Xbox 2015 Gamescon news...
Kind of following random tweets on Gamescon news for Xbox One, and I have to say, the future seems pretty good for Xbox owners.
Some of the highlights thus far are: DVR capabilities, PC to Xbox game streaming, all future Games with Gold will be backwards compatible and of course, backwards compatibility itself.
Broken record time: Xbox One has surpassed the PS4 in terms of overall value. It did so a while ago, but this just keeps driving that point home.
I AM NOT saying that the Xbox One is BETTER than the PS4. What "better" means will be dependent on the person looking at the consoles. This hasn't changed. But it does mean that the number of people who will find the Xbox One to be "better" should be growing. However, there are a lot of people with non-material definitions of "better" who will never accept anything from Microsoft or will never accept an Xbox as better than a PlayStation device. Those people will never be won over. There is also the group amongst which framerate and screen resolution are the defining features and/or those who prefer the PS4 exclusives. Those people will by and large legitimately prefer the PS4 over the Xbox One.
The average person honestly wouldn't notice the difference in framerate/resolution even if a game with such disparities were shown to them side by side. There are however some average people who will care at platform exclusives or 1st party titles.
The point is more that the Xbox One has offered a lot more for a long time and the feature list is growing rapidly with Sony making no apparent effort to close the gaps. As a result, the performance gap is shrinking as developers familiarize themselves with the tools and the SDK becomes more refined. And at the same time, many VERY interesting features are being added which should make it easier to overlook the areas where the Xbox One is outperformed.
Game streaming from the Xbox One to PC is phenomenal. And, personally, I think it trumps what Sony offers. The dependency on an Xbox controller connected to the PC is the only drawback. Otherwise, it is the full game, in high (though in some cases not full [capped at 720p I believe]) resolution with almost no delay (assuming your on wired network or there isn't too much activity over WiFi).
Similarly, Xbox One's backwards compatibility is TRUE backwards compatibility. Sony's answer is a game streaming service that charges you to get backwards compatibility. Again, the Xbox One solution should be seen as the true winner here. Especially amongst the most vocal who had huge libraries from the previous generation. Amusingly, the Sony approach is also effectively something which not only requires a subscription but also an always on internet connection. The latter of which was one of the most highly condemned features of the initial Xbox One reveal. Anyone who disagrees on this point better have a strong argument... otherwise your preference can only be seen as fanboy-ism.
HDMI pass-through and the ability to control your TV, audio equipment and cable equipment is something the PS4 simply doesn't offer. The ability to control these through voice is a nice (if niche) add. Coupled with DVR functionality coming in 2016 and this thing really is shaping up to be a killer all-in-one device. It will also stream recorded content to Windows 10 devices making it effectively a media hub of sorts.
PC to Xbox One streaming, will, I think be even more niche than going the other way around. Especially due to the apparent need to have a KB and mouse attached the Xbox. But, it is hard to deny that it is also a cool additional thing. If the Xbox One controller can be used where supported as a gamepad when streaming PC games I think the value goes up. There are a bunch of titles on Steam for instance that let you use an Xbox One controller already. If those games could be launched and played even without a keyboard, that would present some great value.
Drive expansion strategy is another one. This is a lot more subjective. PS4 allows you to replace the internal drive, whereas Xbox One supports external drives. So, in Sony's favor, the end solution is more portable. The Xbox One solution on the other hand is more cost effective and economical. For me, the Xbox One solution is the clear winner. If I need to bring my PS4 somewhere anyway, needing to drag along an external HD wouldn't be any more annoying. It also means that IF I want to bring my game collection along, I NEED to bring my entire PS4.
On the cost argument, you're replacing a 500GB drive in the PS4, so, to get the same effective storage you effectively need to buy a drive 500GB larger than the one you would buy for an Xbox One. For instance, if I want 1TB of storage... for PS4, you need to buy 1TB drive. For the Xbox One it means you just need to buy a 500GB drive. This may not seem like a huge deal, but the difference in cost can be meaningful. For an Xbox One owner, it means the money "saved" could be put towards either getting more storage or getting a faster drive of the same size. And, if I want to go over to my friends and bring my game collection, I just need to bring my external drive and login to my friends Xbox rather than cart an entire console around. Also, with the PS4, you then have an extra HD you either need to repurpose, give away or throw out.
Another recent news story that could backfire, but which I applaud MS for, is stopping going after paid exclusives. Paid, especially timed and paid, exclusives are just irritating. I think you lose more fans than gain, even if yours is the platform that wins. They also have 0 long term value, especially after the first year the console is out. There are enough games out now that timed exclusives will have less of an effect on who buys which platform. And it isn't like it is small sums of money moved for these exclusives. I'd like to see that money reinvested in 1st party games and the platform itself.
Even if Xbox One doesn't "win" this generation of the console wars, I think its owners definitely win out over the competition.
Some of the highlights thus far are: DVR capabilities, PC to Xbox game streaming, all future Games with Gold will be backwards compatible and of course, backwards compatibility itself.
Broken record time: Xbox One has surpassed the PS4 in terms of overall value. It did so a while ago, but this just keeps driving that point home.
I AM NOT saying that the Xbox One is BETTER than the PS4. What "better" means will be dependent on the person looking at the consoles. This hasn't changed. But it does mean that the number of people who will find the Xbox One to be "better" should be growing. However, there are a lot of people with non-material definitions of "better" who will never accept anything from Microsoft or will never accept an Xbox as better than a PlayStation device. Those people will never be won over. There is also the group amongst which framerate and screen resolution are the defining features and/or those who prefer the PS4 exclusives. Those people will by and large legitimately prefer the PS4 over the Xbox One.
The average person honestly wouldn't notice the difference in framerate/resolution even if a game with such disparities were shown to them side by side. There are however some average people who will care at platform exclusives or 1st party titles.
The point is more that the Xbox One has offered a lot more for a long time and the feature list is growing rapidly with Sony making no apparent effort to close the gaps. As a result, the performance gap is shrinking as developers familiarize themselves with the tools and the SDK becomes more refined. And at the same time, many VERY interesting features are being added which should make it easier to overlook the areas where the Xbox One is outperformed.
Game streaming from the Xbox One to PC is phenomenal. And, personally, I think it trumps what Sony offers. The dependency on an Xbox controller connected to the PC is the only drawback. Otherwise, it is the full game, in high (though in some cases not full [capped at 720p I believe]) resolution with almost no delay (assuming your on wired network or there isn't too much activity over WiFi).
Similarly, Xbox One's backwards compatibility is TRUE backwards compatibility. Sony's answer is a game streaming service that charges you to get backwards compatibility. Again, the Xbox One solution should be seen as the true winner here. Especially amongst the most vocal who had huge libraries from the previous generation. Amusingly, the Sony approach is also effectively something which not only requires a subscription but also an always on internet connection. The latter of which was one of the most highly condemned features of the initial Xbox One reveal. Anyone who disagrees on this point better have a strong argument... otherwise your preference can only be seen as fanboy-ism.
HDMI pass-through and the ability to control your TV, audio equipment and cable equipment is something the PS4 simply doesn't offer. The ability to control these through voice is a nice (if niche) add. Coupled with DVR functionality coming in 2016 and this thing really is shaping up to be a killer all-in-one device. It will also stream recorded content to Windows 10 devices making it effectively a media hub of sorts.
PC to Xbox One streaming, will, I think be even more niche than going the other way around. Especially due to the apparent need to have a KB and mouse attached the Xbox. But, it is hard to deny that it is also a cool additional thing. If the Xbox One controller can be used where supported as a gamepad when streaming PC games I think the value goes up. There are a bunch of titles on Steam for instance that let you use an Xbox One controller already. If those games could be launched and played even without a keyboard, that would present some great value.
Drive expansion strategy is another one. This is a lot more subjective. PS4 allows you to replace the internal drive, whereas Xbox One supports external drives. So, in Sony's favor, the end solution is more portable. The Xbox One solution on the other hand is more cost effective and economical. For me, the Xbox One solution is the clear winner. If I need to bring my PS4 somewhere anyway, needing to drag along an external HD wouldn't be any more annoying. It also means that IF I want to bring my game collection along, I NEED to bring my entire PS4.
On the cost argument, you're replacing a 500GB drive in the PS4, so, to get the same effective storage you effectively need to buy a drive 500GB larger than the one you would buy for an Xbox One. For instance, if I want 1TB of storage... for PS4, you need to buy 1TB drive. For the Xbox One it means you just need to buy a 500GB drive. This may not seem like a huge deal, but the difference in cost can be meaningful. For an Xbox One owner, it means the money "saved" could be put towards either getting more storage or getting a faster drive of the same size. And, if I want to go over to my friends and bring my game collection, I just need to bring my external drive and login to my friends Xbox rather than cart an entire console around. Also, with the PS4, you then have an extra HD you either need to repurpose, give away or throw out.
Another recent news story that could backfire, but which I applaud MS for, is stopping going after paid exclusives. Paid, especially timed and paid, exclusives are just irritating. I think you lose more fans than gain, even if yours is the platform that wins. They also have 0 long term value, especially after the first year the console is out. There are enough games out now that timed exclusives will have less of an effect on who buys which platform. And it isn't like it is small sums of money moved for these exclusives. I'd like to see that money reinvested in 1st party games and the platform itself.
Even if Xbox One doesn't "win" this generation of the console wars, I think its owners definitely win out over the competition.
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