@MegamanX97 Because if they don't pinch pennies, they go out of business and we don't get games anymore. We've already lost a lot of good developers over the last few years because games are getting more expensive to develop, and prices have been fixed for seven years. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that without new revenue streams, they can't keep things the way they are.
@NachoXtreme I think most customers do want this. Maybe most hardcore gamers don't, but most of the people here don't represent gamers in general--just a small, vocal minority of them.
@FollowY0urBliss Banning offline games? What? All they said was that all of their games are going to have an online element to them. Nothing is being "banned." They're always online. It's almost exactly what Microsoft was going to do with the Xbox One.
This model is going to succeed eventually because it's what most people want. They want their games connected, and their systems are already online 99% of the time. So resist all you want, but this is going to happen. And most of the people complaining about it now won't care after it comes. In fact, they'll probably like it, grudgingly.
Most gamers will happily pay the money for what EA offers because (shock!) they will actually think it's worth it. And they'll wonder how people ever played games that weren't connected.
@brad12d3 There always has been a lot to like about the Xbox One. We're only just now getting the gaming press to actually engage with the actual system rather than try to skim pageviews off the anti-MS rage. Let's be honest--that's exactly what the gaming press has been doing. Rather than their jobs. But release dates are getting closer, and to keep at least some semblance of legitimacy they actually have to report the facts. The consoles aren't all that different in hardware. How they vary is in software and architecture. Not sexy, but legitimate. I still think the PS4 has the advantage here, but it's not nearly as significant as Sony fanboys have been saying. We've still got a few months here. Things can change.
Can. Maybe. Or Microsoft could shoot itself in the foot again, which I think is the most likely scenario.
@paebin2s @Darkfall_05 A gimmick? How else would you control other av equipment? It works, and connected to a database of available equipment available online, it's actually pretty cool. It's hardly a gimmick.
@SkytheWiz1 My only response to points 2 and 4 is that we don't know yet what we might do (or what devs might do) if given these options because they're new and we've never had them before. They might turn out to be pointless. Or we might (like achievements, online voice chat, etc.) come to completely integrate them into our idea of what is necessary in console gaming. I think it's too early to make any judgment about them other than the fact that it's good to try new things in gaming, and to offer devs new toys to play with because--hell, we have no idea what they'll do with them.
The other points seem mostly right. Windows 8 is great in a lot of ways, but Metro is not--and that seems to be what they've integrated with the Xbox One. The bits about number of friends is mostly one-up-mans-ship with Sony, and mostly pointless. And Kinect--if it had any killer app for core gamers, we'd have seen it by now, I think.
@AventusAretino @kellian1 @beeronko I think the convenience bit is debatable--however, none of us have really seen what MS will do with it, so I'm willing to concede that it's possible. The argument about money, though, I think is probably correct. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a huge deal. In the short term, it is. I'm not sure how many people think of things in big-picture terms. So I think you're right about it in real terms, but I'm not sure how many people will be willing to think of things in those terms.
@kellian1 @NoAngle Accusing people of kool-aid drinking because they have a different opinion makes you look silly. Why not just accept that some people see it differently, that they're not being conned but actually believe what they are saying.
What he's saying is perfectly believable. I disagree with it. I move on.
@Stevo_the_gamer @HowlPendragon @slipknotmaggot1 If you strip off the tablet-focused bits, Windows 8 is fast, solid, and has some great data visualization built into it. It's a decent OS hampered by a GUI that just doesn't fit when it's not on a tablet. It's too bad, really. MS built in some excellent virtualization as well--which I can only think is why they've heavily virtualized the Xbox One. That said, I'd prefer a GUI that was more like Windows 7.
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