Hasta La Gadget!

The 300,000-server-strong Xbox LIVE cloud for the new Xbox One will share processing duties with the console, Microsoft has detailed, responsible for “latency-insensitive computation” like filling in background detail or figuring out complex lighting effects. The split crunching had been broadly outlined before, but Microsoft shared some specifics with Ars Technica, including how the system would amount to roughly three virtual Xbox One consoles per the one in your living room, and what visual impact it would have for gamers without a persistent internet connection.

According to Microsoft’s Matt Booty, General Manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms, the remote processing works because not every element of gameplay is “latency-sensitive” and so doesn’t need to be handled by the local console. While elements like collisions and attacks might need to happen instantly, others – such as cloth motion for characters’ clothes, fluid dynamics, and physics modeling – are no less compute-intensive but don’t have the same urgency.

“Let’s say you’re looking at a forest scene and you need to calculate the light coming through the trees, or you’re going through a battlefield and have very dense volumetric fog that’s hugging the terrain. Those things often involve some complicated up-front calculations when you enter that world, but they don’t necessarily have to be updated every frame. Those are perfect candidates for the console to offload that to the cloud—the cloud can do the heavy lifting, because you’ve got the ability to throw multiple devices at the problem in the cloud” Matt Booty, Microsoft

That sort of work can be handed over to the cloud, Microsoft has decided, though there’ll be a balancing of local and remote handiwork depending on when the results are needed. For instance, the Xbox One will likely do the initial processing when the scene changes, Booty explains, before the cloud takes over and begins feeding data over the internet connection.

For those without a persistent connection – or with an unstable one – it will likely mean a reduction in some of the visual gloss, or at the very least the Xbox One’s 8-core processor working harder to catch up. Booty wouldn’t be drawn on what Microsoft’s exact policy is in that case – saying only that “the game is going to have to intelligently handle that” – but presumably there will be a minimum level of detail that gamers can expect.

Microsoft’s approach to the cloud is markedly different to that of Sony and the PS4. There, the new PlayStation will use cloud processing to enable backward-compatibility with PS3 games, since – like the Xbox One – the next-gen console introduces a change of core architecture and so won’t work directly with old discs.

Sony will use its Gaikai acquisition to do that, with the cloud in effect creating a virtual PS3 and then communicating the gameplay over the PS4 owner’s internet connection. The Xbox One, meanwhile, will not place such a priority on backward compatibility, with Microsoft recently arguing that only around 5-percent of gamers play last-gen games on their new console.

Instead, there’ll be lingering support – and new games – for the Xbox 360, with a fresh batch of titles promised for E3 2013 alongside more details of the line-up for the new Xbox One. Microsoft is yet to detail the Xbox One release date, or indeed to confirm what will happen to the Xbox 360 when the new console hits store shelves.

Xbox One gets trio of ‘cloud consoles’ for extra crunching Microsoft explains is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’re a lover of the Grand Theft Auto series and absolutely need to own every little bit and piece from the creators of the series at Rockstar Games, you’re about to need to start saving up. Two unique editions of Grand Theft Auto V have been shown this week by he creators of the series – one of them a Special Edition, the other a Collectors Edition.

This means there will be a least three different editions of the game. While each version allows you the same access to the full retail version of Grand Theft Auto V, the “Standard Edition” brings just that. Each of the three editions offer a pre-order bonus of an “Atomic Blimp” in-game vehicle for “iconic and leisurely” travel through Los Santos.

The Special Edition brings with it a SteelBook with artwork including custom and metallic treatments – strange printing techniques only used in presentations above and beyond the normal call of duty for an art book. A BluePrint map that shows a unique view of Los Santos and Blaine County is included in the package at 21.5 x 26.75 inches large.

The Special Edition will also add special weapons added to the players inventory available for free – melee Hammer, Bullpup Shotgun, and Pistol .50. In-game bonuses also include a “Special Ability Boost” which makes your special ability bar jump 25% faster, Stunt Plane Trials, Bonus outfits, tattoos, and aesthetic differentiators of all kinds.

The Collector’s Edition includes everything that’s in the Special Edition, adding a Security Deposit Bag with Logo Key, 9FIFTY Snapback Cap, and a set of “classic” Grand Theft Auto characters for customization and use in the Grand Theft Auto Character Creation System.

The Collector’s Edition also adds a garage where users are able to store custom vehicles. Single-player mode has this garage stocked with a 1930′s style Hotknife hotrod as well as a CarbonRS sports bike. The online version will include a “high-end Khamelion electric car.”

And of course the whole lot comes in a fancy collectable outer box with foil-embossed Grand Theft Auto V logo with matte, scuff-resistant film lamination. This Collector’s Edition will run you a cool $149.99 USD while the Special Edition will cost $79.99, and the normal edition will cost you right around $59.99 – choose your fate!

SOURCE: Take-Two

GTA V Collectors Editions continue legacy of completist addiction is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There is an awful lot of excitement to go around in the game industry today, as Microsoft has finally (finally!) shown off its next-generation console, the Xbox One. From images and videos of the device, it appears to be good-looking, should deliver high-quality gameplay, and will integrate a host of entertainment features I’ll be excited to try out.

But there is one huge, glaring, worrisome issue that might prove to be the biggest flaw in the system and the reason customers like me might be turned away: its handling of used games.

Admittedly, we don’t know a whole lot about how the Xbox One will handle used games, so it’s possible that you’re reading this in the future and about to tell me how wrong I am. Sorry about that.

But at this point, this is what we know: the Xbox One requires that game discs be downloaded to the console, to ensure better functionality when gamers want to quickly start playing. What we also know at this point is that there is going to be some sort of unlock fee that allows a used game to be played on a console.

And that is where I, and many other gamers, start to get awfully upset.

Based on what Microsoft has said so far – and this by no means the last we’ve heard of the policy – a person who buys a game disc new will install it on their console to play it. From there, they can bring it to a friend’s house to play it on his or her device. On that console, in order to play the game, the friend would need to buy the right to play the game. And in a recent interview with Kotaku, Xbox’s Phil Harrison said they’ll be paying full price.

Annoyed yet? Good. But Microsoft has come out and said it has a solution: if you login to your own Xbox credentials on your friend’s console, you can play the game without your friend having to pay full price to buy the new title.

“By the sound of things, Microsoft is all but trying to kill the way used games are currently handled.”

What that doesn’t address, however, is the current used games market, which relies on people selling physical discs to companies like GameStop to recoup some of their investment. By the sound of things, Microsoft is all but trying to kill the way used games are currently handled.

If that’s the case, the Xbox One might be in trouble. The fact is, the used games market is a huge opportunity for today’s consumers, and having to pay full price on titles instead of a used fee just isn’t practical for some people. If the Xbox One makes it difficult to buy cheaper games and recoup some cash in titles, it could have trouble getting off the ground.

Of course, Microsoft might just have a solution: it’s hinting that there will be a way to sell the rights to a game you bought through the console. Could that be enough to save the Xbox One and make it a more feasible purchase? Will it annoy customers? Will Microsoft take down the used game market?

I have more questions than answers at this point, but I’m at least a little concerned about what the future holds.

Why the Xbox One’s Used Game Handling Could Be Its Undoing is written by Don Reisinger & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

How much? When? Where? Who cares? If you aren’t exactly interested in knowing how much the impending Xbox One will cost you — let alone when it’ll actually hit your doorstep — you can sign up to be notified of your opportunity to pre-order the console right now. To be clear, this isn’t a sign-up for a pre-order. It’s just a sign-up to be notified of pre-orders officially opening up. So really, what’s to lose? Hit the source link below in order to share your email address, and you’ll get a $10 Microsoft online store credit for your trouble. (Or, you can hit the Amazon link for those needing an excuse to make better use of their Prime subscription.)

Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft

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Source: Microsoft, Major Nelson (Twitter), Amazon

This week Microsoft started their first major next-generation Xbox game console event off with a bang, showing the console and naming it all at once: the Xbox One. Before the event began, it was (once again) revealed that today’s reveal took more than just a weekend to create – Don Mattrick, , noted that “we’ve

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