E3 2016 (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

So now that the announcements have come out and the first day is done, what are people's thoughts?

I think Microsoft is in one of their off years. They didn't really have any new games for 2016 to show and they announced the next Xbox system followed by the next next Xbox system. The jokes online are that we have now seen the shortest console generation, with only an hour and a half separating the Xbox One S and Project Scorpio. That said, I feel like their event was very similar to Sony's 2015 conference, where they talked up how great VR and games in 2016 were going to be. I can see 2017 being a stellar Xbox year, but MS seems to have acknowledged that there's little coming in 2016.

Sony's event was great. The only disappointing thing is that some well known games (Kingdom Hearts III, FFVII Remake) were neither shown nor mentioned. That said, their event was like 90% gameplay videos, which is better than just simple PR announcements and trailers, and a lot of it was new games, almost all of which will be out within 8ish months.

Nintendo showed off a lot of the new Zelda. It looks good and fits squarely in the broad, big-idea language they've used in the past to describe it. That's good, but it's also not much.

Those are my thoughts.

 

[Ruz-El]

Nothing announced has me too excited. Zero Horizon (the chick fighting dino-robots game, I think I have the name right) looks cool, but other than that everything seems to be sequels and more of the same with a fresh paint. I have zero interest in VR at this point, and most of those titles sound like fancy tech demo's that will have you tripping over your coffee table.

 

[joshEH]

Sony was going to drop the big Red Dead Redemption 2 announcement today, but they pulled out of capping off the Sony conference with the reveal at the last second because the trailer featured a saloon being shot up. Too soon after the Orlando club-shooting.

They haven't said if and when they'll release it now. That's why the conference ended with that biker-zombie game instead.

 

[joshEH]

We have a product for those that don't have a 4K resolution TV, it's called Xbox One.

In other news, Phil Spencer seemingly just channeled his inner Don Mattrick. Monday, they started the Scorpio hype machine with their E3 reveal for the Nextbox1 slated for Holiday 2017 release. A day later, they're already bungling the messaging on what and who the NextBox is for. You could have just kept quiet until next year's E3. Figure out what your long-game is.

Someone should make him play a Telltale game: "Sometimes silence is an acceptable answer, too."

"You should buy [the Xbox One S], because Scorpio is not going to do anything for you," Spencer said after asking the reviewer what TV he had – in this instance a 1080p set. “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.

"Clearly, you can buy Scorpio, and if and when you decide you want to buy a 4K television to take advantage of the increased performance, obviously the console will be ready for you. For us in the industry, it's easy to think that most power is always the thing that wins. If you look at last gen, what won? The Wii won. The Wii sold more than we did on Xbox 360 and the PS3, and it wasn't the most powerful console out there. Price is critically important. Wii was a good price and it had a great experience.

"Scorpio is for the person who's got a 4K television, who's really focused on 4K gaming. It's going to be a premium price over what we're selling this one for, and both of them will exist in the market at the same time. Scorpio is for your 4K gamer. And that's what we designed it for."

"So if you don't have a 4K TV...you poor, pathetic fuck, just buy the Xbone, it's good enough for you, bro. Games and Kinect...oh shit. So good! But if you got that 4K -- haha I'm looking at you, yeah, I KNOW you got dat 4K. Then this Scorpio? Pffft, it's all you, bro. 4K...30fps!"

*crickets*

 

[Sam Posten]

Jazzed for more Skyrim and a 4k UHD Xbox 1 S. Lots of games look like they will be great when I grab em for $20, not a whole lot I will spend full price on.

 

[DavidMiller]

Scorpio is 4K at 60fps not 30fps, I believe the "S" is as well. I think Xbox is focusing around community games vs. mainstream. I think they are having a lot of luck selling micro-transaction and $5-$20 games. They get the big titles so why suck up valuable keynote with gameplay that you will see 10,000 times between now and they release... Talking to you CoD.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The resolution and framerate of a game is due to a combination of hardware and software. The Xbox One could do a 4K 60 fps game if there were big sacrifices to how good the graphics were and how detailed graphical effects were. There's no guarantee that every Scorpio game will be 4K 60 fps. It's also 17 or 18 months away, so the hype is hard to feel.

The S is literally just an Xbox One that plays UHD discs and streaming 4K content. They even said as much multiple times in interviews. It will not make games look or play better.

MS makes money by getting people to buy Halo and an XBLive subscription. They're not selling many consoles, which is why they are now reporting monthly XBL subscribers instead of hardware sales.

Where did you hear the rumors about Red Dead 2?

 

[Bryan^H]

So now that the announcements have come out and the first day is done, what are people's thoughts?

I think Microsoft is in one of their off years. They didn't really have any new games for 2016 to show and they announced the next Xbox system followed by the next next Xbox system. The jokes online are that we have now seen the shortest console generation, with only an hour and a half separating the Xbox One S and Project Scorpio. That said, I feel like their event was very similar to Sony's 2015 conference, where they talked up how great VR and games in 2016 were going to be. I can see 2017 being a stellar Xbox year, but MS seems to have acknowledged that there's little coming in 2016.

Sony's event was great. The only disappointing thing is that some well known games (Kingdom Hearts III, FFVII Remake) were neither shown nor mentioned. That said, their event was like 90% gameplay videos, which is better than just simple PR announcements and trailers, and a lot of it was new games, almost all of which will be out within 8ish months.

Nintendo showed off a lot of the new Zelda. It looks good and fits squarely in the broad, big-idea language they've used in the past to describe it. That's good, but it's also not much.

Those are my thoughts.

Off year? No way not with the Dead Rising sequel I have been waiting for since 2006. Frank West returns. and the Shopping Mall with zombies!!!!!

Even if you aren't a fan of Dead Rising you have to appreciate the steps Microsoft is taking to make their system super functional...the return of soundtrack support is just one thing that has me excited. The continuing backward compatible 360 games is also a plus...meanwhile Sony continues the pay to play framework for older games. I am looking forward to 'The Last Guardian' from Sony, and that is it. I hate God OF War, and Id rather play PS1 Crash Bandicoot games than remastered, so there you go.

 

[DavidJ]

I think Detroit Become Human looks interesting: