Microsoft has announced that Xbox Live Gold subscribers will get three free games with Gold in January. The Xbox One murder mystery, D4, will be available for the entirety of January. Xbox 360 owners will be able to download MX vs ATV Alive for the first half of January. On January 16th, MX vs ATV Alive will be replaced by The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.
A whole batch of entertainment apps have arrived on Xbox One, including Vevo, Popcornflix, Pandora and Bravo Now. A few of these apps are region specific. These apps follow the addition of Twitch, HBO GO, Starz Play and ReddX. These apps will not be the last to come to Xbox, according to Xbox Wire:
“We look forward to bringing you more great experiences in the future,”
“Here’s to 2015!”
I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that, right now, there isn’t any news. Except of course for the news about there being no news, plus the aforementioned good news, of which I am about to to tell you. The good news is that there will soon be some news, because Gamescom is this week, which was actually news to me, since I had completely forgotten about this event. This latter factoid, if you didn’t already know it, might also be classified as news and means I must therefore amend my previous statement regarding there only being two bits of news and oh no I’ve gone cross-eyed. Read more …
It’s that time of year again. Summer. It must be, because I’m barely able to think straight. It’s too damned hot. I realise that it being a paltry 16 degrees outside (that’s Celsius or centigrade, mind you – none of this Fahrenheit nonsense) is nothing to shout about in some parts of the world. But you see, this is Scotland. At 8:30pm. It’s not meant to be this warm during the bloody day, never mind the evening.
It wouldn’t even be too bad if I didn’t have the setting Sun glaring in my window until the horizon finally swallows it. But I do, which makes my room approach the 30 degree mark during any given evening. No doubt this is aggravated by the monitor and/or TV being on, alongside my PC and probably a console. Not to mention my inability to open my window, lest bees and moths from miles around all congregate to seek entry. All the light and heat, they must think it’s fucking heaven or something.
Such is life. Roll on Autumn, when it’ll be sensibly cool. But for the moment, I’ll just have to be content with looking forward to E3.
Twitch has recently released its line-up for the various E3 streams it plans to show. Take a gander below:
Monday 6/9 PT
● 9:30am – Xbox E3 2014 Media Briefing
● 11:00am – Xbox E3 2014 Media Briefing Post show
● 11:30pm – Hotline Miami 2 (Dennaton Games/Devolver Digital)
● 12:00pm – EA World Premiere: E3 2014 Preview
● 1:00pm – EA Special Event
● 2:00pm – EA World Premiere: E3 2014 Post show
● 2:30pm – Bethesda (Unannounced title)
● 3:00pm – Ubisoft 2014 E3 Media Briefing
● 4:00pm – Ubisoft 2014 E3 Media Briefing Post show
● 4:30pm – Witcher 3 (CD Projekt RED)
● 5:00pm – Dying Light (Techland)
● 5:30pm – Final thoughts
● 6:00pm – PlayStation E3 2014 Press Conference
Tuesday 6/10 PT:
● 9:00am – Nintendo Digital Event
● 10:00am – Deep Silver (Unannounced title)
● 10:15am – Deep Silver (Unannounced title)
● 10:30am – Dragon Age: Inquisition (EA)
● 11:00am – Ubisoft (Unannounced title)
● 11:20am – The Division (Ubisoft)
● 11:40am – Farcry 4 (Ubisoft)
● 12:00pm – Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Activision)
● 12:20pm – Microsoft Studios (Unannounced title)
● 12:40pm – Microsoft Studios (Unannounced title)
● 1:00pm – DRIVECLUB (SCEA)
● 1:20pm – Evil Within (Bethesda)
● 1:40pm – Lords of the Fallen (NAMCO)
● 2:00pm – Destiny (Activision/BUNGIE)
● 2:20pm – The Order: 1886 (Sony Computer Entertainment)
● 2:40pm – Nintendo (Unannounced title)
● 3:00pm – Evolve Special Tournament (2K)
● 4:00pm – Super Smash Bros. Invitational (Nintendo)
Wednesday 6/11 PT:
● 10:00am – Alienware
● 10:30am – Twitch Time
● 11:00am – Sunset Overdrive (Insomniac Games/Microsoft Studios)
● 11:20am – Microsoft Studios (Unannounced title)
● 11:40am – Killer Instinct: Season Two (Iron Galaxy/Microsoft Studios)
● 12:00pm – Square Enix (Unannounced title)
● 12:20pm – Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade (Square Enix)
● 12:40pm – H1Z1 (Sony Online Entertainment)
● 1:00pm – EA (Unannounced title)
● 1:20pm – Batman: Arkham Knight (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
● 1:40pm – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
● 2:10pm – Nintendo (Unannounced title)
● 2:30pm – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (Unannounced title)
● 2:50pm – Crytek (Unannounced title)
● 3:00pm – Sony Computer Entertainment (Unannounced PS4/PS3 title)
● 3:15pm – Sony Computer Entertainment (Unannounced PS4/PS Vita Digital title)
● 3:30pm – Hohokum (Honeyslug, SCE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment)
● 3:45pm – Helldivers (Arrowhead Game Studios/Sony Computer Entertainment)
● 4:00pm – Alien Isolation (The Creative Assembly/SEGA)
● 4:20pm – Civilization: Beyond Earth (2K)
● 4:40pm – Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – Ultimate Evil Edition on PS4 (Blizzard)
● 5:00pm – Evolve Special Tournament (2K)
Thursday 6/12 PT:
● 10:00am – Tetris w/creator Alexey Pajitnov
● 10:15am – Zombies Monsters Robots (Ying Pei Games)
● 10:30am – Guinness World Records – certificate presentation
● 11:00am – Fable Legends (Lionhead Studios/Microsoft Studios)
● 11:20am – Microsoft Studios (TBD)
● 11:40am – Project Spark (Team Dakota/Microsoft Studios)
● 12:00pm – Nintendo (Unannounced title)
● 12:20am – Square Enix (Unannounced title)
● 12:40pm – PlanetSide 2 PS4 Edition (Sony Online Entertainment)
● 1:00pm – 505 Games (TBD)
● 1:20pm – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (Unannounced title)
● 1:40pm – Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Gearbox/2K)
● 2:00pm – Ubisoft (Unannounced title)
● 2:20pm – The Crew (Ubisoft)
● 2:40pm – Nintendo (Unannounced title)
● 3:00pm – Tecmo Koei (Unannounced title)
● 3:20pm – Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes (Disney Interactive)
● 3:40pm – SEGA Sonic BOOM! (SEGA)
● 4:00pm – Evolve Special Tournament (2K)
Wow, that was a long list, huh? Of course, all of those times are for you lot across the pond and I have to spend time calculating what stupid hour of the night I’m going to need to stay up until to watch everything. Nevertheless, since this is Twitch’s first year as official E3 live streaming platform, I’m expecting great things. Previous offerings have been patchy at best and I really hate Ustream, so I’m super-glad that people are wising up to Twitch superiority in this matter.
So many unannounced titles. Such potential for more hilarity from Microsoft as they continue attempts to justify their current nosedive. Maybe we’ll even see some actual games coming from Nintendo this year. Hell, their 666% increase in Wii U sales in the UK thanks to Mario Kart 8 is certainly a good sign.
Now, please excuse me while I melt.
Here I was, trying to think of what I was going to write for my Friday article. Driving along during an uncharacteristically sunny day in the Highlands, attempting to dredge an idea from the recesses of my mind. Then along come Microsoft to the rescue. My heroes.
I want to imagine the conversation went something like this.
There’s a knock on Phil Spencer’s office door. Yusuf Mehdi pokes his head in.
“Uh, Phil?”
“What’s up?”
“Have you seen the sales figures for April?”
“No. Are they awesome?” Phil asks with a grin, reaching for his coffee. “I bet they’re awesome.”
“Not as such,” Yusuf replies, visibly sweating as he hands Phil a piece of paper.
“This is an application form for Zynga.”
“Whoops, wrong one,” Yusuf chuckles, snatching back his potential future. “Here they are.”
Phil takes a sip of his coffee as he reads the new document.
“PFFFFFFBBBBBBBBBT.”
Turns out that the Xbone isn’t doing all that well. Microsoft’s strategy thus far has been to, in approximate order:
– Tell us we’re wrong and/or we don’t understand their vision (DRM, always-connected Kinect).
– Back-pedalled and claimed that they were “listening to gamers” (remove DRM, Kinect optional).
– Insist that Kinect and Xbone are one and the same; inseparable.
– Spout meaningless figures to cover up poor sales (Xbones “sold to market”, gameplay statistics).
They pinned their hopes on Titanfall turning their fortunes around, but that hasn’t happened. While Call of Robots managed to top the overall sales for April according to NPD, that’s across all platforms. Microsoft were lightning-quick off the mark trying to spin this news into something positive for their foundering console. When you look a little closer, however – especially at those titles that didn’t make the top 10 – a different story emerges.
For a start, inFAMOUS: Second Son on PS4 outsold Titanfall on Xbone. inFAMOUS sold 1 million copies within 9 days, while Titanfall took 3 weeks to reach that mark. This trend seems to have continued, with little left for Microsoft to do than backpedal even harder.
In a move that’s meant to be beneficial to consumers, Microsoft have finally ditched the mandate that Kinect needs to be bundled with every Xbone. From June the 9th, a Kinect-less SKU (lovingly dubbed The Diskinect) will be available from retailers. This should mean a significant discount to those looking to purchase an Xbone, but they can’t seem to even get that part right. As of right now, I could go and buy an Xbone, with both Kinect and Titanfall, for £390. The Diskinect is available for pre-order, on its own, for £350. As a comparison, I can get a PS4 with inFAMOUS or Watch_Dogs for £385 or on its own for £345.
So what we end up with is the same situation as before: Microsoft’s console is still more expensive, regardless of which bundle you buy, with the Diskinect representing the worst value of all. Why is the price difference the same between PS4 and Xbone bundles – that £40 gap covers the cost of the game (let’s not even mention the fact that you need to subscribe to XBLG to even PLAY Titanfall), but what about the Kinect? Useless as it was, its loss represents a loss in functionality that’s not reflected by a lower price. I’d have hoped to see Microsoft selling the Xbone at £300, complete with a voucher allowing the holder to punch Major Nelson in the face should they ever meet him.
Gamers as a whole have been screaming from the rooftops for some time now: Kinect is stupid, it doesn’t work, get rid of it. The trouble is that by doing so, Microsoft have lost the last shred of integrity that they might have retained throughout this past year. It’s too little and too late. The Xbone is now a technologically inferior PS4, devoid of just about any redeeming feature. It’s too big, its UI is a mess, third party games run universally poorer than on the PS4, the TV-related features mean bugger all to anyone outside the US and its current line-up of first party exclusives is poor.
Not to mention that XBLG is still crap value when compared to PlayStation Plus, even though Microsoft have ditched the pay wall for many previously Gold-restricted features. Yes, good news – now you no longer need to pay Microsoft to click on the Netflix or Amazon Prime Instant Video icon! But no, you can’t play that F2P title online with others without paying up, because double standards.
Of course, a lot of what I’ve just written is conjecture and bile: I’m still angry at Microsoft for being such a dick back at E3 2013. To this day, they’ve not apologised for any of the crap they’ve pulled – it’s always spun in such a way to make it look like it was their idea. They come up with excuse after excuse to try and legitimise their furious scramble to try and sell their cursed console. With hundreds of thousands of unsold Xbones on shelves across (some) of the globe – most of which will need to be taken down and re-packaged in order to even sell – there’s a very real possibility that the Wii U, or even the Xbox 360, may outsell the Xbone in May.
Microsoft aren’t about to answer to me or anyone else in a remotely honest way. They’re going to continue bullshitting until the Xbone turns a profit, then bullshit some more. The only positive to take away from this situation is that they’ve now removed the last reason to actively avoid the Xbone – all they need to do now is give us a reason to buy it. Maybe Halo will be enough, but when some of the third party “exclusives” that Microsoft have been relying on start making their way across to PS4, even Master Chief won’t be enough.
Gamers have chosen – for now, they’ve chosen PS4.
One of the reasons I like the PS4 as much as I do is that it embodies a specific focus. It’s very much a machine designed to play games, with very little extraneous stuff bolted on. It’s a refreshing sip of nostalgia to see that sort of thing in today’s gaming environment. I believe that games – and the consoles they’re played on – are straying too far from themselves. While that may sound like new-age psycho-babble, it’s the best way I can think of to describe the general malaise that’s descended over my beloved hobby.
Let me explain. Read more …