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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Is this Phil Spencer's final test for Microsoft? Is his job on the line?

 

Could Phil Spencer's job be on the line?

Yes. 132 53.66%
 
No. 114 46.34%
 
Total:246
sethnintendo on 07 May 2017
Pemalite said:
sethnintendo said:
I honestly don't even see any possibility of scorpio changing anything for Microsoft. It will be like PS4 Pro. Some initial hype then no one giving a shit about it.

This is was always going to be the way it would turn out though.
Scorpio and the Playstation 4 Pro weren't supposed to be massive sellers. They are priced higher afterall, consumers tend to always drift towards cheaper products in a product lineup.

Don't you need a 4K TV to even appreciate these mid gen upgrades?  4K still isn't at mass market price and won't be for another 3-4 years.  I think Sony and Microsoft would have been better off to wait till about 2019 or 2020 before even releasing these upgrades.  By then 4K will be near or at mass market price and more people will have them.  So instead of mid gen upgrade it would be a near end of life upgrade which would keep the sales going at a steady pace like what Nintendo achieved with the N3DS.



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Pemalite on 07 May 2017
sethnintendo said:
Pemalite said:

This is was always going to be the way it would turn out though.
Scorpio and the Playstation 4 Pro weren't supposed to be massive sellers. They are priced higher afterall, consumers tend to always drift towards cheaper products in a product lineup.

Don't you need a 4K TV to even appreciate these mid gen upgrades?  4K still isn't at mass market price and won't be for another 3-4 years.  I think Sony and Microsoft would have been better off to wait till about 2019 or 2020 before even releasing these upgrades.  By then 4K will be near or at mass market price and more people will have them.  So instead of mid gen upgrade it would be a near end of life upgrade which would keep the sales going at a steady pace like what Nintendo achieved with the N3DS.

Why would you need a 4k TV to appreciate these mid-gen upgrades?



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

sethnintendo on 07 May 2017
Pemalite said:
sethnintendo said:

Don't you need a 4K TV to even appreciate these mid gen upgrades?  4K still isn't at mass market price and won't be for another 3-4 years.  I think Sony and Microsoft would have been better off to wait till about 2019 or 2020 before even releasing these upgrades.  By then 4K will be near or at mass market price and more people will have them.  So instead of mid gen upgrade it would be a near end of life upgrade which would keep the sales going at a steady pace like what Nintendo achieved with the N3DS.

Why would you need a 4k TV to appreciate these mid-gen upgrades?

Oh I thought you couldn't notice much of difference in game graphics if you didn't have a 4K TV. 



Pemalite on 07 May 2017
sethnintendo said:
Pemalite said:

Why would you need a 4k TV to appreciate these mid-gen upgrades?

Oh I thought you couldn't notice much of difference in game graphics if you didn't have a 4K TV. 

Video games aren't Photorealistic even at 720P. Let alone 1080P.
Downsampling makes a massive difference regardless of your displays resolution.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

sethnintendo on 07 May 2017
Pemalite said:

Video games aren't Photorealistic even at 720P. Let alone 1080P.
Downsampling makes a massive difference regardless of your displays resolution.

So will all old games look better or is this only on new games which the developers tweak it for the Scorpio?  Sorry I'm pretty clueless when it comes to what the Pro and Scorpio actually do or trying to achieve. 



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JRPGfan on 07 May 2017
Pemalite said:
sethnintendo said:

Oh I thought you couldn't notice much of difference in game graphics if you didn't have a 4K TV. 

Video games aren't Photorealistic even at 720P. Let alone 1080P.
Downsampling makes a massive difference regardless of your displays resolution.

yep.

https://www.windowscentral.com/sites/wpcentral.com/files/scorpio-lady-xboxone-supersampled-scorpio.png

xbox One vs Scorpio 4k downsampled to 1080p (middle) vs Scorpio true 4k (right)



sethnintendo on 07 May 2017
JRPGfan said:

yep.

like a 900p vs 4k downsampled to 1080p:

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/1080p-vs-4K-1.jpg

Looks better.  She just needs something to clear up those Gregg Popovich ance scars.



konnichiwa on 07 May 2017
RolStoppable said:
jason1637 said:

Sony won the war?

Yes and no. That's the funny thing about it.

I think it was in 1997 that Ken Kutaragi made it crystal clear that Sony's real competition isn't Nintendo or Sega, rather it's Microsoft who didn't even make consoles at the time. Kutaragi's vision was always that one day a box in the living room would provide all kinds of entertainment, so video games merely served as an entry point to get a box in people's living rooms. Because of that vision and the success of the PS1, Microsoft saw Windows threatened and entered the console business. Xbox was a defensive strategy to protect Windows. The two key points:

1. Windows had to remain the ultimate platform for entertainment.
2. PC game developers were not supposed to be drawn to PlayStation and weaken PC gaming. The vast majority of PC gamers used Windows.

It's because of these reasons that Microsoft didn't exit the market after losing $4 billion with the original Xbox. Windows was worth a lot more than $4 billion, so a presence in the console market was justified.

The PS3 constituted Kutaragi's masterpiece. It was PlayStation in the form that he had always envisioned. Unfortunately for him, it turned out to be a big failure and Sony promoted him into retirement. The consequences of this failure can be seen in the PS4. Firstly, the dream of the entertainment box is dead; not only did the PS3 fail, but smart devices decentralized the living room, so a stationary device has not even a theoretical chance to pull it off anymore. Secondly, after the costly Cell processor, Sony switched to a PC-like architecture which means that the porting process between PC and PlayStation is very easy and therefore games will release on both platforms. Both of these things are favorable for Microsoft.

Sony won the console war in the sense of selling the most consoles, but they lost it in terms of the endgame. As mentioned, the endgame went well beyond video games.

If we now shift our attention to Microsoft's perspective, Windows being safe against PlayStation means that there is less need for Xbox. Microsoft's full force attempt at the endgame (control over living room entertainment) with Xbox One was a failure, so that too means less need for Xbox. This explains why Microsoft ceased to make Xbox-exclusive games. This explains why Microsoft has been a lot less aggressive in pursuing deals for third party games (exclusivity and/or marketing).

Fans on both the Sony and Microsoft side should stop to expect that Microsoft will put up a serious fight with Xbox. It would cost a lot of money, but the profits that can be earned in the video game business are peanuts by Microsoft's standards.

Doesn't matter people always want to troll/hate if it is not consoles....It is JRPG VS WRPGs...some people love war.

Anyway their is also no good reason why Phil would be fired.   ed Fries/Peter Moore/Don Mattrack all lost money with Xbox except for DM who only made money the last years.  While Phil basically made money with the xbox division.   

Phil also was semi-responsibe for the MineCraft deal that at first people thought would just end up losing a lot of money for MS while now it is keeping making money (60-70 million copies sold after MS bought it/Merchandise/dlc packs/etc).  

He made an gamer friendly system.   BC (black ops2 las bc release ended up being one of the top most played games on xone for the month).  Let gamers refund their game and many more ..  Last important one in the list is ofcourse Xbox pass.






Pemalite on 07 May 2017
sethnintendo said:
Pemalite said:

Video games aren't Photorealistic even at 720P. Let alone 1080P.
Downsampling makes a massive difference regardless of your displays resolution.

So will all old games look better or is this only on new games which the developers tweak it for the Scorpio?  Sorry I'm pretty clueless when it comes to what the Pro and Scorpio actually do or trying to achieve. 

On Scorpio if a an Xbox One game uses Dynamic Resolution (Battlefield 1, Overwatch, Halo 5 etc'.) then it will be locked at 1080P on Scorpio rather than having the game spend anytime under that resolution.

If a game has a 60fps fps cap, but never hits 60fps (Lots of emulated Xbox 360 games for example), it will always hit 60fps on Scorpio.
It's much better than Sony's take with the Playstation 4 Pro by disabling hardware and thus doesn't pass on the benefits to every game that doesn't achieve it's framerate or resolution caps.

For games to get improved visuals outside of that though, the developers do need to put in the hard work, games will not be running at 4k unless the developer makes the effort. Scorpio will upscale everything to 4k however.

For games that are 4k optimized on Scorpio, they will look a real treat even on 720P and 1080P displays, the games will still render at 4k, but will be downscaled, things will look sharp, clean and crisp.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

thismeintiel on 07 May 2017
Mr Puggsly said:
sethnintendo said:
I honestly don't even see any possibility of scorpio changing anything for Microsoft. It will be like PS4 Pro. Some initial hype then no one giving a shit about it.

Oh, Scorpio will get a lot more attention than PS4 Pro. Especially if they treat it like reboot/new console at E3. But sales will also depend on that launch price.

PS4 Pro was a missed opportunity. Sony did a great job designing the original PS4 but their mid gen upgrade feels almost unnecessary.

See, I think a lot of people are going to feel the opposite.  The Scorpio feels unnecessary, since its games are going to PC.  Other than being powerful, it has no identity of its own.  Really, you could say that about Xbox lately.  Probably why sales are dropping so much.  And if MS really tries to sell it for $499, that problem will appear tenfold.  For that, or a little more, you actually could build a decent PC.  

And for being unnecessary, the Pro is actually doing quite well now that it's back in stock.  It beat the top XBO SKU last month on Amazon, and it's looking to do it, again, this month.  You see, the Pro is exactly what it's advertised as, a mid-gen upgrade.  It doesn't need to be much more than twice as powerful because it is being held back by the OG PS4,  as well as its Jaguar cores, something the Scorpio is going to suffer from, too.  It also helps with keeping the price low and with future price cuts.  And in 3 years from its launch, there will be the PS5, to reclaim that suddenly so coveted power crown.  Where MS is going to have to announce they have some new HW just 1 1/2 years after the Scorpio, if they want to keep up with PS.