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Paul Thurrot Predicts November Debut, $500 Tag For Xbox 720
New submitter inkribbon writes that Microsoft blogger Paul Thurrott has now predicted that Microsoft's Xbox 720 console will actually hit the market this November. Thurrott offers a mix of what he considers cold, known facts and "clearly identified conjecture" about the upcoming device. Important to users is this confidently offered claim about the price: "Microsoft will initially offer two pricing models for the console: a standalone version for $499 and a $299 version that requires a two-year Xbox LIVE Gold commitment at an expected price of $10 per month."
Since when is Paul Thurrot's click bait that even he doesn't believe "news" or "stuff that matters"?
I see what Microsoft did there. Instead of doubling 360 to 720, they've doubled o to oo. When put together, it looks like infinity.
$120 for a year of xbox live? 2X price increase for what, more DRM? Really?
Microsoft managed to advertise themselves out of my interest in any of their console offerings. I actually bought the first two xboxes, reliably purchased xbox live and games for the 360, but then after their choices to put more and more ads on EVERYTHING, I realized just how stupid I was being, and cut every last entertainment dollar from going to MS. I was done.
If you don't want to be exploited both coming and going, don't buy an xbox anything.
It's the same reason that a smartphone costs $99 with a contract or $499 without: part of the price of service covers the subsidizes the hardware.
i guess its back to retro PC strategy gaming for me
$499 i can buy another ipad and there some awesome games on iOS now
i was going to buy a new xbox to replace my old one, dump my PS3 which is only for blu ray and make my TV area look less cluttered. at $499 i'll just buy a blu ray player and dump the consoles
If what I've heard and read online is true in that the 720 will not allow you to lend physical game discs to friends and family to play as well as not allowing used games to be bought and played from stores such as EB Games/Gamestop all because they want to tie down physical game discs to the first console machine its played on with some DRM garbage then I hope enough people realize to say "Screw you Microsoft" and switch to the PS4 instead which is supposed to not have DRM lockdown garbage.
You must master your joystick like a fisherman masters bait! - Gimpy
So here begins service based computing. This is the direction Microsoft is trying to bring the computer industry, and it's all starting with the next Xbox. I know it's a futile hope, but I still hope the Xbox 720 fails, or at the least has significantly less adoption like Windows 8. This is the opportunity consumers have to try and stop Microsoft from taking computing in this direction. I doubt it will happen, but I do hope.
I hope enough people [reject Xbox and] switch to the PS4 instead which is supposed to not have DRM lockdown garbage.
Will the PS4 let enthusiasts develop and self-publish games even if they happen not to live in the Austin, Boston, or Seattle area? Will it at least let licensed game developers expose a rich modding API to enthusiasts? If not, it's still "DRM lockdown garbage".
This item is just bizarre:
>Internet-connected. The next Xbox must be Internet-connected to use. This is the source of the “always on”/“always online” rumors and isn’t as Draconian >as many seem to believe.
If it must be connected to play local games, it's exactly as draconian as many believe. This would be a deal-breaker for me. When my Internet is down, I tend to play video games.
Internet-connected. The next Xbox must be Internet-connected to use. This is the source of the “always on”/“always online” rumors and isn’t as Draconian as many seem to believe.
If this is true, I won't be buying it.
Internet-connected. The next Xbox must be Internet-connected to use. This is the source of the “always on”/“always online” rumors and isn’t as Draconian as many seem to believe.
MS, the only people who don't think an always on Internet connection isn't Draconian works for you or game publishing companies. Most of your consumers think it's very Draconian.
Be seeing you...
From the "Deep Throat" of Dedham, Massachusetts comes Mulder and Sculleys primary source.
We all know the "Truth is Out There.." we just didn't know just 'How Far Out'.
So I get to pay $10 a month for the privilege of being able to pay Netflix $8 a month to watch some movies on my Xbox? No sale, chick.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
MIcrosoft is in a great position to deal a death blow to Sony and Nintendo in the next generation console race. They have a leading system now. The demand for set-top boxes is poised to explode. And the winer gets to be position themselves as a benevolent but profitable internet TV gate keeper in a durable way. So why screw this up with a large price hurdle. This is reminds me of the overpricing mistake sony made with the blue ray system. Makes Nintendo Wii look a lot more attractive, and gives Roku and AppleTv some breathing room.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
So what device for playing games with gamepads does anyone with a brain buy? Not all games are suitable for touch screens.
A PC? a Mac?
I thought PCs and Macs were for games that used a mouse. The same games that don't work well with a touch screen also probably won't work well with a mouse. When did enough PC owners or Mac owners start buying a USB gamepad or joystick to make developing and publishing a game in a gamepad-heavy genre viable? I'm aware that the Xbox 360 controller works with a PC running Windows or Linux through a dongle that connects to the USB port, but that doesn't help if almost nobody thinks to buy the dongle or to buy a wired controller.
Anyways, no one should buy a system where to use basic feature you need to pay a monthly fee.
By that standard, nobody should buy a telephone or a computer with a network card.
When the console starts, you press "a" to play the game.
That's fine for disc games. But if you want to play a game purchased from Arcade or Indie Games, how does the console know which of your purchased downloaded games to start?
Why would you need a second ipad to do this?
That depends on what model of iPad alen already owns. How many new games are still compatible with the original iPad?
At least he used some facts in making up a conjectural, speculative article. I imagine the same article gets written 100x before this thing is released.
Note gonna do it, wouldn't be prudent at this juncture.... !/2 a grand for DRM? Forget about it! Time to break my 20 year gaming habbit. Hopefully it will be easier than my 13 year smoking habbit....
H4rr4r says October and the price will be $1.
Since the judging is based on nearest to the price without going over, the odds favor him by a wide margin.
It's my hope that the over the top DRM on consoles will push ever more people back to PC gaming. Sure there is DRM on PCs, but cracked versions inevitably turn up. http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/04/26/1318214/paul-thurrot-predicts-november-debut-500-tag-for-xbox-720#With consoles making a crack isn't so easy.
Why would I want to buy a 720? I don't like the idea of always-on DRM, because it adds an unnecessary point of failure to the gaming experience. Microsoft's dashboard is designed to serve ads, not to navigate around games. And I imagine it will only get worse.
At least Sony is spending a ton of money on indie game developers...MS doesn't seem to have a plan except "the same stuff, only even more customer-hostile!" I've never been so unimpressed by nextgen offerings.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
So... $500 for the console, plus an optional $40 for financing plus two years LIVE Gold membership (normally priced at $120). I can see that the latter would be the obvious choice for anyone interested in the gold membership.
You mean the console where you can't buy games, only rent them?
Games on GOG can be "bought" in the sense that they lack DRM measures to prevent resale, as can the vast majority of games in the Humble Bundles.
They don't want to break the magic $500 barrier or it'll be the PS3's launch all over again. I'm expecting both sides to be leading off with negative margins for quite a while as the true cost of each system probably approaches something like $700 at a minimum. I'm expecting at least some form of subscription subsidizing to make these consoles profitable in the short term.
Sorry, I couldn't help it. I'm getting the same feeling as the PS3 launch. I sense the hype that MSFT is trying to build but deep inside it's just not for me. I'm more excited by the PS4.
So games that do require a gamepad like Assasin's Creed, Street Fighter IV, etc can be easily played with any gamepad controller on your PC.
And a lot of other games that require a gamepad, such as Mortal Kombat (2011), come out for Xbox 360 and PS3 and not PC. Games that end up not ported to the PC at all tend to encourage fans of games that can benefit from a controller to buy a console instead of building a gaming PC.
Yes but.. can it play Ogg Vorbis files as well? :P
"BTW, all the magic on the PS4 happens on one chip. ONE CHIP. This makes our desktop systems look like they belong in a museum."
Except that one chip is from AMD.
Joking aside, I'm guessing it's a balance approach from AMD (just enough CPU power with really good GPU power).
"BTW, all the magic on the PS4 happens on one chip. ONE CHIP. This makes our desktop systems look like they belong in a museum."
Except that one chip is from AMD.
Joking aside, I'm guessing it's a balance approach from AMD (just enough CPU power with really good GPU power).
Better hope that they don't use some form of Catalyst drivers for AMD graphics. We all know how crappy those drivers are on Windows and most especially Linux.
I own a 360 for its few exclusive games but beyond that I never cared for it that much. Even as a game collector my 360 library is small compared to my other systems. And its mostly due to the fact my ps3 and pc have free multiplayer and free online access. I can watch Netflix, play multiplayer in games, surf the net, watch/listen to stuff on websites, message friends, chat in game and so on for free while the 360 insists I pay extra each month to even message a friend. The fact Microsoft is continuing that trend makes me not interested in its new system. Will I buy one? At some point yes when it has some exclusives I really want and the price drops or someone offers an insane bundle deal but at this point I don't plan on buying one within a year of its release because 90% of the games on it will be on ps4 and pc as well. I will never pay Microsoft for the ability to play online when I can do so free on my pc and ps3 and ps4. I don't want to pay monthly for internet, buy a console, buy a game and then pay extra each month for the ability to play said game online.
I don't care if it is a set top box either. I have a pc which I can do virtually anything I want with it, my blu ray player is practically a set top box because of the vast amount of streaming options it has for movies, music, radio stations and channels it has. I also have a roku in my bedroom which is a mini set top. I buy game consoles to play games, that's it, anything else they can do is virtually useless for me. Amazon is working on a set top box, I would imagine it would be the better choice anyway for a lot less.
500? Eh Ill pass. No console has ever been worth 500 bucks in its first year. I refuse to do a contract either. I would rather pay a bit more for something with no contracts than to save a little and be committed to giving money on a monthly basis for years on end.
I love my pc. I am very interested in the ps4 for next gen consoles for all the games to play that I cant play on pc mostly because sony seems to have focused more on gaming this time around and they have had a ton of exclusive content the past year or so. So the wiiu and nextbox are things Ill get, but it will be much later once they have a library of games I want I cant play anywhere else.
Only 720p? My phone has 720p, I would expect at least 1080p.
I'm aware that the Xbox 360 controller works with a PC running Windows or Linux through a dongle that connects to the USB port, but that doesn't help if almost nobody thinks to buy the dongle or to buy a wired controller.
Xbox 360 controllers work flawlessly on a pc.
As I said, that doesn't help if almost nobody thinks to buy the dongle or to buy a wired controller. It's not whether they work as much as how many people are willing to buy a $40 controller to play a $5 game.
You're better off buying the stand alone. The 2 year subscription will cost $240 + $299 = $539! That's insane!
499 + 2 years of Xbox gold subscription( $120 ) = $619 > $539
hope that they canned the people who went for looks over cooling.
My prediction is that the 720 will run Windows 8 metro apps. It makes sense for MS in all respects: it increases the audience, drawing developers. It gives Xbox a bigger software library out of the gate. It bolsters consumer confidence in metro.
If they can map Kinect input to what would normally be touchscreen gestures, it would effectively become a living room PC; perfect as Microsoft's stealth play into being just that.
If they can complete the picture by bringing their pretty weak Xbox Music and Video offerings, they might have both a strategic and sales win through 2014.
That is, if they can don't do boneheaded things like always-on DRM or releasing hardware that can fry an egg and gives you a double red ring of death.
...the more I see myself buying the new Playstation. There's not a single thing about the XBox to get me excited, but there are many things (always online, cost, paying for online service) that turn me away from it.
It's like they hired a completely new, inexperienced group of designers for the new XBox. "Hey, let's not learn from everybody else's mistakes and do them ourselves!"
Is there 2 year contract when getting the subsidized version? How is it enforced that you pay LIVE for 2 years after buying the console?
I guess someone planning to only play offline ;) can just get the cheaper version and just dont pay for live
The best test environment is production. - Me
chrome://browser/content/browser.xul
I hate Microsoft as much as anyone, but I think the whole Always Online thing might actually be in reference to the subscription version of the 360.
In which you have to be signed in and active to actually use it.
Disconnection for a long period or no payments to Live would essentially brick the console until it is. (sort of like when you don't pay cable or satellite, the screen gets scrambled until you pay)
Microsoft couldn't be so stupid that they would force everyone to always be online, right?
They fired that one guy for running his mouth on Twitter about it, but that could be for both sides, for or against.
It is pretty confusing. I guess they MIGHT try it at their conference which is coming up soon I believe, and then if everyone screams bloody murder, "oh hey we were just kidding, aaahh gotcha!"
Then shares would likely jump back up again after everyone sold.
Meanwhile at Tangent Town.
I wish one of these companies would have the balls to drop their prices by half for games. It would more than double NEW sales. People don't like buying used games, they do it because of how expensive they are. Yes, games were much more expensive in the past due to shifts in currency, that is a pretty basic facet of currencies in general.
But lower price point will get considerably more people buying the new game instead. And a considerable number will also keep that game longer.
The used market is a symptom of an industry with too high an entry point or greed.
In gaming, it is short-term greed that has taken over, that rush to get the best first week sales and then month.
I remember when "the CoD audience" was a thing. It has resulted in the death of so many franchises AND companies, and nearly some huge companies (EA will die in 10 years, if not 5, calling it now), because of it.
And now the casual push has resulted in less than stellar sales of the newest iterations because everyone jumped ship to smartphones.
Half-price point with the same number of core gamers there is now? Easily more than double.
Lower price points sell like crazy. Anything from about $15 upwards would likely still make a company a decent amount of profit given how many fans and new fans it would bring in from impulse buys. "Cheap game, might as well buy it, could be interesting, the description sounds neat."
Even trying it for a few medium-large-ish games, just to experiment, would be something at least.
I am actually happy that Microsoft made a lower priced subscription console, people prefer to pay for things over time than bulk payments, especially these days.
At least they are (probably) doing something right.
(AC for obvious.) Holy shit, that is expensive for the hardware that's in Durango (the tier of Xbox infnity that will actually come out).
What strikes me the most about the Xbox infinity and the PlayStation 4 is how very similar they are. They're both x86-64, both AMD, both based on the same general class of hardware with the same APU SOC process, same CPUs, similar GPUs, both with Blu-ray, both with stereoscopic motion-sensing cameras, and both with 8GB RAM. It's almost like they've been taking notes from each other!
Remember, we're looking at an 8-core Jaguar APU SOC incorporating a Southern Islands-based GPU (high-mobile-class, similar to the PS4's Liverpool) backed by 8GB of DDR3 SDRAM (contrast the PS4 using the same amount of much faster, albeit slightly higher-latency, GDDR5). Blu-ray drive, hard disk, Kinect 2. That's basically identical, but GDDR5 is a little pricier than DDR3 (which is dirt-cheap and probably a choice they're going to regret, if the performance of every other AMD mobile Southern Islands APU paired with DDR3 is anything to go by). (Yuma would have been something along the lines of a low-end laptop chip: 2/4-core with a much smaller APU/GPU geared towards H.264/H.265/etc playback, and 2/4GB DDR3, Blu-ray drive but no hard disk just the onboard NAND for the OS, no Kinect, no controller but a remote.)
In other words, they are both basically single-chip-and-some-change high-end laptop chips (although I hear the CPUs aren't as amazing as they sound). The Durango software runs just fine on a regular Windows 8 PC (or even on a Macbook Pro, dualbooted), because it IS Windows 8 (turn the 8 on the side = infinity sign, cute).
So, how come this $299 BOM hardware retails $499? It's not like they have to pay for the Windows 8 licence. You could have undercut Sony, Microsoft... you SHOULD have, in this economy... there's a reason Sony's waiting to announce the PS4 price and you haven't actually seen the box.
You're better off buying the stand alone. The 2 year subscription will cost $240 + $299 = $539! That's insane!
Stand-alone or not, if I can't play the games I purchase without being connected, and IF those games are tied to one and only one machine, then I'm done- I'm not angry, I just don't need an XBox 720 that badly- What revolutionary change in my gaming experience will be worth restrictions and the chunk of cash up front (not to mention the Live Gold membership fees)? Always-connected benefits MS and their partners, not me.
I owned 2 original XBoxes and later purchased 2 360's (one for me, one for the kids... actually 3, as I bought one of the newest 360's to replace a box that RROD'd). We also purchased I don't know how many games over the years; I'm sure the cash outlay was in the thousands.
I'm just one person and as an individual I don't figure much into Microsoft's decisions, but I don't see what value is added for me with Microsoft's 720 strategy.
There are a lot of other options available, It's time to start checking them out in earnest.
And you have to wonder the naming scheme - Xbox 720? Really? Will the next one be Xbox 1440 and then Xbox 2880 etc?
XBox - dzrus
dizzy-r-us Get it??? So sad...
You can install more than one game on a PC.
True, but you have to install a first game in order to install subsequent games. Someone who doesn't already own a wired Xbox 360 Controller isn't likely to be looking in the "controller friendly" section of Steam for games that play best with one. I'm told that the market of people who filter on the "controller friendly" field is minuscule, but I'd appreciate reliable reports to the contrary.
It's a little strange that you think the cost of a gamepad in relation to the games is something I PC gamer would think twice about.
Console games requiring a specialized accessory haven't tended to sell well unless the accessory is included with the game (or with its prequel). This is why Nintendo bundles the Balance Board with Wii Fit, Konami bundles the dance pad with Dance Dance Revolution, and Activision bundles the guitar with Guitar Hero. The trouble is that such bundles work only for retail disc games, while most of the industry is moving toward downloaded games.
This is a market where a mid range GPU can cost more than an entire console
You mention Skyrim, which technically doesn't need a discrete GPU anymore.
If you're a fan of using a controller, the PC supports it in a wide range of games
Say an indie game developer has developed a PC game that plays best with a gamepad and plays kinda-sorta well with a keyboard. Should the developer try publishing the game on one of the big download services? Or, as CronoCloud has recommended, should the developer wait until it has "paid its dues" by producing a couple successful touch-screen or mouse-driven titles?
especially those that also have console versions
From a gamer's point of view, the problem is that a lot of console games don't have PC versions at all. This leads gamepad fans to buy a console for its exclusives and then to keep playing on that console. Among games that support a gamepad, are more of them exclusive to consoles or exclusive to PCs?
The vast majority of genres work better on a keyboard and mouse. In fact, the only genre I can think of that definitely works better with a gamepad is fighting games (ie. Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter).
How would a platformer like Mega Man series work with a keyboard and mouse? Or a racing game? Better yet, how would cooperative platformers such as Contra or Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers or The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon work? As I see it, each player would have to buy a separate PC and a separate copy.
But as for PC exclusives that make good use of a gamepad, with a little research I'm quite confident I can make a list that's longer than any list of exclusives you can make for any console.
I'd love for you to show me a list of worthwhile controller-friendly PC exclusives. If you don't want to do so on Slashdot, you could always do so here.
but I've played plenty of other platforms with keyboard and mouse, and they all worked just as well, or better.
In platformers played with keyboard and mouse, what are the typical controls for moving, jumping, and shooting?
Hook your PC up to your TV, plug in a couple controllers
I thought earlier you said that the demand wasn't there for hooking a PC up to a TV.
If you actually care about gaming on a PC with a gamepad, here's a couple links to get you started
Thank you.
Remember how we went from Atari 2600 to 5200?
That's one of things that has always surprised me about the PS3 (and PSP and Vita) no Ogg or FLAC support. I figured they would eventually get around to throwing support in an update.
Not that I use Ogg audio.
hahaha. Five hundred dollars? Fully subsidized? ha ha.That is the most expensive console in the world. And it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine. Now it may sell a lot. I don't know. But we have our strategy. You can get an Ouya for $99, it's a very capable machine. I kinda look at that and I say well, I like our strategy. I like it a lot.
No one honestly believes that it will be named that- Xbox 720 is just what the fans/media are referring to it as. It's more likely that it will be called the Durango (the code name for the project) and likelier still that it will have a completely different name. Though, one rumor is that it will reboot the Xbox brand, and be called simply "Xbox."