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[Roland1979]

People have been screaming "Evil Corporation! Evil!" at Microsoft, while cheering another corporation, Sony, as the savior of gaming. Does that not ring odd to people? Sony, the Pioneer the root kit in music CDs. If your going to hate on corporations, be consistent. Microsoft wants your business. Sony wants your business. There are passionate, game loving people at both companies. There are soulless suits, at both companies.

Knew you where going to bring that up. You just brought up that conclusion. I am not people. I never said Sony was holy. But the PS4 doesn't have all this. I don't have to be on or online for christ sake. I would rather not use the word evil but MS, Sony as well as many other major companies sometimes act in ways dangerous to us. They don't need you to defend them, why do you think they have that army of lawyers? Some things cannot be downplayed. If they don't use if for data mining? Fine. The we can cross off the Kinect always on (even when off for christ sake! "stil listens to one command"... so it's still on!). However if they DO use it for data-mining this would be the perfect set-up. They can see how long you eye hangs over a picture before moving on, how you react to a ad, the heart rate monitor for a few select games (horror?) might ad, a little. But would be more of a gimmick. For data mining purposes it makes way more sense. This whole combination then would make perfect sense.

If your going to hate on corporations, be consistent.

That's why we can't have a conversation. because i hate the product. Next thing you bring up Steam. I move one. Next thread pls!

 

[MCN]

I'm an ex-soldier (British Army), and I was deployed to Afghanistan in December 2006. I took with me my brand new Wii, and while I was out there I managed to pick up a Japanese PS3. Amazon delivered to BFPO addresses, so I managed to get a steady stream of games delivered for both consoles. As I was working 24 hours on, 24 hours off at the time on a maintenance crew, it really helped wind down on the off days. Hell, at Camp Bastion I would bring the Wii to the hangar with me, and we would have Wii Sports tournaments when the aircraft were out on sorties. Long story short, video games made the tour a lot more manageable.

Thank god for Wii U and PS4.

 

[guch20]

Hell, it's not just the troops who won't be able to play the Xbox One, if this FCC broadband coverage map is any indication.

 

[quickwhips]

Hell, it's not just the troops who won't be able to play the Xbox One, if this FCC broadband coverage map is any indication.

Your not including wireless so your data isn't accurate.

 

[mAcOdIn]

What about the civilians in Alaska and Hawaii!

Spoiler

It's also 2 years old.

Still gonna be a nice chunk of people though who can't play.

 

[semiconscious]

I actually expect he cares about people as much as most of us do if not far more.

And this is why Ballmer's in charge of the company while he retired early for philanthropic work.

'i care about all of you, children, but i have to retire. & now, i'd like you all to meet your new teacher, mr. hannibal lecter' ...

 

[MDX]

how come when he said
"red ring of death" (3:47) + (3:50)
the screen behind him turned red?

 

[sephi22]

how come when he said
"red ring of death" (3:47) + (3:50)
the screen behind him turned red?

The magic of editing. The green basically acted like a greenscreen and they turned it red

 

[Felix Lighter]

Hell, it's not just the troops who won't be able to play the Xbox One, if this FCC broadband coverage map is any indication.

Rural Virginia looks to be in horrible shape. I just compared a population density map to my own state of Pennsylvania and they are quite similar in that regard at a quick glance. Their broadband access is abysmal.

 

[MrMephistoX]

Even if the online check is somehow disabled that's still not going to easily change the other pain points mentioned in the article:

"■ Will have region-locked games. Games bought in the U.S. can be activated only in the U.S. That means no more ripping open the latest title that just arrived in a care package from home while you’re deployed. And forget about buying games locally when overseas — if your Xbox Live account isn’t tied to the region when you activate a game, it won’t play.

■ Serious security concerns. Even when the Xbox One is in sleep mode, its built-in microphone can always listen in. It’s a feature developers say will provide quick voice-command access to games and apps — but that could spook commanders who might worry the always-connected device could also capture more than just idle chit-chat among troops."

MS can't just flip a switch.

 

[pancakesandsex]

Even if the online check is somehow disabled that's still not going to easily change the other pain points mentioned in the article:

"■ Will have region-locked games. Games bought in the U.S. can be activated only in the U.S. That means no more ripping open the latest title that just arrived in a care package from home while you’re deployed. And forget about buying games locally when overseas — if your Xbox Live account isn’t tied to the region when you activate a game, it won’t play.

■ Serious security concerns. Even when the Xbox One is in sleep mode, its built-in microphone can always listen in. It’s a feature developers say will provide quick voice-command access to games and apps — but that could spook commanders who might worry the always-connected device could also capture more than just idle chit-chat among troops."

MS can't just flip a switch.

Given that the region locking and the forced kinect integration are both something under MS's direct control, yes they can.

-Remove the ip check on game activation (this is a function of the marketplace not the console)
-Remove the requirement for kinect to be hooked up (OS level requirement)

 

[MMaRsu]

Confirmed? No.

It's been denied by Microsoft that there is an IP check in the other thread to at least 4 different people. Grey importing (with LIVE and full games/services) will still work as with the 360, provided you set your region correctly.

Has that been confirmed? Source?

 

[MrDaravon]

Rural Virginia looks to be in horrible shape. I just compared a population density map to my own state of Pennsylvania and they are quite similar in that regard at a quick glance. Their broadband access is abysmal.

Yeah, I live in a good sized town in central VA (100k population), but a lot of people live in rural areas and have to commute here for work. Last year I worked with a lady who was in a new housing development area, and lives on the last street of houses; their street literally cannot get broadband internet, they are out of the service range by HALF A MILE. They've been fighting for years to get access, they've been told they could flip a switch and have internet, but it's some weird zoning thing where since there's only the one street there's not enough people to turn it on, it has to be above a certain threshold like 10 people or something like that. It's ridiculous.

 

[Valnen]

Yeah, I live in a good sized town in central VA (100k population), but a lot of people live in rural areas and have to commute here for work. Last year I worked with a lady who was in a new housing development area, and lives on the last street of houses; their street literally cannot get broadband internet, they are out of the service range by HALF A MILE. They've been fighting for years to get access, they've been told they could flip a switch and have internet, but it's some weird zoning thing where since there's only the one street there's not enough people to turn it on, it has to be above a certain threshold like 10 people or something like that. It's ridiculous.

Wow, the internet situation in this country is an embarrassment. The government should be pushing for nation wide fiber.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

I was at a get together with a few friends Thursday night and I brought up E3 just to see if anyone else had watched anything. A lot of the guys I know are gamers, have a 360 or PS3, but they don't really pay attention to the news. Also, a majority of them are firefighters and EMT.

A lot of fire stations in my area have wireless (not all of them though), but it's locked down and pretty restrictive based on my experience. Firefights will usually go on a 2-4 day shift here, so if there's no internet or it's locked down, there's no way to authenticate obviously unless they do the phone tethering thing I guess. Depending on which station you're at, you can have a lot of downtime between calls, so much like military, you need something to do with that spare time.

Anyway, I brought up how I was going to skip the XBO, even though I'm usually in for all the consoles, and I brought up the used game DRM, Kinect requirements (how it's always on and if the Kinect is unhooked or breaks, you're shit out of luck until you either buy a replacement Kinect camera or get the one you have repaired/replaced), required HD installs, and required online connection, just kind of laid it all out because I knew most of these guys didn't have a clue. 20 minutes later the reaction almost completely across the board was "Fuck that, I'll either just stick with my 360 or get a PS4 at some point".

It'll be interesting to see how much MS goes out of their way to inform customers about XBO restrictions down the line and up to retail release. They also don't seem to have a solid grasp on their own policies when you see journalists going from one figurehead to another and asking the exact same questions, only to get completely different answers.

 

[spannicus]

I want to know who's idea it was to incorporate all of this bs into their next game console. Microsoft is terrified of Piracy.

 

[MrMephistoX]

Given that the region locking and the forced kinect integration are both something under MS's direct control, yes they can.

-Remove the ip check on game activation (this is a function of the marketplace not the console)
-Remove the requirement for kinect to be hooked up (OS level requirement)

Sure if MS decided to throw out their entire marketing plan and long term strategy which historically speaking they're too arrogant to do. I don't think they'd be willing to just issue Military Specific SKUs and rework their strategy for one special interest group. They either have to back peddle entirely ( not something Balmer's ego has traditionally tolerated) or just do the math and decide there's more money to be made in targeting upper middle class 30 something's with cable and broadband so that they can pay $500 for a device that does what their iPad, Roku Box, Apple TV or TV itself already can.

 

[Gui_PT]

So let's imagine I but the X1(which I won't lulz) and I buy a game from Amazon UK because they're about half the price of what they are here... I won't be able to play it, right? Because it has to be activated in the UK?


Trololololol

 

[mboojigga]

So let's imagine I but the X1(which I won't lulz) and I buy a game from Amazon UK because they're about half the price of what they are here... I won't be able to play it, right? Because it has to be activated in the UK?


Trololololol

You act like that is something new. This was the case for the 360 and OG Xbox.

 

[Gui_PT]

You act like that is something new. This was the case for the 360 and OG Xbox.

Then how come I buy games from amazon uk for the 360 and they work for me?

This won't be possible with the new console, according to the news.

 

[Prologue]

So the Cloud is nonsense after all given the consideration of exemption codes.

 

[rvy]

You act like that is something new. This was the case for the 360 and OG Xbox.

No, it isn't. 60% of my 360 games are all imported from Zavvi.

 

[mrklaw]

Utterly shameful. Seriously. They keep shitting the bed. Over and over. I would say comedy gold if it wasn't so sad for the people invested in their consoles. But really--the console created by the AMERICAN company shuts out service personnel. It's time for some humility, MS. When Sony outshines you repeatedly in your home market, it's time to exit stage right and change your pants, your stinking up the show.

Why does it matter for people invested in their consoles? It's not put yet so nobody has lost money. It isn't BC so just buy a PS4 and bring all your friends across too. All the Multiplatform games will be there. You'll lose some first party exclusives you are fond of but its not the end of the world.


macodin, you're perhaps right in that a company should need to adjust things just for a specific 'special' case. But this just shows a clear practical example of why constant Internet checks are bad. And it isn't just the military - what about long distance truckers who might have a console in their cab to pass the time when they are forced off road because of logged hours?


If MS were so keen on authentication via Internet, maybe they should have built in a 3G modem like amazon did with kindles, so it can dial home without you needing to worry about it.

 

[KAL2006]

Why on earth would you join the army

For some reason the Adam Orth meme makes a lot of sense to me this time round.

 

[Shinta]

If they give out special exemption codes to the military to disable online checks, it's just going to make it look even worse for the other 99% of the Xbone audience that doesn't get special codes.

They can try and spin it as charity and pro-troops, but the message that comes out of it will be "Xbone doesn't actually need online DRM. Xbone doesn't actually need to restrict sharing."

Just get a PS4 guys. It's actually the better system anyway. Cheaper, more powerful, region free, no online required, and you can trade games to anyone else there with zero hassle. Even if the online check is disabled, would the account log-in be disabled? You probably still couldn't share it with anyone else.

And then there's the matter of cloud computing. How many of the games would require reworking of the game's code just to work without cloud elements? That's not likely to happen either. So even if you had a special offline Xbone that currently does not exist, you still couldn't play Titanfall or Forza. I'm pretty sure Halo will have cloud elements too. (Titanfall is coming to PS4 eventually, and can be played offline).

You're left with two choices. 1) Hope that MS jumps through all these hoops and somehow gets it working just for military while still screwing over everyone else, or 2) just get a PS4, the cheaper and more powerful system anyway.

This isn't even mentioning Kinect, which is now required. Would that even work in a small room on a naval vessel with bunk beds and shit?

So the Cloud is nonsense after all given the consideration of exemption codes.

Either 1) the cloud is complete bullshit, or 2) any game with cloud elements wouldn't work offline. Both possibilities are awful for MS.

macodin, you're perhaps right in that a company should need to adjust things just for a specific 'special' case. But this just shows a clear practical example of why constant Internet checks are bad. And it isn't just the military - what about long distance truckers who might have a console in their cab to pass the time when they are forced off road because of logged hours?

Or college students in dorms. Or rural gamers without reliable internet. Or gamers in countries without strong internet infrastructure.

You know ... 30 million of the current 360 owners who do not connect their Xbox to the internet.

 

[Owzers]

If they give out special exemption codes to the military to disable online checks, it's just going to make it look even worse for the other 99% of the Xbone audience that doesn't get special codes.

They can try and spin it as charity and pro-troops, but the message that comes out of it will be "Xbone doesn't actually need online DRM. Xbone doesn't actually need to restrict sharing."

What if they made an exemption for the military, whose games are now going to lack drivatars since they no longer have a cloud powered console, into an advertising campaign for people that want offline systems? "Don't have a steady internet connection? Join the Army"

 

[semiconscious]

Given that the region locking and the forced kinect integration are both something under MS's direct control, yes they can.

-Remove the ip check on game activation (this is a function of the marketplace not the console)
-Remove the requirement for kinect to be hooked up (OS level requirement)

right. & then, they could offer that model to everyone else ...

 

[mAcOdIn]

macodin, you're perhaps right in that a company should need to adjust things just for a specific 'special' case. But this just shows a clear practical example of why constant Internet checks are bad. And it isn't just the military - what about long distance truckers who might have a console in their cab to pass the time when they are forced off road because of logged hours?


If MS were so keen on authentication via Internet, maybe they should have built in a 3G modem like amazon did with kindles, so it can dial home without you needing to worry about it.

Oh I agree. It's a needless restriction with no benefit to the consumer, any of them. I hate the special case concept because lets be clear here, Microsoft is doing extra work to make the system check in every 24 hours, if rumors of the IP check for activation are true that is extra work for Microsoft, and if they make a way to bypass it that would then be more extra work for Microsoft. If Microsoft made a system and it just couldn't work overseas or without a connection because everything it did really required an online connection than that would be that. No one would bemoan a cell phone that requires service to make calls or a vacuum that requires electricity but customers don't think you should care if you take a GSM phone from Spain to Portugal or a Vacuum from the United States to Germany provided you the consumer can make it work, at that point it should be out of the manufacturers hands whether you can get it to work or not.

The first part of that post of mine though was that there will be some things that citizens abroad can not effectively use that I think companies shouldn't get flack for. Like if I buy a Verizon phone and get deployed to a country with nothing but GSM, must Verizon ensure the phone work across the entire world? I don't think so. But if I buy a T-mobile GSM phone and get deployed to a country that also runs GSM do I think HTC, Samsung or whomever, should bake into their software a database to check to see what carrier signal it's receiving and make the device unable to work outside my country despite a company willing to give me a sim enabling it to work? That's insane. That's effectively what Microsoft is doing here. The Xbox One not working offline, abroad or in the unsupported countries is not necessary by nature of the product, Microsoft had to alter it to make it necessary, and in exchange for that extra control, you, the consumer, whether you're a serviceman, student, volunteer, missionary, importer or just a tourist, you get absolutely nothing in return.

 

[Sblargh]

The Cloud is bullshit since SimCity. The amazing thing is repeating the line after seeing it clear as day that it did not worked with the last product that tried it.

 

[Meccanical]

This is a complete fiasco.

My god.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I applaud her for recognizing it. Most political analyst/journalist these days don't recognize video games unless they're degrading it to a "loser/geek activity".

Microsoft says troops should use old gear instead

A video games a video game right? eh.. my history with video games tells me differently, but okay Microsoft. Okay then. Just be that kid who knows nothing of street dates and previews.

 

[ShogunDarius]

any other major news outlets report on this? FOX?

 

[Northeastmonk]

any other major news outlets report on this? FOX?

LOL They can't. Too many "real" problems to talk about.

If I had the choice, I'd give the servicemen all the latest games and gear. I mean, some are fighting in hostile areas. Why give them shit from 2 or more years ago?

 

[popeutlal]

I'm starting to get serious doubts that the Xbox One is going to outsell the Wii U at this point, and that's doing worse than the GameCube.

Since Xbone already has games people want to play, of course it'll out sell Wii U, even at $500.

 

[Dude Abides]

The fallout from MS's self inflicted wounds just keeps getting better and better. Who thought all this shit would be a good idea?

 

[ShadyJ]

It's like everyday there is a new notch MS can add to its belt of humiliation