potato_hamster said:
TheMessiah said:
I'm a bit lost in regards to what some users on the internet think is happening. Especially hearing some say they take this as Microsoft leaving console gaming. From what I understand after looking through a lot of info and what Phil Spencer actually said, is as follows.
PC and current Xbox One share a lot in common for software. Particularly games made for the Windows 10 store. Both current Xbox One and Windows 10 PC will have a unified store and both use Direct X 12 for games. Designing a game on Windows 10 PC can be easily ported with just a few tweaks and downgrades for Xbox One. The Xbox One as of November 2014 uses Windows 10 with the exact same Kernel as Windows 10 PC and Mobile.
Now as for Xbox being upgradable :
It will NOT be an Xbox where you physically upgrade components.
Every 3 years a new model of Xbox will release. For example 2016, 2019, 2022, 2025. And so on. This does NOT mean people who bought the Xbox One in 2013 HAVE to upgrade. Because it will still play every single title released to roughly 2021. Albeit at a weaker visual clarity and framerate alongside the existing PS4. People who don't care for cutting edge graphics will stick with their Xbox 2013 models or their PS4s.
Lets say this year the Xbox version 2 is released at xmas. With 12gb DDR4 ram, 2 x generational better GPU over 2013 Xbox model and the same CPU just clocked higher and more CACHE. It might have 2x HDMI in ports and be able to stream Netflix at 4k as well as Blurays in 4k etc. Visuals will be able to maintain 1080p @ 60fps with any title and be far far closer to top end PC games.
Its entirely the consumers choice to upgrade if they want. Because every iteration of the Xbox will have exactly the same Windows 10 dashboard that exists right now on Xbox One. Connect to the exact same Xbox Live. The only difference being that version to has better hardware to run games better and have more PC settings turned on. Also gamers don't need to be the ones to turn settings on and off. That's done by the devs.
For example. A developer creating a game in the Windows 10 ecosystem today only needs to modify small variations of code and change design inputs for each device. Touch, Mouse, controller. The dev creates the game at full spec for PC, then scales down the visuals for box version 2, then scales down for Xbox version 1. No extra multiple years of development like some are claiming. Microsoft designed Windows 10 for developers to be able to do this. Another reason why Xbox One got Direct X 12.
You cannot play PS5 games on PS4. Likewise eventually Xbox One 2013 will not play newer games say 2021 onwards. The difference is Microsoft is changing the game here and giving console owners a choice when they want to upgrade. EXACTLY the same as Smartphones, Tablets and even PC to a degree. Albeit PC is individual parts.
I do not see Microsoft releasing a new model every year or even 2. But I fully expect an announcement of a new model at E3 or just after for release this xmas. Then again every 3 years. There will be no interchangeable parts. This makes perfect sense. Hurts absolutely no one, and also means along with full mouse and keyboard support later this year Xbox console will get all Windows 10 PC exclusives with a unified store. IMO this is a game changer. |
It hurts gamers. It segments Microsofts userbase. You no longer have "Xbox users". You have "Xbox 1A users", "Xbox 1B users", and "Xbox 1C users". Every game will run differently on every console, multiplayer will need to be balanced to account for these differences. Users then have to worry about whether a new Xbox 1 game will be compatible with their Xbox 1, especially if their X1 is 2 or 3 hardware generations old.
It hurts developers. Every single hardware specification will need to be QAed as if it were a seperate console. Every single one. This will drive up development costs. PC games are not going to "just work" on X1. They will have to be reworked to work on X1, and then QAed which means the PC while, while looking the same, will have games not found on the X1 store and vice versa. Also, if the store fronts were to be unified, it would mean that they lose on on every user that would have bought a copy of a game both on PC and X1.
I can pretty much guarantee that every single person that thinks this is a great idea has zero idea what its like to make a video game, much less a console video game. It is radically different than most people imagine, and people have absolutely no clue how much time, moeny and effort is put into QA. It's a huge deal to increase that cost.
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But noone will be segmented. V1A can play all the games v1B can play. And play multiplayer with them to. Its exactly the same console but with better specs. Right down to the Os being exactly the same.
Theres already many videos from developers showing a game built in Windows 10 ecosystem running on PC, then in less than 24 hours running on Xbox One and even Mobile. We have known for over 2 years from developer conferences and multiplatform devs that designing games for Windows 10 and Direct x12 makes game design across platforms far far easier.
Its a unified platform. For example see this video from a developer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzZaGdxARyw
