Xbox 180: Microsoft scraps mandatory Kinect policy In the wake of the NSA spying revelations, Microsoft has said gamers will no longer need to have an all-seeing, always-online eye and ear attached to their Xbox. Another day brings another reversal in Microsoft's summer of U-turns, and this time its the backtracking of Kinect being attached all the time. Microsoft's Xbox Live …
>Nope. Microsoft are limiting pre-order numbers
Might also be having some manufacturing issues so easy way to cover for limited supply and cut down on lawsuits. Now Microsoft how about knocking the $100 off by getting rid of the stupid Kinnect and then perhaps I might look at placing a preorder.
"The console will still function if Kinect isn't plugged in, although you won't be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor".
And the award for stating the bleedin' obvious goes to...
They'll be telling us next that we can't play games on it when it's not plugged in at the mains.
""The console will still function if Kinect isn't plugged in, although you won't be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor". "
"And the award for stating the bleedin' obvious goes to..."
Probably more to point out to all the people frothing "can't trust the off setting is off", that you can unplug it and console still works. As can be seen from many comments the commentards are true to the form of not reading the bloody article before unleashing nerd rage onto comments section.
No, I wouldn't trust just a "turn off at settings" either, hence nice to see it confirmed that you can unplug the thing without impairing use of console.
compared to the far better spec'd PS4, which will almost certainly be better built, is now looking like an even worse deal than it already was...
This will also scupper Microsoft's shocking plans to licence games and movies on a per-user basis using the Kinect camera.
Ah, you must have missed the bit which says features which need Kinect will not work if it is not connected......like watching 'per person license' movies or playing 'per person license' games.
That was intended as a sarcastic touch-in-cheek retort but then I realised that their statement did not actually preclude that possibility.
by all the backpeddling they're doing. If they're going to go out on a limb and try to push orwards they should at least stick to their convictions.
Why would I risk buying a console where every 2nd monday of the month they change another feature of it? Especially this close to (expected) launch date. Late changes are never good, it's where most of the annoying defects get injected.
*Yup console works fine, we've tested everything.*
*Oh... you want us to disalbe the connect? Okay*
Kinect is 'disabled' and has minimal testing. bugs are injected.
*You want us to up the GPU clock? Okay*
GPU clock gets increased, but no further life testing is performed. Overheating becomes a risk
*You want us to drop the always online stuff? Done*
Always online is dropped, another host of problems are injected.
Yes they'll perform more testing to make sure they haven't broken anything else, but will that testing be enough? Doubtful. Quick changes like these are often rushed under management pressue, especially with a launch window less than 3 months away (including manufacture no doubt).
Personally I'd advise anyone getting a new console to wait a bit after launch anyway, first batches always have problems, normally best to wait for the first price drop, or 3 months at the least if you want a smooth experience from the get go. With these last minute changes I'd almost say double it for the xbone. Wouldn't touch one with a bargepole for at least 6 months until after launch.
Another U-Turn from Microsoft, too late for my liking. Microsoft seem to be testing the water with these unpopular plans and only do the right thing when objections are voiced loud enough.
Changing plans or not, Microsoft has already shown it's intent and what I see as a lack of repect for potential customers.
Personally, I think all 3 of the big players (if you can still call Nintendo that) have lost touch with the players and reality in general.
I'll be standing well back, waiting a good long while before even thinking of entertaining the possibility that I might perhaps buy a new console.
Xbone is looking least likely, they were already on thin ice with how much of a rip off they pulled with on-line functions being behind a pay wall on the last one.
Some sort of Wii is actually more likely (as a secondary machine), because the wife likes the idea of Wii-Fit, they are actually fun in small doses and Cash Generator/CeX are full of them.
It seems that MS are saying that the Kinect doesn't even need to be plugged in at all. Not just set to do nothing (cause who would trust that?), but actually without power (running on the hidden built-in batter pack no doubt!?) ( http://kotaku.com/i-still-think-the-anti-mandatory-kinect-backlash-was-a-1113385580 - see bottom quote)
Now I am not a fan of the xbone at all - it's been clumsily handled, and there's just no way for me to be comfortable with it.
I would ask one question of the people here more tech savvy than me (meaning most/everyone of you): Would you reckon it's possible for the technology of the new Kinect to be able to distinguish an awake person, from a sleeping one? The only feature I could picture being useful was the Kinect detecting I had fallen asleep and pausing the playback of whatever movie/series I was watching. Of course the privacy concerns would have me never use the possibility, but I'm merely interested in whether it's even at all possible.
Meanwhile, those of us that were paying attention (or not being paid to post BS) noticed XBone and PS4 are all but identical. Same CPU, same GPU, same memory architecture, same RAM count. OGL and DX11 are almost interchangeable.
The differences: to help it's slower DDR3 keep up with the PS4s DDR5, XBone wasted transistors on extra cache and lots of RAM<->cache copy hardware. Transistors PS4 spent on 25% more GPU stream processors. Meaning XBone is both fundamentally slower AND harder to program this time round!
Of course you can just as easily put the equivalent hardware in a PC now. The one difference is only OpenGL added support for unified memory architectures as a core function, so PS4 games will be easier to port to those PCs. Can you guess which one developers are likely to gravitate towards?
Factually correct, but Microsoft's tool chain and integration with Visual Studio means that developing for the XBone will be easier (I am basing this on my own experience with XBox 1 & 2, PS1, 2 and watching the swing from Playstation 2 to XBox as the primary target). Also, for better or worse, DirectX has a lot of traction now with graduates, and the employement churn is huge in the games industry, resulting in most of the new student talent being preferring to use DirectX. OpenGL is regaining ground, but it is still perceived as lagging (incorrectly, in my opinion).
Sonys internal culture is that of an electrical engineers, not software focused, and this is often reflected in their documentation and software quality. I predict Sonys console will continue to be slightly harder to develop on.
Ultimately though the choice of primary target when developing (the one you really develop on, and the other is the one you just port to) depends on the installed user base and the likely returns.
@Paul Shirley
However, as game developers are in the market to sell as many copies of a game as possible it's not really in their interests to release a cross platform game that's wildly different between the two platforms.
Why sell 10 million on one platform and only 500k of the lesser version on the other when you can balance both versions and sell 20 million in total?
Plus having to deal with all the "EA I'm going to kill your family!" tweets from rabid console fans just isn't worth the bother.
I really don' t think they can afford to be too picky about one over the other.
Exclusives are a different matter.
Better games. The Playstation exclusives blow the Xbox ones out the water. Sony embrace indie studios, Microsoft have excluded them for the Xbone.
There is obviously the privacy issues with Microsoft, the double dip subscription model, the poor track record on reliability, aesthetically the Xbone is pretty horrible. it's very large, has a power brick and stinks of all the failings of the previous two Xbox models.
Whilst Sony are now putting online play behind the pay-wall, all the other features aren't (and some current PS+ features like auto-updates are moving to free model), but at least the Sony paywall is a single level paywall that's £40/year that includes the killer Playstation Plus subscription (£300+ of free games), along with Gaikai.
I can't come up with a single reason WHY anyone would want an Xbone, I really can't. The hardware is so much better (50% more powerful according to Digital Foundry), it looks better, has better exclusives, is cheaper upfront, has more features without needed a subscription, and more features if you opt for the subscription.
The Playstation Plus is the biggest deal. if you take a look at the quality of stuff Playstation owners have gotten totally gratis, it's a no brainer...
Can ANYONE argue with this list?
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/07/11/sonys-big-giveaway-one-year-on-with-playstation-plus-instant-game-collection/
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Already decided on the Sony. But as an 360 owner I wonder how GT rates against Forza, Driver-SF, Grid / PGR3 / PGR4. So my question is-- is GT really better than all of these? Forza is pretty but its not as fun as PGR / Driver-SF / Grid, and Forza Horizon was a self-inflicted wound to the Driving genre IMHO....
As a driving sim, in my opinion, GT is the best you'll get on a console. As a "fun" racer (and I'd regard most of the games you list as arcade racer rather than sim) then you'll probably want to get your kicks elsewhere (Driveclub looks pretty good in that category).
Just as well really - $deity knows when GT will actually make it to PS4....
True. It's one of the personally annoying things about the xbone is that I've had to explain to my young son that he won't be getting one with Forza 5 at Christmas. He's not particularly tech savvy, and refuses to see what the fuss is about.
So, he's getting a hoop and stick for Christmas instead.
All the console manufacturers took stuff away, but guess what, you only know what the media tells you.
Nintendo took away MP3 playback.
Microsoft took away USB ports and Netflix party
Don't forget when Microsoft made everyone BUY 128MB memory cards or hard drives to load the lastest OS update (which was mandatory).
So really?????
Sooo... how is now PS4 better? I know it has better hardware and that MS can't be trusted, but is there anything else? I lost track.
Well, to begin with the hardware stuff. I usually don't delve that much with this new gen, as both have the craptastic x86 architecture which is a backwards step chip-wise. They could've just stayed PPC but added the GPU juicy bits they're currently doing on x86.
PS+ will be mandatory only for multiplayer gaming. If you want Netflix or the other stuff, you don't need PS+ while XBL will still demand Gold for all those goods. And even then, PS+ gives tons of freebies every month, sometimes cheap games but occasionally even good games (I got inFamous 2 for free, Bioshock 2 ... a couple of others)
Sony was bit hardly by their past errors and seem to be acting on getting back their goodwill. I doubt they'll backtrack on their promises as the X-BONE serves as a warning of what happens when you do something like that. (Mind you, they also experimented a bit of this with OtherOS: pissing off the one demographic that had the tech skills to crack the PS3.)
No mandatory Sauron device.
Basically, while both Sony and MS have done real bad things, it seems Sony has learned its lesson, while MS tried to pull off the Win8 strategy on their users. Except it backfired so bad, the XBone was declared DOA about 24 hours after it's unveiling at E3.
"You have the ability to completely turn the sensor off in your settings,"
What they didn't mention is they have the ability to secretly turn it back on again remotely, if (or should that be, when) they are in possession of a secret NSA spying order. Paranoid? Not in the least. We now know that if it's possible for something to be done to spy on someone, a court can and will order it. And Microsoft don't seem to have a history of pushing back very hard... seems they went out of their way with Skype to install backdoors and wiretaps.
Maybe I'm subscribing to paranoia by upvoting your sentiments but I can't disagree with you. The harsh truth is they can't be trusted. Just look as what we've learned so far this summer.
In particular note the DEA and IRS tactics, which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will target individuals any way they can and lie about it ad-infinitum later. Add that to the revelations of the NSA spying for American companies to help them win lucrative contracts and hey-- there is no fine line anymore!
And of course the corporate owned US media have undertaken zero investigative research, despite the scandal. They don't even challenge defence committee members about the DEA / IRS revelations. Instead they just keeping BSing us with 1.6% trawl stats....
But money is the name of the game. This is the only thing America pays attention to. This will hurt US Cloud companies. But that will be the sole net affect and nothing else will change!
How will this decision impact developers? I guess they were all told that Kinect was mandatory and would be always-on, and that they should make use of it wherever possible. Either they need to rework to remove the dependency on Kinect for those users who are going to keep it unplugged, or a load of games are going to need it anyway, which would make the announcement meaningless.
I'm not sure how they can maintain the position they've got themselves into where it's a mandatory purchase but not actually required.
"The console will still function if Kinect isn't plugged in, although you won't be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor".
There's that word again. "Experience." It's everywhere in Microsoft propaganda. When are they going to understand that we don't want to have an "experience" -- we just want things to work properly.
I've had both PS and Xbox in the past, and I'll probably get both again. Sony have just not got the online environment or multiplayer gaming right compared to Microsoft, and that will drive more sales of XBox than all this "it's got a camera and is watching me do things!" FUD will prevent them.
I also prefer the XBox controller, but that's because I have big hands and prefer something with some size and weight.
PS3 currently does better graphics over Xbox, but that advantage will disappear with the next releases.
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