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The Microsoft Keynote In Depth
Microsoft, of course, is going to usher in this new age. Take what you will from that part of the message, but his overall vision was compelling. Micropayments in the 2.0 version of Xbox live will allow for content sellable to end-users for very small amounts, seamlessly executed from the users end and not even a consideration on the designer's end. Essentially, all the designer would have to do is decide what assets were available for sale and what price as the the Live 2.0 system handles the rest.
Microsoft's role as a developer's aid behind the scenes seemed to be his secondary talking point. XNA Studio was mentioned again, and Allard discussed a future point where design teams are much larger and completely integrated across the globe. The most barbed commentary came when he was discussing the Xbox Next system, and how the system's design was intended to be as easy to develop on as possible while still being powerful and balanced. He referred to a "Science Fair Approach" to console design where these were not the objectives, probably referring to Nintendo's Revolution system.
The crunchy parts of the talk included details about the next Live system, where players will have online "gamer cards", personalized baseball cards showing their stats and accomplishments while playing Live games. The ability to customize the music experience for every Xbox game was mentioned (ala Burnout 3 and some other titles), as was a ubiquitous and standardized user interface for all games that use the Live service. In many ways it sounds as if Live 2.0 will be taking many cues from Bungie's work on Halo 2. The extendable XML and RSS technology used in the game was mentioned during a video presentation in the talk.
The thinly veiled slam against Nintendo was the low point of the talk, which overall kept to an upbeat and high minded ideal. Ignoring the part where Microsoft is the backbone of game development for a moment, their ideas have definite merit. As a MMOG player in particular, the discussion of a need for commonality in UI choices seemed on target. His pithy statement "Bruce Lee, not Brute Force" seems a laudable goal for design choices, and a future where gaming is as ubiquitous and as popular as movies or television is certainly not one I would be sad to see.
While selling us on his vision, Allard managed to do a little bit of pure selling as well. But really, who can blame him? Microsoft Game Studios is in an excellent position right now, the next Xbox console is due out this year, and they have announced an intention as a company to specifically support game development from a developer's perspective. If there's anything that the folks in Redmond are talented at it's combining high minded ideas with marketing, and the Wednesday Keynote was very effective in combined both.
Update: 03/10 17:29 GMT by Z :Added back in the paragraph I managed to delete.
developers! developers! developers!
Don't mod me, bro'!!!!
Why the submitter didn't actually mention the cool parts of the presentation is beyond me.
In terms of the new XBox Live stuff, the most interesting parts are in reference to the Gamer Cards and Costom Playlists, which are to be available across ALL games, and not just some feature a sassy developer tacked on. Being able to compare yourself directly against another player, even across games, check someone's stats across all games, which games they own and play, which on'es they're good at, and how much time they spend playing are all cool features.Then, add on top of that the fact that you'll be able to manage all your music from within any game, creating custom playlists and whatnot, and you've got the cool things that the Xbox does now taken up quite a few notches.
than Bill Gates at CES.
So if Zonk wrote up this commentary about they keynote...did he/she win one of the 1000 HDTV's they surprised everyone with???
I'd just like to take a moment to remind everyone, especially gamers, that Microsoft is using capital from its monopoly control of operating system and office productivity software to subsidize its takeover of the gaming market. I strongly encourage avoiding the Xbox (and Microsoft in general), to prevent the spread of their monopoly.
I recommend visiting the site MS Eradication for information on why Microsoft is so bad. The site includes a list of predatory behavior towards competitors, hostile treatment of customers, and even the use of spyware written by and included in WinXP by Microsoft itself.
This is not a gaming system you should be throwing your support behind.
Michael.
Linux : Mac
Rah-rah Microsoft! Not.
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
To me the most interesting part wasn't what he said, but the images. The game mostly used, Forza Motorsport, is a not yet released xbox game. EBgames.com has it to be released in May on xbox. They also show awards from Halo 2 in the gamer card. Were these games published by Microsoft with features that could be used in their next console? Are we seeing backwards compatibility here? Maybe Microsoft is going to publish versions of these games for their next console as well and thats what we are seeing? I'm actually stoked about going to E3 for the first time in about 5 years. Woot.
From the Gi.biz article: By contrast, he claimed, the Xenon hardware has been designed so that "the platform is bigger than the processor"
Must... resist... joke....
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Something I find interesting is how Allard took quite a few shots at Sony's hardware but didn't try to make fun of Nintendo's "we'll change gaming instead of graphics" talk. He even went as far as claiming that HD will have an impact on gameplay (that'd be?) as if he wanted to say "Well, yes, we're all about the graphics but look! We have gameplay, too!". Perhaps he wanted to preempt Iwata who'll speak tomorrow and will definitely take some shots at Microsoft's development goals (aka better graphics) and timing.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Am I the only person who looks at "Micro" payments as both a potentially good and also potentially awful system?
It seems to me that the "mod shop" could be useful if it was used to extend an aready complete game; for example, Madden 2006 having a payment of $5 to extend the stats so you could play the 2007 version of the game. My biggest fear with it is that there will be developers who use this feature to sell you half a game and then "nickle and dime" you for the rest of the features; for example imagine Halo 3 comes out and you buy it for $50, then you buy Death Match mode for $5, Capture the Flag for $5, Death Match Map Pack for $5, Capture the Flag Map Pack for $5, Bonus multiplayer models for $5, etc.
By the time you have finished with all the "mods" you could pay $200 for all the content that they would have given you in a previously $50 game. I'm not saying that this will happen, but it is my fear.
Obviously the poster is confused, because it was pretty clear to everyone in the room that Allard was referring to Sony when he talked about the 'science fair' approach to platform design. He was contrasting Sony's approach, which he contends is all about theoretically cool hardware that might not be practically usable (i.e. the Cell), versus the MS approach which he contends is more balanced and developer-centric.
In particular, his line about "the only emotion that will evoke is frustration", when referring to the competition's approach, is obviously a reference to the Emotion Engine (remember all the hype surrounding that, and how much of a pig to develop with it turned out to be?).