PS4 / Xbox One console war

[replayme]

Don't know. Don't care.

It's all about the games anyway... And for £399, the XBone is a vastly more attractive proposition than it was at launch (even if the price cut is only £30). It's got Titanfall bundled in, and that's one of the most eagerly anticipated games of this year.

[system11]

It's still a shit console with worse multiplatform games. It's a £30 price cut, not even 10%.

[Ed Oscuro]

Speaking of Titanfall and Xbox One performance, I saw this amusing headline:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/149-nv ... 0-6417813/

$150 and a very small design, maybe not so cool with 1GB of RAM, but it looks very easy to cool - for folks who already have moderately powerful PCs, this is a ticket to "next-gen" performance (to beat either system). It is kind of odd to see such small cards getting the "GTX" moniker. Also strange to see people saying that this is nVidia's proposed Xbox One part - naah, too late, and no dual-chip solution was going to be considered for these systems anyway (and too bad).

KitchMurder says:

* Disclaimer: this is a sponsored comment.

This games looks like a fun. I cant not wait for bought it. Microsoff he is so good. Titan falls looks amerizing. AMEREZING !!!!! EA his good company who mating money so much.

* Give me my 25¢ now EA

[moh]

man, that iphone 6. I cant not wait for bought it.

[Khan]

£30 price cut isnt going to bring the punters charging in and as for games there really isnt anything on the system thats caught my eye and all things considered think I'm going to go with the ps4 eventually when funds allow it.

[brownvim]

It's still a shit console with worse multiplatform games. It's a £30 price cut, not even 10%.

+1

[replayme]

It's still a shit console with worse multiplatform games. It's a £30 price cut, not even 10%.

Yeah, but the thing is that everyone is going to own both at some point anyway. I know I will. This year, it'll be the PS4. And in about 2 years, it'll be an XBone.

Edit: and it's not a £30 price-drop per se. The game is about £40, so the XBone is now in line with the PS4 price-wise.

[trap15]

It's still a shit console with worse multiplatform games.

+1

[brownvim]

Last gen hurt Sony, looks like it's Microsofts turn (curse of the 3rd console?)

I will probably end up buying it, when it's a lot smaller and cheaper. But in an ideal world I want it to get crushed and the developers to flood over to Sony to make the games on the better hardware.

[Friendly]

322,083 PS4s sold in Japan in two days (out of a shipment that is believed to have been 350,000 units). Third best Japanese console launch ever: PS2 did 630,552 and Wii did 371,936 during the first two days.

That means PS4 now is at >5.8M, while Xbone is at 3.5M (Wii U is at ~5.9M so PS4 should overtake it soon or already has).

[brownvim]

GameStop have made it available even cheaper in the UK

http://www.gamestop.co.uk/Xbox%20One/Ga ... adedoubler

£369.97 Titanfall Bundle

[Friendly]

"even cheaper"

[Skykid]

GameStop have made it available even cheaper in the UK

http://www.gamestop.co.uk/Xbox%20One/Ga ... adedoubler

£369.97 Titanfall Bundle

Hm. If Titanfall gets 10's across the board and presents itself as the next Halo in terms of multiplayer gaming, I can imagine MS really shifting consoles based on this one. A really great game will be enough to make people stop thinking about specs and just buy one.

It's unlikely the Xbone will be market leader this time around, but last gen the 360 cemented a ton of lucrative titles that the PS3 didn't have, and that really served it well.

I'll be curious to see how this Titanfall business plays out.

[Udderdude]

Titanfall isn't even exclusive, I don't know what all this "IT WILL SAVE XBONE" shit is about.

A price cut and bundled game might help out a bit, but come on now, at this point MS needs more like a miracle.

[Skykid]

Oh, it's not an exclusive?

Well that's different.

[Udderdude]

I should clarify it's coming out for Windows and Xbox 360 as well. Not PS4.

If MS had any brains left, they'd delay the Windows release for a year or so.

[CIT]

It's exclusive to Microsoft systems though.


EDIT: Nevermind

[system11]

Haven't they delayed the 360 for the same unknown reasons that there are no screenshots and no adverts?

[Udderdude]

I'm willing to bet the 360 version will be canceled entirely.

[system11]

I don't think they could afford to do that, the XB1 sales are down 80% from release just like the Wii-U, they'll have to recoup the EA bribe somehow.

[Udderdude]

I guess I'll be looking forward to the comical 360 to Xbone comparison shots (with price tags inserted).

It's already been done for MGS5 .. http://abload.de/img/pjfuip5d6ktc.jpg

[HydrogLox]

Haven't they delayed the 360 for the same unknown reasons that there are no screenshots and no adverts?

I'm willing to bet the 360 version will be canceled entirely.

The Xbox 360 version is developed by Bluepoint Games (due to be released March 25/28), not by Respawn Entertainment who is responsible for the PC, Xbox One version. It seems that in business terms they are trying to emulate the COD franchise with the Infinity Ward/Treyarch dynamic. Back then Call of Duty 2 was an Xbox 360 exclusive developed by Infinity Ward while Treyarch was responsible for Call of Duty 2: Big Red One on GC, Xbox and PS2 - neither of which were ever ported to the PS3 - of course Call of Duty 3 (entirely done by Treyarch as Infinity Ward was preparing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare) was thoroughly multi-platform (which I expect to happen to Titanfall 2 and beyond if the franchise launch is successful). Now Xbox One hype is clearly enough motive for the delay and silence about the Xbox 360 version - but is the Xbox 360 version even the same game (with downgraded graphical detail)? Given that Titanfall is all about the on-line experience, EA isn't going to give up on the 360 version which currently has the largest multi-player community as it ultimately needs the franchise to succeed. As long as the Xbox 360 on-line is "great", Xbox PR could spin it as "upgrade to awesome" (whether or not that is true) to move some Xbox 360 holdouts to acquire an Xbox One.

Seems EA as the publisher would rather have the service provider (i.e. Xbox Live) run the game servers rather than having to do it themselves: Respawn: Let’s talk about the Xbox Live Cloud.

[ColonelFatso]

Dedicated servers are the only way to go in multiplayer FPS games and it's great to see some console devs adopting the practice, but what I'd really like to see them do is allow communities/people to host their own dedicated servers instead of shoving it all onto Microsoft's hardware under EA's control. Look at how strong games like Counter-Strike are going even at this age - that all comes from the ability to have a more persistent playerbase/community than 'Titanfall Official Server NA-1' could ever hope to provide.

[HydrogLox]

what I'd really like to see them do is allow communities/people to host their own dedicated servers.

Short of the SteamMachine that is never going to happen for a "game console-like" device; so its going to be limited to small PC-gaming communities that are all-around dedicated to keeping their game(s) active - and the PC era is slowly fading away. This will justifiably never be seen as an opportunity to make money for the likes of EA - also the mass market consumer isn't interested in supporting any one game beyond the initial handover of "cash" and through a few (finite) followup micro-transactions.

Given the dependence of Titanfall on the Xbox Live servers it really makes little sense to distribute it on a physical medium. I suspect that after its on-line community dies down that it will be removed from the servers making the game disc useless (Chromehounds anyone - well, there you can still play the tutorial campaign).

Also EA/Respawn may have gotten a juicy subsidy to start-up a new franchise but if it turns out that the "cloud component" is critical to the product's success they may also have caught a severe case of "vendor lock-in".

• While it may have been a hassle to set up dedicated support servers all over the globe with numerous service providers, before the "Xbox Live Cloud" the same server software could be used to support all gaming platforms.
• It is not unreasonable to expect that the service level agreement restricts the use of the "Xbox Live Cloud" service to Xbox 360, Xbox One, and the Windows Games platforms - even though there shouldn't be any technical barrier to non-MS platforms accessing the "Xbox Live Cloud".
• While there may be some non-MS Azure providers available, the service capabilities wouldn't likely match that of the "Xbox Live Cloud", leaving the game developer to retrofit the essential capabilities themselves (potentially delaying release for the affected platforms) - and the service costs would also likely be higher.
• Even if Sony created a "PSN Cloud" the services, their interfaces, and capabilities would be sufficiently different to be a PITA to the game developer - now developing a game for different consoles and different service contracts.

Basically one goal of the "Xbox Live Cloud" is to make multi-platform releases that much more difficult (and possibly to shorten the lifespan of any one game - as the mass market moves to the "Next Big Thing" anyway).

[system11]

I actually hope Titanfall bombs, or at least fails to sell any meaningful extra amount of XB1s. It's not good for gamers when Microsoft buy exclusives.

As for reliance on Azure, not a chance. The 'cloud' is not magic, it's a bullshit lingo term that means 'servers on the internet' which anyone can stand up and run.

[brownvim]

If they didn't buy out the exclusives, I wouldn't dislike them. I want them out the game.

[neorichieb1971]

Late to this party, but hey.. I hate Microsoft and the gamers they brought over from the PC crowd that had trouble installing games and upgrading their RAM.

2 almost identical consoles coming to the market at the exact same time with several 3rd party titles crossing over on both is just ridiculous. If you have to choose one console, choose the one thats best.

[Octopod]

322,083 PS4s sold in Japan in two days (out of a shipment that is believed to have been 350,000 units). Third best Japanese console launch ever: PS2 did 630,552 and Wii did 371,936 during the first two days.

That means PS4 now is at >5.8M, while Xbone is at 3.5M (Wii U is at ~5.9M so PS4 should overtake it soon or already has).

And the Wii U sold 307,471 units its launch weekend in Japan. I wonder if the PS4 will sell steadily in Japan or taper off quickly. According to the internet Japan is mostly a handheld/mobile nation now. I guess we'll see if that is true or not.

Was the Wii U launch the fourth best in Japan or does another console fall in between the PS4 and Wii U?

If they didn't buy out the exclusives, I wouldn't dislike them. I want them out the game.

Why? I'm not an MS fan myself. I don't even own a 360. Isn't competition and choice a good thing though?

[Friendly]

322,083 PS4s sold in Japan in two days (out of a shipment that is believed to have been 350,000 units). Third best Japanese console launch ever: PS2 did 630,552 and Wii did 371,936 during the first two days.

That means PS4 now is at >5.8M, while Xbone is at 3.5M (Wii U is at ~5.9M so PS4 should overtake it soon or already has).

And the Wii U sold 307,471 units its launch weekend in Japan. I wonder if the PS4 will sell steadily in Japan or taper off quickly.

There is an important difference (aside from Wii U never having had any Japanese third party support): http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q= ... 38m&cmpt=q

[Octopod]

322,083 PS4s sold in Japan in two days (out of a shipment that is believed to have been 350,000 units). Third best Japanese console launch ever: PS2 did 630,552 and Wii did 371,936 during the first two days.

That means PS4 now is at >5.8M, while Xbone is at 3.5M (Wii U is at ~5.9M so PS4 should overtake it soon or already has).

And the Wii U sold 307,471 units its launch weekend in Japan. I wonder if the PS4 will sell steadily in Japan or taper off quickly.

There is an important difference (aside from Wii U never having had any Japanese third party support): http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q= ... 38m&cmpt=q

The Vita had a big spike on there too as you can see. The only thing I take from that graph is that consoles have hype near launch and then it falls off unless you are the 3DS.