The Xbox One Thread

[NW2013]

Yes, the problem I have with Kinect is how many actual feasible play mechanics are there using it? How many won't just feel shoehorned in for no reason?

It would be funny if someone was spying on me via my laptop webcam. They'd see a lot of shots of my face looking at the monitor and not a lot else. I don't even take it out of the house.

[fishbowlhead]

Add Smart TVs to that too.

There was an article about these the other day and about how easily accessed they are due to poor encryption and just generally shoddy software on the app side, what with all the companies making their own apps for the tvs im not surprised.

[fishbowlhead]

Yes, the problem I have with Kinect is how many actual feasible play mechanics are there using it? How many won't just feel shoehorned in for no reason?

It would be funny if someone was spying on me via my laptop webcam. They'd see a lot of shots of my face looking at the monitor and not a lot else. I don't even take it out of the house.

In the case of Kinnect and shoddy implementation, a lot of people swearing and flipping the bird before reaching the the power button.

[MartyG]

Actually, the T&Cs (see section 11) do allow for the recording of audio, video and other stuff over Xbox live ...

You should not expect any level of privacy concerning your use of the live communication features (for example, voice chat, video and communications in live-hosted gameplay sessions) offered through the Xbox LIVE/Games for Windows-LIVE Service. We may monitor these communications to the extent permitted by law.

It's not actively done for every connection, but you agree to the possibility by using the Xbox Live service

['Press Start']

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/11/raytheon-riot-software-online-spying/

When Raytheon isn't busy building a railgun or tinkering with exoskeletons, it apparently spends some time coding software to help keep tabs on what folks are doing online. The Guardian got ahold of a video from 2010 that reveals a Raytheon employee demoing such software with the moniker Rapid Information Overlay Technology, or Riot for short. Instead of sifting through streams of tweets and Foursquare checkins to figure out a person's haunts and schedule, Riot collates data for users and displays it in everything from maps (saved in .kml files) and charts. Riot is even savvy enough to pull out location information saved in the exif data of photos posted online. One visualization feature in the program arranges a target's info in a spider web-like view and highlights connections between them and people they've communicated with online.

According to The Guardian, Raytheon shared the Riot tech with the US government and "industry" organizations in 2010 through a research and development initiative that aimed to build a national security system that could analyze "trillions of entities" online. Raytheon says it hasn't sold the software to any clients, but we think this is a fine reminder that your friends, family and secret admirers may not be the only ones interested in your tweets and check-ins. Head past the jump to catch a video of Riot in action.

Some advanced AI is going to come long one day and gobble all this information up. It will then send a message to all screens in the world

->Open Spoiler<-

YOUR F**KED HUMAN

[originalbadboy]

EA Exec isn't expecting BC on next gen consoles ...

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/390842/backwards-compatibility-on-next-gen-consoles-unlikely-says-ea-exec/

Can't say I am surprised really considering the changes in CPU from current gen to next gen. Not too sure how I feel about that tbh ... Will depend on many games I still need to be get completed I guess.

I suspect I wont be getting rid of my current 360 anytime soon though.

[sj33]

I'm surprised that so many people in the comments section are surprised by this news, to be honest. A quick glance at the specs of the new machines makes it painfully clear that not only are the new consoles not hardware compatible with their predecessors (like the WiiU is), but neither are powerful enough to emulate either the 360 or PS3 to any reasonable degree.

[Brad]

^^^ This.

It was never on the cards. I don't know much about 360 architecture but you certainly couldn't build a PC powerful enough to emulate a PS3 so unless Sony included a PS3 on a chip in PS4...

Anyone wanting a PS4 likely already has a PS3 so just keep it.

[originalbadboy]

Unfortunately the average gamer doesn't understand how difficult it would be to emulate a previous console. They just see a more powerful machine so assume it can do it.

PC's overclocked to 4Ghz+ with decent GPU's still struggle to emulate GC, Wii & PS2 as it is.

The only really way of providing BC is either hardware in the machine, which is not practical with current gen consoles, or some sort of streaming service (ala Onlive, Gaikai), which gives you access to for example your existing XBLA titles.

I will miss some of my XBLA titles though I must admit.

[randombs]

Some of those CVG comments made me want to poke my eyes out, but I should've known better.

No one in their right mind would boycott a next gen console just because BC isn't included. They might be initially slow on the uptake but I'm sure MS and Sony will have other USPs to tempt people to upgrade, which they will at some point.

I expect there will definitely be some sort of BC, just even more heavily controlled/vetted/gimped/whatever than it was this gen. For simple XBLA games - anything that isn't already taxing the 360 while running - it could be straightforward to port those to the new console. As to whether or not devs will...

It would be nice if, like Apple's unviersal iPhone/iPad apps, certain XBLA titles are released in the future that work on both consoles without paying twice.

...some sort of streaming service (ala Onlive, Gaikai), which gives you access to for example your existing XBLA titles.

That sounds like something they could go for and I definitely like the sound of it, but the idea of huge farms of 360s/PS3s running XBLA stuff seems highly unlikely to me. They could do retail game BC like that, I guess.

[sj33]

Sony did purchase Gaikai though, so it's not too hard to imagine.

[speedlolita]

PC's overclocked to 4Ghz+ with decent GPU's still struggle to emulate GC, Wii & PS2 as it is.

Speak for yourself! No issues here.

But you're essentially right. Look how AWFUL BC was on the PS3 for the PS2. Never again.

[Garny]

Sorry to be a bit off topic, but what chance do you guys think we have of getting Fallout 4 launching with either of these new consoles? it will be 5 years or more this christmas since the last Bethesda Fallout game. I myself am hoping they will be showing the game off between now and E3.

[EvilBoris]

I'd be surprised if it was a launch title, but given that Oblivion came out about 3 months after the 360 was a success, I imagine they may try and emulate that by releasing a similar kind of title.

If they were really brave they'd of made a new IP in a similar vein.

[EvilBoris]

That sounds like something they could go for and I definitely like the sound of it, but the idea of huge farms of 360s/PS3s running XBLA stuff seems highly unlikely to me. They could do retail game BC like that, I guess.

I'd be highley surprised/impressed if any streaming service was used to distribute current gen titles as BC.
The sheer number of units you would need would be mind boggling in order to provide a decent service.

Even if you conservatively said that you only needed 1unit to service 10 users, you'd still be needing millions of the units running 24/7 to accommodate them and both Sony and MS / EA have proved that they aren't prepared to pay for vast quantities of such servers even when the scale of service is significantly lower (I.e. multiplayer dedicated servers)

When you look at how onlive and GaiKai were planning to move forward you would see the trend towards using virtualised GPUs/CPUs.
As others have said, there is no consuner computer out there that could have enough power to effectively emulate the CPU/GPU of the PS3/360, so I can't see them having millions and millions if super computers doing it.

That's before you consider that the games themselves would probably have to be physically modified to be able to so something even as simple as save your game.
Based on my current experience of streaming games and this gens attempts at backwards compatibilty (whether that is the poor compatibilty or the reduced performance) the thought if both things happening together fails to excite.

I'd be more concerned about the streaming services being used as a way to control how , when and what you play. It can be basically be used as DRM should they want to.