Please, no flamewars/PC>Console/xboxps3 svcks/etc. Remember, they're rumors, not facts.

I've been paying attention for a while at the latest Xbox 720 news (Oh god, I hope its not called the 720)

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/02/10/report-xbox-720-to-use-touchscreen-controller

Damn, I hope that not true.
I hate touchscreens. I really do. No matter how careful I am, they always seem to get scratched. And the majority of games just use them as a gimmick, not anything actualy useful.
Triple that for heavy kinect usage. I want a normal controller damnit! I get that they're trying to get casual/nongamers intrested, but leave that to facebook.

Is it really that hard to use a controller? Is waving your arms like an idiot any better? If its actually done very well, I'll probably like it. But if recent games have been any idication, it'll just be wasted resources on the developers part. Though I think a TES game with kinect controls would be kind of fun, but it would have to be done extremly well. It'd probably be better with PS move anyway.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/121/1217257p1.html
This I get. Used games are really big right now. They're taking a pretty noticable chuck out of the developers pockets. Hell they're even making incentives to by it new now. I don't really have a problem with this, but there has to be some limits. I'd get really pissed if I can't take my new Halo game to my buddies an play.

This would also limit the number of games considerably. Theres a huge number of games that are out of production and the only way to get them are used. Thats my main complaint about it.

720 to use windows (can't find the link for this)
What ever happened to game console being for games? Its very probable that anyone who has a gameconsole also has a computer, so why do they need to be another computer? What we have now is fine. I love the ability to use netflix on my 360, but do we need more than that? We'd get less games that are games and more games that are farmville.


I do most my gaming on my PC, but thats because I play mostly RPGs. I play my FPSs and other games on the 360.

Those are my rants, feel free to nitpick about what you didn't like.

how about they stop spending all the money on the console have touchscreen controllers...and just give it better hardware.....you know, so it inst obsolete within 3 years. I enjoy playing with motion controls....but I can't 'game' with them, my arms get sore after an hour or so and jumping around and what not focusing on a screen is a fast way to get a headache.....motion controls are really only good for games you play a little at a time.

Everyone is getting all up in arms about used games........guess what? PC player lost used games many many years ago, and nobody seemed to care that much then. The publishers will do whatever they like, and the vast majority will still buy the games anyway.

The reason mirsosoft wants ot put windows on the next one is so everything they develop has the same core OS. That way if you code it for a PC, it'll already be coded for the xbox. It will make developers able to multi-platform much easier. I support this.



I look at consoles and see them entering their last days as a 'gaming' machine, they will soon become the casual PC that plugs into your TV. A machine that only plays games is useless in today's market....my phone plays games...but it also searches the web, makes calls, text, videos, etc etc.

Propably, the current generation consoles aren't that far from PCs already. But i suspect that a generation or few later a need for a dedicated gaming machine, re-emerges and consoles are born again as simpler devices.

Thought 1
"Heavy touch screen and kinect."

Good god am I glad I'm a PC gamer

Thought 2
"Xbox 720"

That has the be the stupidest bucking name I've ever heard, your a multi million dollar company Microsoft, you can't hire someone to come up with a name that doesnt svck?

I don't really think you get it.

Developers don't lose money on 2nd hand games. Their costs were covered in the original cost of the game.

"Online Passes", "Monthly Subscription" etc...

These are just things publishers dreamed up to get a bit more money.

There is a benefit to not having discs though.

You can cut the production and distribution of discs out of the equation but then you stiff the Game Shop industry and developers might not be so keen as well.

PC gaming might be where it all started but at the moment making games for consoles is where the money's at.

Azrael
The Nord with the Sword

I concur with every bit of it. But I think they are not making touchscreen a primary controller, but rather a controll hub for home entertainment.

I just want my new Xbox to be better. Don't need any fancy touch-screens or kinect.

i buy new games anyway
i use my phone as a remote for my tv anyway
kintect ticks me off
and microsoft wants to make all there devices have the same looking OS thats why

This....really....bugs...me

If you want to see it one way, used game sales are like pirated copies to a publishers.....wait a sec, hear me out.

The single license they sold, meant for a single person, is being used by multiple people. Only in the middle, Gamestop (or whoever, EB Games here) is making money off it. If there are no second hand games (like in the PC market) every sale counts as a profit to the publisher.....that means to the publisher every copy of their game that is sold, counts as profit for them. I don't know the figures, but it sure would svck if a large minority of your sales are second hand, and you see no profits from them.

In the mean time, Gamestop rake in the money as they get to re-sell the same product over and over.

People need to stop looking at games as their 'property' when really all your have is (or what is supposed to be) a non-transferable license to play the game. I don't agree that games should have a license like that.....but it's not going to change, that style of license has come from decades of computer software development.


Also, anyone that says 'publishers don't need the money' is not thinking properly. We live in a capitalist world, the publishers worked their way to that point, and even though they are dikes at times, they still deserve the profits they have earnt. Not to mention, reduced profits don't hurt the publishers, no that hurts the developers, cause their the ones that get blamed and people lose jobs.

Another way to look at it, if you sold something you made and then the person you sold it to sold it on, but then bought it back again later to resell a second time....wouldn't you feel ripped off? Imagine if they did that 4 times? and they made 4 sales of the time you sold to them once. Now you know why the publishers hate used games.

Nothing I've seen of the next generation of console so far interests me. This is how it always is though. I wasn't interested in the current generation of console until about a year ago when I got a PS3. Doubtless I'll be able to form a better opinion in a similar way, after the next generation has been out long enough to produce respective "slim" and "lite" models of all its consoles, and maybe when they have some decent video games in their libraries too.

I will say this though: The crusade against used games is baffling and distasteful. I can't imagine why the leaders of the video game industry would want to hurt their own industry in such a manner. It's like economic sabotage. I can always understand them hating piracy, but I will never really get used games no matter how many "lost sales" it accounts for.

It's no surprise that Xbox is being the pioneer with the new (alleged) measures. They spread around Achievements and Gamerscore and DLC like the plague and now every video game on every platform has to have all of them.

I want to like Nintendo for thinking outside of the box again, I really do, but after the whole 3DS thing I'm not so sure they're making the best decisions right now. At least not any decisions I'm interested in.

Sony has been alright with the PS3, but only because of the games. As I understand it's terribly difficult to code properly for the thing, so lots of cross platform things don't do well. At the same time though they have gems like Demon's Souls, Ico/SoC, and Bayonetta. That's why I bought one. I'll be using it for a long time yet. As far as I'm concerned the PS4 isn't even in the same family. It will only exist in my mind when it has similarly useful games. I'd sooner buy a PS2 than a PS4, just because I missed out on so many good games like the old Metal Gears and Final Fantasy games.

If I can't use the good old Xbox controller (and if they change it in any major way) I will no longer be an Xbox gamer. I love my Xbox just the way it is, I don't want any gimmicks to be mandatory (if you want to make them optional, like the Kinect, go ahead).

I'm sure they know who their gamers are and won't make any poor decisions.

Yoru point is as correct as it is innapplicable and your point is very correct.

The developers and publishers got paid when the game was sold. As long as only one person is using it at a time they haven't lost any money.

"Software Licenses" exist to protect developers intellectual property rights and stop people messing with someone else's work but shrewd businessmen have discovered if you call your game product a "software license" you can create a way to make more money.

You make a very sensible point but it does not apply unless you work for EA or Steam.

Az

If what I read here is true, I will never be an Xbox customer again, even if that means no more Halo for me.

Halo is over anyways. Why even consider playing Halo 4 when it's made by not-Bungie?

It's made by 343 Industries, which comprises of the main Halo team from Bungie, along with many other former Bungie employees.

Heavy Kinect usage - Can GTF
Doesn't accept Pre-Owned games - Can GTF
Uses touchscreen over buttons - Can GTF

If any of these 3 become fact on release day, I will probably move to PC gaming.

Just bring out the next gen already, the tech is old and I'm fed up with games being limited because of it. I don't want any fancy touch screen crap, just a nice comfortable controller and tech that's not going to be out of date the moment it's released.

What troubles me is that people are throwing around the name "Xbox 720" like it's a perfectly viable name to give a console.

Your hatred to EA and Steam clouded your judgement. What he said are all fair and square, applicable to any creative development team or individual.

1: Not everything in the world needs a touch screen (make it holographic then maybe). Games like FPS or action adventure games just isn't suited for touch screen, puzzle games or tower defence are more suited it.

2: No used games options for the system is a great idea---- .

I found Xbox is stupid in the first place, don't you think?

They still aren't making as much money as they would if someone bought it new. They may not be losing money, but when one person buys it new, trades it in, then someone buys it used, trades that in, etc. They start to lose a pretty big profit margin. The majority of gamers I now will buy a game used because its $10 cheaper. A lot of them don't even touch new games.

Pretty much every game nowadays comes with some incentive to buy it new. This wasn't needed 10 years ago because the used game market wasn't nearly as big. The fact that they're putting time into what is pretty much a free DLC seems to say that they're has been an impact by used games.

Well, I frankly don't care about the next consoles, mainly because I've decided that when I get the money, I'm switching back to PC gaming.

So it took since the end of the PS1 era to realize this?