I just want to point out that Facebook does have a 'real' game studio now with published titles and many more in the pipeline. Further they have John Carmack and Abrash in-house. Love or hate Facebook, they now have to tools to make some extraordinary moves in gaming. We are way beyond Farmville here. This is a big announcement.
I just wish i understood why Xbox had to press down the PC gaming division for so long. Its like they went out of their way to be dicks. IT finally took them losing badly to Sony to finally realize PC is important to gaming.
Why not? I play Bioshock on my PC all the time, which is 9 years old... I also play Quake 3, UT, and lots of other games that are much older than 9 years. The big problem with the difference between the Xbox 360 and Xbox one is world geometry. The 360's memory and CPU were so limited, it just couldnt make big worlds. That will no longer be an issue and we should be damn near universal back compat for the next 20 years. (barring some quantum leap in power). The major differentiation now will be post-processing power, more so than CPU or memory, which are already 'good enough'.
"The whole POINT of a console over a PC is a known quantity for software makers."
This is not longer true, that era has ended, welcome to the new age. Keep in mind that these moves are a DIRECT result of the last gen going on for way too long. The 'known quantity' was abused for too long and now everyone has to play catch up. The point MS is making is that there will no longer be 'gens', just varying levels of post-processing power as hardware matures, with full back-compat across 'gens' just like PC has. The 360 held us back in the end, the time has come to move on.
"I'm hoping Intel chokes on desktops enough to let AMD get another foot in the door"
Its never going to happen. Intel is a Titan, AMD is a demi-god at best. AMD is not and has never been Intel's competition. Last year Intel spent almost as much on R&D as AMDs entire market cap.
Get her a FireTv/Roku and call it a day. I have several fire breathing HTPCs, with badass GPUs, but the wife only sees the FireTV for Amazon, Netflix and Kodi. She has her own remote and input, I even labeled the input with her name. This lets me go as crazy as i want with my HTPCs without worrying about accommodating normal users.
"No, they demand blood because someone decided to give the fruits of their labor away to random people who think they have the right to get it for free."
True fans go to shows and by merch, not pay for promo material. Musicians need to support themselves through LIVE PERFORMANCE, not copies of songs. IP is fucked, dont pretend its the moral high ground.
I loved WebOS and I loved that Palm stuck their finger right into Apple's eye. The USB ID shenanigans were small potatoes compared to the crap Apple has pulled.
DOTA is absolutely massive. This is like requesting that people type out National Basketball Association instead of NBA. You should know what DOTA is by now.
Why? Its a pictogram language. Sure people over use them, but they are incredibly useful ways of sending information. They also give flavor and context to otherwise flat and emotionless text.
"The benefit of a console is that they are not obsolete a year later, unlike high end PC GPU cards that cost more than a console to begin with."
You do understand that GPUs dont just roll over and die after a new card comes out, right? My 570, 770, 970 and 980ti are all still viable and useful cards. The 570 is much more useful than the xbox360 and PS3 i have rotting in the closet....Did i mention if the 570 dies, i dont have to chuck the whole machine, i can replace the card with a much more power efficient version for cheap? Consoles are what they are, you get what you pay for. They arent a 'better' value, just a different one.
Its going to scale just like PC does now, where we support dual core laptops and kilowatt gaming rigs. This is nothing new. Further, we arent going to see the vast gulf in abilities like we did between Xbox 360 and Xbox one, especially large geometry capability. The 360 was so hamstrung for memory that games designed for both this gen and last gen really suffered for it. That wont happen anymore, you wont have huge differences in geometry capability, the only thing that will change is resolution and post-processing power. Like i said, its a correction for past mistakes and will be the last big speedbump for consoles for the foreseeable future. From now on its incremental upgrades with full, absolute back-compat.
" both companies can such a chode for shortening the console life cycle."
Actually this is a correction for the last console gen going on for way too long. IF they had launched new systems in 2014 like they should have, these new boxes would be just a regular next gen. Quite honestly, this new move is a good thing, it makes the consoles scalable and more like PC. You are less likely to lose your library now when consoles introduce a new gen. IN fact the idea of 'gens' might already be over with.
NO its not. 'eSports capable' is a distinct level of hardware power that is well understood. I really dont like the term eSports, but this usage is legit.
The plain fact is you can no longer use Windows consumer versions for always-on stuff anymore. I have no idea why they think doing this is smart, but it makes a whole bunch of stuff a lot harder than it needs to be.
Most gamers lose their account because they get social engineered or they used the same password for their 3rd party guild forum as their game account and someone raided the site for the accounts/passwords.
Its Microsofts version of Steamworks, except they can mess wtih the whole OS itself.. They do the same shit for their own applications. I can use Bluetooth buttons in the Windows store apps, but not Win32 Windows Media Player. They are locking up functions like that to their apps.
Their implementation was so bad. I was playing GTA IV on my PC via GFWL and it would kick my wife off of Netflix on the Xbox360 because of Xbox Live. Ii was shocking display of incompetence and greed. I dumped my MS consoles after that. It was bad enough having to have Live to watch Netflix when MS was literally the only company charging for that.
If we couldnt secure a meaningful anti-trust punishment when they controlled almost all computers on the planet, what makes you think that we can succeed when they are greatly diminished?
Slashdot Mirror
I just want to point out that Facebook does have a 'real' game studio now with published titles and many more in the pipeline. Further they have John Carmack and Abrash in-house. Love or hate Facebook, they now have to tools to make some extraordinary moves in gaming. We are way beyond Farmville here. This is a big announcement.
I just wish i understood why Xbox had to press down the PC gaming division for so long. Its like they went out of their way to be dicks. IT finally took them losing badly to Sony to finally realize PC is important to gaming.
I think there is a middle ground. The last gen went on for WAY too long.
Overall, it does. The vast majority of software still works from XP to Win 10 Update 2. I can run Bioshock Infinite on a Celeron or a Xeon.
Why not? I play Bioshock on my PC all the time, which is 9 years old... I also play Quake 3, UT, and lots of other games that are much older than 9 years. The big problem with the difference between the Xbox 360 and Xbox one is world geometry. The 360's memory and CPU were so limited, it just couldnt make big worlds. That will no longer be an issue and we should be damn near universal back compat for the next 20 years. (barring some quantum leap in power). The major differentiation now will be post-processing power, more so than CPU or memory, which are already 'good enough'.
"The whole POINT of a console over a PC is a known quantity for software makers."
This is not longer true, that era has ended, welcome to the new age. Keep in mind that these moves are a DIRECT result of the last gen going on for way too long. The 'known quantity' was abused for too long and now everyone has to play catch up. The point MS is making is that there will no longer be 'gens', just varying levels of post-processing power as hardware matures, with full back-compat across 'gens' just like PC has. The 360 held us back in the end, the time has come to move on.
"I'm hoping Intel chokes on desktops enough to let AMD get another foot in the door"
Its never going to happen. Intel is a Titan, AMD is a demi-god at best. AMD is not and has never been Intel's competition. Last year Intel spent almost as much on R&D as AMDs entire market cap.
"f the user installs or modified the operating system without consent or permission from EvilTelco Inc: all warranties will be null and void,"
Magnusson-Moss act would take a huge dump right on top of this.
Get her a FireTv/Roku and call it a day. I have several fire breathing HTPCs, with badass GPUs, but the wife only sees the FireTV for Amazon, Netflix and Kodi. She has her own remote and input, I even labeled the input with her name. This lets me go as crazy as i want with my HTPCs without worrying about accommodating normal users.
"No, they demand blood because someone decided to give the fruits of their labor away to random people who think they have the right to get it for free."
True fans go to shows and by merch, not pay for promo material. Musicians need to support themselves through LIVE PERFORMANCE, not copies of songs. IP is fucked, dont pretend its the moral high ground.
I loved WebOS and I loved that Palm stuck their finger right into Apple's eye. The USB ID shenanigans were small potatoes compared to the crap Apple has pulled.
DOTA is absolutely massive. This is like requesting that people type out National Basketball Association instead of NBA. You should know what DOTA is by now.
"Did I just feel an earthquake?"
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ear...
Why would i ask other users when i can immediately see what actual geologists and scientific instruments have to say?
Why? Its a pictogram language. Sure people over use them, but they are incredibly useful ways of sending information. They also give flavor and context to otherwise flat and emotionless text.
Its a road to doublespeak. Control the words, control the thoughts.
"The benefit of a console is that they are not obsolete a year later, unlike high end PC GPU cards that cost more than a console to begin with."
You do understand that GPUs dont just roll over and die after a new card comes out, right? My 570, 770, 970 and 980ti are all still viable and useful cards. The 570 is much more useful than the xbox360 and PS3 i have rotting in the closet....Did i mention if the 570 dies, i dont have to chuck the whole machine, i can replace the card with a much more power efficient version for cheap? Consoles are what they are, you get what you pay for. They arent a 'better' value, just a different one.
Its going to scale just like PC does now, where we support dual core laptops and kilowatt gaming rigs. This is nothing new. Further, we arent going to see the vast gulf in abilities like we did between Xbox 360 and Xbox one, especially large geometry capability. The 360 was so hamstrung for memory that games designed for both this gen and last gen really suffered for it. That wont happen anymore, you wont have huge differences in geometry capability, the only thing that will change is resolution and post-processing power. Like i said, its a correction for past mistakes and will be the last big speedbump for consoles for the foreseeable future. From now on its incremental upgrades with full, absolute back-compat.
" both companies can such a chode for shortening the console life cycle."
Actually this is a correction for the last console gen going on for way too long. IF they had launched new systems in 2014 like they should have, these new boxes would be just a regular next gen. Quite honestly, this new move is a good thing, it makes the consoles scalable and more like PC. You are less likely to lose your library now when consoles introduce a new gen. IN fact the idea of 'gens' might already be over with.
Counter-point: The Sixth Sense.
NO its not. 'eSports capable' is a distinct level of hardware power that is well understood. I really dont like the term eSports, but this usage is legit.
The plain fact is you can no longer use Windows consumer versions for always-on stuff anymore. I have no idea why they think doing this is smart, but it makes a whole bunch of stuff a lot harder than it needs to be.
Most gamers lose their account because they get social engineered or they used the same password for their 3rd party guild forum as their game account and someone raided the site for the accounts/passwords.
Its Microsofts version of Steamworks, except they can mess wtih the whole OS itself.. They do the same shit for their own applications. I can use Bluetooth buttons in the Windows store apps, but not Win32 Windows Media Player. They are locking up functions like that to their apps.
Their implementation was so bad. I was playing GTA IV on my PC via GFWL and it would kick my wife off of Netflix on the Xbox360 because of Xbox Live. Ii was shocking display of incompetence and greed. I dumped my MS consoles after that. It was bad enough having to have Live to watch Netflix when MS was literally the only company charging for that.
If we couldnt secure a meaningful anti-trust punishment when they controlled almost all computers on the planet, what makes you think that we can succeed when they are greatly diminished?