Your Feedback Matters – Update on Xbox One

Haha... I guess you really can't please everyone. But I really do think MSFT went the right way here. Again, I'm pretty amazed they went this far to make those kinds of changes this late in the game.

MS totally screwed this up....by changing.

It won't matter in the end but after people got to know what the family sharing really was I think it was going to spell doom for the PS4.  Just too many "free" games available to players (new titles) via their "friends" would have lead to more and more jumping on the "I can play Bob's 150 games for free" bandwagon.

Now I have to deal with disks again.  FML.

And xbox still has the freaking games and content locked up.  FML again.

I was always going to get the one anyway so whatever they do I really could care less. I have a seven year old so the connect will come in handy. My decision always came down to one thing: I hate the PS controller. I have a madcatz MLG controller that allows you to switch it to a PS style controller and it just doesn't feel right. Just bring on the new games already. That's all I care about.

It just makes the decision harder for me.

The games sharing was a big plus.  Much rather have that than some used games.

Xbox One still has the superior content imo so it will be hard to go away from that.  I was thinking I could just use my 360 for the xbox exclusive content like UFC/ESPN but then I have thoughts about how I don't want to "half ass" the next purchase just to save a few bucks at release.

My kid had been wanting to play the full minecraft on his own computer and has been saving to buy a gaming computer for months.  He lit up when I told him the "full minecraft" was coming to console. I think I may get an Xbox whether I buy it or not.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/19/xbox-one-will-require-day-one-update

Finally, we asked Whitten how long these changes have been in the works. Given Sony’s bombshell announcement last week, were these changes made in response to the news at E3?
“If you think about the last three or four weeks, this has been our first chance to show our complete platform,” Whitten explained. “Everything from the Xbox unveil to showing the great games lineup at E3 last week was the time when we were able to get everybody to see our platform and get great feedback. We got tons of feedback on what people loved. They loved the games, they loved the vision of the platform, the unique things that were made possible by the architecture. But they also told us they want choice in these areas. We’ve been listening to the feedback, we’ve been reading the forums, we’ve been reading the comments since that time. So I think it’s been, thankfully for us, constant over the last week as we’ve just been absorbing what people love and, frankly, what they want to see changed.”



Damn skippy we want choice.  I am very very happy to see them make these changes and this is a big win for us as consumers.  I am sure they have read forums & comments but this change only happened because their sales forecasts took a big hit.  This is why a strong Sony upgrade was so important.  They learned that they don't have a monopoly like their 90% PC market share and when you try to bend over customers who have options, they will take their money elsewhere.

I really thought the One had the digital family sharing, no disc thing down... and that was a huge positive.
 
All M$ had to do was take away the DRM 24 hour checks, take away the bundled, required Kinect and keep all the nice, modern digital, sharing, no dics stuff... M$ took away the bad along with all those good things and eliminated any real positive that it had over the PS4. 
 
M$ didn't level the playing field... they handicapped themselves a little.   
 
There are lots who are actually going to Sony now after M$ announced their changes that "we wanted".
 
I don't think this is the last we've heard from M$ regarding policy changes... or even hardware changes.
 
Bring Us Back the Original Xbox One - Petition
 
Microsoft Removes Xbox One DRM, People are Still Annoyed
   
The Xbox One Just Got Way Worse and it's Our Fault
 
I for one liked really liked (minus the DRM and Kinect) the Xbox One's "future plan".

Cliffy B (Gears of War creator) is PISSED with the changes to the One and he's being very vocal!

"Sony forced Microsoft's hand, not the internet whining,” ... “At the end of the day many hardcore dislike what was attempted. You can't do well in that space with many of your core unhappy. Especially when users have a choice. The nature of capitalism encourages competition and Sony played into that.”

“Brace yourselves. More tacked on multiplayer and DLC are coming,” ... “You're also about to see available microtransactions skyrocket. HATS FOR EVERYONE. You're going to see digital versions of your favourite games with added features and content to lure you to digital over disc based.

“I have seen the number of unique gamer tags vs actual sales numbers and it ain't pretty. More studios WILL close and you'll see more PC and mobile games. I want developers who worked their asses off to see money on every copy of their game that is sold instead of Gamestop. Fuck me, right?” - Cliffy B

I don't know why they can't keep the original model and just change the check in to not be so frequent so you could actually play a game offline for 3, 5, or 7 days if you're going somewhere.

Ugh SO frustrating.  I'm not sure if they can recover from Don's mega foot in mouth moment.

I like the changes and they are now back in the picture for my console money.  Let's do something about that PRISM portal and the price we are good.  As far as taking away the parts that were good, I am not sure if that is really a problem at the moment.  XB1 might not launch with those features but you can bet they will be there in some capacity soon.  

And little CliffyB is a biatch.  More tacked on DLC and microtransactions were coming no matter what.  The market has proven that they will eat that crap up.  More studios will close no matter what because of their bloated inefficient staffs and their complete business mismanagement and half assed games.  He wants to paint MS's plan as being some developer savior and that is bullshit.  You want to go to a Steam like model, then do Steam pricing and show it right now.  Don't use Steam restrictions then say the savings and benefits will come later.

All this DRM stuff is surely coming.  But it will be coming at a pace that the consumer is willing to adapt to.  It is not going to happen because 1 company says so.  MS overplayed their hand and tried to treat the gaming community like they do their PC community.  Only problem is that Xbox doesn't have 90% global market share and consumer have real choices and have the ability to escape MS's rape kit

"There’s a few things we won’t be able to deliver as a result of this change," Marc Whitten, v.p. of Xbox Live told Kotaku, "One of the things we were very exicted about was 'wherever we go my games are always with me.' Now, of course, your physical games won’t show up that way. The content you bought digitally will. But you’ll have to bring your discs with you to have your games with you. Similarly, the sharing library [is something] we won’t be able to deliver at launch."  -Via Kotaku's - Win Some Lose Some
 
 So maybe they get the Family plan working again... maybe.  I frankly don't think they will.  They'll let it fade from everyones memory and more copies of games will be sold as a result of not being able to share digitally.
 
The Xbox One just lost all that was new, innovative and attractive about it.  It's now just an underpowered, non-contendor to the PS4. (IMHO)  Eventhough i'm going PS4... im kind of bummed about it all.
 
Below via Gizmodo's - "The Xbox One Just Got Way Worse - And it's Our Fault"
 
The Vision
Here was the simple vision of the Xbox One, selling and reselling games:

• Every game you bought, physical or digital, would be tied to your account. This would eliminate current-gen problems like buying a disc, and then being unable to store it or download it from the cloud.
  
  
  
• Because every single game, physical or digital, would be tied to an account, publishers could create a hub to sell and resell the games digitally. Let's refer to these as "licenses" from here, even though it's a loaded term.
  
  
  
• Because reselling games would now work through a hub, publishers could make money on resold games.
  
  
  
• Here is how this makes sense for YOU: New games could then be cheaper. Why? Publishers KNOW that they will not make money on resold games, so they charge more to you, the first buyer. You are paying for others' rights to use your game in the future. If the old system had gone into place, you would likely have seen game prices drop. Or, at the very least, it could have staved off price increases.
  
  
  
• You also would have started getting a better return on your "used" games—because a license does not have to be resold at a diminished rate.
  
  
  
• How do you know that this would have been the case? Because that's exactly what happens on Steam. But wait!, you shout. Steam is CHEAP cheap, and it has crazy sales. We love Steam! Micro$oft is nothing like that. Well, no, it isn't now, but Steam was once $team, too. It was not always popular, and its licensing model was once heavily maligned. Given time, though, it's now the only way almost every PC gamer wants to play games.
  
  
  
• Sharing games would have worked either by activating your Live account on someone else's Xbox One, or by including them in your 10-person share plan, which would not have been limited to "family.". Details on that had been scarse, but even the strictest limitations (one other person playing any of the shared games from your account) would have been a HUGE improvement over the none that we have now. We don't get that now.
  
  
  
• The 24-hour check-in would have been necessary for the X1's store, which it is not for Steam, because the physical product (game discs) would still be available. This check-in, literally bytes of data exchanged, would confirm that the games installed were not gaming the system in a convoluted install-here-and-then-go-offline-and-I'll-go-home-and-check-in-and-go-offline-too-and-we'll-both-use-the-game methods.
  
  
  

You would also, as it happens, have been able to share your digitally purchased games. That's a REALLY BIG DEAL. We won't be able to do that now, though. We still have to use the disc for games we buy physically. This is the loss of some of the most future-facing features of the system, things that changed and challenged the traditional limitations of console gaming. We are literally standing in stasis, refusing to move forward, at the behest of those who are loudest and not ready for the future.

One thing is for sure. This internet experiment is showing some pretty incredible and immediate results. Wasn't too long ago that Netflix came out with a new business model to charge more. It didn't even make it out of the gate before their stocks started slipping and the plan was retracted.
This is whats happening now. You will see more MS changes...maybe even in costs (I don't know), the point is, Now, in these times, you had better write a business model that is fluid and has room for changes. Maybe an "Internet concessions clause" or the like.

Winners wrote:

I wont buy one if kinect is going to be mandatory. Until they make one with out a kinect they wont get my money.

^^^Exactly what Winners said.

My definition of mandatory is being able play games with kinect unplugged or permanently cover camera/mic. 

Being forced to buy kinect is a major annoyance, but not a deal breaker.

I truly believe it wasn't the "people" that forced Microsoft to make this change, but instead it was Sony. If Sony hadn't called out the Xbox One and made fun of their new policies the way they did at E3, this wouldn't have been such a big deal in the media. The media backlash was too much for Microsoft to handle and forced their hand. 

Yes, people were upset about what Xbox One was planning for the future of gaming consoles. It was a change, and many people don't like change. I am one of those people who wasn't sold on the changes they wanted to make. The problem is that until those changes are actually implemented, it is hard to know for certain if it will work out better or not. My plan was, and still is, to wait for both systems to come out and see how they work with actually users. Companies can talk big about how great their product is and all the great things it will do, but you truly find out how good a product is when people start using it in real world scenarios.

It really sounds likes the developers at MS weren't sold on their own product. If they were positive it was going to be the next best thing for the industry they wouldn't have folded to the  media backlash.

^^^Exactly.  Everyone "knows" M$ didn't listen to the consumers.  They were hit hard by Sony and were really left with no choice after that press conference and resulting pre-order win. 

"Sony forced Microsoft's hand, not the internet whining...”  - Cliffy B. Ex. EPIC Gears designer

"It shows a lack of vision, planning and leadership to reveal the policy, double-down on it, say how great it is, then change it. That's all." — Colin Moriarty of IGN

They really didn't seem confident at all... with any of their platform.  Their PR dept was/is getting blasted by the media... there was/is too many "we'll share more info on that topic later" when the console release is so close... I dont see this as the end of the fiasco. 

I have a feeling were going to see the internet backlash grow and more statements before the One is released.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Sony makes some kind of addition/change to make the PS4 even more appealing... going tit for tat with M$ seems to be their thing now... they're going for the throat this generation.

You can't have the good with the bad as far as the no drm and family sharing. If they did that then basically you could install the game to your HDD and give the disc away to everyone you know and let them install it. So with out the DRM once you install the game the disc drive will run a check basically making sure you have the disc. The drive won't run the entire time it just runs checks when starting up. Same as it does now if you install your games they run off HDD after the start up checks.

gun fer hire wrote:

Below via Gizmodo's - "The Xbox One Just Got Way Worse - And it's Our Fault"
 
[*][i]Here is how this makes sense for YOU: New games could then be cheaper. Why? Publishers KNOW that they will not make money on resold games, so they charge more to you, the first buyer. You are paying for others' rights to use your game in the future. If the old system had gone into place, you would likely have seen game prices drop. Or, at the very least, it could have staved off price increases.

If the games were going to be cheaper, then they would have -- SHOULD HAVE -- made a huge big gigantic deal about this at E3, or right after.  Say the games will be $40 or $50.  Then the message is, "Sure the PS4 is cheaper and you have physical discs, but you'll pay less for our games and you get to share and ...."  

Changes the narrative entirely and puts the pressure back on to Sony to justify why they are still using discs (old-school) and not moving to digital (the future).  The fact they DIDN'T do this tells me they intended to charge the going rate of $60 (which they confirmed this week I think) and still reap the benefits of all that digital delivery and capturing used games sales, etc.  Saying they COULD go down in the future is not a benefit to anyone making the decision at launch.  The world could end tomorrow too, but that's not factoring in to my decision.

Honestly, if I wasn't getting a PS4 for other reasons (All Seeing Kinect), I'd be pissed off at MSFT for trying to stick it to me on principle alone.

yep winners.

You can't have both so we get the antiquated way due to the whining and crying over used games for christ's sake.

How stupid can people get?

Family sharing was going to be so much bettter than anything done before and now it is gone due to short sighted idiots.

Micorsoft should have ignored all the whining and noise made by PS fanboys.

Let them have the PS4 if they like the old stuff and want to be stuck in the last generation with interfaces and game sharing.

Some of us like innovation.

Okra, i'm with you on this buddy.  I didn't want the One for other reasons (Kinect, too frequent internet checks, inability to play completely offline) but i did really think they were on to something with the sharing, digital selling/trading, full digital from disc stuff etc. 
 
That majority who supported and wanted Xbox One's pre yesterday's announcemnt seem to be pissed... and they have every right to be.



EDIT: Haha ok, i don't agree with your PS4 remarks - i think they're still lightyears ahead with online and digital (M$ had a chance to combat it and turned tail) - but, not the point on this thread or comment

I will agree MSFT has bungled this thing more ways than one. They have failed a basic marketing principle - showing how your product can benefit your customers. Rather than just saying the XB1 can do this and this and this, they have to construct a story about how those things can benefit the end customer. If installing the game to the HDD is a great thing, explain to me why it is of value - family sharing, no disc media, games always available, etc. These could have been cool features and definitely would have been a difference maker. Back tracking NOW is disastrous and I don't think it changes anyone's mind either.

If MSFT was truly trying to change customer behavior, they needed to give them a compelling reason why. To convince people to go digital, just give them a tangible benefit.  Besides cutting the price, there are other ways to skin the cat.  Release a month early for digital orders.  Extra bonus DLC for downloads.  Free credit in the store for camos or whatever.  The carrot over the stick.  Something other than "You have to do it our way or the highway."

Think about getting people to buy hybrids. To get people to pay more for their cars, governments were giving those buyers free carpool stickers so they could drive in the carpool lane with only one person. Believe me, in So Cal, that's a compelling enough reason to shell out extra dough to get a Prius.

Instead, MSFT wanted to have their cake and eat it too. Charge the same price for a cheaper product (digital downloads costing less than discs) plus capturing the used game market while not giving anything extra (or at least, give enough) to the consumer to entice him to change his behavior.

^^^Agree 100%!  All things they should have done.  And as a result of the changes and stumbles... the One (IMO) now lacks any real appealing aspects besides their exclusive titles.  Everything the One can do the PS4 can now do, but with much more power. (no PS4 | One debate - using it as illustration to the changes happening to the One)

The difference now appears to be much like it is right now.

I suspect that the next generation will now play out like the last did since the consoles are now so similar in every aspect other than one thing.  This is the one area where Microsoft is the expert and Sony is not......that being the OS interface.

This is where the largest difference currently lies between the PS3 and 360.  Xbox has a superior user interface and features in that interface.  Looks like the One planned on really blowing us away with the new interface and the way you can interact with it as well as new features.  I suspect the PS4 will have the xbl features that should have been on the psn all along but that will be about it.

MS will push forward even more in the interface and cross connected stuff.  It will probably be so popular that you'll find it on the PS5.

I hope that the bold ideas they had will still be an option with the xbone. Like other, I will wait a bit, but ultimately I'm pretty certain I'll stick with MS. My experience with them has been very positive. Kinect doesn't scare me, and neither did any of their other ideas. PLUS, they haven't been hacked!

This isn't the old PS3 interface and goes WAY beyond what XBL is currently doing