Xbox's Project Scarlett "will not be out of position on power of Price" - Says Phil S

[WYP]

Xbox's Project Scarlett "will not be out of position on power of Price" - Says Phil S

Microsoft doesn't want a repeat of last-gen.



Read more about Xbox's Phil Spencer saying that Project Scarlett "will not be out of position on power of Price"

 

[g0ggles1994]

Kinda missed the entire point on why the Xbone failed at launch, which wasn't price or performance, but was the anti-consumer stunts they tried pulling that they had to backtrack on.
I just hope this next console isn't MS trying to push those things out again

 

[NeverBackDown]

While what you say is true, the fact that it was also more expensive and less powerful on top of all of that is what made it fail even more and is now losing a 1:3 ratio to PlayStation.

 

[g0ggles1994]

Granted the price/performance ratio has bogged Xbox down in the long run, it had no effect at launch. I remember working in retail in the run up to this generation. Initially the Xbone was out pre-ordered by about 2:1 then the day after E3, at least a quarter of those pre-orders were cancelled and switched to PS4, from there the pre-order pool dried up pretty quickly.

 

[ImprovizoR]

Kinda missed the entire point on why the Xbone failed at launch, which wasn't price or performance, but was the anti-consumer stunts they tried pulling that they had to backtrack on.
I just hope this next console isn't MS trying to push those things out again

Yup. But later in the life, it didn't do as well as Sony because Microsoft doesn't have first party developers of nearly the same quality as Sony. Their exclusives are the usual AAA action games and a racing game. What do they even have aside from HALO, Gears of War and Forza? PlayStation's got InFamous, Uncharted, God of War, The Last Guardian, Spider-Man, Bloodborne, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Last of Us etc.

 

[g0ggles1994]

Yup. But later in the life, it didn't do as well as Sony because Microsoft doesn't have first party developers of nearly the same quality as Sony. Their exclusives are the usual AAA action games and a racing game. What do they even have aside from HALO, Gears of War and Forza? PlayStation's got InFamous, Uncharted, God of War, The Last Guardian, Spider-Man, Bloodborne, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Last of Us etc.

Aye, I do agree on that. I was primarily focussing on the launch being a complete disaster.

The Xbone needed exclusives years ago, reminds me of when they cancelled Scalebound; a massive exclusive RPG is exactly what the Xbone needed.

 

[Warchild]

Aye, I do agree on that. I was primarily focussing on the launch being a complete disaster.

The Xbone needed exclusives years ago, reminds me of when they cancelled Scalebound; a massive exclusive RPG is exactly what the Xbone needed.

I miss Lionhead up until MS bought them.

Fable and Black n white were such favourite games of mine. Black and white sequel was ok, but it was so original and outstanding at the time. I wish they didnt shut down.

 

[ImprovizoR]

Aye, I do agree on that. I was primarily focusing on the launch being a complete disaster.

Well, yeah. Sony definitely capitalized on Microsoft's mistake, which gave them quite a head start. But I think with proper exclusives they could have caught up.


I have a confession to make. I have this dumb prejudice against Xbox gamers. I tend to see them as casual CoD players and dumb children. That ridiculous perception is driven primarily by the fact that Xbox exclusives are quite dumb, unimaginative and shallow games that tend to cater to a crowd of gamers who don't know any better. I see people who prefer the PlayStation as gaming connoisseurs in comparison.

 

[ET3D]

Title says "power of Price". It wasn't until reading the actual quote ("power or price") that I finally understood what he was saying.

 

[grec]

Granted the price/performance ratio has bogged Xbox down in the long run, it had no effect at launch. I remember working in retail in the run up to this generation. Initially the Xbone was out pre-ordered by about 2:1 then the day after E3, at least a quarter of those pre-orders were cancelled and switched to PS4, from there the pre-order pool dried up pretty quickly.

Iirc the DRM policies and p much everything else were revealed long before E3, the E3 reveals were just price and some games.

I remember a lot of bad press about Microsoft's DRM policy but it was literally just the Steam terms for a console. It had family game share and lots of other progressive features that were only possible with more mature digital based DRM they had originally proposed. Practically I think it would have been far more pro-consumer than the current system with far fewer niggles around the digital aspects. But of course this being gaming, there was vocal opposition to any change that would have brought the consoles up to date with other media forms.

Sony clearly had a head start in games though, especially if you like those open world (But still pretty linear) single player AAA games that are all the rage now. They've fell behind recently though, this and next year(So far) looks quite stark for releases, especially given MS seem to have their line up ready 5 years late but all at once.

 

[g0ggles1994]

Iirc the DRM policies and p much everything else were revealed long before E3, the E3 reveals were just price and some games.

I remember a lot of bad press about Microsoft's DRM policy but it was literally just the Steam terms for a console. It had family game share and lots of other progressive features that were only possible with more mature digital based DRM they had originally proposed. Practically I think it would have been far more pro-consumer than the current system with far fewer niggles around the digital aspects. But of course this being gaming, there was vocal opposition to any change that would have brought the consoles up to date with other media forms.

Sony clearly had a head start in games though, especially if you like those open world (But still pretty linear) single player AAA games that are all the rage now. They've fell behind recently though, this and next year(So far) looks quite stark for releases, especially given MS seem to have their line up ready 5 years late but all at once.

There was leaks about all the DRM stuff but MS confirmed the entire lot at their E3 conference, I still remember the presenter saying afterwards "we have a console for those who don't have internet, the Xbox 360." What parts were "Steam for consoles" exactly? The DRM they announced were that the Kinext had to connected to the console and always on so it could hear the go word, which massive privacy concerns were raised since how sophisticated the Kinects cameras are. Console had to be always online, and if your internet is down then tough luck mate, can't even play offline single player games until it can phone home. The secondhand games is where they really messed up, because they tried to apply digital DRM to standard physical copies. I can see how the secondhand games part is like Steam, since some PC games still come on disc but have a Steam code so the disc is redundant.

Problem with the Xbox DRM is that they wanted to go from one mindset to the exact opposite like flipping a switch, rather than letting digital distribution sales mature and physical sales slow down. However, digital DRM on physical sales will never work. Primarily becaus people who still buy physical copies -such as myself- prefer the flexibility of being able to resell. Plus they will kill a lot of businesses if they do that as well

 

[grec]

I think all that stuff was at their Xbone reveal event like two weeks before E3 or something. While I agree it was a big change for consoles, they did have some very nice features to bridge the gap, like being able to digitally "lend" games to friends and share libraries, which is one of the nicer features we've seen come to Steam since then(Though watered down somewhat), with an offline grace period when no connection, and this system would have meant you didn't need the disc in the console to play for instance, as atm with a lot of games now the disc requirement after install is basically just to verify you own the game. I admit maybe it was too early for a lot of markets but imo it would have been an interesting alternative to the status quo for Xbox's key geographic markets(It's literally just Spotify's DRM system really, not for everyone but very popular).

 

[g0ggles1994]

I think all that stuff was at their Xbone reveal event like two weeks before E3 or something. While I agree it was a big change for consoles, they did have some very nice features to bridge the gap, like being able to digitally "lend" games to friends and share libraries, which is one of the nicer features we've seen come to Steam since then(Though watered down somewhat), with an offline grace period when no connection, and this system would have meant you didn't need the disc in the console to play for instance, as atm with a lot of games now the disc requirement after install is basically just to verify you own the game. I admit maybe it was too early for a lot of markets but imo it would have been an interesting alternative to the status quo for Xbox's key geographic markets(It's literally just Spotify's DRM system really, not for everyone but very popular).

Yep. It was way too early for them to pull the stunts they did. They also completely missed their user base at the time weren't the same as PC gamers are happy to buy a game and have it tied to their account permanently. Most Xbox players at the time were your "dude Bros" and what not who liked the freedom of being able to sell a game once they've completed it.
Now digital distribution is almost the standard with most forms of gaming, pulling the DRM stunt with secondhand games won't cause as much of a fuss as it did before; although others -again, such as myself- won't like it since we prefer the ability of having actual ownership of our games, rather than just licensing them.