Xbox thread

[zewulf]

So how different is installing games on the console compared to installing games on the PC? How different are FW updates on the console compare to say…updating iOS on your iPhone/iPad? Is there a double standard here? Clearly console games are installed on the HDD to improve performance. Streaming game data (e.g., texture maps) off the HDD is much faster than streaming directly off the optical drive. And as we move towards digital distribution, you can bet installation on HDD will be the norm.

I knew M$ would backpedal on the DRM policy (they had to, especially after all the backlash), so I’m not really surprised. It’s actually something they’ve been doing quite a lot lately with their other products like Office 2013 and Windows 8, but I can understand why they wanted to push through with this DRM policy in the first place. It basically reflects the fundamental philosophy of M$ founder Bill Gates’ core business model in that when you buy a piece of software, you merely purchase the license to use it; you don’t actually “own” the software as most people believe they do. This is what they have always strived for and part of the reasons why M$ has always been and still is the company you love to hate. The conspiracist in me is thinking M$ could do another 180 (so a complete 360) and enforce the DRM policy once they have enough user base for the XBONE…

Of course, Sony could enforce some sorta DRM policy later on as well, but IMO they’re still the lesser of the two evils, so I will continue to stick with Sony. The PS4 is $100 cheaper, has better specs (if they hold true), has a better controller (IMO), looks better, and doesn’t force you to be part of the PRISM program… As far as games and multimedia/online features go, I expect both consoles to be fairly similar eventually, so for me the choice is pretty obvious. However, I probably won’t pick up a PS4 until the PS4 slim comes out.

[shaft]

so who's ordering one?

I ordered one.

[Doombrain]

so who's ordering one?

I ordered one.

My man.

[MKJ]

Might get both. Ps4 has ps3 games on demand right?

[Doombrain]

I'm not getting both. BR on the xbox killed the PS4 for me.

[shaft]

ps4 won't have ps3 games on demand at launch. I will get a ps4 also when there is an exclusive that I want to play. In fact other than wanting to try the kinect there isn't any launch titles on the xbone that I'm really interested in. I just wanted Day One edition.

[Doombrain]

BF4 will be glued in to my drive

[MKJ]

I will get a ps4 also when there is an exclusive that I want to play.

that's what I thought about the ps3. then I never did buy one because not playing Uncharted was something I could live with.
im afraid the same will happen with the ps4 (or xbone).. if ps4 can make me play those older ps3 ubertitles then I'll defo get one

[shaft]

There are so many PS3 exclusives at this point to justify the $300 for the console(bluray player)...why even wait?


The God of War bundle comes with a 500gb drive and 6 games for $300.
http://www.amazon.com/PS3-Ascension-Leg ... ystation+3

[MKJ]

MS drops update fee for devs
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news ... opers.html

Gee. Now if they've had selfpublishing capabilities on the One they might be helping indie devs with this.

[Eraser]

Only for Xbox 360 though. I bet MS is still forcing the big publishers to pay big moneys for title updates. I was kind of surprised (although, not that much really) to read this:

In addition to this Microsoft has also dropped the price for update resubmissions, meaning that if an update is submitted to Microsoft but fails to pass certification, the developer can sort it out and send it again without further cost.

So you submit your game for validation, fail because of some tiny little thing and then have to pay again to have your game resubmitted? Fuck that noise Micro$oft (yes, I actually dusted off the old $ 'joke' for that).

[MKJ]

You meab like how apple does it? Test your fucking code, it's on a closed environment so there's no excuse for fucking up a patch.

[Eraser]

You meab like how apple does it? Test your fucking code, it's on a closed environment so there's no excuse for fucking up a patch.

Yeah except that failing validation isn't always caused by the (lack of) quality of your code. That's especially true with the Apple overlords. Also, 100% bugfree code doesnt exist and especially indie developers dont have the resources for full fledged QA testing. Bugs may always slip through. Moreso again with Apple because you can only test through an emulator, and not on the real thing I believe.

Btw, are you sure it works this way with Apple? I thought you just buy a year subscription for $100 and can then submit apps as much as you like during that year?

[bitWISE]

Apple doesn't charge for binary uploads or attempted uploads.

I found out first hand recently just how god damn frustrating it can be tho. You have to run a special application in OSX to upload your IPA file and it runs all these checks and will reject your upload instantly for the smallest problem. The last guy to upload a new version of our app had fat-fingered the version number to be 10.0.64 instead of 1.0.64 so when I tried to upload 1.0.65 it failed and I had to wait for another three hour repackaging to complete. (Note: builds take three hours because we thought using Adobe's multi-OS coding platform was appealing. Now our release builds take three hours and we're too committed to this shit heap.)

[MKJ]

You meab like how apple does it? Test your fucking code, it's on a closed environment so there's no excuse for fucking up a patch.

Yeah except that failing validation isn't always caused by the (lack of) quality of your code. That's especially true with the Apple overlords. Also, 100% bugfree code doesnt exist and especially indie developers dont have the resources for full fledged QA testing. Bugs may always slip through. Moreso again with Apple because you can only test through an emulator, and not on the real thing I believe.

Btw, are you sure it works this way with Apple? I thought you just buy a year subscription for $100 and can then submit apps as much as you like during that year?

you make it seem like you get your patch denied for introducing a spelling error.
it's for bugs that crash the game, or wipe the user's HDD, and such. damn right you will test for that.

[zewulf]

Apparently the Xbox chief is now out at M$. He probably reckoned that the pink slip will eventually come down from Ballmer after the XBONE announcement/E3 debacle, so he decided to bail out on his own accord while he still has time

http://www.gametrailers.com/side-missio ... a-ceo-spot

[Transient]

...and went to Zynga. Because that was a step up...

[zewulf]

XBONE owners being part of the PRISM program is probably not too far-fetched...

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/11/ ... s-detailed

[LawL]

You meab like how apple does it? Test your fucking code, it's on a closed environment so there's no excuse for fucking up a patch.

mean

[MKJ]

thanks.

[MKJ]

MS embraces indie devs for XBone, opens up the system

http://kotaku.com/microsoft-every-xbox- ... -898750954

[Transient]

Hey, a step in the right direction. They'll need a lot more before November rolls around, though...

[Don Carlos]

Biggest fuck up of a launch of a product I've ever seen or at least I can remember. Talk about a complete reversal in pretty much everything they originally set out to do and achieve...

[MKJ]

at least they did it before actual launch. ps3 launch was worse. lot of stuff promised, less than half of that not available at launch and some stuffs even taken away after release (linux installs for instance). in the end the ps3 turned out excellent so who knows what the xb1 will bring

[Eraser]

MS embraces indie devs for XBone, opens up the system

http://kotaku.com/microsoft-every-xbox- ... -898750954

That's good news. I wonder if they'll have some sort of successor to XNA for this and if that'll be cross-platform like XNA (and if it is, if that includes any Windows versions before Win8).