Xbox Teases "New Microsoft Technologies," Says 2019 Is "Shaping Up Nicely"

@badbrad1961: Get Vin Diesel instead. Just as badass and a geek/gamer to boot!

@badbrad1961: Hey I like Dwayne Johnson! Have you seen Ballers? He's fantastic in it - shows he has real acting chops and a little range. But he's also kinda typecast most of the time. DOOM, Fast and Furious... he's usually the same person in a fair amount of his work so I get that some people aren't as hyped on him.

@jgarbuz: I get that the Xbox exclusives aren't blowing any doors off but to say they "suck" dramatic. Yes, Gears is good (though I think it's not nearly as good as it was back during GoW2 days), but Halo 5 was OK, Sea of Thieves is OK, Ori is good, Sunset Overdrive was good, Halo Wars 2 was good, State of Decay is OK, Crackdown 3 is TBD, Forza/Forza Horizon is really good (but isn't a wide appeal genre), Titanfall was great (3rd party exclusive), Tomb Raider is good (though it's not permanently exclusive but timed and Microsoft has a big hand in some of the development so they get credit as a result). So to say these games suck is a major overreach. But I could agree with you if you said that Xbox has under-delivered on exclusives with the Xbox One. Titanfall was the biggest success and it wasn't a Microsoft internally-developed title. But the good news is that Microsoft is learning its lesson. They've hinted at big new IPs from talented, diverse internal studios that will be doing more to make Xbox the best place to play. I've been trying to follow the reboot of Fable and that could be a huge renovation project that finally offers something that can challenge Zelda but on Xbox. There's also the very real fact that Halo is changing and is being modernized with Infinite which is a BIG deal because the formula has decayed in modern gaming. But I'm excited for the titles being built by Playground Games (tied to Fable), Ninja Theory, The Initiative (which had a super tease a while back for a big IP being developed), inXile Entertainment, Compulsion Games (We Happy Few is their most recent title), and now they have Undead Labs too. Yes, we have to wait and see if any of the acquisitions pan out with actual games that matter but it's promising.

As for VR - VR is a terrible thing to compare right now. VR has no killer apps and is still a little ways away in terms of "ready for prime time". PSVR is a demo show, not a legit gaming experience - not yet. But Microsoft isn't vacant in that space, it's just not ready for anyone to come in. Sony was idiotic to try and get in on that space. They've spent tons of money on first-party hardware when equal or greater hardware was already being made for multi-platform use and now they've got a fancy piece of hardware that doesn't off a premiere VR experience without games to sell the hardware. That's like Nintendo making a new console and never selling a new Mario, Zelda, or Smash Bros game - your sales WILL tumble because there's nothing to hype about. VR will eventually catch on but it's not there yet. You never want to be too early to the game and Microsoft knows that better than anyone with mobile phones. They got in so early and the game changed fast and they had a hard time adapting and competing. Sony could suffer the same fate and to say Microsoft is "behind the times" is foolish. Just say you don't like what Xbox One ended up being and you'll find a lot of agreement and you'll be spot-on from a factual standpoint. But Xbox has a better cloud system, better OS, better hardware, and brighter future than Sony (just go read any of the numerous articles published in January that are super hyped over what Xbox has on the horizon).

@imajinn: opposite for me, its hard to believe they are still making those games.

@Spartan_418: Totally agree on an updated Elite Controller, but one that's not $150 and can be serviced for cheap when/if things go bad. I have 2 Elite controllers and one is broken down now because it had major stick drift and I tried to fix it and ended up getting something crossed and now the Y button is almosts permanently being engaged somehow. The other has the exact same problem but I was able to replace the same motors and get a fairly good outcome: $15 to fix both joysticks and keep my controller in operating condition (though one of the sticks has some weird "ghosting" effect on occasion). Microsoft only warrantied these controllers for 3 months when they should have warrantied them for 1-2 years, promising to replace motors or buttons for a small fee. I'd happily pay Microsoft $30 with shipping for them to fix issues with the internal hardware on each of my Elite controllers because I made the sizable investment to begin with and really dig the triggers. But that's really the reason I bought the controllers: the triggers. Microsoft really needs to consider making a new controller that includes extra buttons because RPGs are becoming more and more prominent on consoles and complex games benefit from accessible, sensible input options. Just having 2 triggers makes a world of difference if they can be mapped as individual buttons so that you have X,A,B,Y and maybe Z and V with the extra triggers/buttons.

@agravier: Yeah really just wish they would confirm either way. When they first announced the X, under the Scorpio code name, one of its prominent features was "high-fidelity VR". But when they fully revealed it as the One X, they mysteriously stopped talking about VR support.

Those who have used the Rift and Vive on PC would not make the comparison to the Kinect or dismiss it as a useless gimmick or anything like that; if an Xbox console had VR headset support, it should be a fairly simple matter of games that support VR on PC having the same functionality on Xbox

@blueinheaven:

LOL

@blueinheaven:

Last year, Microsoft invested in its future by acquiring six studios and creating an all-new one.

@bdrtfm: I'll never understand why people were so upset about the cancellation of Scalebound.

I get that it was a new IP from a respected dev but personally, I lost all interest when they last showed gameplay before the cancellation. It looked pretty bad to me, but just my opinion.