by Henry88 » Wed May 29, 2013 10:36 pm
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The next-gen consoles aren’t here yet but the first battle in the upcoming war has already begun. Sony planted their feet first, hosting a massive press conference in February for press around the world to unveil the PlayStation 4, ensuring that this time around, they’d beat Microsoft to the punch. The unveiling came with several game announcements and information on a lot of concepts, but the console hardware itself and its interface were nowhere to be seen, resulting in criticisms, including a few shots from Microsoft reps themselves.
Last week it was Microsoft’s turn and the Xbox One was unveiled. We saw the console, the dashboard and many of its home entertainment functions, but Microsoft’s lack of consistent and concrete details offered to media in attendance regarding its always-online policies, used games and hardware, resulted in a PR nightmare of sorts, and Sony couldn’t be happier. The reactions from the Xbox One reveal may actually be affecting Sony’s plans for the PS4.
You can see it on Twitter, across news aggregates like Reddit and N4G, and even here in the comment sections of Game Rant of each Xbox One article we write – some gamers aren’t happy with the news so far about the Xbox One, and not because of the overzealous focus on TV and sports, but because of how it may take away a lot of freedoms gamers are accustomed to.
Focusing on just used games, Wired first discovered from playtesting the console that console discs on the Xbox One must be installed. During installation, the games can be played so there’s no direct negative impact on gamers from this changing reality. The issue is what happens when we let our siblings or friends play on their consoles, or publishers forbid, we sell or trade the game. Various sources and interviews explained that if a gamer takes a console disc to someone else’s Xbox One, it’s free for them to play it so long as the original owner is logged in. If not and you want to let your friend/family/whoever play it, they have to pay a “feeâ€