Xbox None

[Mynock]

Holy shit......finally paid attention to this thing today and had my mind blown.....pathetic system specs, "once a day" DRM, cloud based gaming, required subscription fees, fees for used games, can't play games on multiple consoles.......about the only way they could make this atrocity worse is if they installed Windows 8 on it. I'd sell my MS stock if I had any.

[Sydney]

Me and my friends are watching for backpedaling on some of this... but any single one of those is still a dealkiller for us.

[BSink42]

I'm not a gamer, but a family member is, and he said he and his friend would just prefer to get the PS4 rather than spend one red cent on XBOX One.

[DangerGirl]

Look for "Xbox Classic" in the not-too-distant future.

[Mynock]

Hahahahahaha......

Yakko Meets Xbox One.gif

[Sydney]

I'm not a gamer, but a family member is, and he said he and his friend would just prefer to get the PS4 rather than spend one red cent on XBOX One.

I'd be in that camp, but Sony's already ensured I won't give them one red cent either. And Nintendo's really not that far off, but I also haven't seen any compelling content for their consoles in quite some time.

Between Sony, Nintendo's decision that, if you connect a system to the internet then updates are mandatory, and now Microsoft's sudden lack of understanding, I'm finding myself back out of the modern gaming market through nothing more than my personal desire that I should be allowed to handle my system as I see fit, including avoiding updates should I choose, not hooking it up to the internet, not installing things to the built-in storage, buy used games without a whole lot of "are you sure you want to not give money to the publishers", etcetera.

[Mynock]

Try Steam. It does have some cloud based features and you have to connect to download/install a game, but the files are stored on your hard drive (you own them) and you can set Steam to off-line mode and actually play without being connected to the internet. I've been buying games from them exclusively since 2007 and I've never had a bad experience.

[Green Heart]

Its crazy how out of Touch Microsofts game division is, I mean who buys an "All in One" entertainment system just to watch more TV?

[quagmire_uk]

Try Steam. It does have some cloud based features and you have to connect to download/install a game, but the files are stored on your hard drive (you own them) and you can set Steam to off-line mode and actually play without being connected to the internet. I've been buying games from them exclusively since 2007 and I've never had a bad experience.

It seems really bizarre to me that Microsoft would want to emulate the few things about PC gaming that people find irritating, and then include none of the advantages of PC gaming. So while most PC games nowadays require you to register/activate a game on Steam to play, Steam has an offline mode that lets you play without an internet connection, and you also have the option of disabling automatic updates. You can also go to a friend's house, log into your own steam account on their computer, and play your games at your friend's house. Even if you have lost your game discs (or you never had any because you bought it online), simply logging in on a friend's computer allows you to download and install the game there. You can even "lend" the game to your friend, if you don't mind not being able to play it yourself on your own computer.

With Xbox One, they are doing a Steam style online activation thing, but where you are forced to stay online all the time and you are forced to accept updates, and you can't take it to a friend's house. They've removed all the convenience of console gaming, and not including the advantages that PC services such as Steam have. Urgh.

In the meantime, there have been a number of unofficial "Steam-boxes" and Valve are probably working on an official one of their own; a games console that is essentially a PC built for nothing but gaming, designed to be small and fit in the living room by your TV, and with good system specs that mean that it'll run most PC games and people that are not tech-savvy won't need to worry about whether a game will work on it or not.