Hasta La Gadget!

A Microsoft executive has said the Xbox One’s family sharing feature may return as long as gamer’s really want it.

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Microsoft could restore the the Xbox One‘s Family Sharing feature, the company has teased, having removed it as part of its backtrack on 24-hour DRM check-ins for the next-gen console. The feature, which would have allowed up to ten people designated as “family” to play games registered to a single account, no matter where they were located, was a casualty of Microsoft’s concessions to angry gamers left furious by the Xbox One’s online demands. However, according to Xbox One CPO Marc Whitten, Family Sharing could make a reappearance if enough gamers want it.

The initial indication is that those gamers really do, too. Speaking to IGN, Whitten commented on a petition started by would-be Xbox One owners demanding that Microsoft restore the functionality originally outlined at E3, rather than conceding to “consumers uncertainty”, and conceded that the company had failed to communicate the system – and its advantages – fully.

“What it tells me is we need to do more work to talk about what we’re doing because I think that we did something different than maybe how people are perceiving it,” Whitten admitted. That led to the compromise on having the Xbox One connected at least once every 24 hours.

According to Whitten, “while Xbox One is built to be digital native, to have this amazing online experience, we realized people wanted some choice.” According to the chief product officer, gamers wanted a halfway-house of functionality, perhaps to ease them into Microsoft’s vision for the console. “They wanted what I like to call a bridge, sort of how they think about the world today using more digital stuff,” he explained. “What we did, we added to what the console can do by providing physical and offline modes in the console. It isn’t about moving away from what that digital vision is for the platform. It’s about adding that choice.”

As for Family Sharing, that could mean that the functionality might eventually appear on the Xbox One, only not as part of the original feature-set. “If it’s something that people are really excited about and want, we’re going to make sure that we find the right way to bring it back” Whitten promised, describing its absence as “more of an engineering reality time frame type-thing” than it being a functional impossibility.

For Whitten, even though the response was vitriolic from some quarters, it was still welcome for the Xbox team. The first Xbox One event – criticized at the time for being too TV-centric leaving little time to walk through the more advanced gaming features – did a poor job of explaining things, the Microsoft exec admits. “One of the things I think we learned was that we didn’t talk enough,” he says, “and we were incomplete in a lot of how using the system would work.”

VIA OXM

Xbox One Family Sharing could return despite online backtrack is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft announced it will transition its Xbox Live Rewards program away from its Points system on September 1.

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Microsoft announced at E3 last month that they would be getting rid of its Microsoft Points currency system and using real money for transactions for now on. Today, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live Rewards will be doing the same thing, although it’s not yet determined how the new Rewards system will work now that it won’t be using Microsoft Points.

Starting on August 1, Xbox gamers will no longer be able to earn Microsoft Points through Xbox Live Rewards, but Microsoft says that “you’ll continue to be rewarded for doing the things you love on Xbox Live.” The company hasn’t yet announced what they’ll be using on Xbox Live Rewards, but they say that they’ll be revealing the new system on September 1.

Furthermore, Microsoft will deposit all of your pending Rewards points into your account on August 7. If you also happen to have Microsoft Points in your Xbox account when Points are retired, they’ll be transitioned to real-money currency, and you’ll be able to use them as normal, such as buying digital games and items.

Microsoft announced the demise of Microsoft Points during E3 last month ahead of the Xbox One’s launch later in November. We still have yet to hear an exact date for the switchover, but today’s Xbox Live Rewards announcement provides some hints as for when we might see the official switchover.

Microsoft Points have been the main form of currency in Xbox Live for ages, and gamers were able to buy them using a credit card, or purchasing them physically at retail stores. The ousting of Microsoft Points looks to eliminate a step in that process by switching to real money, making the process easier for gamers to buy stuff on Xbox Live.

SOURCE: Xbox Live Rewards

Xbox Live Rewards transitioning from Microsoft Points next month is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Oculus Rift team still intends to ignore the Xbox One and PS4 and focus on PC and Android, concerned that lengthening development cycles for consoles could see them left behind in virtual reality, even with the cloud’s help. “There’s no reason it can’t technically work,” Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe conceded to OXM, but pointed out that “one of the concerns that we do generally have around consoles is that their life cycles are getting longer all the time.” While the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are considered powerful today, they could be seriously out-performed when it comes to VR in the next few years, Iribe argues.

“I think that you will see VR move fast – AR also, but especially VR” the chief exec suggested. “You’re going to see rapid innovation, and one of the concerns that we do generally have around consoles is that their life cycles are getting longer all the time – it’s a seven to eight year lifecycle, and in eight years, VR is going to be insane. Incredible.”

Instead, the headset – which uses a pair of head-mounted LCD displays to create a virtual gaming environment – will work initially with PCs and Android devices, as that “made more sense” according to Iribe. The fact that both platforms are liberal with hardware and software is key to that decision, the CEO explained.

Even Microsoft’s decision to harness the power of the cloud to bolster the Xbox One won’t be of much use to virtual reality, he says. Microsoft has said that each Xbox One will also have access to cloud-based processing equivalent to roughly three more consoles, which could be used for processing richer backgrounds in games, more realistic reflections and textures, and other detail.

The system has met with keen interest from game developers, but is unlikely to be of use to virtual reality systems like Oculus Rift, Iribe points out, because of the latency involved.

Virtual reality “wants a maximum latency of 20-30 milliseconds from your head moving to the headset updating your eye on screen – what we call motion-to-photon” he explains. “Right now it’s at 30-50 milliseconds in the current versions, but we do expect that to come down and reach that 15-20 millisecond ‘Holy Grail’ timing.”

However, while attention on Oculus Rift has been high since the start-up’s Kickstarter back in August 2012, the company doesn’t want to keep VR all to itself. In fact, Iribe is hopeful that Microsoft or Sony – preferably both – wade in themselves, seeing it as a net-benefit to Oculus Rift’s business overall.

“The more that they push into this space, even if it’s a different device, or their own device, a different experience, the more that they’re throwing into AR and VR, the better it is for everybody” he said.

VIA Trusted Reviews

Oculus Rift unconvinced by Xbox One and PS4 VR potential is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.