You didn’t think Microsoft was going to have all of these next-gen games and leave out their most popular franchise did you?
The first trailer for Halo 5 shows a mysterious figure cloaked and making their way through a desert until an earthquake stops them in their tracks. A Forerunner ship makes its way out of the sand as Master Chief stands there, fearless, looking rather Master Chief-y.
Halo 5 will release in 2014 for Xbox One.
http://youtu.be/9fEKcOK8gno
Microsoft announced today at their E3 press conference that the Xbox One will release this November and will be priced at $499. The screen during the announcement was touting the “Day One Bundle” for reserve. No details were given on what this bundle will include.
Now we know one half of the next-gen equation. Will Sony have an earlier release date or, even better, a cheaper price point? We will find out tonight.
Long time game analyst Michael Pachter believes that console prices will be dropping at next week’s E3. He says that with new consoles on their way this year Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft will be lowering their current generation systems by at least $30-$50.
Nintendo making the Wii $99 is just a sensible idea and as I said in my Nintendo E3 preview, they need to give the Wii U a drastic price cut.
Microsoft and Sony lowering their systems may not be as big a deal because they are bundling so much stuff with their systems that a price reduction would just ensure that a lot of bundling would stop. Instead of a $299 PS3 with a couple of games or a year of PS Plus, you may just get a $249 system and that’s all.
E3 begins next week.
It is becoming very eerie how much Microsoft is sounding like Sony from 2005 when the Playstation 3 was announced. They are on the top of the heap and may have developed a bit of big head syndrome. Always online with 24 hour internet checks, extra fees for playing games on other profiles are just the beginning of Microsoft’s uphill battle for next-gen supremacy, but they don’t seem to be too worried.
Take, for example, an interview with Phil Spencer, Microsoft Studios corporate vice-president had with Official Xbox Magazine.
“We believe that if all you want is gaming, you’ll still pick us, at the end of the day. The super core guys, they will buy everything. They will buy all devices, but most people really only do buy one device, and if you’re going to think about what that one device is, we believe an all-in-one system that does the best games and TV and entertainment will be something that’s really unique.”
Now there is some truth in that statement in that some hardcore gamers will pick up both systems, but the statement reeks of taking the gaming community for granted. It sounds so passive like “we don’t need to worry about gamers, they will buy shit on a stick if it has Xbox on it”.
Do we need to begin a ticker for how many times Microsoft can screw up before E3?
Cybersquatting is not a new thing. People have been making quite a bit of money off of it for years. Buy up a popular available domain name that may need to be used in the future and wait for a company to buy the rights from you. It seems Microsoft is hitting a wall with the Xbox One in that someone owns the domain rights and has for the past two years.
One man in London owns the rights to XboxOne.com and XboxOne.net and Microsoft has filed a dispute seeking to get these domain names for their use.
I am not worried about the whole domain name deal. What I am wondering about is why Microsoft just now filed the dispute for these names. They have already snatched up domain names for all of the possible names we had heard about, but this is the first we have heard about this and it is after Microsoft has announced the name of the console.
This tells me that the Xbox One name was not decided upon until the event was almost upon us or Microsoft changed the name in an attempt to swerve everyone who thought they had the name figured out. The console simply said Xbox on it and a company as large and well thought out as Microsoft had not even filed for the domain names of their next-gen console? Mix this in with the garble of messages about used games and always being online and it looks like Microsoft waited three months after Sony’s press conference and still seemed rushed into an announcement.
The new buttons replacing the “start” and “back” buttons will now be known as the “menu” and “view”.
Microsoft revealed the new uses for the buttons in an article on IGN.
“The Menu button (on the right) will bring up context-specific menus which game and app developers can design to enhance the user experience. The Menu button could be used in scenarios such as bringing up in-game menus, showing video playback options, and accessing commands on the console’s user interface.”
Microsoft also said the view button “will change views or provide more information in games and apps. The function of the View button will be driven by developers. Possible uses of the View button include viewing a map during a role playing game, displaying a leaderboard in a first person shooter, and enhancing the navigation of the console’s user interface.”
Now is the time when we all start getting excited over the various bells and whistles associated with new consoles since can’t play them and just wait.
Look! It’s an official Xbox One cover!
Major Nelson released this picture of the Forza 5 cover so we could get a peek at what the cases will look like for the Xbox One. It’s plastic with a slip sleeve and a paper insert that shows what game you will be purchasing. It says Xbox One at the top with a green background.
Stop your swooning.
The one thing I did not think Microsoft needed to change was the design of the 360 controller. It is, for all intents and purposes, the best controller for any machine in video game history. The d-pad (even the current redesign) did leave a lot to be desired, especially in fighting games, but the feel, weight and overall ease of use is what is important.
So they changed it.
After seeing what has been put in its place for the Xbox One I can say that I am a little less worried than I was. The basic design is still there just with a more flat look from the front. The start and back buttons are still there (kind of). Microsoft is not saying what the new buttons will exactly do. The triggers have been swooped up and look to hold your fingers better and the bumpers have been increased in size. The home button still remains, but has been moved up and separated more from the other buttons so no more accidental fat finger home presses for guys like me. Also each analog has a individual rumble feature to add a new depth to your shaky hands besides all the drinking.
Finally, Microsoft has gotten rid of the battery pack and replaced it with a rechargable integrated battery like the Playstation Dualshock’s. So no more battery buying and no more play and charge kits that are extremely overpriced.
Our early opinions of the Xbox One have not been too enthused, but the controller is looking good so far.
The Xbox One will come with a 500GB hard drive and the ability to have all your saves on cloud storage which is good since it is being reported that you may have to load every game you buy onto your system before playing them. Luckily you will not have to sit and watch that painful loading screen when you pre-load your games on the 360 since the Xbox One will allow you to start playing your game while it loads onto the system.
Games will automatically begin the download to the hard drive as soon as you insert them into the Xbox One.
Are you at your limit with 100 friends on Xbox Live? Well Microsoft has heard your frenzied cries of popularity. The Xbox One will now give Live users the ability to have 1000 friends on their account. So for all of you celebrities, internet gurus, journalists and what not that need this many friends today is your day!