The usually reliable Paul Thurrott has reported on the upcoming Xbox successor.
Microsoft confirmed yesterday the console will be unveiled on May 21st at an event on their campus.
Thurrott says the system will be released in early November and will cost $299 with subscription or $499 without. The "subscription" cost is $10 per month for two years and will require an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
... [ read the full article ]
Please read the original article before posting your comments.
I've seen so many different claims about 'always on' from the most dark scary 'big-brother' stuff to the benign 'on' like a TV set-top box has to be on & connected to get content & work type.
I'll wait a month or 2 and see what they're actually going to do.
Microsoft are a business in the business of attracting paying custom like any other capitalist business (especially the likes of Sony & Nintendo).
They (like the other 2) will try to keep that custom.
I do not see them doing anything to
(a) make the console unworkable in areas with no or poor internet or
(b) drive customers away with ridiculous demands on how the box works.
We'll see soon enough.
Maybe the Sony fanboys are right & Microsoft is secretly planning to utterly destroy the brand they have worked so hard to establish & build up & spent billions of $ US doing so.
Quote:I guess I'm in the minority since I don't think their hire/buy deal is that bad. It's only 8% extra over 2years. And many would automatically get a gold sub anyway. I think it's actually pretty clever of MS
Minority or no; you are right, their price scheme is clever; in May, we'll know then just how restrictive always-on is. But good intentions or bad, Microsoft still alienated quite a bit of people. Especially those in rural areas with nothing better than dial-up *which yes, still do exist*.
Also if the game you buy retail still requires an always-on connected net access: well... Yea that's still not going to sit too well with a lot of consumers no matter how pretty their defense is.
I said I didn't like the always-on part...
Having to have a gold sub with dial-up would suck balls.
Hence I agreed with you...
Quote:We'll see soon enough.
Maybe the Sony fanboys are right & Microsoft is secretly planning to utterly destroy the brand they have worked so hard to establish & build up & spent billions of $ US doing so.
Ok, this is childish here. Just because we argue that MS is making a mistake does not make us Sony fanboys either. Fanboyism has nothing to do with it regardless if you are or aren't. So because I say I not investing in the NextBox makes me a fanboy, is like sayin cause I buy a car over a the NextBox makes me a car fanboy... Or because I pay rent over NextBox makes me fanboy over living at home. Or because I have bought another console not Microsoft because I already have all the Microsoft consoles already, makes me a fanboy of that device.
Yes there are fanboys out there, but most posters on afterdawn tend to sway neutral and just post relevant intelligent feedback; to those sayin Sony will kick MS because Sony is simply better with no feed back, now that is fanboyism. I love Sony cause Sony does this, and blah blah blah: that's fanboyism. Someone who can argue all sides of the coin, that isn't fanboyism.
Microsft nailed some things right, their XBL for example; however, their price scheme based on as how we currently understand to be always-on connection is what we arguing as not enough value for the dollar, or price-gouge if you will. Outside of that, it's actually on par to what would be expected. May 21st we'll know the details, and that will either make or break how NextBox will do. Fanboyism or not will not have any factor in that.
Originally posted by Mysttic: Yes there are fanboys out there, but most posters on afterdawn tend to sway neutral and just post relevant intelligent feedback
If only (when it comes to game consoles...and OS') .
I don't know what you've been reading but many here seem to have decided that Microsoft are (as these guys invariably always claim with anything they do) going to bring in the worst possible option and the most costly intrusive stuff possible.
It just gets a bit boring reading the same old same old one-eyed bashing.
Originally posted by Jemborg: What does "...isn't as Draconian" mean?
It means there's lots of rules and they MUST BE followed or nothing will happen or you will be kicked/banned.
I'm guessing he probably means the same deal as steam.
Where you need to be connected to have the game installed and to enter any keys for games, steam has a offline mode but if there's cloud saves etc it'll bitch that games can't cloud save etc and when starting the game will bitch about how it can't load up cloud saves.
It'll bitch about you not being connected when starting up and if you try to install a game while offline it may not allow this to happen at all (steam allows you to install game offline but you need to be connected to enter the keys) or allow the install but will bitch about you needed to enter a key and need to be online.
To be honest though of the last 2-3 years it would seem to me that you'd be silly to even bother buying an xbox if you didn't have a net connection as you need it to start up the account on a new xbox and it complains bitterly about not being online on the current xbox that you end up needing it anyway.
plus all the extras won't work so really overall it's pretty pointless complaining about the xbox needing net access when the current xbox is next to useless without net access anyway.
Quote: plus all the extras won't work so really overall it's pretty pointless complaining about the xbox needing net access when the current xbox is next to useless without net access anyway.
That's not true, the games are not useless the way it's currently setup now. The only feature you are losing from not being connected is:
1) Multiplayer
2) Game achievements for playing multiplayer
3) Updates to the game (i.e. Madden update roster)
The rest of the game is still very playable and who cares about the items I listed above, not everyone wants to play multiplayer and just want to play the campaigns.
Quote: plus all the extras won't work so really overall it's pretty pointless complaining about the xbox needing net access when the current xbox is next to useless without net access anyway.
That's not true, the games are not useless the way it's currently setup now. The only feature you are losing from not being connected is:
1) Multiplayer
2) Game achievements for playing multiplayer
3) Updates to the game (i.e. Madden update roster)
The rest of the game is still very playable and who cares about the items I listed above, not everyone wants to play multiplayer and just want to play the campaigns.
I just think that having to subscribe to a service like XBL is rediculous and Microsoft should know better being in the PC market. This is just extortion, plain and simple. I use steam as an obvious comparison for the multiplayer part. The XBL subscription should come with owning the equipment. Microsoft is making money from the sale of the units and the licensing fees on the games. It's the subscription fee that I refuse to pay that has made me skip consoles the past few rounds.... I just keep upgrading my video card on my computer.
