E3 2017: We Talk Over the Microsoft Press Conference

Same thoughts.

Also, can we talk about Yelling Man? What an awful bit that was. The esports-y commentary stuff already does nothing for me and that was just straight up abrasive. It came off as just another Overwatch-style arena combat game, and for that genre those games really need all the help they can get to differentiate itself from the crowd and that did it no favors.

Crackdown 3 looked straight up bad. Anthem looked pretty, but the gameplay they showed didn't look fun at all.

@passivespiral: But then why even bother putting out a bunch of $500 boxes? Why not just focus exclusively on PC and save a bunch of money? It feels like the Xbox isn't even a priority anymore, just a filler thing they put out to say they have a console.

Note the words "just about" in there. Obviously there are cases like you, because the One still has sales.

But in terms of competition with everything else on the market, the Xbox brand just put themselves at a huge disadvantage for no real reason.

Was it a surprise to anyone that there was zero mention of VR?

Would have though it would been mentioned, even if only as a pipeline thing..

I don't understand people making this jump from "it costs $500" to "spend twice as much or more on a PC" know how high end PCs perform and what they cost right now. You will spend as much on your graphics card alone, and from what Digital Foundry has seen this may put out better visuals than a 1080.

I have a years old PC (with a 760 and i5) but I have been too tight on money to get together probably the 1,200 or so the PC will cost. I may just buy this and put off doing it even longer. I want to upgrade my TV soon anyways.

I would prefer if the new Xbox could run games at 1080p 60fps instead of 4K.

As for the games, Crackdown was a let down (looks like the punted entirely on the destruction element which would take Crackdown to another level I think-) but the game could still be fun in the end. Crackdown 2 was bad because it fucked up sooo many things. The Crackdown basics are still fun.

Metro looks crazy. I don't love the other games but I think with this one looking more open and with outdoor environments as more of a thing apparently I am definitely interested.

The DBZ game is incredible looking. Man is it fantastic how it looks. I am sure it will play at least pretty well too so I'm excited. My one thing is I don't need any tag in my fighters but oh well.

AC: Origins looked a bit rough but at least different which is a good start for me. In the end Jeff ends up being right though about the Eagle as it is just a drone again.

I really think Anthem looked great. The game is beautiful and the gameplay look similar to ME: Andromeda (which has great combat). But then it has cool loot and abilities that remind me of Warhammer 40k and Iron Man. We will see how it ends up, but it seemed like it had actual exploration and elements that are not really in Destiny (I thought the flying looked awesome too, I hope you can really fight when flying). Yeah it does look similar to Destiny but with everyone agreeing Destiny blew it, why not make this game too? I am into it.

As far as it being Bioware, I am cool with them making a different kind of game. It's lame to hold a developer to one style. It doesn't even occur with many developers. Also, as a big Bioware fan, I have gotten tired of some of their recent games because every game they make uses the same formulas (same hero set ups, same party focus, same dialogue tree styles, same obvious romance options laid out before you like a buffet, etc). That shit has gotten tiring. I'm happy they can try something else. For all we know there is lots of story in this game. We will see.

That will happen. All version of the game will perform better and if the game is at a lower resolution the developers can increase performance further. The game is Microsoft seems to be letting developers handle that though so it may vary.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-11-xbox-one-x-price-release-date-specs-games-vr-project-scorpio

Back during E3 2016, Xbox head Phil Spencer said users will only notice a difference with games running on Xbox One X if they had a 4K television ("Scorpio is designed as a 4K console, and if you don't have a 4K TV, the benefit we've designed for, you're not going to see", he told Eurogamer in an interview during E3) but that's changed - Spencer later clarified that "some developers will take advantage of that 6 teraflops in different ways", meaning they won't have to use the extra processing power to necessarily hit 4K, and can channel it towards a better looking 1080p experience instead - whether that's through super sampling or otherwise.

So while Sony's mid-generation upgrade PS4 Pro requires developers to support a 1080p resolution with its mandatory Pro mode from October, Xbox One X will be a little looser in how developers used the more advanced specs. This could be a good thing, as our own Richard Leadbetter questions whether chasing a higher pixel-count is a better use of mid-generation consoles than higher frame-rates or richer gameplay experiences.

There are already some games like Nioh that have options to prioritize framerate over resolution in the game. But as the article says, if developers can do things like super sampling (which I'm no expert on but means in general rendering it at a higher resolution so that when it is on your smaller screen it manages to look even crisper with less aliasing) games should look great on 1080p. I am someone who would often prioritize framerate as well.

@anthony: Pretty sure some of the games shown run at 4K 60FPS so...

You seem to be diminishing the number of "cases" like me. Your post is saying that Microsoft is giving the public reasons to buy this console, and that their claim that game exclusivity doesn't have any weight.

The Xbox One/Win10 games are exclusive in that they aren't offered on the other consoles. So people who want to enjoy these exclusive games natively at 4K/60fps - and don't have a gaming computer that can play these games at 4K/60fps - will be buying the console.

@kirkyx: I agree, I really enjoyed the main story and loyalty style missions for your crew, plus the end reveal for the Trespasser DLC was awesome. My issue was I'm a completionist so instead of spending 60 hrs it took me a 100 hrs, and most of the side content was filler. I was shocked when I discovered there were multiple areas in that game that had no main story purpose, but were just filled with side content. As for ME:A, I understand why Brad and other were so disappointed with it as compared to the original trilogy, but to be fair Bioware said it was basically going to be DA:I in space so that's what I expected and found myself comparing it to. In fact, I think they improved a lot on the DA:I formula with ME:A with better combat and more interesting side activities. But yeah, the main story/characters aren't as compelling.

@spacebacon said:

Yep, same thoughts. All in all, I think this was a solid conference. Hope things go well for them. Anthem and Metro look spectacular.

Also, the PC is still a relatively small market for AAA style games, a niche segment if you will. The majority of sales of the standard $60 style game still come from consoles. I just don't think PC/Xbox Play Anywhere program is going to cut into their overall console sales numbers much. Perhaps with the "Core" gamer, but again, that is a niche segment of the overall audience. The $500 price tag will be the thing that cuts into their sales numbers, which I agree with you, is too expensive.

This really needed to be $399. They should have somehow made it happen. That being said, they showed off a lot of great looking games. I don't know how some of you could think otherwise.

Many neat games coming to PC. Don't really care about the hardware.

The downturn on The Last Night is impressive to see.

Last year I expected that when the Scorpio launched it would have a big partner push with Oculus. But with all the difficulties Oculus has had since launch and with how VR excitement dried over the last few months, I'm honestly not that surprised they didn't mention anything.

everything now is post apocalyptic wastelands and zombies....f that

@passivespiral: I really don't know how it will sell but personally I like it. This is the kind of power I wanted to be interested in getting a console (on par with the best on PC, which was not the case at all with PS4 and Xbox One at launch). If that costs $500, that's fair.

Highlight of the Xbox conference was definitely Dragonball FighterZ for me. That game looks so good. I love that you could just here Jason yell afterwards. Probably not great for Xbox that a third party Fighting game was the best thing they showed though. Oh well

Much like a lot of entertainment from the 80s and 90s: Dragon Ball Z is great if you don't look at it TOO critically.

I get that none of the crew are "car guys" but as a life-long fan of cars with Porsche being my favorite make I literally gasped when that thing was revealed.

Ben doesn't know shit about DBZ

@deathpooky: Well you can get a 55" 4K for under $600 USD / $800 CAD. The first TV I bought when I was a kid, was a 27" CRT and that was $700 CAD like 15-20 years ago.

I was even more surprised to hear that Vinny apparently has "such a good pc" according to Brad, yet Vinny's monitor is less than 1080p, that's crazy. Vinny said he wouldn't buy the XB1X but would probably spend that on a new video card before he would spend it on an XB1X. That's fine and all, but who needs a $500 video card to drive a sub 1080p monitor? You can get a 24" 1080p 144hz monitor for < $200 USD. Vinny's fancy transformers probably cost around that much.

I'm getting old. That 'talking over' got a little obnoxious at times.

I wasn't impressed by the games I saw, though a few looked promising. I guess me again on that. The price point also pushed to the breaking limit my contention that one could own both consoles (besides the Switch) and get a lot of quality gaming at a cheaper price than a gaming PC with headroom. Or could they now-days? Will have to see if they keep doing mini hardware revisions that cheapen what one's got after a while.

I am looking forward to tonight, might see a few more games that grab me.

Happy I can play all of these games on my PC, no Xbox required. Too bad I have to use the awful Windows store to purchase Forza 7. I was really hoping for some kind of move to make the Windows 10 store more usable.

The Xbox One X seems like the power move that Microsoft needed to make. Unless Sony really pull a rabbit out of the hat and get another console out there soon (don't hold your breath), then Microsoft now hold the platform where games will shine the most. From what was said, there is value in the X for anyone who has or hasn't made the 4K jump, which is great. The really telling thing will be if these changes help Microsoft be the platform that people buy and play multi-platform games on.

The games that they showed were generally good pieces to highlight the improved fidelity. Not sure where the Anthem shade is coming from, that game was legitimately cool. Now I'm really interested to see what Sony have in store for there show and how they plan to counter getting knocked off the graphics pedestal for now. Hopefully this is a show where we see a doubling down of games from Sony with more details on the stuff we saw last year.

Plus based on digital foundry you can't get the same type of performance out of a PC anywhere near that $499 price.

Man, it's gonna take me weeks to watch all these videos this year haha. This is great.

Totally just paused this at 1:06 to launch a game of PUBG.

Can we talk about OG xbox backward compat? I'm weirdly excited cause I never owned one but realized there's a ton of good games on it. I just hope they dont do a slow-ass rollout like they did with the 360 BC.

Glad I put off getting a new graphics card. Might as well buy this and cover all AAA games from here on out. PC I will keep around for classic gaming library of releases up to 2000s that is still growing and which I haven't even scratched the surface of.

My brother has a bunch of old Xbox games sitting around so I'm really excited for OG Xbox backwards compatibility.

"Console Launch Exclusive" seems to mean console exclusive (not just timed) btw, Steve Gaynor from the team making Tacoma said it was.

@wonderva: But some of those exclusives aren't even real exclusives, even with PC included. Games like Metro, Code Vein, Assassin's Creed, Life is Strange etc. are coming to the PS4, just later on. Minecraft is available on everything but your kitchen toaster.

My point isn't that "NO ONE will buy this, game stores will start giving them out for free because they're completely untouched!" My point is that in a generation where PS4 is leading by a significant margin and the newbie Switch is selling out everywhere and breaking records, not really having much to show that's uniquely yours seems like a general lack of interest on their part and doesn't give much confidence.

I mean let's compare the sales pitch you can compile for each console:

"Buy the PS4/Pro! We've got a bunch of games like Last of Us 2, Nioh, Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War, Uncharted 4, Until Dawn, etc. that you can't get anywhere else, plus all the 3rd party games you love! And if you want 4K, we've got that too! We're the most popular console this generation! Come buy today!"

"Get the Switch! We've got all the classic franchises you love like Mario, Zelda and Mario Kart, only bigger and better with more on the way, and you can't get them anywhere else! Plus you can take full console experiences with you anywhere you go and the console comes with multiplayer built in! You can play with anyone anywhere! And since many of you didn't buy a Wii U, we're porting over a bunch of those games that a lot of you probably haven't played, with improvements! Grab a Switch today!"

"Buy the Xbox One/S/X! We've got games you can't get anywhere else (assuming you don't get the other platform that has all of these and probably at cheaper prices) along with the other stuff you can get elsewhere and now we've got 4K (assuming you didn't already get the other 4K system that's been out for a while)! We've also made it so that you can play every generation of Xbox on this one system! Come buy today!"

It's just poor form. PS4's got the exclusives and the popular vote down pat, plus it's been waving that 4K flag around for quite a while. Switch has its own exclusives and unique functionality. This was really the conference for Xbox to come out swinging and instead they just kind of shrugged and did what they've done before. Yeah, they'll still get sales, but to have nothing that really pushes the other two out of the way and says "THIS is why you should get an Xbox over these other guys!" is really disappointing, especially so many people including myself were rooting for this conference to blow them away.

I feel like I'm watching a marathon with everyone else running and Xbox being that one guy who's just sitting on the track watching. He's got fans and he'd probably do pretty dang well if he would just get up and put in some effort, but no.

In an ideal world, the emulator would be set up to just play any disc you put in, which'd side-step the licencing issues and allow a faster roll-out.

However, the Xbox site is talking about a "curated list" of games, so I doubt that's the direction they are going.

@artisanbreads: I'm not a tech expert, but it sounds like a fair price for what's in the box. I just don't think it's a price point that will attract consumers and help Microsoft gain market share when Sony is outselling them 2 to 1 and their premium console is $100 less. And that may be totally fine, Microsoft doesn't need to "beat" Sony, they only need to be profitable. Microsoft has said before they are selling more Xbox Ones at this point in it's life cycle than they were selling Xbox 360s at the same point in it's life cycle. So they may totally be happy with that.

@passivespiral: I think you're right. The one chance for it to be a big seller is maybe it's been long enough this gen to get people to spend and they can really sell people on the power, especially if 4K was to take off. Anyways, I think it looks great.

@nicksmi56: Dude, a lot of people are just as passionate about Forza, Halo, and Gears as people are with Mario/Zelda on Switch or Uncharted and God of War on PS4. And they prefer to spend a third less on a console than a PC, hook it up to their TV and sit on their couch and play a game without having to deal with drivers, settings, etc. Honestly, if you want to rip on anyone it should be Sony and Nintendo for not also offering cross buy functionally for PC with their titles.

@passivespiral: Why would I rip on them for that when it makes sense? If you want to play Mario, you have to buy a Nintendo console/handheld. If you want to rip people apart as Kratos or shoot them as Nathan Drake, you have to go Playstation. That's how you get sales in the first place.

That would be like me ripping on Marvel Studios for not giving the character of Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr. to DC's film division. The two are competitors. No one in their right mind would expect them to do that, much less get on their case for not doing it.

Another generation, another bunch of games in high definition... only showcasing browns, greys and dark greens.

Thank god for the indie section of this presentation.

Actually, I can play Mario on an iPhone. And I can shoot people as Nathan Drake on PC if subscribe to PlayStation Now. Offering cross buy functionality isn't going to kill the console market and Microsoft offering consumers the choice of playing games on the Xbox, PC, or both is not a bad thing.

Also, for fun, in response to your example of no one expecting Marvel and DC to team up - I present to you Dark Claw. Something that actually did happen. I rest my case :)

@passivespiral: I was actually talking about their movie divisions but ok XD

And for the record, I'm not "ripping on" anyone. I'm simply saying Microsoft could've done much, MUCH better than they did today.

....and if you want to play any of the Microsoft exclusives natively in 4K, you buy an Xbox.

You make it seem like every gamer - "casual" and "hardcore" - has a PC capable of running games 4K/60fps.

@wonderva: That comment wasn't even directed at you XD

The GB crew earned a medal for enduring E3 in my book this year. I'm flabbergasted.

Last November I built a pretty beefy PC, right around the time Jeff was doing his, for work... Then I decided to put a 1070 in. Overall it cost me $1000, and that's after scouring for every deal/rebate/etc possible. It runs 4K, ~45 fps-ish for Hitman, ME:A, etc. Also tried Gears, and the difference between 4k on PC and xbox is very noticeable.

If devs are willing to put work in, games will look quite a bit better on X vs PS4 pro. And if the machine really does 4k/60fps (even if not matching the ultra settings on PC), $500 is reasonable. We'll have to wait and see if the screen shot comparisons in October starts swaying consumer opinion.

I wonder if optimizing for PS4 pro or X is easier than the other? People are talking about the Witcher 3 devs not doing a PS4 pro patch, but are listed in the games to receive updates today. It's probably not as easy as "we developed on PC as the main platform anyway, so instead of giving Xbox S the medium setting, now X runs in high", but I wonder if the xbox team did some magic to make development easier

Ori and The Blind Forest sequel!!!! :D

@twoarmed: glad to see this comment so early on. Keep on fighting the good fight