectacles that I have seen from representatives of any company anywhere. They downright insulted people without good internet connection.
I see that Microsoft has changed for the better. But find surprising that anybody could so blindly defend their arrogance from the Xbox One reveal. They downright insulted people. Those are not the kind of balls we should be proud of.
1. You're being an ignorant user with that post, because there was no "trap". The people who agree with you prove that users are ignorant more than I could on my own though, so thanks for the help.
2. MS said that you could take your disc to a friend's house and play it like normal. If access was attempted on the install without the disc, the system would ask you to put the disc back in OR buy a digital copy to continue playing. They also said that while they wouldn't charge a used fee themselves, they would allow a publisher to charge a fee for playing used games at their discretion. Just because their conference was convoluted, doesn't mean it wasn't said.
3. You think this all stems from one quote? Do some research. Besides, you're not seriously going to suggest that Sony would directly admit that they had DRM too, only to face similar backlash to that of MS, are you?
1. No, I'm not. They only said they would implement a program for selling back stuff that was up to the publisher and that it would be at limited locations. They didn't have any answers other than that. They had so many unanswered elements to their system, and that really worried people. Why come out with something so different when you can't answer everything? The complaints were that people were being limited by what publishers would decide and by the location that MS or publishers would decide. Mom & Pop would be affected as it would likely be set to places like GameStop. That also means more traveling to sell a game if you didn't live near one. And then there were issues like how much would you get back, how it would be sold to a second party since it's technically just selling a digital game, and more. It looked exactly like them attempting to give second hand sales to the publishers so they could earn more money rather than losing out like the current market. It was a huge step back from what players already could do, and it seemed that there was no benefit to players since in the long run they would be paying more and having less control since everything you could do then, you can do now (you can still take a game to a friend's house and play the game within minutes with your latest save point).
2. No one talked about using games on friend's consoles. I was talking about used games, as in selling games that you no longer want. This has no bearing on the conversation at all until you brought it up.
3. It really does and any thing else people could find to trump up a reason why. There is zero proof that Sony had DRM policies other than people making leaps of logic. You've provided zero evidence here, for example, you just tell me to do research when I have and have never found any that says Sony planned for DRM and then changed their mind. None. Heck, I provided a quote that most people have used in news articles to claim as such, whereas you provided nothing but the claim that it's true.
Xbox one look hot right now and the future look bright with ScaleBound and CrackDown 3.
Can't disagree with him, when you have big-hitters like Halo 5, Forza 6, Gears and Tomb Raider all leading your exclusive line-up this holiday, and then on top of that you also have Fable Legends, Rare Replay, Gigantic then you know you have a great holiday line-up. And next year doesn't seem to be any different with the revolutionary Crackdown 3, Quantum Break, Recore, Scalebound, Sea of Thieves, Gears 4, Killer Instinct S3, Halo Wars 2 and that's just what we know so far, a very exciting time to be an XB1 owner
I dunno MS...it looks like your 2016 IS even better :)
So much to look forward to, games, features and tech like the cloud and DX12 are starting to surface in next years games. Xbox is pure awesomeness.
MS in second place seems to be good thing.
It feels like were back in the early 360 days.
Playing Gears of war 1, my first ever Xbox game completely remade and added to, seeing how far Halo has come since 1 with the opening cinematic of 5 and its music, seeing rare replay with all these fan favourite games I've never played and finally get to try, Forza 6 is just amazing so far, and Fable is so much fun, I know they say Xbox doesn't have many exclusive franchises but the ones it does I just love to bits and I'm so happy I get to experience it all this year, it's just been amazing, they're doing a great job to me. That halo 5 trailer made me emotional. Xbox right now is just a pure fan service, thank you Phil Spencer, whether he's sincere or not, he's doing a great job and I couldn't thank him more.