It looks like Microsoft decided to follow the same steps as their competitors. The Xbox One website has been launched and on this website a few details were revealed that were not announced during the company’s conference.
One such detail is the fact that even though games have to be installed to be played, it seems that players will be able to start playing the game immediately even while it installs. While the whole idea of having a mandatory install on physical games is ridiculous, at least gamers won’t have to start installing their games before going to sleep and hope that they can play it once they wake up.
As you may or may not know, Microsoft has announced the Xbox One today and alongside the reveal it was announced that the Xbox One will feature a 500GB internal hard drive. However it seems that those hard drives will not be replaceable in any way as Engadget has spoken with senior director of product planning at Microsoft Albert Penello.
When asked about the hard drives he stated that they are “non-user-serviceable” which means users cannot touch them. However he did confirm that any external drive plugged into the USB 3.0 slot can allow the user to do anything the main hard drive can do, including installing and downloading games.
With the Xbox One announced and reports of the console requiring gamers to pay a fee to play used games on the system, Microsoft has been attempting to quell the uproar of the video game community. However it seems to be doing a very poor job of things.
We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One and wanted to provide a bit of clarification on exactly what we’ve confirmed today. While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail.
Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios.
Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend’s house – should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile.
While he did say they didn’t confirm any specific scenarios, his last paragraph there does confirm what Xbox gamers fear. “No fee to play that game while you are singed in to your profile” means that the whole “being tied to one account” remains true and that a fee will be required if someone else wishes to play the game on a separate account.
One of the nagging issues with the Xbox 360 is the fact that the friend list was limited to only 100 friends, even after the Xbox Live support for the original Xbox was dropped. Now it seems Xbox One, (not to be confused with the real Xbox 1) is expanding the list tenfold.
@MrJamesGeary We don't have any information on that specifically, but we are excited that we will be expanding the friends list to 1,000!^EM
The Xbox Support Twitter revealed today (see above) that the Xbox One will now support up to 1,000 friends meaning that you can become friends with pretty much everyone you know and everyone they know and still have trouble filling it up unless you simply add everyone you ever have interacted with like it is Facebook.
Coinciding with today’s Xbox One announcement, Ubisoft will be bringing at least six titles for the Xbox One in the first year of the console’s life cycle. Ubisoft has declined to name all six titles, choosing to only acknowledge that Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag and Watch Dogs will be the only confirmed releases. The remaining four titles have been described as “new episodes of existing franchises, new IPs, and digital titles.”
“The next generation of consoles will reinvigorate our industry and make it possible for us to deliver incredible new entertainment to gamers, our teams are using the innovations in connectivity, immersion and social gaming included in Xbox One to create original and memorable next-gen gaming experiences,” said Yves Guillemot, co-founder and CEO at Ubisoft.
Now before I get into this, it is worth noting that every purchase of an Xbox One comes with a Kinect bundled in with the system, so this means everyone who buys a Xbox One will have a Kinect. However disturbing news has come from IGN’s interview with marketing director Harvey Eagle.
When asked if the Xbox One will not work without the Kinect, Eagle stated the following: “Kinect does require to be connected to Xbox One in all cases, yes.” This means that without the Kinect attached, the Xbox One will not function. This means that if for whatever reason your Kinect stops functioning due to hardware issues, acts of god or you simply want to let it collect dust like modern Kinects, your Xbox One will not function.
We’ve heard everything great about the Xbox One so far since Microsoft announced the console, but it seems that there are a few details they neglected to mention during the conference. One of those being the fact that the Xbox One will not be able to play any Xbox 360 games nor any current XBLA games.
This news comes from a Verge interview with corporate vice president of Xbox Live Marc Whitten where he stated that because “the system is based on a different core architecture, back-compat doesn’t really work from that perspective.”
It is worth noting that Sony’s PlayStation 4 is also not backwards compatible with PlayStation 3 titles, so keep this in mind before trading in any consoles in order to purchase the next generation.
Today Microsoft announced their next generation console, Xbox One. While the company was on stage Wired was able to get some time alone with the console and more importantly, with a Microsoft representative that made a few enlightening but detrimental statements about the Xbox One.
From their report, Wired says that Xbox One will require games to be installed to the console and this is a mandatory process. Then the report says the following:
Microsoft did say that if a disc was used with a second account, that owner would be given the option to pay a fee and install the game from the disc, which would then mean that the new account would also own the game and could play it without the disc.
This means that if a second account were to try to use the game, gamers will need to pay an undisclosed amount of money to install the title. When asked if this will make games unplayable if they are used, rented or shared amongst friends or siblings in a house-hold, Microsoft would not comment. Therefore gamers must wait for more details in the future regarding this concerning issue.
The Wii U version of the game is set to showcase functionality unique to the console by taking advantage of the GamePad controller. Players will be able to navigate through Gotham City using an enhanced interactive map, as well as choosing their favorite DC Comics superheroes with the touchscreen. Folks who like to take the game away from the living room can play the game on the GamePad or have a second player jump in on it as well, without having having to share via split screen.
To check out the trailer showcasing this GamePad functionality, be sure to check out the video below. You can also check out their official website here.
Infinity Ward closed out the Xbox One Reveal event with Call of Duty: Ghosts. They spoke of what’s new with this entrant in the series before displaying its reveal trailer, which can be seen embedded at the bottom of this article.
Ghosts makes use of a brand new next-gen engine, with the story being written by Steven Gaghan, the award-winning scriptwriter of the film Traffic. It takes place 10 years after a cataclysmic event that devastates the United States military forces. The Ghosts team is comprised of what’s left, the remnants of these fallen forces. Going into the features and technical details of the engine, some inclusions were pushed as innovative when we’ve seen it all before, such as the ability to slide and lean in-game (really Infinity Ward?!). They even pulled a Peter Molyneux card and revealed to the world that a dog would be joining the squad as an active member and that you “will care about this dog”.
That aside, the engine does look impressive with Sub-D rendering that ensures the quality of curvature in models the closer the players get to them, fluid dynamics and interactive smoke. Multiplayer will feature dynamic maps whereby natural disasters such as Earthquakes and floods rock the battlefield. Character customisation will also be much deeper for MP, now allowing you to change the heads and physical aspects of your avatar. Infinity Ward also promised new co-op functionality, seamless second screen integration and Kinect commands to be shown off in the future.
You can already lay down your pre-orders from the official website. Also check out the gallery of first screenshots below. For future updates on Call of Duty: Ghosts, stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
