Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

[Malacite]

Xbox One No Longer Requires Kinect to Function - IGN




So, this is an interesting development. MS is still on probation in my eyes however. It's hilarious how fucking stupid some people are, cheering them on and raving about how XB1 will be the best thing ever - they're only doing this because of Sony. They'll publicly deny it until they're blue in the face, but MS is clearly scared shitless of PS4 and the pre-order numbers.


Maybe after a price drop, and some worth-while exclusives come out I may consider buying one used (particularly for the TwitchTV streaming) but I'm still sticking with Sony for the foreseeable future. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they're getting their shit together and that not everyone will have to feel quite so bad for buying an XB1, but MS is still the devil. Yeah I know, I was willing to give 'em another shot before too when I thought they'd cancelled the camera thing (which now they finally have) but it's been a while since then and I've made up my mind.

When they try the same bullcrap again 7~8 years from now though, I wonder how many people will be surprised

[cidbahamut]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

Maybe after a price drop, and some worth-while exclusives come out I may consider buying one

No! Bad Mal!

/newspaper

[Malacite]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

I said used, as in not 1 penny of profit for MS.

I will gladly play with their new toy, I just won't pay 'em for it.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

[Icemage]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

they're only doing this because only Halo fanboys would buy the their box if they hadn't

FTFY.


Icemage

[Etra]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

FTFY.


Icemage

Grammar plz.

[Malacite]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

lol.

Honestly I figured you guys' reaction would be a little better than this. I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that wants to see MS just crash & burn entirely, but Nintendo's not enough to keep Sony honest these days. They used to be, but I don't think they're even a blip on Sony's radar these days save possibly for the handheld market.

If they would put Halo on Games for Windows Live (won't happen) I wouldn't even think twice about it, but I loves me my Halo. All the better if I can enjoy it without trampling on my moral compass (or paying those shitheads a single penny more). Besides, as someone who intends to do streaming for a living once I get set up, I might not have much of a choice. Doesn't mean I can't pick my battles though.

[Icemage]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

It's good to see Microsoft making positive changes, all snarkiness aside. They really dug themselves a huge grave with their initial positions, so backtracking on... well... pretty much everything... is a step in the right direction.

Is it enough to salvage their market position? Still doesn't seem so. I'm still seeing a lot of skepticism online and in person, but skepticism is at least better than outright hostility.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

I have no reason to trust MS at this point. I'll be supportive but a bit skeptical about Sony as they could revert the second they're a market leader in anything again. The way I see it they both have to really, really make a good case for their consoles in the next generation because looking back at this one, aside from a paltry number of exclusives there was a better case to be made for PC and I have a hard time feeling that will change.

Of course, I'm biased since I mainly favor RPGs and I can get all the good western ones on PC anyway, The good Japanese ones on are generally on handhelds. Looking back only Namco really brought its A game to JRPGs for consoles this gen and I don't see that changing unless Atlus makes a late-gen appearance with Persona 5 and other games. I have my doubts about that given their flagship RPG series just had its newest main entry on Nintendo 3DS. Persona 5 could just end up on PS Vita or 3DS and I would not be surprised.

SE... its says a lot that I'm more excited for remasters of FFX and FFX-2 and Bravely Default more than anything else they're doing. I respect that they really believe in FFXIV ARR and are finally on track with FFXV and KH3, but to really win gamers back they're going to need to revitalize themselves by NOT sitting on their wealth of IPs and actually use them for a change. Their handheld presence is waning, however, and their mobile offerings are stupid an unworthy of respect. Even when they're not freemiuming the shit out a new FF spin-off they're reputation for sloppy iOS ports is well-known.

Wii U will have Nintendo games, X and SMT X FE. Just the Nintendo stuff would have sealed the deal, but having two RPGs already on the horizon makes me feel better about it. WEll, that and I don't know how many months I'll be able to go without playing Pikmin 3 because I really, really want to.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

I have no reason to trust MS at this point. I'll be supportive but a bit skeptical about Sony as they could revert the second they're a market leader in anything again. The way I see it they both have to really, really make a good case for their consoles in the next generation because looking back at this one, aside from a paltry number of exclusives there was a better case to be made for PC and I have a hard time feeling that will change.

This.

None of the big three have made a compelling case for why I should buy their console this generation and Microsoft gave me reasons to actively avoid them and encourage others to do the same. Them back-pedaling on account of the entire consumer base demanding their head on a pike does not change that.

[Firewind]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

I have no reason to trust MS at this point. I'll be supportive but a bit skeptical about Sony as they could revert the second they're a market leader in anything again. The way I see it they both have to really, really make a good case for their consoles in the next generation because looking back at this one, aside from a paltry number of exclusives there was a better case to be made for PC and I have a hard time feeling that will change.

Thirded.

Don't get me wrong, I love what Sony is doing and I am supportive, but Sony would be doing the exact same thing as Microsoft if they could get away with it. None of the big three have really sold me on their consoles. Nintendo are basically Sony in 2006, Microsoft don't care about the consumer and are constantly backpedalling for damage control when they can easily revert it all later. Sony is in limbo purely because they still aren't telling us much about the PS4 other than "It's not the XBox One!" so it is hard to really form an opinion where there is not enough information to really make an informed enough decision or opinion on if you should buy the console or not.

I will more then likely end up upgrading the PC or getting a better laptop before buying a new console really.

[Malacite]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

It's good to see Microsoft making positive changes, all snarkiness aside. They really dug themselves a huge grave with their initial positions, so backtracking on... well... pretty much everything... is a step in the right direction.

Is it enough to salvage their market position? Still doesn't seem so. I'm still seeing a lot of skepticism online and in person, but skepticism is at least better than outright hostility.


Icemage

Yeah, even some of my friends who have been ardent 360 supporters still won't go back even with these recent changes and I don't blame them. I personally love Halo too damn much and was quite honestly rather sad that I'd have to miss out on it (thankfully the books are amazing). Now I don't have to feel bad about getting one down the road, but I still refuse to buy 1 new and I'll be getting all my multi-platform titles for PS4, so MS had best come up with more exclusives than just Halo lol. But, given their track record of closing their own studios rather than supporting them that doesn't seem terribly likely.

Ensemble, we hardly knew ye...


EDIT: And I said as much earlier with regards to trusting Sony - Nintendo's alone isn't gonna keep Sony perfectly honest these days, so if MS goes into a total death-spiral of self destruction that leaves Sony relatively uncontested when it comes to the core gamer audience, and that's not a good thing. More PS2-era, less PS3 please.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

My plans are essentially:

Get a Wii U, a new PS3, build a PC and get an extra 3DS and Vita in case of potential mishaps with them. Its going to take exclusives from companies I absolutely adore to shake me from that path.

It could also be the most frugal path for me, really. There are pros to slow releases on a Nintendo console - I'm not buying the shit out of games each week and like 3DS and Vita there will be those VC releases and indie games to pass the time on, provided I didn't choose a PC version of them. Steam sales are godly, there's just no contesting it. 3DS and Vita get steady indie stuff, have great digital backlogs and allow me access to ton of JRPGs and even re-releases.

I guess I'm just waiting to see what the specs would be for something like Fallout 4 and Everquest Next before I really take the dive on building a PC.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

The way I see it they both have to really, really make a good case for their consoles in the next generation because looking back at this one, aside from a paltry number of exclusives there was a better case to be made for PC and I have a hard time feeling that will change.

For how long, I wonder.

PC's sales number are slipping, and we already know that big game companies count on the consoles to move most of their AAA titles. Gartner says PC only outsold tablets 3:1 (341,263,000 units vs. 116,113,000 units) in 2012, and predicts that ratio will drop to less than 2:1 (315,229 vs. 197,202) in 2013. Mobile phones, of course, have been blowing away PCs in terms of unit sold for quite a while now.

At some point, adding a quality PC release as part of an AAA title development will entail costs and risks bigger than the potential payoff. (May be some poetic justice for long time Mac worshipers--"Now you Pee Cee people will finally taste the bitter tears of junky game ports, three years late!")

Somewhat perversely, one big factor that I see in keeping AAA titles coming to PC for a while yet is that both PS4 and xBox1 are fairly PC-like. Another factor is that there's still no better development environment than PC (sorry Linux)--so even the newest project will likely to be prototyped on the PCs anyway.

In time, AAA gaming may split into two camps: mobile and console, leaving the PCs begging for scrapes in the arid middle valley.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Kinect No Longer Required, Headsets to be included with XB1

Did you just use AAA gaming and mobile in the same sentence?