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Microsoft Cuts Xbox One Price To $249 - Would You Buy or Recommend One? (theverge.com)
Tom Warren, writing for The Verge: Microsoft is cutting the price of its Xbox One console to $249. The new price marks the third price cut in less than two months, ahead of the new Xbox One S launch on August 2nd. 500GB versions of the Xbox One are now $249, and this includes bundles with games like Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Quantum Break, Forza Motorsport 6, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Rare Replay. Retailers like Best Buy and Amazon will be selling Microsoft's Xbox One console at the new $249 price point immediately, and the software giant says the consoles will be available at $249 "while supplies last." Microsoft's aggressive Xbox One pricing follows a sales gap between its console and Sony's PlayStation 4. Sony has sold more than 40 million PS4s, but it's not clear exactly how many Xbox Ones have been sold as Microsoft hasn't provided sales figures for quite some time. EA previously revealed Microsoft had sold 19 million Xbox One consoles back in January.
It's still a Microsoft product. It still mostly plays games of a genre that I don't care about (doom clones). Maybe if I was a single guy with money to burn and time to kill, I would be interested but there is no room in my life for a Microsoft or Sony console right now at any price.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Would You Buy or Recommend One?
Why is this in the title? It would've been a perfectly acceptable article without it.
Yes, I would buy one . . . if I was fifteen.
Unfortunately, that's still two years away. But if I was fifteen, I would buy one.
I might pay double if they would drop the data collection.
Triple if I can play with my friends over the Internet with an open source server.
It's a console and as such it has no real added value to me.
I already have a PC that can play the games I want, and XBone can't.
Also, games on consoles are in my experience incredibly expensive compared to games I get on steam sales.
All in all I see no point in owning a console.
My xbone gets the most use out of my gaming devices. Partially because of the games, but also because it actually makes a surprisingly good streaming hub also as a window 10 OS it in theory could get apps and other neat things from windows.
Media Stuff:
I use Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and various other premium channel apps (HBO, CW, etc). While the ps4 does many of those, I have to open each app and hunt for the shows I want. the xbone lets me do a search via voice and then asks what app to open the show in. Way more convenient. The xbox also does live TV and has tv guide and all that stuff. Basically, it replaces the features of a smart TV+
Game specific stuff:
Exclusive wise, Sony still has an edge, but it's pretty small. That's when I typically use my ps4. Quantum Break is good, but short. Tomb Raider is amazing, but will likely be coming to PS4 in the next year. I'm also a bit a halo fanboy, so that helps.
Both consoles give free games each month if you have their premium account thing.
Xbox one however has backwards compatibility with a bunch of 360 games, so I'm using that a lot as well.
Other Stuff:
You can also use the xbox as a miracast receiver, which I use fairly often and works well. Granted you can get a standalone receiver for WAY cheaper, so don't buy it for that.
I loved xbox fitness, but they are killing it... Still a bit frustrated at that.
Xbox can be targeted with universal windows app, since it's a windows 10 machine at the core. So the preview program has just started getting actual windows 10 apps on it. Which I'm very curious if that will be awesome or horrible; to early to tell.
fuck your ads
You can get PS4's for cheap. Loads of hardcore gamers are getting rid of their A and B-type chassis for the more silent and power efficient C models. The news about the slim version is also driving used and new prices down, even though it's all rumors. So why bring the PS4 into the XB1 topic? Because you can't recommend one without mentioning its main competitor, which is, to my own tastes and of most, a much better product with a far nicer environment and game library. Much like you should probably get a PC over any of the two if you're going for VR, most RTS/FPS games or if you have a solid steam library.
For someone who doesn't have ANY console, I would still say the PS4 is king, unless you really want to spend those bucks for a US company, which I wouldn't be surprised many would in this site. You will get loads of fun with any, but you wil surely get a lot more value, and lend or be lent a lot more games between most friends who likely have a PS4. Worth 100 dollars or even more if you ask me. My two cents.
I remember when I got my 360. I basically bought it to play Gears of War, which at the time was a fairly big deal. It took me about 15 minutes to unpack the whole system, hook up the cables (component video and optical audio), plop the disc in the drive and start playing.
One of my nephews got an Xbone last Christmas. To say their experience was the polar opposite of my 360 would be a huge understatement.
It took them about 10 minutes to inbox the thing and plug it in. Then it wanted the Wifi password, except it wouldn't accept the one they already setup. Someone had to go fiddle with the WPA settings on the router before it'd work. Then the Wifi connection wasn't stable for some reason, so they had to hardwire the thing with a CAT5 cable.
Once they finally got it online, it wanted to update itself. Then they had to sign up for some mandatory online account or something, and then there were more updates to install. When they put the disc in the drive, there was some retarded install sequence, and then the game started downloading updates for itself... Which somehow caused the console to think it needed to download even more updates for itself.
Then they had to sign up for yet another online account because the game they wanted to play (despite being single player) had some sort of forced always online interactivity bullshit.
It took them something like 9 hours just to get everything working. By then the kids had lost interest and found something else to do. From what I've heard, they never really warmed up to the Xbone on account of it being a horrific pain in the ass to do anything with. They sold the system a few months later and I never heard about it again.
So, as far as I'm concerned, Microsoft couldn't pay me to get an Xbone. The experience just isn't there. Consoles were about playing games **NOW** (not later after 2.4gb of patches have downloaded) with your friends and family (didn't matter who brought the disc). Microsoft fucked that up royally. I have no interest or desire to deal with the complexities of a modern day console because of that.
Headline on the story just below this one:
"Microsoft Can't Shield User Data From Government, Says Government"
That certainly does make for a ringing endorsement that you should buy an Xbox one and attach an always on microphone...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It was such a bargain I bought five!!! They make excellent stocking stuffers. Plus I need to buy some for my house in the Hamptons and my ski house in the French Alps.
Buy a computer that only some people (those who pay extra) are allowed to program? That's totally absurd. Even if they gave it away for free, I probably wouldn't ever plug it in unless I heard that someone had cracked it so that you can run on it, whatever you want to.
Computers that are intended to serve someone else's interests above the owner's interest, are nearly worthless. It's either mine or it's yours, and if it's yours, then you pay for it!
As long as you don't connect it to the internet, Nintendo will likely never prompt to download anything. You migth still have to update firmware, but much like you had to for PS3's/PSPs - the game disc which needed a specific firmware brought it on-disc and it would be a 20min affair sans-data spending. And Nintendo still has the focus on family gaming in mind - this is the reason I bought one for my parent's and lil' 4yo sister's living room.
Current consoles don't allow KB/M (minus rare exceptions or using an adapter), which makes FPS games borderline unplayable. How does anyone finds this bullshit acceptable in this day and age? Seriously, even the Dreamcast had KB/M.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Why would I - hypothetically, since I don't buy consoles - buy this XBox, when they have already announced that they will release a better, backward compatible XBox soon?
Cheap obsolete hardware is still obsolete.
We won an Xbox 360 in a school raffle two years ago. The Xbox One had just been released. But because it had and the 360 had been on the market for a while, we were able to walk out of a pawn shop with a half-dozen games for less than $50.
I think our total game investment is maybe $100 up to now, and the count is probably 15 or more.
If you can play 360 games on the One, it might make a decent Christmas present if we don't lose the games we own or have to maintain two systems.
I tend to get a couple hours less than several times a month. Sadly, most of the time I try to play a game, I have to download updates. Its getting kinda ridiculous to spend half your time waiting to download an update before you can play all the time.
Thanks front page!
No, if you haven't bought one yet, either wait for the S or wait to buy a decent used Bone from somebody who bought an S.
Xboxes (like all other gaming consoles) have negative value.
Negative value?
I got given a freebie 360 by someone who upgraded to a PS4, it's now currently connected to my main television and gets used for mainly streaming video from the collection on the server upstairs, and watching things on iplayer and Prime, occasionally I'll fire up some old Xbox FPS games on it and have a headshot fest..
It cost me naught but the price of a HDMI cable (1 GBP) and, unlike the PC which sits under it and is also connected to the TV and which was for (ostensibly) gaming and videos, it just works..
The only 'negative' things I can see about it are the Microsoft connection..and that it'll eventually RROD on me.
Yet you still have time to whine about games on a website about news for nerds.
I am a HUGE fan of the Forza series. But I hate playing racing games with a joystick, and I don't have the space for a real steering wheel & pedals. So the XBox 360's "Wireless Speed Wheel" was perfect for me.
Microsoft lost a customer when they released XBox One without support for XBox 360 controllers and no replacement for the 360's wireless speed wheel. Leaving behind the XBox360 controllers was a blatant money grab, but if they'd have come out with a replacement for the WSW, I'd probably have paid full price & bought the box on launch day. As it is, I still play the original Forza on my 360. And when I needed a next-gen console, there was no reason not to buy the PS4.
Microsoft--and let's be fair here, also Sony to a lesser degree--both really have long histories of abusing their customers. I'm really not a Nintendo fanboy, and I have lots of bad things to say about them, but at the very least they actually recognize that their customers are human beings who play games for fun, they aren't fleshbags with coin purses.
1. New brake pads and rotors for my car
2. One month's 74 degree AC setting on my large, two story home.
3. A twenty Seven year subscription to Netflix's streaming services
4. Ten $25 dollar Prime steaks to grill.
5. 4 physician co-pays
6. Twelve and a half tanks of gas
7. A Primo Backpack
8. Round Trip Tickets to Vegas and a two nights at a shitty Hotel.
9. $451.53 after 20 years of 3% interest, compounding annually.
10. A 5/10 hooker for the night or a 10/10 hooker for 30 minutes.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Quit trolling. I am also an employed adult and I don't spend my time "chasing down the latest drivers or spec-ing a new video card" either. This isn't 1995 anymore; PCs "just work."
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
It's also violating your privacy (especially if instead of a 360 it were an Xbone, as this topic is actually about). By using it, you are also tacitly signalling your support for Microsoft's continuing assault on property rights (by attempting to subordinate them to copyright law run amok). Those costs may not be measured in dollars, yet they are real.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
You can pry my mouse out of my cold, dead hands.
(((dB)))
I'd never recommend anything Microsoft to anyone.
It truly boggles my mind how Microsoft have continually screwed their own customers over for decades, and yet still all the sheep out there keep buying their products, then are shocked/outraged when their turn inevitably comes around.
I'm waiting for $100 model. I didn't get a PlayStation One until Sony came out with the $100 model.
Anyone who actually enjoys gaming on consoles would probably already have a PS4. So a cheaper Xbox One doesn't change anything.
But then, I'm over the age of 12.
I just don't like the controller, although I have to admit the XB One's controller is better than the XB 360's. I much prefer the PS3's Dual Shock. From what I understand, the PS4's Dual Shock is better than the PS3's, so a PS4 will almost certainly be my next console purchase, when or if I'm ever in the market for a new one. That probably won't be for a while, since I'd like to wait for the VR market to mature a bit, and I still have a boatload of games on my PS3 I still haven't even touched.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Seeing as MS is putting out a new more powerful version of the Xbox soon, I would think spending any amount of money on the Xbox One would be stupid. Unless it was a bargain price, like $100 or less.
Be seeing you...
It's funny that so many people who do not have an Xbox One are telling others they shouldn't get one..
I've had mine for almost a year now. I enjoy playing the occasional game but mostly use it for streaming or watching Blu-ray moves as I only had DVD player before. It also plays the movie files I have saved on a thumb drive. I do not have the Kinect. It's a good piece of hardware and you can find some quality games for good prices if you're willing to wait a couple months after launch.
If you want one, buy one. If you are not sure, don't buy one.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
The lower price-point still isn't attractive enough to deal with all the BS of an Xbone and I'd rather stick to getting a Nintendo Mini for Christmas presents so it's less hassle for his parents.
For myself? Also no thanks. I'm a PC guy who prefers gaming on systems I can harden against invasive marketing and data collection. Nor do I need yet another glorified TV hotbox forcing me to run the air conditioning harder.
As an employed adult, when I manage to steal a few minutes away for gaming activities, I've found that I enjoy much more actually gaming rather than chasing down the latest drivers or spec-ing a new video card. YMMV
What kind of idiot are you? You're more likely going to spend 2 hours downloading and update for your console or games that you can't skip then you are for a PC. Hell I haven't updated the drivers for my videocard(sapphire 7950) since last year, and it's going along just fine with all the latest titles. Though I should probably do that tonight expecially for Doom since it's now updated to use the Vulcan API and there's a 30-560% increase in framerates depending on your videocard.
PC's just worked in 2003 and you can build a PC for $350USD that can kill both the PS4 and Xbox one with their shitty 30fps and 720-900p resolutions and plug it into the same TV you were using to play your console games on.
Topic at hand: I wouldn't recommend a console to anyone, especially since they're both underpowered PC's that you can't do a quarter the shit you could on a PC. While being locked into a console ecosystem that punishes you, and requires you to pay for multiplayer support and basic functions that are free on the PC.
Om, nomnomnom...
At that price, the question starts to become relevant, so let's dissect that box. What can be salvaged?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The problem is that it is not articulate enough to be good parody.
If you are serious, I would like to point out that the 2nd amendment doesn't apply in Germany. Germany dos not have a powerful Republican party (or one at all; the parliamentary system gives rise to so many small parties that I cannot say for sure without research. . . and this is slashdot, no one does research for postings here).
I could go on; but I am hoping that your post was nothing but a poor attempt at parody; oh, and it seems a bit off topic in an article about the X-box.
It's hard to recommend an older model when a Xbox One S is around the corner and expected to sell for the same price.
In general I think that the Xbox One is an attractive console at this price for the undemanding gamer. You can buy it for $250, subscribe to Gold for $60 a year and you get about 4 games a month to keep. Great inexpensive gaming gift for a kid. With keyboard and mouse support underway, aimed at PC style game control but hopefully usable for the UI, it could likely even become a PC alternative, at least for web browsing and applications using the Edge browser. (But that's just speculation on my part.)
Personally consoles don't get a lot of traction in my house these days. I have a Wii and a 360, and they both get some gaming, as well as LEGO games on my HTPC, but the kids and myself still normally prefer the tablets, and for console style gaming the HTPC with 360 wireless controllers works decently. Kinect does get some occasional use (in fact, it's the main use of the 360), and unfortunately Kinect games for the 360 aren't compatible with the One, or I might have been tempted to buy one. Still, even if I was planning to get one, I'd wait for the S, to have a console that's less bulky (and slightly more future proof).
A lot of the respondents to this post just don't get it. At a certain point the computer is not the ends, it is a means. Consoles provide a computer that, relatively, easily plays games. No tinkering or fussing required.
Instead of not working and expecting me to figure out what I need to do to fix the computer, they sometimes do have a update to install first. That is fine, I switch to some other task, or read, while that is happening. . . or just play a different game and instal the patch when I am done for the day.
At a certain point, the computer ceases to be a hobby unto itself.
It cant even handle 1080 at most times so its too weak. Sony won this round hands down, and i dont even like Sony!
I know the Xbox lags in system sales, but how does that translate to players available for multiplayer games? Take CoD for example. The game mode I like is ground war (big team 9v9). As I've seen on the Xbox 360, when the total numbers of online players falls below a certain level it become very difficult to find enough player for that mode. How to the muplayer numbers compare between the Xbox One and the PS4?
Zero-fuss Mouse + Keyboard + Homeworld Deserts of Kharak. That would make me curious.
Basically it goes like this:
Turn the XBox One into an affordable zero-fuss gaming PC and I'm in.
Since that's not happening because it would directly canibalise MSes OEM market - probably the only place they still make money selling Windows - this most probably won't happen.
So, no, I don't think I'm getting an XBone.
Concerning consoles in general: I see their point and I do have the last edition of the XBox 360 (my very first console) + ~30 bargain-bin priced GOTY/Ultimate/Directors-Cut/Platinum Edition gaming titles that each have won multiple awards for being excellent, superb and whatnot. The whole package was dirt-cheap and I have gaming fun for years to come - so no big pressure here to get a new console.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Actually, I think you were moderated down because your post contained nothing of value. Next time try less profanity and more expository.
Fanatically anti-fanatical
Not if it's Linux. Maybe he is trying to game on a Linux box
Consoles provide a computer that, relatively, easily plays games. No tinkering or fussing required.
They also do other stuff, relatively tinker-free, that you'd want to do near your TV & sound system -
- Connect to streaming music & video services
- Play CDs, DVDs & Blu-ray
- Connect to video and audio content libraries in your home
- Control your TV with your voice.
Yeah, yeah, I know you can do all this stuff with a PC as well, but with an XBOX it's set-and-forget (and, most importantly, wife-friendly).
I'm not sure what you mean by zero-fuss, but MS is planning mouse + keyboard gaming support. Hopefully it will arrive this year.
No.
I wouldn't purcash based on hopeful features though... They did kill OTA DVR... Still a bit annoyed about that.
It's also violating your privacy (especially if instead of a 360 it were an Xbone, as this topic is actually about).
Quote I responded to again
Xboxes (like all other gaming consoles) have negative value.
No specific model mentioned, general PC vs Console snark, not Xbox one specific.
I do take onboard your comments regarding their snooping, as an example, I will never have the kinect attached to anything other than a Linux box for 3D scanning, no doubt they're mining data gathered by the 360 on my viewing habits, from this they'll gather that I like prog rock, sci-fi and horror, and superior Italian detective dramas..they might get confused a bit by the occasional cartoon binge (I know Amazon are..)...my great nephew's currently going through a Batman phase..babysitting is so much fun...
90% of the use of our xbox one is streaming. My 3 year old has to help my wife turn it off after his show is over....
Of course, she just doesn't want to learn.. very capable woman in many instances.. except having fun.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
The trouble with the Xbox One and the PS4 for media consumption is that both have very high power consumption. You're much better off using other devices like Roku, Chromecast or AppleTV.
Personally I have found there is a dearth of interesting games on all of the current generation systems. Definitely does not live up to previous generations
It's still a Microsoft product. It still mostly plays games of a genre that I don't care about (doom clones).
As of the anniversary update, Xbox One runs Windows apps. What genre of game would you like to see developed as a Windows app, other than perhaps "fighting game with classic Nintendo IP"?
It would really help the X1 in my eyes if they focused more effort on making XBLA-exclusives backwards compatible. As it is, they tend to go for "big" titles, which are also available on the PC, which does kind of hurt it in my eyes. As it is, my X1 is mainly a Halo box.
- Play CDs, DVDs & Blu-ray
CD what? Xbox One can't rip CDs, and neither the PlayStation 4 nor the Wii U can even play CDs.
- Connect to video and audio content libraries in your home
How-To Geek's article claims that this happens through DLNA. I seem to remember certain PlayStation products in the past being very picky about DLNA implementation, not giving the user much useful troubleshooting information. How picky is the Xbox One's DLNA client, compared to (say) a living room PC? Does it support things like WebM (MKV container, VP8 or VP9 video, and Vorbis or Opus audio)?
You're trying to disguise a tantrum as a victory dance.
A while back it was revealed that Microsoft were paying youtube presenters for positive coverage:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2089245/microsoft-paying-youtube-personalities-for-positive-xbox-one-endorsements.html
Since then, I've never believed anything anyone says about their products, and I find it even harder when a post sounds like it was written by the Microsoft marketing department. Lots of mentions of Windows 10 thrown in there as well to show the synergy and benefits of getting your free upgrade before the deadline.
Current consoles don't allow KB/M (minus rare exceptions or using an adapter)
And I'm told most of these exceptions are on PlayStation 2, 3, and 4. Some people like using a mouse in one hand and half of a DualShock in the other because unlike WASD, an analog stick offers analog control of the speed and direction of your movement, not just your aiming.
How picky is the Xbox One's DLNA client, compared to (say) a living room PC?
I dunno how picky it is. We're a Windows household, so I turned on DLNA on the home PC and presto I was ready to go. Also works on my Sony Blu-ray and Sony TV.
A lot of the respondents to this post just don't get it. At a certain point the computer is not the ends, it is a means. Consoles provide a computer that, relatively, easily plays games. No tinkering or fussing required.
Instead of not working and expecting me to figure out what I need to do to fix the computer, they sometimes do have a update to install first. That is fine, I switch to some other task, or read, while that is happening. . . or just play a different game and instal the patch when I am done for the day.
At a certain point, the computer ceases to be a hobby unto itself.
An off the shelf PC will play games with exactly the same amount of "tinkering" as a modern console requires.
Most of that being getting the thing hooked up to the Internet and an account made with some service that your game needs to hand hold itself though it's DRM.
The consol however loses the option to do more tinkering than is strictly necessary (mods, non-standard controllers, etc.), is probably less powerful (they were decent at launch but technology moves on and they can't be easily upgraded), and won't run ad diverse a software suite as a PC.
A lot of the respondents to this post just don't get it. At a certain point the computer is not the ends, it is a means. Consoles provide a computer that, relatively, easily plays games. No tinkering or fussing required.
Instead of not working and expecting me to figure out what I need to do to fix the computer, they sometimes do have a update to install first. That is fine, I switch to some other task, or read, while that is happening. . . or just play a different game and instal the patch when I am done for the day.
At a certain point, the computer ceases to be a hobby unto itself.
An off the shelf PC will play games with exactly the same amount of "tinkering" as a modern console requires.
No it won't. An off the shelf PC - DELL, Lenovo, Acer - has a 120watt power supply, an integrated intel video card that is directx 9 compatible. It won't play anything other than solitaire without a lot of tinkering. Oh, it's the buyers fault for not doing their research and buying a 'proper' PC, right? You buy a PS4, it plays PS4 games. You buy a PC...maybe. Did you check to make sure it has 8 lanes PCIe? 400 watt PSU? proper connectors? No? Toss a coin on whether that game will work or not....
You have to leave steam running in the background and turn off power saving features. Or were you talking about consoles?
- Your link doesn't include an OS. While I love Linux, not many would argue that gaming on it works well or is smooth to get up and running. A legal copy of - Windows (we are being legal, right?) is $100.
- Your link also doesn't include a keyboard and mouse. For an apples to apples comparison, you'd probably need to add $50 onto the cost for an Xbox or PlayStation controller. And I doubt that motherboard includes bluetooth for the controller, so there is another expense.
- The case listed is much larger than the Xbox One or the PS4. Size is a factor for a lot of people, especially for a device that may go in the living room.
- Assembly is required. Assembling a PC will take a while for most people. It's difficult to quantify how much this is worth, but this shouldn't be ignored.
- Mail in rebate is required. MIR's are a pain. And if we are comparing "deals", an Xbox One has been on sale for much lower than $250 before.
You call someone an idiot, and then you post a horrible PC alternative to a console. A $350 PC + $100 (OS) + $40 (controller) + $20 (Wi-Fi+bluetooth) is over $500. I fully agree that over the long term, PC gaming can be far cheaper. But giving a bad comparison and throwing insults makes your post far less creditable.
FYI, the Xbox One does pretty much all of its updates in the background assuming you have the option chosen to boot instantly.
Also, of the last few games I played on PC (Diablo 3, Torchlight 2, Awesomenauts, and Bioshock Infinite) Torchlight and Bioshock had massive issues. Torchlight would take around 2 minutes to load new areas when it should have taken seconds, and Bioshock would crash around the same spot about 30 minutes into the game. Perhaps I am an outlier. But over the years I have had far more issues playing PC games than console ones.
The video quality of Netflix, Amazon, etc.. is utter crap when watching it through the xbox one vs a standard smart TV app or through a DVD player. The colors look like a faded pair of Levis 501 jeans.
I see no reason for this device unless your Windows device crashes and you are in dire need of spyware.
"You buy a PS4, it plays PS4 games" i hope it will but modern consol Waste so much time updating unskippable comercials and crap that i never bother with console they
I should have sold my XBone as soon as I got it for free from the Microsoft Build Conference. Instead, it accumulated dust for years under the idea that "ooh, I can use the Kinect 2 as a 3D scanner!" And my kids can play Kinect games in a few years! Turns out, nobody supports Kinect 2 as a 3D scanner because it is inferior to the Kinect 1. And they never made any decent games for it. Even new, the writing was on the wall: I couldn't even trade-in my new-in-box $500 XBOX for a used $300 Wii. GameStop just didn't want the dang things since day 1.
No, STEAM has sales that XBOX never has, saving lots of money. Even if you build a modest gaming PC - PC gaming is cheaper.
Consoles provide a computer that, relatively, easily plays games. No tinkering or fussing required.
They also do other stuff, relatively tinker-free, that you'd want to do near your TV & sound system - - Connect to streaming music & video services - Play CDs, DVDs & Blu-ray - Connect to video and audio content libraries in your home - Control your TV with your voice. Yeah, yeah, I know you can do all this stuff with a PC as well, but with an XBOX it's set-and-forget (and, most importantly, wife-friendly).
I don't need to do all that voice stuff. I've got a 10 year old beigebox running customised windowmaker and a cheapie remote for the PC. Using a couple of scripts I've put a menu on it that allows syncing to external drives (using volume lable/id to recognise previous drives), a simple remote-friendly menu system for browsing the filesystem, customised vlc to play anything selected and auto-ripping which, when selected, simply rips anything in the optical drive using the date/time and volume label to construct the rip names.
It's got a wifi dongle in, thus I can stream from my storage elsewhere, mame/mess/fceu/some sega thing (which all, like vlc, are started when selecting a file while browsing). Simply keeping a sane starting directory and a small menu (five items) means that my wife uses it very well, as does my ten-year old. The only thing missing is a second wireless controller for the games, and both my son and I are quite enjoying playing Super Mario 2, Sonic, etc.
One last thing: I put in a video capture device in as well, only we're not using it cause we don't watch braodcast TV
I got the PC from my wife's workplace for $40 when they were clearing out old office equipment. Took about a day to set it up (writing all the scripts, customising WindowMaker for use with the remote, etc).
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
So you're saying, it costs $100 more (not including the $100 you'll want to spend to get Windows), it takes more time (you are building your own PC instead of just opening a box), and it performs games "as well as" an XBox One, according to a biased anti-console source?
Again, It costs more, it takes more time, there's more than go wrong, and it doesn't even perform any better. Can you see why people don't take PC fanboys seriously?
Do yourself a favor and go buy an Intel NUC. It's much smaller than an XBone, runs on less power and has better media support.
Forget to set up automatic updates?
Hell I haven't updated the drivers for my videocard(sapphire 7950) since last year, and it's going along just fine with all the latest titles.
Video card updates come along fairly frequently and one probably should update them. If you're running year old drivers, you're probably not taking advantage of your video card as much as you might. And why the heck are you, a member of the PC Master Race not keeping your Windows system updated as you SHOULD be doing.
[sarcasm]Obviously a Windows Peasant, who probably isn't competent enough to administer a computer at all. Who knows what other updates this Windows Peasant hasn't done. They're machine is probably trojaned all to hell.[/sarcasm]
Another supposedly "superior" build from the biased master race reddit?
Which doesn't even include the OS, which has to be Windows for a game box, only has 4GB of RAM, not 8 and uses a Quad-core CPU (but at least it's a fast quad core)
Not only that but it is a box you have to build yourself, it is NOT a prebuilt one that you can just head out to a big box store and just simply buy, like a PS4 or Xbox One.
Topic at hand: I wouldn't recommend a console to anyone,
I really wouldn't recommend gaming on Windows. I know people do it, and that there are games that are PC only, but that doesn't mean people SHOULD do it.
While being locked into a console ecosystem that punishes you
While being locked into the Windows ecosystem of a crappy OS that punishes you. And locked into the Steam ecosystem that punishes you, or the Origin ecosystem that punishes you.
requires you to pay for multiplayer support and basic functions that are free on the PC.
They aren't truly "free" on the PC...somebody pays for that bandwidth. Whether it's some affluent nerd hosting some Quake-foo server, or Valve paying for their TF2 servers with the cut they take off of Steam...somebody pays, directly or indirectly.
Besides, console gamers get things BESIDES the multiplayer with their PS+ or Xbox live subscriptions.
And not all multiplayer in the PlayStation ecosystem requires PS+!
Multiplayer doesn't require PS+ on the Vita, or PS3. (or the PSP and PS2 if any of their games still have multiplayer running)
F2P games on the PS4 don't require PS+ for multiplayer. Examples being War Thunder or Neverwinter.
Games that use a "Send a turn/PBEM" style of multiplayer, also don't require PS+
Does it support things like WebM (MKV container, VP8 or VP9 video, and Vorbis or Opus audio)?
Have you turned into RMS? Just use h264 with AAC audio in MPEG4 containers for video and MP3 for music as the gods intended. You know damned well that "open" formats tend to be less well supported on consumer media devices so you don't even need to ask. Besides, you can have the DLNA server transcode any unsupported format, though you should just stick to the formats I listed above.
http://manuals.playstation.net...
Ive got a 10 year old beigebox running customised windowmaker
Using a couple of scripts
Took about a day to set it up (writing all the scripts, customising WindowMaker for use with the remote, etc).
perhaps you missed the "tinker-free" part of the GP's comment. Remember, not everyone is a Linux geek. Hell, I'm a Linux user and I'm not sure I could do the scripting you've done....especially with Windowmaker.
It listens to everything you and your family are saying, all the time. Then Microsoft reports to the murderers at NSA. Even if you "have nothing to hide", on principle alone, you should refuse to buy this kind of product.
Plus, if you have kids, you never know if they are not going to do some good deed, worth of punishment. If they say something "wrong", the FBI might send someone to turn them into "terrorists", entrap and arrest them.
Eric and "Anna" is a short about one "eco-terrorist" made by the FBI.
Years after McDavid's conviction, the FBI released thousands of pages of FOIA requested documents not disclosed at trial (...)
In January 2015, after serving nearly half of his 20 year sentence, Eric McDavid was released from prison. As a condition of his release, he waived his right to sue the government for any wrongdoing in his case.
Wouldn't you feel terrible if your kids ended up in jail because of FBI entrapment started because of something they said close to the video-game that you bought? It's not tin-foil since we know they are really doing it.
I'm not sure what you're getting at? Do you mean 3 adults or what? If it is a shared household of 3 adults then they can pay for their OWN PS+. If it is an adult and kids, then the adult can decided if they want their kids to have online multiplayer, or not.
I meant either way. A lot of people quote the raw sticker price of a console in arguments but fail to take into account the additional price of online multiplayer, especially in the era of a TV in every bedroom. Do games on either current console even support LAN multiplayer?
But PS+ accounts are per user [etc.]
tl;dr: PS+ on PlayStation 4 covers the user's primary console and other consoles that the user logs in to. Thank you for the explanation. After a bit of research, it appears Xbox Live Gold on Xbox One works the same way, and they call it "Home Gold".
It plays every video file I've thrown at it, off a USB stick, over over DLNA. Even streams MKVs perfectly via DLNA, and they are scrubbable, too. Even VLC on a PC doesn't do that. If the video file is too big to stream over the wifi, it adjusts the resolution on the fly. I'm amazed at how sophisticated the Xbox One media player is.
Not even if they pay me.
You're more likely going to spend 2 hours downloading and update for your console or games that you can't skip then you are for a PC.
It's better to check facts first than to post your assumption/beliefs that are wrong. PS4 / Wii U have options to check/install updates and backup saves during sleep mode. Also you can launch your game while the update is downloaded in background (obviously online with older version of game won't work).
As for console system update, it's true you can't skip that (again for online functionality) but install takes minutes and download happens in background.
While being locked into a console ecosystem that punishes you, and requires you to pay for multiplayer support and basic functions that are free on the PC.
What about cheating? Cheat Engine is also free on PC and cheating is often rampant while it's almost non existent (excluding exploits of game bugs that don't require additional software running) on unhacked consoles.
Naaa, I don't trust it.
I bought an Xbox360 mainly for the media box functions and occasionally to game. Microsoft nerfed the media box function a month after I bought the Xbox. I don't trust Microsoft not to nerf the Xbox ONE's capability on a whim. Once burned, twice shy.
NRRPT/RCT
Sony killed it first. Sony dropped PlayTV completely from PS3 to PS4. So I dropped Sony for the XBone so I'd be able to do OTA at all (without having to buy a separate DBV-T decoder, which I don't currently have). Since PS3 had a DVr, MS promised one, but when Sony didn't deliver an OTA at all, MS stopped focusing on competing with the missing feature. MS already beats Sony for TV features, so no need to try harder.
Learn to love Alaska