Opus Angelorum
Member
I read that as small pieces of information.
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The Verge: Microsoft 'has been testing a variety of prototype Xbox devices'
- Thread starter chadskin
- Start date
I read that as small pieces of information.
He has.
There isn't really anything there other than almost nothing about a new Xbox has leaked to even those who have some serious sources.
I think, it mean he has some small pieces of infos.
I'm Spartacus
Member
Damn, every videogame news website really are scrabbling around for a scoop today - can we get another one for NX in the next hour or so, so I can read that when I get home from work!
Almost certain he means he has limited information about the updated console at this time.
How would this make more sense for MS? Why would they want people to be buying all their "xbox" games from Valve instead? The whole point of having a console it to sell your software and collect licensing on everyone else.
Valve on the other hand, would fucking love this.
Now, why would Valve want to do this? Steam is in an insurmountably dominant position within the PC space, and pretty much the only thing that could fuck that up for them would be if someone the entirety of the catalogue that gives it this advantage were to magically appear on MS' storefront, along with stuff that doesn't appear on Steam (Xbox One ports, potential BC games, smaller mobile ports, etc). This would be simply supplying the Windows Store with all the ammunition it requires to get the ball rolling properly.
MS on the other hand would fucking love this.
lol obviously not the latter
He said that he has some infos. Maybe He can share them
I wish! I think he will probably wait until he can get something more substantial but who knows when that will be. Any info would be great though.
generic_username
I switched to an alt account to ditch my embarrassing tag so I could be an embarrassing Naughty Dog fanboy in peace. Ask me anything!
Another two years you will not get small upgrades like this. The PS4 upgrade is very minimal right now.
To be fair here, if this all comes after the Anniversary Update, then Valve can make Steam a UWA without even touching the Windows store.
Hawk269
Member
They are not in conflict. In one statement he talks about coming out with better hardware. In the second he is simply saying a 1.5 is not something they are looking and that it would something more substantial than a 1.5 upgrade.
Really not sure how that is confusing you? Even more so the fact that you posted both quotes which anyone with reading comprehension would understand.
SicSemperTyrannis
Member
Why are people still claiming that Spencer's comments are at odds with one another after multiple people pointing out that he clearly was referring to the name and performance being 1.5 (or 50% better)? Reading comprehension has really fallen off it seems. It isn't even shrouded in layers of PR. He originally said that we would see more hardware revision in a generation to keep up with technology and then went on to say he didn't like the idea of the revision only offering a 50% bump in performance. He also said that the console space expects for the hardware to be a single purchase that is suitable for 5-7 years, and that they were committed to providing forward AND backward compatibility with software between the two machines.
It would seem that these mythical machines that are mid-generation revisions will be similar to the existing architectures, but beefier stats to allow more headroom for developers. It may be harder for devs to take advantage of all the benefits, but it has to be much easier than the trouble they go through taking advantage of the countless PC specs in homes. Imagine games having two modes of play, one is the low/medium PC setting and the other is medium/high settings depending on which hardware you have.
Personally, I would prefer this upgrade path for consoles than previous generations. As long as hardware manufacturers don't allow segmentation in any way and the refreshes only happen every 3-4 years it will be literally the same exact end result as previous generations. Only now the consumers that want new hardware and hate waiting 6-8 years don't have to in order to stay current on technology and performance. Just look at the iPad/phone/Mac model of releases and you will have an idea of how these manufacturers expect things to go, just not every 18 months because that would be too much. I think that incremental upgrades in hardware every 3-4 years is the best middle ground in this industry to prevent a scenario where new iPad's are being released that are nearly as powerful as dedicated gaming hardware like last generation.
It would seem that these mythical machines that are mid-generation revisions will be similar to the existing architectures, but beefier stats to allow more headroom for developers. It may be harder for devs to take advantage of all the benefits, but it has to be much easier than the trouble they go through taking advantage of the countless PC specs in homes. Imagine games having two modes of play, one is the low/medium PC setting and the other is medium/high settings depending on which hardware you have.
Personally, I would prefer this upgrade path for consoles than previous generations. As long as hardware manufacturers don't allow segmentation in any way and the refreshes only happen every 3-4 years it will be literally the same exact end result as previous generations. Only now the consumers that want new hardware and hate waiting 6-8 years don't have to in order to stay current on technology and performance. Just look at the iPad/phone/Mac model of releases and you will have an idea of how these manufacturers expect things to go, just not every 18 months because that would be too much. I think that incremental upgrades in hardware every 3-4 years is the best middle ground in this industry to prevent a scenario where new iPad's are being released that are nearly as powerful as dedicated gaming hardware like last generation.
nealwinter
Member
After the Sony specs leaking, I don't think these machines will be as big of an upgrade as I was hoping. I would love to be wrong though. BRING ON THE XBOX NEO!
Backfoggen
Banned
I hope MS takes some time with their XB1.67 or whatever so I don't have to buy two almost identical machines again.
Aren't Xbox One games coded to take advantage of that cache of ESRAM? Wouldn't there be compatibility issues if it were suddenly removed on the next version of the One?
If anything MS would push for more power than we are expecting
SicSemperTyrannis
Member
You're talking about a company that found a way to emulate 360 on the X1. I would imagine if any company could figure out a software solution (assuming the hardware is improved enough) it would be Microsoft.
Yea, it was kinda short-sighted when you get the idea now that they're looking to upgrade the console. Xbox One Elite would have made for a perfect name.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
I'm hoping though go closer to PC with an updates X1 and make it modular with easily upgradeable parts. If we're going to move away from traditional consoles I'd much prefer that for environmental reasons than having to replace entire consoles every three or so years.
They do something like that and I'll sell off my PS4 and X1 and stick with their windows box and a Nintendo platform. If not I'll probably just go PC and Nintendo after this generation and stick with PS4 and X1 in the meantime.
They do something like that and I'll sell off my PS4 and X1 and stick with their windows box and a Nintendo platform. If not I'll probably just go PC and Nintendo after this generation and stick with PS4 and X1 in the meantime.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
He means he himself, has a few small pieces (of information) of what they are doing with the new Xbox.
They have already said this won't happen.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Lol. Does he just say what he thinks his Twitter followers want to hear one day to the next?!
yeah - they have the Hypervisor layer to distribute the HW resources to games and apps. They could easily assign the power (CPU cores etc) required for OG XB1 games via the Hypervisor and I wouldn't be surprised if they can somewhat abstract the ESRAM layer via Software to ensure compatibility.
I mean he wasn't wrong. QB didn't end up in the best shape on PC.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
Boo. Eventual switch to PC it is then.
I really long for the day that all media, including gaming, is just in the cloud so we don't have this constant gadget upgrade to play the latest thing craze. I don't mind the money, it's just terrible for the environment with manufacturing, transporting and disposing of gadgets, all these multiple always on boxes eating electricity etc.
It's funny you want that because that is essentially where Microsoft is heading. All your content in the cloud and viewable/playable on any Windows 10 device. There will always be new hardware though.
Psyrgery ES
Member
How is this confusing people? He doesn't want to half ass it. Commendable if they actually follow through on it.
Tatsumi Oga
Banned
If it turns out they have been hiding big things from the people all this time and we'll find out during E3....they've done a hell of a good job at it. But as someone here recently said in another thread, that happened with the Surface Book and Surface 4 as well.
Yes and no. As others have said, the hypervisor layer in the Xbox One OS is dedicated to handling resource management. As long as Microsoft did the ground work to support both with very little work to the devs, it could work just fine. All this rides on Microsoft handling that though.
PuppetMaster
Member
He is more of an Xbox 1.6 kind of guy
Neuromancer
Member
Who said that? Certainly not me. I would like them both to play nice together.
NippleViking
Banned
They managed to keep backwards compatibility a secret. Since ntkrnl, MS's Xbox Division has been almost as tight as Nintendo and the NX are.
BC and the Surface Book/Surface 4 don't need dev support from early on. It's quite different with a new console. That being said, they don't need to go out to devs as early as usual as the games will be forward compatible.
Multi Platform games should have no trouble running from ESRAM to GDDR5. Xbox exclusives should be interesting though.
Something along the lines of Steam Link would make a lot of sense as a UWA, as it'd help extend the reach of Valve ecosystem (possibly even onto the Xbox console if MS doesn't block it). However, the actual Steam client is primarily a distribution platform, and would be mostly useless without the games to distribute (I don't imagine a UWA gets to deploy and configure Win32 applications).
This is all added to the fact that if Steam being a UWA is sufficient to cause the games to start appearing in UWA form as well, then even if Valve can continue selling them independent of the Windows Store, it'd still be effectively helping to flesh out the Windows Store's library... because once it's a UWA, why not sell it there too? So now, you've basically created a legitimate rival for yourself, that comes pre-installed on every copy of Windows going forward, and can cross over seamlessly with consoles. What could possibly go wrong with that?
CrimsonEclipse
Member
So tell us the pieces dammit.
Not gonna lie, MS has been pretty legit with keeping lids on leaks lately. It's something they have been focusing/working on for a while to keep on a tighter control. So, it seems like something is cooking, but we have no real idea what it is.
Karak
Member
Thats what he said.
Yeah, I am genuinely curious how they're going to upgrade with the ESRAM in the way. There's no "easy" upgrade path here.
Elaborate.
Well, unless they change the system architecture, which would require a lot of update patches, which would break compatibility for a lot of titles...
I dunno what I'd do really.
