Xbox One

But Launch Day Xbone is in front of PS 4 Launch Day.

There's also the fact that the Standard Edition of PS 4 is in 1st place partly because all people buying that standard edition will get it on Launch in an email from Amazon.

Sales charts are weird.

It's also selling out on Gamestop too, Michale Patcher said it's selling ahead of the Xbox One by 2-1 there.

Psst, hey. Turns out MS has admitted they fucked up.

Roll on, Microsoft, roll on.

So I went to a local gamestop window shopping for a new headset (cause my current one has a spotty mic) and I was wondering if the XB One was going to come up at all. I was thinking about bringing it up to them myself but then I overheard them talking with another customer about something that was obviously a big deal. The customer turned around and I mentioned offhand, "Talking about the X-Box One?" and he smiled and nodded. That's when I noticed his Microsoft shirt, he was literally assigned to do damage control and personally inform Gamestop managers of what is going on. I couldn't believe my luck and I stuck around to ask some questions of my own.

Basically a lot of information is being wildly misrepresented, as we just saw last page everyone is ready to believe anything. He told me that because everything is so new even the Microsoft employees at E3 were giving information that contradicted what he was given and official press releases. He flat out admitted how poorly the new information was being handled and the E3 debacle, but he also mentioned offhand that Sony likely has a few bombshells to drop too in the coming months but held back just so they looked good next to Microsoft floundering (he suggested the PS Eye might be more vital to the system than let on).

He told me the DRM, cloud and daily internet check-in was specifically modeled after Steam, the concept being that you can visit a friend and play your games from their console without needing the disc. He agreed that making it once a day was WAY too short of a time, but also said such things will likely change given the backlash. He also said that people in the military will be given a code that allows the system to be played for long periods of time without internet.

He also said that a game can only be downloaded to a single hard drive and then you can play it even without the disc. If you want to physically gift the game to a friend you have to uninstall/unregister it and that is all. He wasn't positive on some other things but he did suggest it is possible to play the game from the disc only, thus you can loan it to a friend without uninstalling it. He clarified the "Play with up to 10 Friends" is not limited to a single household or console, thus you buy a game and you can play it between 10 XB Live friends (I'm assuming there will be certain features available only to the account the game is linked to, otherwise certain groups of friends can organize themselves and effectively have 10 copies for the price of one). The 30-day minimum is probably to prevent hackers.

He did repeatedly talk about how poorly everything is being explained and the "We have a non-online console people can play, the 360" was a PR nightmare of a statement.

I figured as much. I thought we learned not to jump to conclusions so quickly nearly every time something like this happened.

THAT KJ IS A SPY!

On the PS Eye thing: they already confirmed it's gonna be optional. What's it gonna be vital for, making a PSN account?

And uhh how would a Microsoft employee know what Sony's going to do with the PS Eye?

Well, Microsoft:

THAT ENGIE'S A SPAH!

edited 15th Jun '13 7:13:46 PM by DragonGeyser

While I don't know what the heck Microsoft is doing, I hardly trust Microsoft's damage control employees. Not because I'm just sooo certain the rumors are true, just...I mean, you know? >.>

The gesture is nice, but too little too late.

Yeah, maybe if this was just ordinary information being released to the public then I'd trust it but having just come off of E3 and the trouncing they got there, now is not a good time to accept everything Microsoft says as gospel.

Besides, sending people out to personally talk to Game Stop managers? Why couldn't they just send an announcement? In my experience, a company only sends a personal representative if they want something from you.

edited 15th Jun '13 7:19:37 PM by CorrTerek

Well the announcements sure as hell ain't working.

Microsoft made a fact sheet to explain everything before E3 and people are still clear as mud on it.

That's my point, though — if you're going to be misunderstood either way, why send individual reps to individual stores when you can just print up one announcement to be sent to all stores? How is distributing the message to a bunch of people who then have to relay it to even more people (who are then in charge of relaying that to the customers) going to improve matters?

edited 15th Jun '13 7:23:52 PM by CorrTerek

Personal talk is actually highly underrated.

But the point is they tried that. They tried just sending an electronic message. Maybe directly to said Gamestop managers like you said. And it didn't work.

He just used that as an example of what Sony could be hiding about the details of the PS 4 (he personally believed some features of the controller might be linked to the Eye).

I did a quick google search and found that there are a few people who believe that Microsoft's biggest mistake was dropping all of this information at once, especially since their own employees aren't certain of the details. While it may not have been positive you are certainly better informed on what the console is trying to be. The PS 4 was initially announced as having no DRM and then a backtrack of sorts was given when revealed that publishers have that option. Microsoft has a chance for redemption and fixing this mess while Sony hasn't revealed their hand yet.

Sony actually made it quite clear that online passes are a no no.

They were pretty clear on what they meant with that.

And that's really one of the key differences with the Xbone and PS 4 reveals. At least Sony's making an effort to clarify their stuff when asked.

Well, they where really catty about used games before E3. But there turned out to be a reason for that.

Too little too late.

It's easy to do damage control when all you say is "Same as it ever has been."

Obviously the XB One has been one of the most controversial gaming reveals since... probably ever, but the one thing I have to commend them on is the attempt at doing something different. The concept of the digital library and cloud gaming is interesting.

On the other hand the only new feature I've heard about for the PS 4 is the touchscreen options on the controller.