Underwhelmed by the Xbox One Reveal? It's Not Nearly As Bad As It Seems

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Tuesday's reveal of the new Xbox, Xbox One (a name that definitely leaves the door open for a lot of awkward family pranks this Christmas) hasn't exactly been resonating with the gaming community. The only part that really did seem to resonate were a few shots of a german shepherd being mocapped for the next game in the Call of Duty franchise. An adorable new meme was born from the internet's apathy for just about everything else shown on stage.

So the event wasn't 100% well received, and press confusion after the fact about issues like used/shared games has only made it worse. If you're feeling a bit bummed by what you've heard so far, here are a few things to bear in mind, along with a few more awesome mocap dog pictures to make it all that much more palatable:

E3 is Right Around the Corner

If you missed the event itself, thankfully the internet already has some pretty concise summaries available. For example...

 

This is what the majority of the gaming public is a bit ruffled about. There didn't seem to be much on stage for "us", especially compared to the PS4 reveal a few months ago which trotted out developer after developer, including several indies, revealing teasers and tastes of PS4 games in the works. The hardware was (and still is) a big question mark, but there seemed to be a lot of other stuff to latch on to. The Xbox One reveal was almost the exact opposite, providing moew hardware details without much meat on the matter of games. Why?

E3, one of the most significant gaming/consumer electronics trade shows, is just a few weeks away, and of course Microsoft will be presenting there as well. They could afford to have a shorter event this time around and, more importantly, cater it more to customers who probably won't be following E3.Your average Joe or Jane -- who maybe had an Xbox one (the old one) in college or a 360 more recently -- has a family and a mortgage, they may not give a shit about E3. They can probably appreciate a streamlined TV solution and sports and Call of Duty. Maybe they didn't hear about the Kinect before now and it sounds pretty cool to them. Maybe this hypothetical consumer is even you.

There's nothing wrong with wanting those things or being excited by them. But the hardcore people, the ones watching livestreams and making mocap dog gifs and pining about indie game support... We're going to be paying attention to E3 no matter what. We can wait.

No News Could Be Good News

In the initial chatter surrounding Tuesday's reveal, there was a lot of confusion about how used games would be handled. There was some mention of paying fees to activate games for multiple accounts, which raised questions about what that meant for households sharing consoles and games, and what that means for the gaming market in general. As it stands now, about 70% of the money from selling used games goes directly into purchasing new ones. Players who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford to participate actively in the consumer-driven gaming culture can hop from new release to new release with minimal loss, and dabble with older games at a significant discount.

So far Microsoft hasn't said much more on the subject, other than saying that players will be able to trade their old games directly from their consoles. This is a rather smart move, considering how gaming is moving away from physical copies and towards downloads, and theoretically it would give people more options. It could go either way: There may be many fees, or there may be few; there may be harsh limitations or restrictions, or maybe not. We just don't know yet, and we may not know for a while. I'm not wholly convinced that Microsoft has solidified all the details of this system themselves yet, so it's hard to tell if the confusion is the result of backpedaling or of talking about a system that is still in its early stages.

Speculating about it now is just a waste of energy. We'll hear more about it eventually, and when we do, maybe it won't even be so bad. It might even be kinda okay.

Take Everything With a Grain of Salt

There are plenty of very clear and specific things to be upset about. Indie developers apparently won't be able to submit games themselves -- they'll have to partner with Microsoft of a third party to get their products available for purchase on the Xbox one. That sounds kind of shitty, but as far as I know that is essentially an unchanged version of the current system. It's not ideal, given the rapidly changing landscape of indie games, but Microsoft has appeared quite comfortable taking a back seat to Sony when it comes to fostering indie development for their console. The point is that this isn't new, nor is it all that surprising.

More bad news: the Xbox One will not be backwards compatible (a feature that isn't as easy to include as you might think,) so if you want to carry on playing any favorite Xbox 360 games, you won't be able to ditch the old console for the new one. The PS4 won't be backwards compatible either, but titles from previous consoles will probably be playable through the Gaikai streaming service... Which we admittedly still lack details on, and which will also probably have its share of hiccups getting off the ground.

Honestly, if people are willing to hold out money in exchange for current-gen access to previous-gen games, I'm sure Microsoft won't ignore that. Yes, buying a game more than once is still pretty shitty, but this is sort of the risk you take with consoles. Platforms will change, and there's never a guarantee what you have will last through that change.

And you know what? Maybe in a few years we'll all be able to play Skyrim on our phones anyway and none of this shit will even matter.

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Iris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I've never been partial to consoles for gaming. I'm more witchy than twitchy. I am nonetheless interested in the Xbox One, because they're serious about convergence. Other platforms have played with it, but the Evil Empire looks like they're making an honest effort to make it happen. And I would dearly love to ditch a half-ton of specialized gadgetry and multiple remotes in favor of an integrated entertainment solution.

[Nexus Burbclave]

I'm not entirely sure that speculating on the effect of fees to the used market is a waste of time, particularly if they haven't settled the issue internally yet. It may be a bit early for some of the teeth gnashing that we've seen on the subject, but well-worded articles from games journalist, or even just a broader sense of consumers' feelings on the issue could be useful ammunition for somebody at Microsoft trying to influence this policy if it isn't already a settled matter.

[gapps]

That's just awesome!
great read. thanks for sharing.

[alsec]

Ps4 or Xbox? I's still puzzled by this dilemma myself.