The Xbox One won’t arrive in Asia until a full year after it hits US shelves, Microsoft has confirmed, with gamers in several countries being forced to wait for a “staged approach” as the company supposedly localizes content. Those in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and India won’t get the Xbox One until November
As “The Last of Us” hits shelves, so too does a multiplayer gameplay demonstration take place, this environment known as Factions. What you’ll be doing here is continuing the battle taken up in the original storyline presented in The Last of Us, only this time you’re part of a team that’s in direct combat for
The Xbox One will be able to spot new people even if they’re not actively playing, speak to gamers in a manner similar to Siri on the iPhone, and allow stuck players to seek help over Skype, it’s rumored. Microsoft was coy with showing all of the new Kinect’s features, according to Polygon‘s sources, at the Xbox One launch last week, saving some of the more advanced two-way interaction for closer to launch.
Among the rumored abilities is the use of Kinect to scan not only the active gamer, but those also in the room with them during play. For instance, one Microsoft closed-doors demo apparently showed the next-gen console using facial-recognition to spot people it hadn’t seen before, and then ask them to identify themselves.
Once the person did so, the Xbox One could save their information and thus recognize them in future encounters, all using spoken voice commands rather than having to punch in names and other details on an onscreen keyboard.
Microsoft is supposedly billing the advanced voice control – which takes advantage of the new Kinect’s updated microphone array, which also allows the console to be switched between gaming and TV modes with a simple command – as akin to Siri, the virtual personal assistant on iOS. There, Apple uses Siri to recognize natural language instructions to send messages, create calendar entries, locate restaurants or other points of interest, and other tasks, all without demanding that the user memorize a series of preset commands.
However, the Xbox One two-way speech tech may not arrive in time for the console’s launch. Instead, Microsoft might push it out as a post-release firmware update, some months after the One first arrives on shelves.
It’s not the only ease-of-use feature Microsoft is said to have held back from the Xbox One reveal. The console’s tight Skype integration was confirmed last week, but according to the leaks Microsoft has been secretly demonstrating collaborative gameplay using the free service.
Gamers struggling to get past a certain point in a title will be able to call in help from their Xbox One-owning Skype contacts, it’s said, inviting them to remotely take over the controls. Both players will be able to watch the game’s progression, returning control at the touch of a button.
Microsoft is apparently unconcerned about internet latency issues, though its private demo used hard-wired consoles, and there’s no word on how long remote play will be supported, or whether the remote gamer will also need a copy of the title before they can be co-opted across Skype.
We’re likely to find out more at E3 2013 next month, where Microsoft has promised more details on specific titles that will be offered for the Xbox One.
Xbox One Siri-style speech system and Skype remote play rumored is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Used game sales on the Xbox One will use a digital authorization system requiring the console to validate titles against Microsoft’s servers every 24 hours, retailer leaks have suggested, also building in a cut for both Microsoft and publishers with each transaction. Microsoft had confirmed that pre-owned games sales would be permitted on the new console, but declined to detail exactly how the system would operate. Now, according to retailers speaking to MCV, details of the proposed system have been leaked.
The retailers claim that Microsoft has begun briefings this week on how the trade-in situation will be run, since it will be more complex than the existing process for Xbox 360 discs. According to the store chatter, Microsoft will require each retailer wanting to deal in pre-owned games to integrate its systems with an Azure-based cloud database, which will keep track of which titles Xbox One gamers have registered.
When a gamer wishes to trade in a game, it will be logged on the Microsoft database and removed from their account. The Xbox One will be required to check into Microsoft’s servers at least once every 24hrs, with sold titles automatically deauthorized from where they’ve been installed on the console’s hard drive.
By running all transactions through the cloud system, Microsoft and the publisher of the game will automatically get a percentage of the resale figure. Exactly what that cut will be – and what price the retailers will be selling the games for – is unclear; MCV’s sources indicate that stores will be able to set their own figures, but Console Deals‘ sources suggest that Microsoft will permit at most a 10-percent discount from the game’s recommended retail price (RRP).
Microsoft has declined to comment specifically on any of the possible systems for used games sales. “While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail” the company told MCV. “Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios.”
Nonetheless, if the leaks are true, the policies are unlikely to meet with a positive reaction from gamers and – as Don Reisinger wrote earlier this week – could give some cause to rethink upgrading to the new console. Microsoft has said that there won’t be a cost involved if you take a game to play on a friend’s Xbox One, as long as you are logged in with your own Xbox LIVE profile; however, you will not be able to loan them the game (to play registered to their own profile), as there will be a fee involved to unlock it.
Tackling the pre-owned games market – and, more importantly perhaps, monetizing it – has been one of the key goals with next-gen consoles. Sony has also confirmed that the PlayStation 4 will support used games, but is also yet to detail the process around that, and whether it will follow a similar approach to that which Microsoft is rumored to be following.
Xbox One used games policy leak claims limited discounts and publisher cut is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Microsoft has been coy on exactly how the Xbox One will work with TV boxes, especially internationally, but already some of the big names in home entertainment are reacting warily. YouView, the hybrid broadcast/IPTV service in the UK, took to Twitter today to confirm that it doesn’t “currently have any plans to support Xbox One.”
It comes perhaps as a surprise, given YouView is arguably the closest in principle of the UK TV services to Microsoft’s interpretation of live and on-demand content. Launched a year ago, YouView pairs Freeview+HD service – free-to-air digital television in up to HD quality – with on-demand shows streamed from services like BBC iPlayer, Channel 4′s 4oD, and Now TV over the user’s internet connection.
The Xbox One will integrate some of those services itself, in addition to relying on external hardware. The console has an HDMI input as well as an HDMI output, meaning a cable, satellite, or other set-top box can be piped through; an IR blaster handles controlling the channels, with Xbox One users able to search by voice for specific shows or channels and have the console change to them automatically.
“Microsoft is committed to bringing live TV through various solutions to all the markets where Xbox One will be available” Microsoft
What YouView’s decision not to support Xbox One – at least for the moment – means is not entirely clear, though it could lead to the console being unable to incorporate YouView boxes’ channels into its own program guide.
In fact, Microsoft has already confirmed that live TV functionality on the Xbox One will be limited to North America initially. “Live TV with Kinect navigation, Live TV with OneGuide, Trending, and NFL on Xbox available in US at launch” Microsoft said of the console, adding that it was “anticipating global scale over time.”
Exactly how well Xbox One will work with DVRs remains a lingering question, given the rudimentary control system – relying on an IR blaster – is one-way only, and the console has no way of knowing what’s actually recorded on the set-top box. One possibility is that Microsoft could offer its own recording system, extending the Game DVR feature which can be used to capture and share gameplay, and making it work on live TV. However, Microsoft has refused to be drawn on whether that will be the case.
YouView: No plans for Xbox One support in UK is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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.
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.
Now that the Xbox One has been revealed, it’s time to begin speaking about when the device will actually be released to the market. This week the Xbox One (code-named Durango or otherwise Xbox 720) was shown with several details including those surrounding the device’s innards, but as far as official word of its real final market release goes, Microsoft has been essentially mum.
The company announced thus far that the device will be released “later this year”. If this release is meant to coincide with several games that have been announced for the system already, this timeframe suggests the holiday season – and if it’s prepared to be released at the same time as major titles like Call of Duty: Ghosts, it’ll be out in November.
As Ghosts is set to be released on the 5th of November, and that timeframe is essentially perfect for a holiday gift-giving release, gamers can pretty much bank on the idea that they’ll be waiting at least a few more months before the final device is on the market. The fact that the console and peripherals shown yesterday were still being called “prototypes” by Microsoft handlers on-site also lends to the idea that the Xbox One wont be coming extremely soon.
Microsoft has made it clear that the showing yesterday – a mere one hour long – was only the first installment of at least 2 showings the device and the games that’ll work with it will be getting. The second showing will be at the gaming convention E3 2013.
At E3, not just Microsoft, but gaming developers galore will be showing their wares to the public. This convention traditionally plays host to the largest announcements of the year – but here in 2013, hardware and software companies have begun to get wise about their individual event power in the press. Microsoft and Sony (with their PlayStation 4) have decidedly split things up to have as much potential staying power as possible.
Gamescom will also be taking place starting on the 21st of August until the 25th – this is a less likely place for Microsoft and Sony to show off any major announcements, but sits in second place nontheless. E3 will take place June 11th through the 13th, and you can count SlashGear in for the whole lot – stay tuned!
Xbox One release date may appear at E3 in Microsoft’s second wave is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It’s all change for Microsoft and Xbox today, with the new Xbox One shaking things up in the gaming world and meeting Sony’s PlayStation 4 challenge head-on. The Xbox One has a lot to live up to, though: the 360 held the best-selling console torch for some time, and that’s something Sony would just love
This week the folks at Microsoft opened the stage at their Xbox One event for “one last thing” after letting the world know that the console would be out later this year. That one last thing was the CEO of Activision Publishing, Eric Hirshberg, introducing the next title in the COD series: Call of Duty:
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