XboxOne and Skype are in a bed together, making sweet, sweet love. Thanks to the full integration of Skype built into XboxOne from the ground up, every aspect of voice and video chat is not only seamless, but far and away improved over the Xbox 360. XboxOne and Skype sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G.
Both in-game and dashboard voicechat and Party Chat will be powered by Skype, in both audio and video molds (no microphone or headset required, as the mic is build into the Kinect 2 that ships with the system. Surely you can use a headset if you want to however, I assume), and Skype has vastly improved the audio quality, audio processing and microphone configuration settings available, as well as the voice options available to gamers when it comes to voice and video chat.
And all of this Skype goodness is seamlessly integrated into XboxOne and Xbox Live, allowing you to chat at any time, either audio or video chat, as well as do so while using multiple apps.
And in a very big deal, XboxOne Remote Play Sessions via Skype where you can see the screen (and gameplay?) of your friends whom you’re chatting with may be possible as well on the XboxOne just like on the PC. Although that hasn’t been confirmed.
To quote Microsoft on Skype in an interview with Polygon:
“Skype technologies are used in Xbox One which improves voice quality during multiplayer game sessions. Skype can also be used to call any of your Skype contacts for voice or video chat exclusively or while playing a game. Additionally, we have improved the Kinect hardware, from microphone configuration to dedicated audio processing, which contributes to providing a high-quality voice experience whether you are chatting in a game or through Skype.”
All of these develops are great ones. Unless, of course, you don’t play multiplayer games or do voice chat like me! :P
Keep your Xbox 360 system around. Microsoft plans to support it another 5 years!
Will Microsoft stop supporting Xbox 360 now that Xbox One releases and comes out this year? No! Microsoft plans full Xbox 360 support for the next FIVE YEARS.
This means that the original plan for the Xbox 360 to live and breath for a full 10 year system cycle will actually take place. That is, assuming that Microsoft’s plans to support the system for another five years actually happens in reality. Of course, no one knows whether that will actually happen or not once the new system launches. Time will tell.
Microsoft says they plan to support the Xbox 360 for the next five years and sell an additional 25 million Xbox 360 systems!
To quote Microsoft from a GameSpot interview,
“Downloaded Xbox Live Arcade games will continue to run on your Xbox 360 for as long as your Xbox 360 runs. The box is not backward compatible and we think for somebody who invests in a large digital library that you want to keep your Xbox 360. Keep that as a vibrant part of the ecosystem. That’s why we’ve made sure that your identity, your friends, are constant between both platforms. You don’t have a separate identity on Xbox One or Xbox 360; it’s the same, you are you. My friend’s network is the same on both boxes, my achievements are the same. So we think that service component is an important component to keep constant across both devices.”
It makes a lot of sense for Microsoft to continue supporting the Xbox 360 even after XboxOne, as the Xbox 360 has a huge install base and is an extremely successful platform, particularly in the United States. The Xbox 360 has routinely been the best-selling system over the last several years (especially since the release of Kinect, which truly reinvigorated the platform in terms of sales) and recently become the best-selling console of the month for the 28th time in a row! Quite an amazing feat! This is in the United States, where the Xbox 360 has been beating the PS3 and Wii in terms of sales for a long time now. Wii sales actually trump both systems in all territories. However in Europe the PS3 is the best-selling platform out of the two non-Nintendo systems. It’s also the best-selling platform in Japan of the two. Even so, the United States is considered the biggest territory and having the Xbox 360 system top sales here domestically over the PS3 is still a huge win for the American company.
However sales of the Xbox 360 have indeed slowed significantly, as they have for all of the soon-to-be old consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DSi, PSP). That of course is to be expected as the next-generation transitions into the current-generation and the console/handheld lineup changes to: XboxOne, PS4, WiiU, 3DS, PSVita.
We’ll learn more about Microsoft’s continued and future support for the Xbox 360 at the big E3 2013 show on June 11-13th.
Xbox One Games (XboxOne as I like to call it) will be plenty, as Microsoft confirmed during their Xbox 720 Reveal Show that a whopping 15 Xbox One exclusive videogames are in development. Of those fifteen, eight are all-new franchises or all-new IP! Which is fantastic news for those of us who are not yet sold on the XboxOne.
Of course, the real question is whether or not any of these 8 new Xbox One games will be compelling software or of the Kinectimals/Kinect Star Wars mold. That is, games that will not satisfy the hardcore.
However Microsoft is banking big on the Xbox One, so while one or two games may be casual, I’d be surprised if the majority are not games that appeal to hardcore gamers.
Imagine a future where videogames were streamed into your TV. Kinda like OnLive.
Imagine if playing videogames was as easy as changing the TV channel? What if there were no videogame consoles, and instead of a dedicated videogame console from one of the big-three manufacturers (Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony), games were streamed to your device?
Does this sound like an exciting future to you? Do you think we’ll reach that point within ten years? God of War creator David Jaffe does, and he recently spoke out about this future in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz.
To quote:
“Look, consoles are going away. I think in 10 years – probably sooner, but 10 years is always the safe thing to say so you don’t sound like an idiot – but here’s what I’ll say: I’ll go on the record and say that the next generation of hardware will be the last consoles. And they should be. It doesn’t mean you won’t buy a piece of hardware from Sony, but you’ll probably buy a television that streams the stuff. And you’ll still have Sony, loud and proud and strong making these great, big, epic games like God of War and Uncharted, and they’ll be making great little games like Sound Shapes, but they’ll become more like movie studios for video games. I’ll be able to stream in the next Uncharted and Plants vs Zombies and you won’t even think about it. It’ll just be like I can watch a public access show on my TV or I can watch Avatar.”
You can kind of get this already with OnLive, which allows you to purchase new videogames to play using the OnLive Console or your PC; but OnLive has in no way replaced the current crop of consoles…
In this future that David Jaffe is talking about, videogames have not gone away in the slightest, to the contrary they are bigger than ever, but the medium and the way you get them has changed. Imagine if you will, that every videogame was like a movie studio, and everyone’s device, like a TV, can get all the same movies from these same studios. So the focus would be on the brandname of said entertainment (just like the brand name from movies like The Expendibles or TV shows like King of Queens) and its content, and not on the delivery device….
I am not sure that I agree at all with David Jaffe. In fact, I think half the fun of videogames is the console itself… which is probably why I am not in any way much of a big PC gamer… But this is definitely an interesting idea.
It’s also worth noting that 10 years will arguably be the next systems after the next-generation, as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are doing their best to push the current-generation to last a whole 10 years. I don’t think they’ll quite make it, but they got hella close, as the current crop of consoles launched in 2006, 2005 for the Xbox 360.
Master Chief watches from above, ready for action!
Episode 7 of On the Cutting Room Floor (Games I’m Longing to Play) is Halo 2 for the original Xbox, the first sequel in the Halo series and the second game in the beloved first-person shooter franchise that greatly expanded on the mythos of the Halo saga.
If you know me, you know that there are TONS AND TONS of videogames I’ve never played. Sadly, although I consider myself to be a “hardcore” gamer, I really am not compared to most “gamers”. The reason for that is because, unlike other more productive people, I can never seem to find the time to play games. Period.
In fact, my most played system as of late has been my Nintendo 3DS, and that’s simply because it is the easiest system to play when I’m sitting on the throne…. And cause I’m a hardcore Nintendo fanboy to boot.
So I thought it would be fun to go through some of the games I’d LOVE to play and still plan on playing someday, but never have up to this point and why I want to play them. Maybe I’ll get to them at some point, and hopefully soon; but maybe not. We’ll see. Enjoy.
EPISODE #7 – Halo 2 Released: November 9 2004 (Xbox), May 17 2007 (Windows Vista PC) System: Xbox1, Windows PC Re-Released: Never Genre: First-Person Shooter Developed By: Bungie Publisher: Microsoft Is There A Digital Version?: No (Not yet)
Halo 2 is a game that really needs no introduction. The second entry in Master Chief’s Halo saga, the game greatly expanded upon the original Halo after that game’s massive success as a 2001 launch game for the original Xbox, and the rest is history. Halo 2 would become THE signature game of the original Xbox system.
I loved the original Halo game (although I didn’t much play multiplayer, since I am not a multiplayer guy and could care less about multiplayer in games) and I reviewed it for VGB where I gave the game a score of 8.5. Give my VideoGamesBlogger Halo 1: Combat Evolved review a read to see what I thought about the first Halo game.
The bonus material included in the Limited Edition of Halo 2 for the original Xbox.
Once Halo 2 hit however, I didn’t keep up with the series and I never got around to playing the game despite all the hysteria surrounding the epic sequel. To this day I still want to track the Halo 2 Collector’s Edition down to own a copy of it.
Halo 2 was arguably the game that everyone was hoping they’d get with the original Halo. It greatly expanded the mythos of the series by adding a new universe and extensive cast of new characters, including a playable alien Covenant named “The Arbiter”! This made a huge splash and was akin to the first time that gamers figured out that Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was actually more about a fellow named Raiden than Solid Snake! Likewise, when players found out that the Master Chief wasn’t the sole focus of Halo 2…. waves were made. It was a HUGE decision by developer Bungie and publisher Microsoft, but it was something that really helped the sequel stand-out among other games, and it made the game a very memorable experience. Additionally, the single-player story was expanded to a galactic level, and ended on a Cliffhanger that left fans dazed and craving more. The perfect excuse to transition into the sequel to Halo 2, Halo 3! Which wouldn’t hit until the original Xbox1′s successor, the Xbox 360 launched in 2006, with Halo 3 arriving a year later in 2007 to just as much, if not more, fanfare than Halo 2.
Here is what the intense, beloved multiplayer of Halo 2 looked like. From 3rd-person instead of 1st.
Halo 2 made its biggest splash however with the multiplayer game. It was here where the Xbox really propelled itself as a true online multiplayer powerhouse extraordinaire, as Halo 2 introduced gamers to Xbox Live, Microsoft’s then-new online service. Xbox Live allowed players to connect their Xbox1 machines to the Internet and play multiplayer games online! The game also included full cooperative play where you could tackle the single-player game with a buddy, and supported System Link, wherein people would stage massive house parties where several Xbox systems were linked up to each other allowing for 8-16 player offline multiplayer matches (something also offered with the original Halo).
Although I wasn’t a Halo player, I clearly remember some of the insanely fun Halo 2 multiplayer matches that the game spawned. One time several of my buddies and a friend who was the brother of our church’s pastor (much younger brother, mind), got two Xbox’s, two copies of Halo 2 and multiple Xbox controllers together, and we headed down to the church that night. Our buddy had the key to the church doors and permission to enter from the pastor, so we headed into the church and staged a massive Halo 2 tournament, playing the game on the big projector screens with the church’s booming sound! Since I wasn’t interested in Halo 2, I sat back and played DJ. Pumping out awesome metal beats to go along with all the multiplayer shooting action!
Here is what Halo 2 single-player looks like, facing off some enemy aliens with a Shotgun!
Ahhhh, those were the days! I can clearly remember another giant houseparty I went to where they had 16 players with Xbox systems set up in each and every room. Suffice it to say, Halo 2 and system link multiplayer were HUGE back-in-the-day, and they truly elevated Halo to mainstream status that was akin to what happened when GoldenEye 007 hit, where everyone and their mother seemed to be playing it (Oh yeah, and Halo 2 copied GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark’s “dual-wielding”, while acting like they made it up themselves. Tsk tsk… There I said it.)
I feel like a very sad, wise-old turtle for not having played Halo 2. But it is definitely still a game that I intend to play very soon. And due to never having played Halo 2, I still don’t know much of anything about the Halo storyline and mythos as a whole, having tried my best to avoid spoilers for each subsequent game. Because I never played the second one, I also never played the following titles, including Halo 3, Halo Reach, Halo 3: ODST and Halo Wars…. all games that I’d love to play so I can finally catch myself up on what everyone has been clamoring about all these years… and prepare myself for the total epic awesomeness that is sure to be Halo 4!
The Master Chief defending against an aerial bombardment in this Halo 2 wallpaper.
It’s worth noting that Halo 2 was the most popular Xbox Live online game all the way up until two years later and the Xbox 360, when Gears of War finally unseated it! Halo 2 was also the most successful original Xbox game, selling well-over 6 million copies in the United States alone. I wouldn’t be surprised if the real worldwide sales numbers were closer to 20 million.
The Halo 4 live-action trailer started off Microsoft’s E3 2012 Press Conference with a BANG!
The full, entire E3 2012 Microsoft Press Conference video is here for your viewing pleasure! If you missed anything, check it out and you’ll be all caught up for how the Xbox 360 will evolve in the coming years!
New announcements and highlights include:Xbox SmartGlass, Halo 4, Gears of War: Judgment (only briefly shown in video CG cutscene form), Assassin’s Creed 3 (even man your own ship in Assassin’s Creed 3 Sea Battles!), Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Madden NFL 13, Fable: The Journey, Forza: Horizon, fitness game Nike Plus: Kinect Training (which promises to revolutionize fitness), South Park: The Stick of Truth (a South Park RPG! Demonstrated by creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone!), Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Resident Evil 6 (which looks AMAZING), Tomb Raider 2013, Wreckateer (Xbox Live game), Matter (ditto), and Dance Central 3, wherein Usher came out for a musical performance as well as demoing the game.
Other new game mentions included: LocoCycle, Ascend: New Gods, the reveal of Internet Explorer for Xbox (finally bringing web-browsing to Xbox 360!), the newly revealed Xbox Music service (which will also extedn to PC, mobile and tablet devices) and new Xbox Live video partnerships with the NBA, NHL, ESPN, Nickelodeon, Paramount movies, Michinima, and Spanish-speaking Univision.
Will Xbox 360 SmartGlass be able to compete with the Wii U tablet or better it?
Xbox 360 SmartGlass has everyone’s head abuzz with opinions. Is SmartGlass a Wii U killer? Has Microsoft significantly jumped the gun on Nintendo enough to actually gain an upper hand?
Will this development send Nintendo back to the drawing board as far as what new features the Wii U will be compelled to support simply to compete with this new development?
Should Microsoft be punished for blatantly ripping the Wii U off? Should Nintendo be praised for once-again setting an industry standard that everyone else copies and then improves on? Is Xbox 360 Smart Glass just a natural development in the direction videogames and videogame developers were already headed in? That is, would Microsoft have developed Xbox 360 Smart Glass or something like it, even without the Wii U?
So many questions… so little answers.
It’s really anyone’s guess. One thing that IS certain though, and you can glean this from both Microsoft AND Sony’s press conferences… as well as from third-party developers… mobile gaming has literally changed the landscape of gaming as a whole. Similar to social network games and popular, household words like Facebook, the gaming landscape has shifted and is now taking these huge new changes into account. Better yet, the gaming industry is taking advantage of these new technologies to offer gamers new and ever-more-interactive and interconnected experiences. Experiences that are beginning to spread out… outside of a single game console.
While the BIG THREE won’t be getting together to make woopie anytime soon, the fact is these manufacterers have recognized that it is to their advantage to bring mobile devices and other machines into their fold. While allowing your mobile device to LITERALLY become a videogame controller and control your system using your smartphones touchscreen is a HUGE new development (who’s worth cannot be understated. This is BIG), if you think back even a couple years ago to Sony and their “PlayStation Suite”, or to Microsoft and their Windows Phone platforms… this kind of connectivity with mobile devices is something that has been bubbling under the service for years and years now.
However, I think it took the Wii U and its tablet controller and Nintendo’s fancy eye for innovate innovation, to violently shove Microsoft and Sony to put all they have into persuing their mobile ideas that they were already half-heartedly working on, thinking about, and considering. But now they’ve gone beyond thinking and considering and into action. And I can’t see how anyone could say this is a bad thing.
When the Windows Phone 7 was first announced, it was revealed that, if you bought one, you could instal your Xbox Live Avatar and Gaming Card onto the device by linking with your Xbox 360 account (which could also be done on Windows) and keep track of all your Xbox 360 Achievements, your GamersScore, etc. while you were on-the-go. Cool right? Sure. Who wouldn’t say that is pretty sweet. But is it cool enough to make you buy a Windows Phone over another platform? No. When Sony a few years ago announced the “PlayStation Suite” service, the goal was to expand the PlayStation brand into the mobile space. AWESOME!!! We all said. Then it was revealed that “bringing PlayStation to mobile”, in reality, meant being able to play 15-year-old PlayStation One games on your phone… and old crappy ones that everyone already owns at that. Yawn.
Do you see where I’m going with this? This development was already under way, but the way in which these publishers went about it was all wrong. Then in steps Nintendo. Out of absolutely NO WHERE, the company introduces the Wii U, a videogame system whose controller IS a touchscreen tablet, with traditional gaming controls built-in on the sides. Nintendo proceeds to show the Wii U Remote and Nunchuk and other devices interacting with the Wii Controller tablet (no officially called the Wii U GamePad) in ways that expand on what is being seen and percieved on the TV. They turn heads by showing a guy golfing, where the ball sits in a hole in the sand displayed on the Wii U tablet’s screen, and the guy then hits the Golfball by swinging the Wii Remote and the ball flies FROM the Wii U tablet and onto the TV screen…. Ingenius.
This causes Microsoft and Sony to kick themselves and say “Why didn’t we think of that?” Oh wait, we kinda did! We just didn’t really follow through with it! And that brings us to today. Yesterday Microsoft announced Xbox 360 SmartGlass, and that they are now putting their FULL WEIGHT behind mobile devices in order to move the Xbox 360 and all that it offers onto devices NOT CALLED the Xbox 360. While this may not include playing Xbox 360 games on other devices like PC, cellphones and tablets, it WILL mean more interconnectivity with Windows PCs, your Xbox 360, and your mobile devices than ever before. And it will mean new ways of interacting with your Xbox 360 using other devices.
The big draw was the ability to use your tablet or cellphones touchscreen to control your Xbox 360. Now there will be no need to fiddle around with the Xbox 360 controller when watching a TV show, as you can just sit back and use the cellphone in your pocket as a remote with which to select the show or entertainment you want to watch on your Xbox 360 and to pause, rewind, fast forward, skip scenes, etc. Beyond that, Xbox SmartGlass brings new functionality to your entertainment by allowing the additional screen to know what it is that you are doing on another device. Be it a Windows PC or your Xbox 360, your device will display relevant information or interactive features, greatly enhancing your experience.
All of this begs the question… will you be able to use the new screen in ways like the Wii U? For example, in an Aliens: Colonial Marines game, can you use your Xbox SmartGlass connected cellphone as a radar screen? The answer is YES. This was shown in multiple examples… however they were just examples… we’ll need to wait and see to find out how it will actually compare to what the final form of the Wii U brings to the table.
I would believe the Wii U has the edge, because unlike the tablet or cellphone which was not originally built with the Xbox 360 in mind, the Wii U tablet WAS built with your TV in mind, and can instantly with 100% NO LAG, display what is on the TV on your controller, and vice versa, as well as enhancing it.
As for Sony, they went as far as to rename their “PlayStation Suite” service and simply call it “PlayStation Mobile”, and they, just like Microsoft, are renewing their focus on hooking the PS3 and PS Vita to mobile devices. They are also pushing hard the ability to hook your PS3 up to your PS Vita, and to use the two vices together. Connectivity between the two will mean the ability to play the same game on both machines, and then stop playing on one machine, and pick up from where you left off on the other. The ability to share save files between both your PS3 and PS Vita, and surely much more.
Of course, Nintendo also messed around with portable connectivity between their GameCube and the Game Boy Advance back in 2004-2006, but that didn’t go anywhere important and very few people used it. Will people use it now with Sony?
I think the more likely answer is “probably not”. Few people have both a PS Vita AND a PS3, and for the most part they probably cannot be bothered or won’t care enough to link the two together and use them constantly. And the same goes for Microsoft. And THIS is where the other two run into problems that Nintendo avoids. Unlike Nintendo, these devices must already be owned, and must then be hooked up and synced in with the home system. Beyond that, the person has to give a sh*t about what you are doing with the connectivity. While people think that being able to see information about a TV show or movie on their cellphone as the movie or TV show is playing is cool, how many will actually care? When was the last time YOU watched a DVD/Bluray information pop-up special feature where you watch the whole movie as it pops up tidbits of info while you are watching it?
Most people do not care and find it distracting, and would rather just watch the movie. i.e., how often will you actually look down at your Xbox 360 SmartGlass-connected tablet or cellphone while you are watching The Matrix 4? It is more likely that you will NOT do this. Nintendo’s advantage is that everyone who buys a Wii U is buying it SOLELY for the Wii U tablet. This is the big selling point of the Wii U, and everyone who buys one will immediately be interested in using said tablet, and will not have to hassle with connecting the devices together and then remembering to use them.
Having additionally connectivity and functionality is one thing. Remembering to use it and caring enough to do so is a whole other ballgame. Case-in-point, I often have bought calenders, and hung them on my wall. But how often do I REMEMBER to check it every single morning? Hardly ever. I always forget even when I MEAN TO check it. This is Sony and Microsoft’s challenge. And it’ll be extremely interesting to see where we go from here. :)
Will Xbox 360 Smart Glass Kill the Wii U before it even launches? Yes or no?
Will Xbox SmartGlass be a Wii U killer? Yes or No.
That is the major question on everyone’s mind after Microsoft’s major Pre-E3 2012 Press Conference last night, which sent the internet abuzzing with the possibilities that Microsoft’s new “SmartGlass” system will bring to the Xbox 360, allowing your mobile devices to connect to your Xbox and add additional functionality, features and control to it… Be it a tablet, smartphone, iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone, Android or Windows Phone device….
Here is the E3 2012 Microsoft Pre-E3 Press Conference Xbox 360 Smart Glass Reveal.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II takes names and demands attention wherever the game goes… so naturally, Microsoft saw the game as the perfect fit to help them kick off their Xbox 360 Microsoft Press Conference for E3 2012.
Black Ops II is such a hugely anticipated game (selling more pre-orders already by far than any previous game in the Call of Duty franchise) that a lot has already been seen and made known about the title…
Even so, a high amount of all-new gameplay footage is nothing but a good thing. And is surely to get players ever-more-hyped for the first-ever Call of Duty that is set during the future… in a time where machines have stolen the “keys” from humankind… While mechs, robots and unmanned drones rule; one of the coolest aspects of Black Ops II is how it integrates interesting aspects of gameplay that have never been seen before in a shooter like this…. including horses!
That is not a typo. HORSES. HELL YEAH!
Check out the Call of Duty: Black Ops II Microsoft Conference Stage Demo From E3 2012 with gameplay footage!
I think its funny how the US President is female in two games now. That’s the new threshold. No longer is it about having a black man as President, it now must be a woman. :P
