Xbox One: A Look Inside !

May 23rd, 2013, 14:59 Posted By: wraggster

The XBOX ONE Motherboard !
XBOX ONE MOTHERBOARD

Click to see whats inside plus many more exclusive hi res images of the XBOX ONE !

http://team-xecuter.com/xbox-one-a-look-inside/

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Xbox Live video, music purchases will transfer to Xbox One

May 23rd, 2013, 01:26 Posted By: wraggster

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Xbox One requires Kinect connection

May 23rd, 2013, 01:24 Posted By: wraggster

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Spec Analysis: Xbox One

May 23rd, 2013, 01:21 Posted By: wraggster

As a core gamer, it's difficult not to be frustrated by the manner of yesterday's Xbox reveal. Microsoft set out to champion its innovative platform, its vision for multimedia and a renewed focus on making Kinect relevant again as a convincing alternative to the traditional remote. But we wanted to know about the new generation of gaming and the approach in revealing Xbox One titles via trailers with no single identifiable example of actual live gameplay was an enormous error in judgement. The problem is that next-gen trailers look no different to current-gen trailers - so there was no groundbreaking innovation, no authenticity and therefore no buzz. Even the promising Call of Duty: Ghosts reveal - perhaps the closest thing we had to actual gameplay - was in-engine footage apparently running on Xbox One hardware. Yet there were no assurances that this was actually real-time, or that this would be the actual quality of the game we will be playing in November.There was a similar level of inscrutability about the actual specs of the Xbox One hardware too. In the presentation itself, Microsoft talked in broad strokes about the internals of the box - eight CPU cores, 8GB of (non-descript) RAM, multi-channel 802.11n WiFi, and a Blu-ray drive. But the only new information we had that hadn't previously leaked was the inclusion of a 500GB hard drive and a five billion transistor count for the main processor. Gaming specs like the CPU clock-speed, the type of RAM, the make-up of the graphics core - all the most controversial elements of the leaked information, in other words - were ignored. The cynical may suggest that highlighting this would do Xbox One no favours in comparison to the PlayStation 4, while the Microsoft faithful could perhaps hold out hope that the more disappointing elements of the previous leaks were outright wrong.A follow-up architecture panel hosted by Microsoft's Larry Hyrb soon put paid to the latter, more optimistic appraisal of the situation. Very early on it was established that ESRAM is indeed incorporated into the Xbox One design - essentially a large, very fast cache of embedded memory attached to the GPU and CPU that helps to make up the bandwidth deficit inherent in using slower memory. So even without direct confirmation, we now knew that the 8GB of memory in Xbox One is indeed DDR3 as opposed to the bandwidth-rich GDDR5 found in the PlayStation 4 (and Wired's internal photography of the One confirms 2133MHz DDR3 Micron modules). Xbox One may well have a latency advantage over PS4 and power consumption will probably be lower, but GPU bandwidth - a key element in graphics performance - is indeed more limited on the Microsoft hardware.

"A fine design with a premium finish, our only major reservation about the Xbox One's hardware design is the return of the power brick."

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Deezer outs Xbox Live app, available now to Premium+ subscribers in Europe

May 23rd, 2013, 01:08 Posted By: wraggster

While Microsoft may have unveiled a new generation of its Xbox console yesterday, some companies are still trying to get a piece of real estate on the current ecosystem. Today, Deezer announced that it's making a debut on Xbox Live, giving (some) users ofthe streaming service access to its extensive music repertoire right from the 360. The app will be available "across Europe" for now, and mum's the word on when, or if, Deezer plans to launch in more markets. For those living in The Old Continent, however, all you'll need is a Premium+ subscription and, as is often the case with similar offerings, a Gold membership on Xbox Live. Jam on.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/22/deezer-xbox-live/

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Multiple accounts can use a single Xbox Live subscription on the One

May 23rd, 2013, 00:51 Posted By: wraggster

If you joined us for the Xbox One reveal yesterday, you'll probably know that amidst all the excitement, we learned that a single Xbox Live Gold membership will cover boththe 360 and the next-gen console. Good stuff -- no extra expenditure, subscription sign-ups or other irritations. But, it gets even better, as a couple of Microsoft bigwigs toldPolygon that Live memberships can also used by multiple profiles. That means several accounts can be created on one console, for discrete friends lists, personal Home screensand the like, but they'll all be able to feed off the same subscription. We're not sure how this'll work exactly, but it already sounds better than the Gamertag-specific membership model on the 360, which is responsible for far too many amazing kill stats being lost to the dreaded "Guest" account.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/22/x...iple-accounts/

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After an awful start, Xbox One must redeem itself at E3

May 22nd, 2013, 23:36 Posted By: wraggster

Microsoft's confused, boring reveal event angered the core audience and worried business commentators. E3 will be a chance to set things right
[h=3]Microsoft[/h]microsoft.com

[h=3]Microsoft Corporation[/h]

E3 is only three weeks away. That might be important - it might, in fact, be central to Microsoft's thinking. Perhaps the company thought that, with the annual gaming jamboree fast-approaching, it could bundle all of the excruciating corporate newspeak and market positioning nonsense into a brief one-hour press conference and then - with appropriate lip service and homage paid to the twin gods of broadcast TV and American sports - it could rapidly move on to an E3 focused almost exclusively on games, delighting the core audience so much that they'll utterly forget a coming-out party that seemed to imply a jumped-up cable box that merely plays games as an afterthought.
"Here is a company which is so arrogantly confident in its dominance of the core gaming space that it believes it no longer has anything to prove"

I sincerely hope that's the case - that Microsoft is keeping its powder dry for E3. It's an odd and probably deeply misguided communications strategy, since the firm completely held the specialist press' attention for the days surrounding its unveiling event and could have used that to set the tone for E3. Instead, whatever wonders it pulls out of the bag at E3 must now act first and foremost as damage control, a job made tougher by sharing the airwaves with what will no doubt be a massive charm offensive on Sony's part. Still, while such a muddled reveal isn't a great start, the firm did tease 15 exclusive launch window titles, eight of them new IPs - an E3 focused with laser precision on that line-up would cover up early stumbles nicely.
That assumes, of course, that Microsoft understands and accepts that what happened this week was a stumble. There's a more pessimistic interpretation, one to which core consumers have been quick to leap - that Microsoft genuinely believes in the way it positioned Xbox One (a daft name, but we got used to "Wii" so I suppose we've proved that daft names aren't much of a stumbling block). That here is a company which is so arrogantly confident in its dominance of the core gaming space that it believes it no longer has anything to prove - that it can take for granted the support of core gamers and early adopters, instead focusing its energies from the outset on television, movies, sports, music and, er, Skype.
If that sounds familiar, it's probably because - like me - you watched the Xbox One reveal with strong flashbacks to exactly the kind of hubris and arrogant assumption which dogged and ultimately crippled Sony's launch of the PlayStation 3. Rather than seeking to enrapture and engage the tens of millions of core gamers upon whose support a successful hardware launch might be built, Sony simply assumed that they would support PS3 no matter what - a line of reasoning which led to a ludicrous price point (they'll get second jobs to afford one, remember?) for a system openly intended as vehicle for the nascent Blu-ray movie standard and both designed and promoted as a home entertainment hub rather than a games device. Core gamers, in the end, demurred in large numbers, preferring Microsoft's upstart Xbox 360. There's always a choice, and having usurped Sony's market dominance only a few scant years ago, you'd think that Microsoft would recall that brand loyalty - quite rightly - doesn't run all that deep.
"The tone and content of Microsoft's announcement should also rankle, and deeply concern, shareholders and analysts"

The tone of Microsoft's event rankled gamers, for good reason - the reveal of a game console which focuses so heavily on how good it is at controlling television shows and movies shows basic disregard for the reasons most people watching the reveal online have to actually buy game consoles. Do not, however, fall into the trap of thinking that Microsoft's reveal only slighted gamers in order to delight the business community. In reality, the tone and content of Microsoft's announcement should also rankle, and deeply concern, shareholders and analysts.
Television is in trouble. It may not look like that from some angles, given the immense critical and audience success of shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men or Game of Thrones, but the business model on which television has based itself - especially in the United States - is creaking at the seams. With the decline in the value of advertising (caused by the rapid fragmentation of the audience - only huge events like the Superbowl, which guarantee a large, unified audience, have held their value for advertisers), everything in that industry now boils down to the cable subscription model. If you want to watch a TV show, you end up paying an exorbitant amount of money every month to subscribe to dozens if not hundreds of TV channels you'll never watch.
Consequently, two things have happened. Firstly, a whole generation of consumers has bowed out of the legitimate model entirely. Despite the efforts of media firms to crack down on piracy of TV shows, the tide has not been stemmed in the slightest; TV episodes find their way onto pirate services within minutes of broadcast and are watched in that manner by a vast swathe of consumers. No legal or technical adjustment short of the most insane and wicked invasion of the privacy of every citizen - honest or otherwise - is going to stop that from happening. What has helped, though, is the emergence of a new business model, with companies like Hulu, Lovefilm and the daddy of them all, Netflix, stepping into the breach. Netflix is now, by hours watched, the most popular and successful TV network in North America. It's started making its own high-budget, high-profile TV shows. If every cable network in the US isn't terrified of it, then they've not been paying attention.
It's against this background that Microsoft has seemingly decided that the most important thing about the new Xbox One is how well it plays with your cable box. Of course, it'll play Netflix as well, but so does just about every device you own. The core of Microsoft's strategy to "dominate the living room" seems to be that its box will be good at streaming content from providers to whom you pay a subscription fee entirely independent of Microsoft's ecosystem, and whose content will, incidentally, work perfectly well without an Xbox One in the equation. Without an Xbox One you won't be able to wave your hands to control it, but then again, nobody I know who owns a Samsung Smart TV actually uses the hand-waving control system anyway, other than to show house guests how broken and annoying it is.
"A business strategy which in five years time will probably look about as wise as launching a game console that plays VHS tapes"

It's for this - a business strategy which in five years time will probably look about as wise as launching a game console that plays VHS tapes - that Microsoft has chosen to alienate and annoy its core consumer base at what should have been a triumphant coming-out party. Microsoft achieved absolutely remarkable, wonderful things with the Xbox 360; Xbox One should build on all of those things and be a system that gamers simply cannot do without. Perhaps it is that system, and perhaps we'll see that at E3, but we didn't see it during the reveal.
Meanwhile, all the murkiest rumours about Xbox One refuse to be dispelled. It cannot have escaped Microsoft's notice that consumers and press alike are deeply concerned over the system's online requirements and its policies with regard to used software. Yet rather than smiling graciously on stage and saying "of course not!", earning brownie points and clearing the air with a single phrase, or even explaining their approach in clear, humble terms, earning at least some respect, Microsoft executives ignored the issue in their presentation and subsequently equivocated in interviews, ducking and dodging around questions regarding second-hand software (or even the ability to lend games to friends without incurring a charge). We still don't know exactly what the firm has in mind, but it's safe to assume that it's going to be a pretty flagrant violation of consumers' existing rights and behaviours - because if it wasn't, then they wouldn't be dodging the question, would they?
If consumers felt left out in the cold by a party which was supposed to be about games but ended up being all about TV and live sports, then spare a thought for developers. After the developer love-in that was the PS4 announcement, where Sony laid out the red carpet to invite creators of all shapes and sizes to come and play in its garden (formerly walled, now surrounded with something more akin to a picket hedge), you might have expected Microsoft to give some kind of nod in a similar direction. Not so. The only third-party bodies on the stage were from EA (who showed FIFA) and Activision (who dutifully showed up to stun the world by confirming that they're making another Call of Duty game). The broad, thriving community of independent developers and creators who have turned out so many of the great games of the past half-decade didn't even warrant a wink and a nod. Like so many other things, that can be fixed at E3, but the contrast in tone to Sony's invitation will not go unnoticed. (The missed opportunity to have Steve Ballmer run on stage reprising his "developers, developers, developers, developers!" routine is also disappointing, of course.)
Do I sound unimpressed? Well, I was seriously unimpressed. It's only the first hour of Xbox One, but it suggested a company that's curiously both mired in arrogance and somewhat directionless. I don't know who the Xbox One reveal was meant to appeal to, other than the TV executives whose egos it massaged. Worse; I'm not sure that Microsoft knows who they're meant to be appealing to. The company is desperate to head off Apple in the consumer space, and Xbox One right now feels less like a competitor to Sony's heavily games-focused PS4 and more like a pre-emptive shot at a hypothetical future version of the Apple TV.
"Xbox One feels less like a competitor to Sony's heavily games-focused PS4 and more like a pre-emptive shot at a hypothetical future version of the Apple TV"

That's unfortunate, because it brings to mind something rather uncomfortable. Xbox 360 was a fantastic system - probably the best thing Microsoft has ever done in the consumer space, and unquestionably one of the best games consoles ever created. Xbox One should remind us of that, but instead it's hard not to think of other products Microsoft has created since the 360 - products like Zune, Surface, Windows Phone and latterly, Windows 8. Products which have, even when they've been rather good (as Windows Phone is), completely failed to ignite interest from consumers. In fact, in terms of consumer entertainment products, Microsoft has had one hit - Xbox 360 - in the midst of a litany of failure (it's fair to note, though, that Sony has its fair share of dodos as well, Vita being only the most recent). Xbox One needs to replicate the factors that made Xbox 360 into a success. This week, we saw none of that; we saw a console that felt less like an Xbox and more like a Microsoft Product, with all the baggage that brings. We can only cross our fingers and hope that with the dull rubbish out of the way, Microsoft is now preparing an E3 showing that will really light the touchpaper for the next console war.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...m-itself-at-e3

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Xbox One: Building a console with the "right amount of Microsoft" thrown in

May 22nd, 2013, 23:34 Posted By: wraggster

Xbox product planning boss Albert Penello tells us all about the evolution of Xbox, and how MS wasn't even thinking about Xbox One until late 2010
[h=3]Microsoft[/h]microsoft.com


When it comes to the Xbox business, Albert Penello has seen it all. Following six years in product marketing at Electronic Arts, Penello joined Microsoft's (at the time) new Xbox division in 2000, helping with marketing and product planning on the very first Xbox as well as newer iterations and critically important accessories like the Kinect (which will now be a standard for every Xbox One). Penello, therefore, has a certain perspective on the continual evolution of the Xbox platform that others simply don't have.
Following the Xbox One unveiling event this week, GamesIndustry International sat down with Penello at the Redmond campus to take a deep dive into the mindset Microsoft had going into the development of Xbox One. We were surprised to hear that Microsoft really wasn't even thinking about a successor to the Xbox 360 until five years into the system's lifecycle (quite unusual in a console business), and Penello explained that Microsoft's engineers and designers were truly looking at the Xbox One as a fresh slate. How could Microsoft continue to innovate and grab new consumers while also pleasing its existing audience? How would designers know how much of the Microsoft imprint to include in the design of the system? These questions and more are addressed in this interesting behind-the-scenes look at Microsoft's product planning.
Q: What does your title -- Senior Director of Product Planning -- entail, exactly?
The way I describe it is, I am like the Rosetta Stone between the developers and the customers and marketing team. Think about my team as trying to put all the pieces together with different features, trying to be out there early in the incubation phases of the project trying to put it all together. Who's the customer? What's the value proposition? What features are going to resonate?
Q: In terms of Xbox One, what is your role, then?
I was the planner. I was probably one of the 12 people in the very beginning, when we decided to do a next-gen console. When we finally said, "Okay, it's time," I was one of the people that got everybody together. "Okay, now we have to start writing stuff down. What are we going to do? What do we want this to be? What do we think the future is? Who's the customer?" Just got a lot of people together and kicked the project off.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...soft-thrown-in

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Battlefield 4 locked on for November release, Xbox One SKU confirmed

May 22nd, 2013, 23:24 Posted By: wraggster

EA's flagship shooter will be released this November for current-gen consoles, with Xbox One and PS4 versions to follow.
Battlefield 4 will arrive on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on November 1st, while EA has said the game will "also be available" for Sony and Microsoft's next gen consoles. There's no confirmation, but it's a safe bet that means "launch title" as and when those formats get dated.
The release date puts it just four days ahead of rival FPS Call of Duty: Ghosts, which is due on November 5th.
Any Battlefield fans that pre-order this year's outing will receive the China Rising premium DLC for free. This includes four multiplayer maps, with exclusive weapons and vehicles.
Meanwhile, if they pre-order the Battlefield 4 Digital Deluxe on EA's download store Origin, they will receive China Rising, bonus in-game items and access to the BF4 multiplayer beta.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/battl...firmed/0115971

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Kinect will be listening to you

May 22nd, 2013, 23:22 Posted By: wraggster

The in-built microphone in the new version of Kinect shipping with Xbox One will always be listening to you.
That includes when the machine is turned. If this wasn’t the case then users would not be able to turn on their machines via voice.
"The Kinect has a variety of settings," Microsoft hardware program manager John Link told Polygon. "It's always available to the system, so ... you can count, as an application developer or a game developer, [that] everyone's going to have a Kinect. You always have that stream available.
“There are settings, obviously, in the console to be able to change the settings of how your Kinect is used, if you're interested."
Is this a potential personal security headache in the making for the company? No, according to a Microsoft spokesperson: "The new Kinect is listening for a specific cue, like 'Xbox on’.
"We know our customers want and expect strong privacy protections to be built into our products, devices and services, and for companies to be responsible stewards of their data. Microsoft has more than 10 years of experience making privacy a top priority. Kinect for Xbox 360 was designed and built with strong privacy protections in place and the new Kinect will continue this commitment."
There may also be further issues brewing regarding Kinect’s visual monitoring of its users. Owners will log into their machine simply by walking into Kinect’s field of view. Although it hasn’t been confirmed, it seems as if Xbox One owners will also be able to log into another user’s machine by presenting themselves to Kinect.
It’s even possible that this form of, for want of a better term, DRM may play a part in the sticky issue of pre-owned authorisation.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/kinec...to-you/0115976

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Xbox One will allow retail trade-ins – but “specific scenarios” remain unconfirmed

May 22nd, 2013, 23:17 Posted By: wraggster

Microsoft has said that Xbox One owners will be able to trade games at retail, and players will be able to play their discs on a friends’ console – provided they sign into their profile.Amid mounting confusion and conflicting reports, Microsoft spokesperson Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb attempted to clarify the situation on his blog, but admitted that specifics remain elusive.“While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail,” he wrote. “Beyond that, “we have not confirmed any specific scenarios.”“Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend’s house – should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile.”Microsoft revealed its next generation console for the first time today – here’s everything you need to know about Xbox One.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/xbox...n-unconfirmed/

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Microsoft on why Xbox One games will be “locked to you”

May 22nd, 2013, 23:16 Posted By: wraggster

Xbox One games will be locked to each owners’ profile – a system which has “a lot of advantages,” says Microsoft Studios’ corporate vice president Phil Spencer.Amid confusion (and consternation) over the place of second hand games on Xbox One, Spencer told us that Microsoft “recognises the importance” of trading in games but maintained that we’d have to wait for specifics on how Microsoft will address this market.“We think, actually, that having the content that’s yours go with you is an important thing,” he told us. “You could have multiple Xbox Ones, your content is yours on every one of them, and it doesn’t require that you carry discs back and forth. The disc becomes a means of distributing the bits back and forth but the content is locked to you.”When we asked what happens if players want to lend a game to a friend, Spencer replied: “I think the whole idea of a secondary market is important and it’ll be important in the next generation and we’ve designed [Xbox One] with that in mind from the beginning. We think there are a lot of advantages of having your content assigned to you digitally – we did that on 360 with cloud-saved games – and we want to do that with content.”“We understand there are implications to secondary; just know that we recognise the importance of that market and we’ve designed with that in mind from the beginning. We’ll share more details as we get further along the road.”

http://www.edge-online.com/news/micr...locked-to-you/

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Why isn’t Xbox One backwards compatible? Microsoft explains

May 22nd, 2013, 23:16 Posted By: wraggster

Xbox One won’t play Xbox 360 games because Microsoft wanted to be in a “forward-looking position” with its next console, Phil Spencer has told us.The Microsoft Studios boss also suggested that 360 owners should look forward to a big announcement at E3 around the future of the console.We asked Spencer whether Xbox One would be backwards compatible at the reveal event yesterday. “No,” he replied. “People can keep their 360 and obviously the content will continue to work but we really wanted to take a forward-looking position with Xbox One – something designed for the next ten years – and that required backward compatability be one of those things we had to put off the list.”“Are we worried about it? No,” he added. “In fact we have a big announcement about 360 we’re gonna have at E3 that i’m excited about. People will keep their boxes, maybe on a new TV, maybe alongside an Xbox One.”

http://www.edge-online.com/news/why-...soft-explains/

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Xbox One wants to transform television – but why?

May 22nd, 2013, 23:12 Posted By: wraggster

So now we know: the evolution will be televised. As had been heavily trailed, Microsoft’s Xbox One reveal in Redmond yesterday focused sharply on the importance of television, sports, and other forms of mainstream entertainment. The platform holder wants living room supremacy more than ever before, and hopes that Xbox One can become the definitive all-in-one box that various lumpen media centres haven’t.As a man who already watches a thrombosis-inducing amount of television, I’m not convinced. The nagging question I had as Yusuf Mehdi swiped, grabbed and panned his way around the UI was: what problem does this actually solve? During his segment there was a lovely moment of Orwellian doublespeak when he gleefully confirmed that switching channels is: “as fast as using your TV remote”. Non-problem solved.“It sounds simple and obvious, and it should be,” lamented Medhi, “but today it isn’t, because of the need to change inputs to get to live TV”. And so it continued. Problems were unconvincingly conjured and then fixed to the audience’s muted delight. When Mehdi asked what the biggest problem facing TV watchers was, I genuinely had no idea.The answer was, apparently, knowing what to watch. Microsoft’s solution was the Xbox One Guide, an admittedly swish-looking EPG, which coupled with ‘trending’ and ‘favourites’ areas, Microsoft hopes can… actually, I don’t know what’s it’s for. Is it for digital ingénues to discover that quite a lot of people like Game Of Thrones? For me to remind myself that I quite like Game Of Thrones?Perhaps there’s some logic to it, if the Xbox One’s functionality helps me unearth a show like Borgen, or a movie like Primer, or a band that’s equally worthy and intellectual – let’s say, The Knife – but wouldn’t I have already discovered these by dint of having friends with such wonderful taste, who I speak to on social media and, begrudgingly, in real life? Conversely, won’t the global trending area inevitably be full of the most populist mulch all day, every day? (Note: I say that as a fan of populist mulch, I just don’t need much help discovering it.) Or, to put it another way, there’s every chance Call Of Duty: Ghosts will be trending from launch until the eventual release of Call Of Duty: Djinns.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/...ision-but-why/

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Xbox One: No Always-Online Requirement, But Needs To Phone Home

May 22nd, 2013, 23:06 Posted By: wraggster

The Xbox One was revealed earlier, and Kotaku was able to get some answers about the always-online rumors that plagued the console before its announcement. Microsoft VP Phil Harrison said Xbox One doesn't need a constant connection in order to play games, and you won't be dropped from single-player games if your connection cuts out. However, it does require check-ins with Microsoft servers. This echoes the Xbox One FAQ, which cryptically says, "No, it does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet." The number Harrison gave was once every 24 hours, but Microsoft's PR departmentwas quick to say that was just one potential scenario, not a certainty. Microsoft also provided half-answers about how used games and game sharing would work. Players will be able to take a game to a friend's house and play it (using their profile, at least). Playerswill also have some mechanism to trade and sell used games, but it's not yet clear exactly how it would work. If one player uses a disc to install a game on their Xbox One, then gives the disc to a friend, the friend will be able to install it, but needs to pay full price to play it. That scenario, however, assumes both players want to own the game — the second one would essentially be a unique copy. Microsoft said they have a plan for trading used games, which would involve deactivating the game on the original owner's console, but they aren't willing to elaborate yet."

http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/0...-to-phone-home

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Confusion surrounds built-in Xbox One DRM

May 22nd, 2013, 22:56 Posted By: wraggster

Still no clear answer to what level of resale protection Microsoft's new console will have

The aftermath of the Xbox One unveiling has been dogged by confusion about what degree of DRM or pre-owned game restrictions it will impose on consumers.
Immediately after the announcement, Microsoft executive Don Mattrick said the new Xbox would not be ‘always-on’. Only hours later however, it transpired that the Xbox One may in fact need to connect to the internet at least once per day.

Seeking to clear up the mess, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of interactive entertainment Phil Harrison told Eurogamer that game discs can still be run on different consoles, but the system’s built-in profile and installation structure means you may not be able to play them without playing a fee.
“The bits [of a game] that are on the disc, I can give to anybody else, but if we both want to play it at the same time, we both have to own it. That's no different to how discs operate today,” he said.
“I can come to your house and I can put the disc into your machine and I can sign in as me and we can play the game.”

http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...n-Xbox-One-DRM

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No self-publishing for indies on Xbox One

May 22nd, 2013, 22:55 Posted By: wraggster

Matt Booty confirms independent developers cannot publish content themselves

The Xbox One will not allow indies to self-publish their games, it has been claimed.
As reported by Shacknews, Redmond Game Studios and Platforms general manager Matt Booty has said that, at least for now, indies will not be able to publish content themselves.

The news comes on the back of Microsoft’sdecision to abolish the Xbox Live Arcade and indie game sections on the Xbox One marketplace, in favour of a new, unified store.
“As as of right now, yes," he said, referring to the need for a publisher.
"We intend to continue to court developers in the ways that we have.”

http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...es-on-Xbox-One

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Array of development tools get Xbox One support

May 22nd, 2013, 22:54 Posted By: wraggster

Middleware firms show support for Microsoft's next-gen console

A plethora of the game industry's top middleware providers have pledged support for Microsoft's new Xbox One console.
Already backed by powerful hardware that features 8 cores, 8GB of DDR3 RAM and 500GB worth of memory storage, a number of development tools are set to be made available for developers working on the system.

Tools announced as compatible with the new Xbox currently include CryEngine 3, IKinema RunTime, Enlighten and Substance Engine.
We will continue to add new tools and tech as they are announced, so be sure to check back for further additions.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...ox-One-support

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Xbox Live gets Smart Match and 'personalised' Achievements

May 22nd, 2013, 22:53 Posted By: wraggster

500GB non-removable HDD, but USB promised for expansion and storage capabilities

Xbox Live is getting improved matchmaking, new Achievements and live recording for games as part of its latest console.
A new system called Smart Match will use “advanced algorithms” to pair players based on skill, language and reputation.

Furthermore, the pre-match lobbies that online console gamers will be familiar with no longer be necessary, because the system will find games as players watch TV, listen to music, or while they are playing another game.
New Achievements on Xbox One will supposedly reach “across games and experiences”; with examples such as team Achievements and community-wide Achievements. Developers will be able to offer Acheivements in new ways as a result.
“Our new achievements portal not only keeps track of what you earned, but how you earned it, so it’s more personal than ever,” said Microsoft. “It even lets you compare your achievements with your friends. Share your legacy and achieve greatness with Xbox One.”

http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...d-Achievements

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Xbox One pre-order notification is live: here's where to sign up

May 22nd, 2013, 01:10 Posted By: wraggster


How much? When? Where? Who cares? If you aren't exactly interested in knowing how much the impending Xbox One will cost you -- let alone when it'll actually hit your doorstep -- you can sign up to be notified of your opportunity to pre-order the console right now. To be clear, this isn't a sign-up for a pre-order. It's just a sign-up to be notified of pre-orders officially opening up. So really, what's to lose? Hit the source link below in order to share your email address, and you'll get a $10 Microsoft online store credit for your trouble. (Or, you can hit the Amazon link for those needing an excuse to make better use of their Prime subscription.)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CMQTVK0

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