Interesting revisions of hardware (maybe those were the "new console(s)" referenced at E3 with only one being Scarlett and the others being these, rather than the bizarre "streaming box" rumor.
So it begins. The first discless console. I bought XBox specifically for digital-only so it's not the end of my world, but a part of me is dying inside. I'm glad they're focusing on retaining disc support though. Makes me wonder about Scarlett....
@NEStalgia Scarlett will be two consoles, the cheap one without disc reader and the premium one with disc reader, no reason to worry, Microsoft knows very well that gamers want that.
EDIT: I will reply the big comment in a little while, I did not forget.
@NEStalgia The first discless console? There's already dozens of them: they're called cartridge-based...
But if that really is what they're considering for Scarlett, although they don't even seem to be sure yet, then backward compatibility might also be undergoing massive changes. Now, we can still use all the discs we own that are compatible, but with this digital-only thing, I would be all but forced to exchange my precious disc collection, that I've lovingly and patiently collected, over the space of more than a decade.
I'll die before I'll trade all these in for a digital code, that can be made null and void at Microsoft's whim, any time in the not too distant future when even Scarlett isn't supported as a platform anymore. Thanks, but no thanks.
I guess that if Scarlett is a really exciting new platform, with must have titles, I'll just keep playing the older games on my current consoles, which is basically what I've always been doing, so in that respect, I won't lose too much. I'll just have to make some more space underneath the TV...
Would have been nice though, having one machine that plays them all.
And that "bizarre" streaming box rumor could easily be that discless model, seeing as it will not only be a digital-only platform, but it will of course also have more focus on Game Pass, and who knows how that service will evolve? Perhaps that is what streaming only is going to become.
@BlueOcean Good point, the obvious answer just came and went over my head. At least it's not a streaming box
Also, yippee, that means I can get the cheaper digital only one if it's not missing anything else, since that's been my whole methodology with X! And then I can shell out on more HDDs to listen to if I can't just plug my X one(s) in with all the games on it.
Of course this E3 will be just Nintendo and MS, and Larry Hryb playing Switch all week....
@ThanosReXXX First physical media-less console (excluding things like Ouya) I meant
I think Blue has it right, they'll include a disc drive in one model. What we don't know however is if the disc drive will support physical Scarlett games, or if it's just for BC games. They may not know yet either and may determine it based on XS sales. Although the irony is, if they really do make everyone exchange disc games for physical games it will have two effects: 1-It will finally install the "XBone" DRM plan they wanted with One only they can make it a "feature", and 2-CDKeys will have boatloads of $4 games
No matter the problem, you can always solve it with more power strips!
I imagine the focus on Game Pass/Subscription/XCloud will become a growing focus across the whole spectrum of products, not just the disc-less one. They already push game Pass exceedingly hard for what it is, so I predict it will indeed expand (I predict a Game Pass Premium or something at some point. With whatever that entails.) Maybe a true Netflix for Scarlett. I found it interesting that Phil commented last week about offering all kinds of ways to buy games, and that some people prefer buying to own and that's great, etc. etc. It seems more "alternate access" schemes to ownership will be a growing theme beyond just the ~100+ games of Game Pass.
One thing about Microsoft's digital I find interesting in a legal sense, every purchase page has a "Buy to Own" button if it's on GP/GwG. The fine print may say "this is licensed software and you have no rights to it" etc. But if the sales page told you in big text you own it....legally....they can be compelled to actually render it as property if it came to the courts. And would be a pretty easy case.
And they will still win E3, as Nintendo shows us how to shop for apples at the Nooking's store for 47 minutes, and Sony's building a pyramid to memorialize themselves in another timezone.
I haven't played the demo, do you know what part it goes up to?
It looks like the first "world", grassy and sunny, and it ends with a boss fight. I found Yuna along the way, who I remembered immediately because I had beaten FFX recently. It is quite short. Chibi or kawaii, this is the best definition: cute in the context of Japanese popular culture.
The Fall doesn't sound familiar, so I definitely missed that one!
Deus Ex: Yeah, if you're good with physical WiiU games, definitely get Human Revolution there (It may even be digitally available on WiiU if that suits you, not sure.
Yes, it is digitally available on Wii U. Thanks for the background in Deus Ex.
Nah, 1S isn't noisy, I was just mocking my own HDD listening. Yeah I have one of those launch PS4s.....Pro is nearly as loud! PS3 and 360 were worse though!
I have also heard that you could fry eggs on the original PS3 that has a convenient horizontal design.
@Yosheel Don't you dare to complain after a 50% off Xbox One bundle. Seriously, this generation games take a long while to download. The default power settings are instant-on so it will be also downloading through the night which will help.
First off, that info is not only mentioned in/linked to in the article, and when I paraphrased Phil Spencer the last couple of times, you basically called it empty marketing speech. I'm kinda baffled...
What I meant with the change in Game Pass, possibly towards a streaming-only service, would obviously not be limited to just one model Xbox One and/or Scarlett. I figured you would understand that, from the way I phrased that, but whatever...
It will be the same as it has been across three models Xbox 360, and as it is now across all three models Xbox One. Microsoft has no reason whatsoever to start changing that, to make some kind of alternate version of the service for different models of the console. But regardless, none of that prevents Microsoft from making one of the consoles a streaming-only box, so that could still very much be on the table.
As for the "Buy to Own" thing, fine print aside, the software might be "ours" once bought, but even if a court case would rule in favor of real ownership, that still doesn't prevent Microsoft from ending the service tied to that software, because that's a separate entity. So, what you'd end up with, is basically a car without wheels, sitting in its digital parking space on your Xbox hard drive, but not being able to run and not going anywhere, until you decide to put it in the shredder to safe some parking space for newer, shinier cars that will run, for as long as Microsoft will provide a set of wheels for them, and a network of roads to drive on...
Until of course some smart hacker unlocks that and we can all mod our Xbox One's and keep playing until we're grizzly/even grizzlier old men...
@Octane I'm genuinely sorry, but I had no idea that I used an offensive word. I don't even know which word you meant, and seeing as you apparently deleted it(?), I can't rephrase it in a way that will pass the censor bar... (something which I've always hated about moderators, no offense. I don't mind the warning, but please don't butcher my comment, I'll correct it myself, if necessary)
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@Yosheel Now I'm even more confused. Which comment of mine are we talking about then?
I've been racking my brain concerning the offensive word, and it would seem that comment #6,022 is also missing a word/sentence. Or I'm just imagining things...
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
Well, we can't leave the comments unedited and wait for the user themselves to edit it. I'm sure understand why that wouldn't work.
On top of that, I'm not sure how the profanity filter works, but we keep getting notifications when profanity isn't edited out (though sometimes it doesn't do that oddly enough). So I rather deal with it right away than have the messages clog up the report page.
@Yosheel Never mind, found the comment, and redacted/replaced the moderated part with a milder word.
Having it say "[removed] movements" made it look rather stupid, so butchered after all, in my opinion.
I'm quite sensitive and protective, where that is concerned. A bit strange though, that you didn't notify me at the moment I used it, seeing as we were in direct conversation, and I would assume that you're also still modding and would see it hit the profanity filter(?)
But offensive enough to end up in the profanity filter? Really? Wow, only in England... This isn't an offensive word in 99% of the world, so I never even expected it to be wrong to use it, much less that I would get notified about it. It's a normal word, and singular derivatives of it, such as spasm, are also words that you'd come across in every day language, without them ever having any intent to hurt or insult anyone. Heck, I could be talking about my horse having spasms. Wonder if that would have been [removed] as well...
But, I don't have a horse, so that's all hypothetically speaking.
I think that next generation we will have a premium Xbox console (like X) with disc reader and a disc-less console (like the disc-less Xbox One), but I am not ruling a third streaming device out, that third model would just stream the games like PS Now worked on Bravia TVs.
We have a clue in today's rumours. If we ignore the launch Xbox One model and considering that Xbox One XS is a revised S, there are three Xbox One models: the X, the S/XS and the disc-less.
As for the digital rights, I wouldn't buy digital games if I didn't trust Microsoft's commitment to respect backwards ownership. Consider that they were the first and only company to offer free digital downloads, free remasters on X, if you own the discs all the way back to their first console even though they invested a lot of time and human resources in designing and improving the backwards compatibility functionality. Obviously, there are some limitations regarding supported Xbox 360 and Xbox games.
The future Xbox hardware will be backwards-compatible (Xbox One and supported Xbox and 360 games) and respect our digital games library. If you ask me if there will be consoles with a disc reader after the next generation then I don't know what to answer, who knows. However, the BDs are based on the original CD concept released 36 years ago. Optical discs are a convenient data storage format that get physical protection improvements and bigger data capacities from 650MB to 100GB and beyond, increased every time they refine the laser technology.
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