Well, my dad works at Nintendo and~: Console Wars Horseshit Megathread

[Fabricated]

I imagine this will be a lot of Xbox One news, but since we got a new gen coming may as well cut down on the "lol, xbone" threads that will pop up off and on since the laugh factory seems to keep on rolling.

Microsoft has spent $100 Million Earth Dollars on designing the XBox One controller.

Microsoft has spent more than $100 million on designing the Xbox One controller. It sounds like an extraordinary sum, but that includes the design of hundreds of pad prototypes, thousands of hours of user research studies, and creating new tooling and construction facilities. The project dragged on for two-and-a-half years.

"The investments in redesigning a controller go into the hundreds of millions of dollars in tooling and R&D costs. Bearing in mind we started with something that people considered best-in-class, the pressure to do it right again was tremendous.

"Honestly, some of us felt like we were putting our career on the line. We were afraid we were going to burn through $100 million and come back with an under-developed controller.

Seems like a pretty good investment IMO.

[Fabricated]

Kinect doesn't need to be plugged in for the console to work anymore!

Trigger Warning: Kotaku

Another backflip? Back in May, Microsoft said that you'll need have the motion-sensing Kinect plugged in at all times in order for your Xbox One to function, but now they're reversing course once again.
Related

The state of confusion around the new Xbox One console is such that we're delighted to bring you the news that Microsoft's next console has … Read…

We already knew that you could turn off the Kinect, but now Microsoft says it doesn't have to be plugged in at all. Speaking to IGN, Microsoft's Marc Whitten shared the news that the Xbox One will indeed work without Kinect.

"That said, like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn’t plugged in, although you won’t be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor," he said.

Asked just how "off" the Kinect can be, Whitten answered totally off.

"You have the ability to completely turn the sensor off in your settings. When in this mode, the sensor is not collecting any information. Any functionality that relies on voice, video, gesture or more won’t work. We still support using it for IR blasting in this mode. You can turn the sensor back on at any time through settings, and if you enter into a required Kinect experience (like Kinect Sports Rivals for instance), you’ll get a message asking if you want to turn the sensor back on in order to continue."

I'm kind of wondering if they needed to cut any functionality for this since they were pretty fucking insistent about the Kinect being necessary.

[Fabricated]

Oh right, I mentioned Nintendo:

Iwata: Price isn't the reason the WiiU is selling like shit!

Lack of software is what's killing our console, says Iwata.

"If the price is actually an issue, then there is some contradiction between the current sales balance between the Basic and Premium versions of the Wii U," says Nintendo's Satoru Iwata. "The basic version should have sold a lot, but the fact of the matter is that people are buying more of the premium version. So the issue is not there." No, Iwata believes, the real problem is the lack of software, not the hardware price point, and the only solution is to bring out "a number of quality software titles."

Well, maybe you shouldn't have designed a previous gen quality console as a next-gen console and focused on another controller gimmick so ports are annoying to make for it.

[Merusk]

Seems like a pretty good investment IMO.

All my years of exposure to designers have convinced me is there's a lot of naive people willing to pay way more money than they should for far too little result.  Designers are the flim-flam experts of the professional world, IMO.

Made worse when they only have to do "design development" and a guy who gets paid 1/6 of their bill (at best) has to figure out how to actually make the shit work.

[Margalis]

A lot of WiiU games get knocked for not using the pad enough. I wonder if every XB1 game is going to get knocked for not using Kinect? From what I can tell other than Kinect shovelware games like Kinect Sports / Adventures only 1 or 2 games in the launch window use it to any real degree. (Ryse and Fantasia)

[MrHat]

 

[Merusk]

A lot of WiiU games get knocked for not using the pad enough. I wonder if every XB1 game is going to get knocked for not using Kinect? From what I can tell other than Kinect shovelware games like Kinect Sports / Adventures only 1 or 2 games in the launch window use it to any real degree. (Ryse and Fantasia)

Of course they won't, even though that's the biggest flaw in the "must have Kinect!" plan.

It'll be the exact same scenario as the Wii waggle.  Maybe some token use from ports and only the owned devs and exclusives making any real use of it.

[CmdrSlack]

A lot of WiiU games get knocked for not using the pad enough. I wonder if every XB1 game is going to get knocked for not using Kinect? From what I can tell other than Kinect shovelware games like Kinect Sports / Adventures only 1 or 2 games in the launch window use it to any real degree. (Ryse and Fantasia)

If there is an updated version of the Your Shape fitness program, then it makes the updated Kinect worth it for me. If not, then I may have to look at the PS4 a bit more. Sony lost me last gen due to price point. The previous gen, I had both systems, but no kid.

Our 360 is our media box these days. We stream TV and movies, play games, and we would listen to music more often if the windows media center extender wasn't total shit. Maybe I am their target market. My gaming is split 50-50 with PC and console. I could get a Roku or whatever, but I have found a third party software solution that runs on my PC and streams to the 360.

Most of the Kinect games are shit. Your Shape works well, but it does suck at tracking sometimes, particularly when doing yoga and slower movements. It is not a game though. Our main use of the Kinect beyond fitness is voice command.

[MrHat]

Microsoft has spent $100 Million Earth Dollars on designing the XBox One controller.

Its like every now and then Microsoft likes to remind us how much money they have to throw around.

[Fabricated]

They also spent $1,000,000,000 to buy Skype despite having working VOIP and video tech of their own they built to compete with Skype.

[jakonovski]

 

Well, if you're going to preserve something from the old controller, why not go for the worst thing possible?

[Teleku]

They also spent $1,000,000,000 to buy Skype despite having working VOIP and video tech of their own they built to compete with Skype.

Eh, Google ended up buying youtube despite coming out with google video first.  Sometimes its just worth it to buy a name (and the customers that come with it), even if you have similar tech already.

Not that I know if the Skype deal has made them any money.  All I know is that everybody on the planet still continues to use Skype for any sort of internet call/video, and the term to 'Skype' somebody has become as big a part of popular language as 'googling' something.  So it can't have been that bad of an investment.

[Merusk]

Yeah, It's easier to buy a market and brand than build one.  Probably cheaper, too, since you have to learn all the lessons they did and chip-away at marketshare while doing so.

[Paelos]

Yeah, It's easier to buy a market and brand than build one.  Probably cheaper, too, since you have to learn all the lessons they did and chip-away at marketshare while doing so.

Absolutely. Look at the Fedex/Kinkos buyout.

[ezrast]

Holy shit, it took them $100 million but they finally figured out that making an 8-directional pad be circular makes not a lick of sense.

[Margalis]

IIRC Nintendo had a patent on the plus-style digital pad that ran out recently, which is why both MS and Sony have had terrible d-pads. I'm not sure exactly what the patent covers, so incompetence may be a factor as well.

360 controllers have terrible build quality. In game development you put a lot of wear and tear on controllers. I think about 80% of 360 controllers I used in development broke in some way - the analog stick suffered from permanent drift, a button got stuck down, etc. This is also why 360 games have huge dead zones on the sticks and very little actual analog throw. About a third of the theoretical range is unusable on a stick with decent wear and tear.

[Cyrrex]

Is it safe to assume that there is no compatibility between the old controllers and the bone?

And what about PS3 controllers on the PS4? 

I am really, really getting fucking tired dropping a small fortune on controllers and I can't think of one good reason that they shouldn't be compatible...

[Azazel]

I'll just drop this  here as a general reply to most all of Microsoft's XBone shenanigans.

[sickrubik]

IIRC Nintendo had a patent on the plus-style digital pad that ran out recently, which is why both MS and Sony have had terrible d-pads. I'm not sure exactly what the patent covers, so incompetence may be a factor as well.

Yes, Nintendo had a patent and it ran out. That played a big part of it.

[HaemishM]

While I like the 360 controllers, the damn analog sticks are built like ass. That rubbery shit they put on it wears off WAY too quickly then it becomes a thumbfucking machine of torture.

[jakonovski]

Looks like the yield problem rumors were true: the Xbone is delayed in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland. They're trying to put it out at some point in 2014.

It's not like I wanted to buy the console anyway, but it's nice to know MS got my back.

[sickrubik]

There is some talk that they may have needed some time to localize some of the changes they've made to the console as well.

[Yegolev]

Holy shit, it took them $100 million but they finally figured out that making an 8-directional pad be circular makes not a lick of sense.

I still don't like it:

I happen to like/don't know what's wrong with the PS3 d-pad.  Seems pretty similar to the NES one on the surface.  I didn't see any PS4 controller pictures that didn't come from Destructoid or Polygon so I'll let that lie for now.

[schild]

There's nothing wrong with the Playstation dpad. No fucking games use it except for ones you should be using a joystick with anyway.

The 360 dpad however, is literally hitler.

[ezrast]

I like the PlayStation D-pad but I'd like it more if it were less mushy and more clicky. NDS D-pad is best D-pad imo.

[Yegolev]

Nothing is clicky anymore.  We are all old.

There are some JP games that use the d-pad to do things like move around menus while the stick is reserved for moving your avatar.  Sometimes this is for no good reason, since the effect is that they simply prevent you from using the stick to navigate menus.

[schild]

I really enjoy the title of this thread because my dad DID actually work for Nintendo. Back in like 1988.

[jakonovski]

An Irishman's take on the console war:

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/the-point/?event=why-the-xbox-is-losing-20130814&tag=Topslot;Slot3

[Yegolev]

I enjoy this thread title because of the word "horseshit".

[tazelbain]

Tildas get me hot and bothered.

[Kageru]

An Irishman's take on the console war:

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/the-point/?event=why-the-xbox-is-losing-20130814&tag=Topslot;Slot3

That seems like a good analysis. Though I'd be happy to see some hardcore bleed onto the PC (even as a companion device) and Microsoft is also motivated by the strategic goal of becoming the front end to TV. They could potentially capture the softcore gamers and subscription income that way without really caring what the hardcore do.

I did like the comment that casual and soft gamers get put off by the catalogue of violence heavy titles on the consoles. I think that's probably true but easily missed.

[Miasma]

An Irishman's take on the console war:

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/the-point/?event=why-the-xbox-is-losing-20130814&tag=Topslot;Slot3

What game is this? :

[Rasix]

Looks kind of like Geralt (white pony tail, 2 swords) in the saddle there.  So, Witcher 3?

[Miasma]

Ah yes you're right.

Maybe I'll have to go back and play Witcher 2 even though I didn't much care for it.  I really liked the first one.

[Fabricated]

Buy the Xbox One folks, it has literally everything you hate about gaming!!