Trailer Watch: Xbox One Special
Yesterday was a big day for Microsoft; after the Playstation 4 reveal, in which the focus was very much on the fact that it was a gaming machine, the reveal of the next generation Xbox truly needed to deliver. How did they do? I’m watching it for the very first time and sharing my thoughts.
– The opening segment is the typical stuff you would expect; complete with celebrity cameos. Some obvious (Bill Gates) others not so much (JJ Abrams, Steven Speilberg, Hideo Kojima(!)).
– Don Mattrick is out to talk about how ground breaking the system is, how Microsoft are forward thinking, the usual bullshit these announcements are full of.
– “New Generation in the living room” that quote bothers me, more than it probably should I hope.
– Kinect is being mentioned early, expect more of it later
– 8 years? Really? The 360 is 8 years old?
– Oh christ, this reminds me of the Playstation 3 announcement “it’s an all in one box for your living room” the sales of the PS3 in the early running show people don’t really care about that. This could be bad news.
– Xbox One, is the name, it looks like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
– New Kinect, meh.
– Like the new controller, different enough to be new but not changing the 360 controller design (it’s the best one)
– OK, it looks great. Well done design department.
– And that’s Don done, who the hell is this guy? Yusuf Medhi? Has he been on stage before?
– Oh shit, that looks a LOT like windows 8; I know the current 360 dashboard does but this looks doubly so.
– Heh, trending tab to never be used, EVER.
– OK, that quick switching is really cool. Until you’re playing a game and someone next to you decides to screw you over.
– Internet Explorer, the Xbox Internet Explorer. Go home Xbox, Internet Explorer. With the Xbox you can Explore the Internet. WE GET IT, IE is dying.
– Oh dang, I forgot they own Skype now. That’s not going to be super annoying when you’re playing a game.
– ESPN with fantasy teams? I’m pretty sure most of the people who do that will check it on their laptop. Also did anyone else get nervous when he said “Xbox, Fantasy”?
– This is too much talk about TV features.
– Much as I love the voice commands, unless it integrates fully with all set top TV boxes it’s going to suck for a lot of people.
– Yusuf is leaving and being replaced by Marc Whitten. Tighten your seatbelt folks, it’s time for technical gibberish 101, or as Microsoft call it “Magic and Science”
– Revolutionary Architecture *cough* Cell Processor *cough*
– 5 billion transistors (why not talk about the CPU in terms most people understand)
– 8GB Ram, 16x more than the 360.
– USB 3.0, BluRay, 64bit CPU, 8 cores.
– 3 operating systems? Xbox, Windows and a connecting OS – I have to admit, this sounds like Microsoft making the best of their true skills in programming. I wouldn’t be surprised if the boasts about the power of the Xbox One proved true, it’s not hard to see the 360 being more efficient than the PS3.
– Kinect mkII, HD camera, smarter software. It genuinely seems like a huge upgrade for Kinect. How well that upgrade is used leaves a lot to be seen though.
– I already said that I like the controller, the trigger specific force feedback sounds like a neat addition.
– Smartglass! You got Smartglass yet? You’re gonna need it! You’ll also need a Windows Surface ™ well not quite but that’s clearly the plan (Smartglass is available for iOS and android.)
– Remember computing in 1999? All of that combined is less powerful than the cloud for Xbox One apparently.
– In built sharing and streaming? Colour me shocked!
– Matchmaking can happen in the background now, actually a pretty good idea for games that can take forever to make a match.
– First developer of the day, and it’s EA Sports. “Special Relationship” Anyone willing to take bets on who is the bottom bitch?
– Ignite, uh, didn’t EA Sports have a new engine just a few years ago? You know, the one that led to videos on youtube of some ridiculous physics balls ups.
– EA are padding already with a video interviewing sports stars. Why is this at the Xbox reveal? Surely this is E3 content.
– Wow, this section is dragging. Fifa Ultimate team will be exclusive to the Xbox One.
– OMG Gameplay footage – or is this Killzone 2 at the PS3 reveal all over again?
– EA man has vanished – Enter Phil Spencer, to talk about games. About damn time!
– Forza 5 gameplay footage, launch title, wait until E3!
– A whole new series, Quantum Break. Live action trailer, told us approximately fucking nothing. Wait until E3!
– 15 Exclusive titles in year one, 8 totally new franchises.
– In-house Devs take the stage, Tellem Nancy Tellem!
– I showed that innovation works when I greenlighted CSI, Survivor and many other shows at CBS. Uh, you mean the CSI Spinoffs and endless copies of survivor? The throw a dartboard at development and when something sticks drive it into the fucking ground approach?
– Oh, never mind we’ve finished talking about games now, back to TV
– Now back to games with Halo; this is the most schizophrenic introduction to a guest speaker I’ve ever heard.
– Ah, the Jade Raymond approach from 343 Industries as they wheel out Bonnie Ross, described as the Head of 343, but purely from a business perspective (she is in fact the general manager of the studio). Why then, I hear you ask have they sent her out to talk about Halo rather than a producer? Because tits. Way to go Microsoft – you cynical pieces of shit.
– As things go on I’m becoming increasingly convinced she’s not out to announce Halo 5.
– WHAAAAAAAAAT? A Halo TV series? Steven Spielberg? That’s unexpected. In fact that could be pretty awesome; and I’m not a fan of Halo.
– More on sports TV on the Xbox a “game changing” partnership. With NFL. You can tune out now if you’re in the UK.
– And we’re back with Don Mattrick. I think we’re done. He’s wrapping up the talk, Worldwide release 2013.
– Tune in at E3 to find out about games.
– And games close out the show post-wrap up. Games are an afterthought in the speech which based on this reveal is true of the system itself.
– Of course it’s Call of Frigging Duty. Eric Hirshberg – I’m a human speedbump he says – way to invite death by automobile.
– They’ve removed all creative restrictions from Call of Duty so we’ll be seeing a platformer I expect. After all if this is something new it won’t be another bloody shooter will it?
– First sentence of the video contains the words “benchmark” and “modern day shooter” way to go you champions of innovation!
– The writer of Traffic and Syriana is writing the new game. You are the underdog.
– Mention of Seal Team 6
– You get a dog, so the innovation is that it’s the same shit but with a dog?
– You can jump! You can Lean! You can Slide!
– Smoke and Water has AI! (that is literally what the sentence they said implied)
– I’m sure this game will be fun by the way, but this preview told us nothing except that by innovation they seem to mean more polygons and adding stuff that USED to be the standard back in.
– “Gameplay drives technology” actual quote from the video followed almost immediately by a side by side graphical comparison. Also I think we’ve reached the Uncanny Valley with gusto, these characters look great but are also creepy as all hell.
– Any chance of some actual game play footage? No
Well, that was underwhelming, the whole presentation had this feeling that it was only being done now to prevent it being lost in the shuffle at E3, especially since Sony have already announced the PS4 and seem likely to use E3 to reveal the actual box.
I don’t really have a solid opinion, which isn’t a good thing. It seems as though they’ve not learned the lessons Sony did in the previous generation. People don’t necessarily WANT all of their stuff on one box, especially not if it means compromising features from other things to get it.
I guess we’ll have to wait until E3 until we know more. This may be the biggest gamble Microsoft has ever taken.
