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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Microsoft has done a lot of innovations

Jazz2K on 19 January 2015

I think Kinect helped with games like fitness, dancing and some sports. No need to go by other devices, this is pretty much perfect for these kind of games.

The first Xbox came with a default hard drive well before 360 and PS3.

Popularizing western rpgs is one of the best thing MS helped do imo.

They provided a platform for indy devs and some of them had stellar games. In a time where indies and arcade games were "not real games".

People just don't want to admit it but MS's implication in gaming is a great one. Flawed yea but which companies didn't have flaws. Some companies just copy others, some try too much and fail etc. MS is doing their best and I think it's great to have them aboard rather than having only Nintendo and Sony.



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Jumpin on 19 January 2015
McDonaldsGuy said:

A lot of people hate the Xbox and wish Microsoft never entered the gaming market, but look at what they've done for gaming:

- Achievements. First one to do achievements, brilliant innovation. Achievements give games lasting value to many people and also sold many games (I won't lie I have bought games just for the achievement points)

- Hard drive standard (except for a small percentage of 360 Core machines)

- Xbox Live. Seriously, the gold standard for online gaming. So many innovations - friends list, party chat, Xbox Live Arcade/Store, great matchamking, etc. etc. Compare it to the PS2's online! Now online gaming is probably the biggest part of gaming now, and Microsoft is the one that really pushed for it by including ONLY broadband for the Xbox instead of dialup (Sega's huge mistake)

- Halo. Halo was groundbreaking and super popular. Pretty much paved the way for the FPS generation. Even if you don't like it or its influence, you can't deny the facts. Some say Goldeneye was the game that did this but I think it was Halo 2 when the FPS era really took off. Not to mention Halo is the first $350 game ever (what I mean is most people bought an Xbox just to play Halo, the Halo box)

- Gears of War. A true killer app. The 360 needed one badly in 2006 and Gears of War also paved the way for many shooters last gen.

- It also helped promote WRPGs on consoles, which are now also a huge genre and bigger than JRPGs now

- Then there are other little innovations (albeit inevitable ones) like the guide button, dashboard, Kinect, etc. etc.


Achievements aren't an innovation, they're a gimmick, and games like Dragon Quest 5 did it years before Microsoft even considered coming to the market.

Harddrives have been around since the 80s.

Xbox Live is just an online service like any other, again. That stuffs been around since the 90s.

Goldeneye was around years before Halo, and there was also Turok, Half Life, Perfect Dark, Medal of Honor, etc... This was not a Microsoft innovation, it was something they cashed in on.

Gears of War wasn't made by Microsoft.

Promoting WRPGs is not an innovation.

Wii did motion controls first.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

Kelzus on 19 January 2015

I think you are stretching a lot here but I will agree with XBL at least



Dusk on 19 January 2015
McDonaldsGuy said:

A lot of people hate the Xbox and wish Microsoft never entered the gaming market, but look at what they've done for gaming:

- Achievements. First one to do achievements, brilliant innovation. Achievements give games lasting value to many people and also sold many games (I won't lie I have bought games just for the achievement points)

- Hard drive standard (except for a small percentage of 360 Core machines)

- Xbox Live. Seriously, the gold standard for online gaming. So many innovations - friends list, party chat, Xbox Live Arcade/Store, great matchamking, etc. etc. Compare it to the PS2's online! Now online gaming is probably the biggest part of gaming now, and Microsoft is the one that really pushed for it by including ONLY broadband for the Xbox instead of dialup (Sega's huge mistake)

- Halo. Halo was groundbreaking and super popular. Pretty much paved the way for the FPS generation. Even if you don't like it or its influence, you can't deny the facts. Some say Goldeneye was the game that did this but I think it was Halo 2 when the FPS era really took off. Not to mention Halo is the first $350 game ever (what I mean is most people bought an Xbox just to play Halo, the Halo box)

- Gears of War. A true killer app. The 360 needed one badly in 2006 and Gears of War also paved the way for many shooters last gen.

- It also helped promote WRPGs on consoles, which are now also a huge genre and bigger than JRPGs now

- Then there are other little innovations (albeit inevitable ones) like the guide button, dashboard, Kinect, etc. etc.

I disagree with almost everything. 

I don't like achievements, they are pointless and unnecessary. I'm aware that I am in the minority of this, but it's what I think.

Hard Drives are fine.

Paying a premium for online is mental and shouldn't happen. 

Halo is good, but no, it didn't revolutionize anything. It was really Wolfenstein and Doom that created and made FPS mainstream. Goldeneye took it to another level. Goldeneye is still better than Halo. 

Gears of War again is fine, but nothing too special and not the first of it's kind. Sypon Filter and Max Payne were both superior and far earlier, but it was something that helped the system stand out at the time. 

Kinect was MS answer to Wii-mote and copied Sony PS2 eye toy. 



Gotta figure out how to set these up lol.

o_O.Q on 19 January 2015
Jumpin said:


Achievements aren't an innovation, they're a gimmick, and games like Dragon Quest 5 did it years before Microsoft even considered coming to the market.

Harddrives have been around since the 80s.

Xbox Live is just an online service like any other, again. That stuffs been around since the 90s.

Goldeneye was around years before Halo, and there was also Turok, Half Life, Perfect Dark, Medal of Honor, etc... This was not a Microsoft innovation, it was something they cashed in on.

Gears of War wasn't made by Microsoft.

Promoting WRPGs is not an innovation.

Wii did motion controls first.


lol that people still think motion controls were an innovation boggles my mind

the actual meaning of innovation is with regards to some new improvement to a field that is incorporated into that field as a standard... that is not the case with what was done with the wii

at this point in time motion controls are scarcely used and only on nintendo's platform 

in terms of the actual definition acheivements are actually an innovation because they are ubiquitous with regards to console gaming and quite clearly are hear to stay

 

"Xbox Live is just an online service like any other, again. That stuffs been around since the 90s."

the point is that microsoft pioneered online gaming on consoles

 

"Harddrives have been around since the 80s."

all technology that is used in gaming consoles comes originally from pcs so this argument could apply to any aspect of gaming...



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foodfather on 19 January 2015

Never thought about the WRPG thing until OP.

Very true, games like KOTOR and Morrowind would have come to console unless for Xbox.



McDonaldsGuy on 19 January 2015
foodfather said:
Never thought about the WRPG thing until OP.

Very true, games like KOTOR and Morrowind would have come to console unless for Xbox.


And KOTOR was released on the Xbox before the PC... before that when was a major WRPG released on a console first? Closest I can think of is Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Summoner at best.



Zkuq on 19 January 2015

I think this thread got influences and innovations mixed up.



NobleTeam360 on 19 January 2015
Ka-pi96 said:
Achievements - Agreed. I think they are by far the best thing Microsoft has brought to gaming

Hard drives - Another incredibly important one, although considering the PS3 and Wii (I think) also had hard drives and were only a year later that may well have happened even without Microsoft.

Xbox Live - I miss local multiplayer

Halo - I think COD Modern Warfare did a lot more for FPS than Halo did.

Gears of War - Microsoft may have funded it, but it was Epic's game.

WRPGs - The only thing I can think of here is getting Mass Effect as an exclusive. I think 3rd party companies did much more for WRPGs than Microsoft by far. Them becoming bigger than JRPGs too is because of 3rd parties (many Japanese companies forgetting how to make good games)

Other stuff - Kinect not really an innovation, PS Eyetoy?

Not sure if anyone has responded to the bolded part yet but the Oirginal Xbox had an HDD too. So MS was definetly the leader there. 

* Unless we're just refering to external HDD*



S.T.A.G.E. on 19 January 2015
McDonaldsGuy said:

A lot of people hate the Xbox and wish Microsoft never entered the gaming market, but look at what they've done for gaming:

- Achievements. First one to do achievements, brilliant innovation. Achievements give games lasting value to many people and also sold many games (I won't lie I have bought games just for the achievement points)

- Hard drive standard (except for a small percentage of 360 Core machines)

- Xbox Live. Seriously, the gold standard for online gaming. So many innovations - friends list, party chat, Xbox Live Arcade/Store, great matchamking, etc. etc. Compare it to the PS2's online! Now online gaming is probably the biggest part of gaming now, and Microsoft is the one that really pushed for it by including ONLY broadband for the Xbox instead of dialup (Sega's huge mistake)

- Halo. Halo was groundbreaking and super popular. Pretty much paved the way for the FPS generation. Even if you don't like it or its influence, you can't deny the facts. Some say Goldeneye was the game that did this but I think it was Halo 2 when the FPS era really took off. Not to mention Halo is the first $350 game ever (what I mean is most people bought an Xbox just to play Halo, the Halo box)

- Gears of War. A true killer app. The 360 needed one badly in 2006 and Gears of War also paved the way for many shooters last gen.

- It also helped promote WRPGs on consoles, which are now also a huge genre and bigger than JRPGs now

- Then there are other little innovations (albeit inevitable ones) like the guide button, dashboard, Kinect, etc. etc.

Microsoft forever changed gaming by forcing console gamers to do what PC gamers would never do and thats pay for online gaming. Online was coming in some capacity in the future, but Microsoft brought in properly. Sega had been trying for years to accomplish this since the genesis.

I'll give you the Xbox Live dashboard. That is innovative.


Microsoft bought both Halo and Gears. They didnt invent either game. 

They bought the Kinect after Sony turned it down.

WRPG's were on Playstations before they were a thing. Ever heard of Deus Ex and Champions of Norrath?   Most of them couldnt be handled by consoles until the 360 era. You're right that Microsoft caused a mass exodus of WRPG's, but it was a mass exodus of PC games period. They had no real exclusives, so they had to use PC games to make it seem like they had them. Thats not innovative and they were coming anyway. See Carmack interviews from the game Rage. Consoles were finally ready for PC level games at that point and he considered the profitability to be there too. 

Microsoft caused a great drought of PC exclusives until Valve launched Steam.