Don Mattrick Leaves Microsoft

Yes folks, in a move that's sure to break the hearts of so many, Don Mattrick, who succeeded Peter Moore in leading the Xbox division of Microsoft, has quit to pursue a job with Zynga.

While in past years my gripes with Mattrick would have been rather unimportant on the grand scale, based mostly around the homogenization of games development at Microsoft Studios, the fact that he was head of the division when they tried to push forth with an awful DRM platform which would have mostly fucked over the Xbox customer base, all the while displaying incredible arrogance and condescension, leads me without any hesitation to say that he shouldn't let the door hit him in the ass on his way out of Redmond.

So farewell to you Mr. Mattrick, you won't be missed.

Gamers: FLAWLESS VICTORY!!

Today Microsoft shocked me and most everyone else by posting the following on Xbox.com: 

"Last week at E3, the excitement, creativity and future of our industry was on display for a global audience.

For us, the future comes in the form of Xbox One, a system designed to be the best place to play games this year and for many years to come. As is our heritage with Xbox, we designed a system that could take full advantage of advances in technology in order to deliver a breakthrough in game play and entertainment. We imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing, and new ways to try and buy games. We believe in the benefits of a connected, digital future.

Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One.

You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world. 

So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means: 

An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360. 

Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360. 

In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console -- there will be no regional restrictions. 

These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray. 

We appreciate your passion, support and willingness to challenge the assumptions of digital licensing and connectivity. While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds. 

Thank you again for your candid feedback. Our team remains committed to listening, taking feedback and delivering a great product for you later this year"

 This news is awesome for everyone! The customers have made themselves heard and forced a behemoth to bend to their will. To all those who participated in the social media campaigns #PS4NoDRM and #XboxOneNoDRM, to all those who crashed the comments sections of Xbox videos so hard that MS had to shut off the comments completely, to those who responded to MS's Facebook promotions with ASCII-art middle fingers, to those who spoke with their wallets in pre-orders for non-DRM-hell consoles and spoke with their mouseclicks in online polls that embarassed Microsoft, and to those who created the educational .jpgs warning others about the awful DRM that spread like wildfire across the internet, THANK YOU!

In the face of the industry sycophants like Cliff Bleszinski and Totalbiscuit, who downplayed and/or ridiculed the efforts to fight back with social media campaigns and harsh criticisms, so many stood their ground, refused to give way to the cynicism and mockery and actually made a change. We saw it first when Sony acknowledged the NoDRM campaign and it's creator, NeoGAF's famousmortimer, in their press conference, and now after a few weeks of intense pushback Microsoft has raised the white flag and decided not to fuck it's customers over after all!

Before I close out this celebratory post, allow me to indulge in a moment of pure gloating excess:

 To all the apologists in the industry and games journalism who called the critical voices across the internet a bunch of entitled whiners, who implied that we're backwards troglodytes, that we're spoiled and that we are a loud and unimportant minority who don't amount to anything, all I can say is suck it, suck it hard motherfuckers! While you were willing to bend over and take the loss of first-sale freedoms for whatever petty reason, be it simple fanboyism, blind faith in unproven promises or licking the asses of the industry suits that give you free shit, we became an unavoidable storm that forced the corporate regime in Redmond to adapt or die. You kiss-ass shitlords lost, but the fact that you lost means you get a better and more user-friendly Xbox One than the one you would have gotten had we heeded your terrible advice to calm down and stay quiet. You can thank us later, after you've picked your egos up off the floor, but until then, YOU'RE WELCOME.

A Rebuttal to Brenna Hillier

Since the earliest days of home consoles there have always been system wars and debates over the merits of which gaming platform is superior to all others. Most of the time this has revolved around simple preferences for one set of exclusive games versus another, and as advances in internet technology have evolved the debate has evolved alongside it to include service platforms and multiplayer infrastructures.

But a curious thing has happened in regards to the forthcoming generation which will see Sony's Playstation 4 engage in direct competition with Microsoft's Xbox One. The battle this time around isn't as much about exclusive vs. exclusive, or Playstation Network vs. Xbox Live or even technical specs like GDDR3 RAM vs. GDDR5 RAM. No, this time around due to completely opposing philosophies in the design of the operating systems we have a war between one company saying that we get to own the discs we pay $60 for and do with them as we please once the first sale has been made, and another saying that they control our access to the games we pay money for. 

While one of the platforms will continue on with game sales and operation in the manner we have always been accustomed to, the other will enforce a new paradigm for physical copies in that their permission is needed to play the titles, that we have limited options for trading, selling and sharing games and that essentially all discs are nothing but unlock keys for digital copies, ensuring that we don't own anything. With such a vast difference in these platforms the lines have been quickly drawn for the gaming audience and many are choosing sides based not on what games were impressive at E3 or the various reveal events, but based on where they as a consumer are willing to give and where they will put their foot down in regards to their views on ownership rights. Needless to say the conversation has been quite heated with Microsoft and their Xbone console receiving a less than warm reception as details of their DRM and online connectivity requirements surface.

It's within this controversy regarding the next-generation systems that I read an article posted at VG24/7 by Brenna Hillier titled "Console Wars: you're going to buy an Xbox One" (link here) which about made me want to smash my head against a wall before I decided I'd openly rebut the article here. So without further ado, I'll begin here:

 "I’m no Xbot, kids; I was a rabid Sony fangirl before I saw the light of platform agnosticism (otherwise known as tax deductible hardware purchases). It took me years to pick up an Xbox 360 and I barely use it, since I don’t like the control pad (small hands, see) or have time for many multiplayer shooters. But I know I’m going to get an Xbox One eventually, and truly I think if you are the kind of person who invests in more than one console, you probably will too."

"Platform agnosticism"  is an odd choice of words. Agnostic is a word most associated with debates over beliefs and knowledge claims in regards to Gods and Godesses, and while some may mistakenly think agnostic is halfway between the theist and the atheist, a fence-sitter shrugging their shoulders, the truth is that gnosticism and agnosticism apply to claims of knowledge and not belief. One can be a believer but still claim to not know for certain, thus being an agnostic believer. Agnosticism doesn't mean sitting perpetually in zen-like emptiness of bias and subjective opinion, forever on a fence of perfect objectivity. Agnosticism is simply claiming a lack of knowledge of the topic at hand.

So in regards to platform preferences, the agnostic wouldn't be the undecided person or the person who wants to be extra careful to hide any appearance of subjectivity and bias, it's the person who has no knowledge of the details about the differences between PS4 and the Xbone. A person with no knowledge of the differences in $60 ownership of game discs or $60 in permanent rental ecosystems is not who Hillier is addressing here, and I maintain that for any person who takes a good and hard look at the facts in regards to these platforms there really is no actual middle ground. Maybe, just maybe, if you get your systems and games for free as part of the industry you can have a perpetual position of shrugging your shoulders and ignoring the debate, but for those of us who have to pay for these things and deal with the long-term consequences I cannot fathom anyone still being completely objectively neutral. The details of both platforms' positions is crystal clear, we know exactly where Microsoft and Sony stand.

  "Sure, the Xbox One online stuff is inconvenient but just look at these games"

I seriously hope so few people are so wowed by a couple of videogames that they're willing to tell the entire games industry, which has spent years scapegoating it's own customers for it's self-inflicted financial woes and perfecting pitiful schemes to loot it's own fanbase's wallets, that we will gladly piss away our ability to use the things we purchase in a manner of our choosing over some shiny CGI promises of yet another installment in the Halo or Forza franchises. You give this industry an inch of rope and it doesn't take a mile, it takes a lap around the fucking planet, and then blames you when the rope costs too damn much.

 "But “quite annoying” could also easily be applied to PC gaming. Many of the restrictions Microsoft is introducing have been common in PC gaming for years, where the idea of trading used games is only just cropping up as a possibility again."

Oh boy, here we go with trying to compare the closed monopolistic ecosystem of Xbox with the open and competition-filled realm of the PC gaming industry. Are you fucking kidding me?

I already addressed this pitiful argument before (link here), but just for the sake of further argument let's pretend there's a valid comparison between Xbone and Steam. Who do you trust more between Valve and Microsoft to take care of customers? Last time Microsoft ran a DRM-laden download service, called MSN Music, they decided to close it and completely fucked over all the customers who had paid for content by shutting off all downloads and offering no DRM-removal options for the things people had saved. They basically rode off into the sunset with a fatter wallet and not a single fuck given about the customers whom they had done a disservice to.

Microsoft can't be trusted at all in this regard, but let's say Valve turns just as evil to compare the situations on even ground. At least on PC I can back my games up and crack the DRM, but under Big Brother Orwellian Microsoft's check-ins I'd have no way of doing that for Xbone software at all. After all, their 24 hour parole check-in is designed to prevent exactly those types of things from ever happening.

"If you were there, if you dipped into the oily vitriol that greeted Steam’s debut, did you ever expect things to turn out like this? Maybe it shouldn’t have. Maybe we should all be die-hard anti-DRM advocates. Maybe DRM really is purely anti-consumer in all its forms. I’m in two minds on that issue, and I’m not interested in debating it here. What I am interested in is whether the same thing is going to happen to the Xbox One. Will this storm blow over, as so many have before it?"

The DRM on Steam merits higher leniency of thought because it's got workarounds and they sell games oftentimes at prices comparable to consumable items, not the premium prices seen on consoles. We already know that next-gen console games are beginning once again at the $60 price point, and given Microsoft's online pricing record on XBL it;s highly suspect we'll see anything at all resembling the massive blowout sales seen on Steam, Good Old Games, Amazon or Greenman Gaming. Perhaps Microsoft can surprise us, and I'd be the first to eat crow if they did. But until I see some evidence of them taking initiatives like this before the Xbone launches I find no reason to believe they will once their new ecosystem is up and running. Microsoft hasn't showcased a reason for people to quiet their strong opinions on the subject, and what they have said and shown to us is worthy of the backlash they're suffering through.

"Apart from a few vocal outliers, nobody inside the industry really seems to want used games to go away."

If you think the people inside the industry who want used games to die out completely or be a shell of what they are now are outliers, and not just carefully hiding their opinions to avoid the hornet's nest that Microsoft has smacked wide open, then I have a bridge to sell you.

"it’s entirely possible that Microsoft is actually ahead of the trend in chasing a digital future – as it was when it focused on online multiplayer, coming into this last generation well ahead of Sony."

Microsoft is perpetually behind in anything relating to the digital future. Sure Xbox Live got a head start on making online console gaming more streamlined, but it was merely implanting features seen in PC gaming into the console space. Beating conservative Japanese companies like Nintendo and Sony to the punch in this regard is not that impressive a feat.

If you want a glimpse of who is really setting the tends in digital futures, take a step away from consoles and look at the tech sector as a whole. Microsoft only wishes it were on the ball like Apple and Google. Microsoft's business under the reign of Steve Ballmer has displayed nothing but failure after failure in trying to compete against those two companies. Given the pitiful revenue intake and corporate status of their entertainment division which houses Xbox, I highly doubt the Xbox brand will stick around if it ends up selling at the rates the WiiU is currently selling at, or the rates the PS3 did circa spring 2007.

"No matter how strongly we rail against the Xbox One, how much we all focus on the negatives instead of embracing the positives, the Xbox One will sell and it will be successful. After all, it’s got Halo. It’s got Titanfall. It’s got all your Xbox Live friends. And it’s got your Gamerscore. Eventually, it will have you."

And here it is folks, the coup de grâce! If you are one of the core gaming audience who Microsoft is wanting to sell a $500 gaming device to (and at $500 the core is pretty much the only audience) then you are part of a vocal minority who likes to complain and you don't matter! Don't you just love how this narrative keeps popping up in games journalism and from industry types? It's so easy to dismiss everything with the wave of a hand, claim that the views of those who are critical don't represent and important group and then go forth with proclamations that the critics are all a bunch of sheep who will piss their money away against their own self-interests because of Halo 5 or Titanfall.

Don't make any mistakes, I admit there's a good number of fools who support the absolute worst cash-grabs the AAA Gaemz Industree™ comes up with, and there will be people who buy and support this DRM-infested shitstain of a console. But to claim that those who are planning on avoiding financing the fleecing of an entire userbase will relent because of shiny mechs and Master Chief is straight out of the condescension playbook currently being used by arrogant Microsoft executives, and once employed by a Sony exec named Ken Kutaragi who found himself out of a job when the Playstation brand went from 85%+ console marketshare to sub-33% in the space of one single console transition. 

Is it possible that the Xbone will be a hit? Well yes, there's always a possibility of anything, but the probability seems to decrease day after day as each bit of news hits. As mainstream outlets like Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BBC and NBC criticize Microsoft's plans, as pre-order numbers and launch allotments skew more and more in Sony's favor and as news of Xbone needing an entire year to even hit some regions comes to light, the probability of this console succeeding like the 360 did continues to shrink. This is especially noteworthy with so much of the negativity centered in the US and UK markets, the only ones where the Xbox brand ever had any real traction to start with.

But in spite of all of that, the narrative is being built that says the gamers are just whiners; simplistic and primitive troglodytes in this new digital era who hate change. The fence-sitters who cringe at any negativity, no matter how justified, will call for people to wait and see while more and more of the entities who run the AAA Gaemz Industree™ continue to manage themselves into bankruptcy and then try to shift blame to the customers rather than shitty planning and management skills. 

Let me make this clear: If harsh criticism of Microsoft upsets you or makes you uncomfortable, place the blame on them and not the critics. It's not the critics who decided to try and ram anti-consumer initiatives down the market's throat by brute force. It's not the critics who decided that the reveal event for a games device should have almost no footage of any actual games being played, but plenty of The Price is Right. It's not the critics who decided an implied rape joke against a female player during the Killer Instinct demonstration was a funny bit of griefing. It's not the critics who are implementing systems that will screw over small businesses, smaller publishers and long-term game collectors and preservationists just to appease bloated corporate entities that can't sustain themselves through making better products at more efficient costs.

Those of us casting negativity at Microsoft right now do so because Microsoft decided that this was the device to display to the world and the means of displaying it. Now that they've played their hand the whole world is responding in the marketplace of ideas and Microsoft is deservedly getting thrashed. As Jim Sterling put it, Microsoft didn't decide to wage a war on Sony and Nintendo, they decided to wage a war on consumers. Well, the consumers are fighting back, and as far as I'm concerned the fence-sitters trying to maintain the image of perfect enlightened and detatched objectivity while criticizing the positions of those who have chosen to participate in the discussion unfiltered and uncensored have no intellectual ground to stand on. By all means defend whatever merits you think the Xbone has. Buy one come launch if you desire to. Go forth and debate with those who differ with your stance until your fingers go numb, but don't try and act like you're above the fray just because some people say something mean to a soulless profit-driven corporation. Microsoft brought all of this heat onto itself, and it's too late to call a time-out.

History Repeats Itself?

"It’s probably too cheap…"

-Former Sony executive Ken Kutaragi in regards to the announcement of the PS3 launching at $599

"…for consumers to think to themselves ‘I will work more hours to buy one’. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else."

– Ken Kutaragi, again, attempting to justify the $599 price tag


"We do not care."

– Kaz Hirai, then President of Sony's gaming division, on the Wii and 360

In 2005 and 2006, Sony, who was riding high on the dominance they had with the Playstation 2, displayed an incredible amount of arrogance in regards to the upcoming Playstation 3. Now that seven years have passed and we've seen Playstation go from the top of the world to circling the drain and then rise up again in an epic comeback, it's interesting to note the parallels between the statements coming from 2006 era Sony executives and those coming from Microsoft execs in 2013.

But don't take my word for it, take theirs at face value:  

"I think it's fair to say there's a segment of consumers at this show in particular who really pay attention, who are very passionate about all aspects of gaming, and that we listen to closely. In a broader set of community, people don't pay attention to a lot of the details. We've seen it in the research, we've seen it in a lot of the data points."

- Xbox Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Yusuf Mehd, downplaying the outrage over the Xbone as irrelevant since most consumers don't pay attention anyways 

“I don’t think,… I mean we’re really not going to change anything we’ve done with Xbox One. We’re very happy,… did you see the games on stage during our briefing? Did you see the exclusives? I mean we’re really really proud of the system and the games that are coming out. When you look at games like TitanFall,… have you gone through Titanfall yet? Enough said. Conversation over"

-Xbox Live Director Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, regarding the disparity in recption at E3 between the Xbone and the PS4 

"Fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity, it's called Xbox 360"

-Don Mattrick, head of Microsoft's Xbox division, responding to concerns of gamers in the military who don't have access to first-world internet much of the time

Notice in both batches of quotes the assumption from the execs that we're all fucking stupid and will buy anything just because they hype it. Notice the levels of condescension in their words and the dismissal of all contrarian concerns.

Sony had to crash pretty hard before they straightened themselves out. The spring after the PS3 launch, when it was selling at or below 80K units a month in the US marketplace and getting trounced by the soon-to-be-retired Gameboy Advance monthly, it almost looked like the PS3 would go the way of the Virtual Boy, the Dreamcast and the Dodo bird.

Now, seven years later, it appears Microsoft is following the 2006 Sony strategy of thinking they can ignore criticism because they will steer us lowly customers to buy into their grand visions and dreams, no matter how often the marketplace trends show that we simply want a box that plays the latest game software, and plays it well, and that alternate functionality is a take it or leave it proposition which is nice to have, but not if it costs us an arm and a leg or our freedom to use the things we buy in the manner of our own choosing.

Take heed Microsoft, you're walking a path that may threaten the entire Xbox division. Many of your investors don't like the entertainment section of Microsoft as is, due to years of losses in the billions of dollars, the history of failed products like Zune and Windows Phone and the low revenue and profit of the division when compared to products like Office.

Next-Gen Console Comparison

When Microsoft Can't Control the Questions...

...this is what happens:

One of the most annoying aspects of modern gaming is that most of the outlets for the discussion of and spreading of information oftentimes act like they are arms of the PR departments of the platform holders and largest publishers. We the readers/watchers receive PR approved statements and fluff that don't amount to anything of use except to convince the easily swayed to spend their money foolishly.

Normally when we're discussing the realm of games journalism most would say this is truly a first-world problem, that it's not important to society at large, and that if you want to attack or call-out pseudo-journalism you should focus on things that truly matter such as a mainstream news outlet like Fox News basically acting as a propaganda machine for the Republican Party. I can't say that the people making these types of statements are wrong, because even though it's common knowledge that many of the reviews you see of major AAA game releases on Metacritic are boosted by publishers gifting ethically bankrupt promoters to write  glowing recommendations of products that may not be worth the cost of the optical disc on which they are printed, it's hardly a concern for most when compared to the verbal diarrhea that emanates from the likes of Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly every night under the guise of being a news source.

But alas, this is not a blog about politics and world news, this is a blog about videogames, the videogame industry and the culture that surrounds gaming. So when I see something rotting within this culture I feel the need to call it out and expose it because gaming is not a cheap endeavor and there's not many voices speaking on behalf of the average game purchaser. Between the costs associated with acquiring platforms at $350-$500, new games at $60, used or discounted games still sold at higher prices than any other media form out there, nickel-and-diming downloadable expansions and subscription fees for services, this is one of the most expensive forms of entertainment to keep up with.

Within this environment I find that so much of the so-called gaming journalism space is occupied by sycophants; corporate apologists who grovel at the feet of multimillion-dollar businesses out of fear that offending someone in a boardroom may damage their access to free review games, early reveals and previews and all that free swag that gets sent to reviewers to help insure that a favorable number is attached to the grades that get posted on Metacritic. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule even on well-known sites; Jim Sterling of Destructoid would be one example of someone who doesn't pander to the pitiful corporate hivemind and calls out the absurd when he sees it, but he would definitely be in a minority class for his profession.

Sometimes, in order to buck this sort of incestuous echo-chamber and get through the manufactured PR bullshit, you need an outsider to come in and disrupt the process. You need someone who hasn't been groomed in the corporate newspeak and the accepted rules of compliance who can bring some real questions to the table and press for real answers without just swallowing the load like so many want to do. In that regard, YouTube gaming personality Angry Joe officially wins this E3.

In the weeks leading up to E3 Microsoft, facing an intense level of backlash over their anti-consumer DRM in the Xbone, began to circle their wagons and cancel most of their interviews. Only certain outlets would get access to Microsoft employees, and most of those interviewers would go rather soft on pressing the PR puppets too hard. Angry Joe, an unrestrained wild card, managed to get through and snag some time with Xbox Minister of Propaganda Major Nelson.

Angry Joe may not be the smoothest or most skilled interviewer, but his blunt questioning and choices of topics rattled Major Nelson to the point where he became visibly frustrated and annoyed. For someone who has been giving carefully scripted canned PR bullshit to Xbox customers online and pseudo-journalists and podcast personalities inside the E3 halls, this must have been quite a disruption to his message building. It was clear that Nelson had lost all credibility in sustaining his bullshit at the moment he grabbed the microphone out of Joe's hand in an effort to shut him down with some barely contained alpha-male rage posturing. While most of the journalist types at E3 tried to ride on the fence and were afraid to call out Microsoft's bullshit, often attributing the controversy to "misunderstandings", "bad methods of messaging" and in the worst cases blaming gamers for being a bunch of old-fashioned troglodytes, Angry Joe, unpolished as his delivery may be, managed to get in the way of the constant spinning and do more actual fucking journalism than many of the people who claim they are journalists!

If only the professionals who do this sort of shit for a living could grow a pair and perform their jobs with the same earnest effort and honesty as this modest YouTube personality did, perhaps the amount of bullshit that gets circulated around would be drastically lower than it is now.

Kudos to you, Angry Joe.

E3 2013: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Epic Battle: Xbone vs. Brick

So, About That Xbone Launch

 

The good news train for Microsoft continues to roll on this E3 with the details of their limited launch popping up today. Now, to be fair, most systems launch in a staggered fashion across different regions. This is natural because of the logistical differences between the North American, European and Asian region infrastructures. So it wasn't really that much of a shock to see that day one the system would only have limited availability and only launch in the following markets:

Australia
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States

The real kick in the pants for Xbox fans comes via the fact that you can't import from a country where the Xbone is available and activate the console and games from an IP in a country not on the list. Now there are probably workarounds for this due to VPN services and Tor networks, but what a colossal pain in the ass to make someone jump through after they've shown they are eager to be a paying customer! Ironically, the Xbone won't be launching in Poland despite the fact that Poland's premiere games development studio is responsible for The Witcher 3, one of the highlighted games at the Microsoft press conference.

The worst news though was that it may take upwards of a year to get the Xbone into unsupported markets, and the Asian market, the third largest in the world, won't see the console arrive until late 2014. Even more shockingly, on the list of countries which Microsoft is planning 2014 launches in, Japan is nowhere to be found! Yes, you read that right; the same country which Microsoft spent so much effort on during the 360's early days to secure exclusive games and try and buy support away from Sony, is now appearing to have all but abandoned Japan altogether.

You'd almost think I was making this shit up.

At least this guy won't have to stock anymore Xbox devices.

E3 2013: Mirror's Edge 2

E3 2013: Kingdom Hearts III

E3 2013: Final Fantasy XV

Formerly Final Fantasy Versus XIII for the PS3, this game is now officially Final Fantasy XV and releasing on PS4 and Xbone.

Don Mattrick Interview With the BBC

"BBC: The preowned debate has really really run on and on. What assurances can you give that the publishers will allow to trade games freely?

Mattrick: Well look we have an ecosystem. There's 4 key participants in that ecosystem: consumers, content creators, retailers and Microsoft. So we have to come up with a set of policies that harmonize the interests of everyone. That allow us to work together. We've been working with our key retail partners. They're pleases with what we're doing. I think they're a great barometer for what I perceive consumers are going to take a look at so we've given a lot of detail about what people can do. We support resale. Uh, I don't know what else to tell you. Those business models exist today and they'll exist in the future."

For the full interview, with accompanying video, go here.

A set of policies that "harmonize the interests of everyone" eh? Up yours fucker, the only thing you people have done is walk all over your paying consumers and force them to bear the burden on behalf of Microsoft's interest in controlling all our access to the things we pay money for.

The Xbone DRM has NO benefit to the consumer and it has NO benefit to retailers who aren't part of your corporate oligopoly. It only benefits the sickly mega publishers who can't manage a checkbook and need as many strawmen as they can possibly conjure to avoid personal responsibility for running multimillion-dollar corporations into financial pits. It also only benefits the greedy control-obsessed executive assholes occupying the head offices of Microsoft in Redmond, who want to turn all sales into rentals and want us to check in like parolees just to use our electronic devices.

Seeing Don Mattrick's body language and his nervous behavior brought to mind an old rap song by Mobb Deep called "Shook Ones Pt. II"

" 'cause ain't no such things as halfway crooks
scared to death, scared to look, they shook
'cause ain't no such things as halfway crooks
scared to death, scared to look"

Microsoft Press Conference Recap

- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain began the show, with Hideo Kojima taking the stage after a new trailer. The game is a next-generation title running on the Fox Engine.

- The Xbox 360 is getting a new revision, this time it's outer case resembles that of the Xbone. No word on a price drop for the now 8 year old console.

- From July until November XBL Gold subscibers will get 2 free games per month from Games on Demand, sort of like the giveaways Sony does with PS+ on the PS3 and Vita. No word on what games will be available for this offer.

- World of Tanks is coming to the 360 as a free to play title.

- Rounding out the Xbox 360 content, a new Dark Souls II trailer was shown and the September release of Grand Theft Auto V was mentioned.

- Ryse: Son of Rome, which was once a 360 Kinect-only title in past E3 shows, is now a CryEngine made Xbone game that appears to have a controller based hack and slash mechanic.

- Killer Instinct is getting rebooted as an Xbone exclusive. Madcatz is developing a companion arcade stick for the release of the game.

- New Forza 5 trailer with promises of adaptive AI that learns your playstyle and goes off and races for you while you're away.

- Quantum Break is apparently a mixture of a sci-fi TV show and decision-based game mechanics that affect how the story of the show plays out.

- Insomniac, the once Sony-exclusive developers of Resistance and Ratchet and Clank, are making a new Xbone exclusive open world FPS titled Sunset Overdrive.

- D4 is another Xbone exclusive with cel-shaded visuals. Nothing to indicate what type of game this is or how it plays was shown.

- Project Spark is a user-generated content creation game made with elements similar to Spore and Modnation Racers. It apparently incorporates a good deal of Smartglass technology.

- The Xbone exclusive Crimson Dragon was announced. It is made by the creator of the niche cult-hit Panzer Dragoon Orta and appears to be reminiscent of the prior Panzer Dragoon game mechanics.

- Smartglass can apparently be used to set up XBL multiplayer games while you play another singleplayer game on the console. It seems to have Marketplace access as well.

- Streaming functionality is now part of the Xbone via Twitch.

- Increase in the number of XBL friends and MS Points are now being converted to standard currency.

- Dead Rising 3 in-game demonstrated on-stage. Apparently an Xbone exclusive, incorporates Smartglass options into the game mechanics.

- Witcher 3 is now officially coming to consoles via Xbone.

- Battlefield 4 is coming to Xbone, with exclusive downloadable content.

- A CGI trailer announcing Halo 5 as an Xbone exclusive was shown, with a speculated release date in 2014.

- As seen in the leak from Game Informer, Respawn's first game is Titanfall, a sci-fi FPS set in a world with mechs. Titanfall is coming to Xbone, Xbox 360 and PC.

- The Xbone hardware will release this coming November at a whopping $499.99.

Pre-Microsoft Conference Rumors

 

A notorious leaker of games industry info popped up out of nowhere early this morning and offered the following tidbits online regarding Microsoft, Xbone and their conference which is now 4 hours away as I type this:

-Microsoft is spending alot of money to keep 3rd parties from mentioning PS4 versions of multiplatform games. Unless a 3rd party game is specifically and unequivocally mentioned as an Xbone exclusive, assume there is also a PS4 version they are hiding from the show.

-Microsoft's reveal of the official DRM policy last week was stage 1 of their plan to spin info for the public. Stage 2 will happen at Gamescon. They have no actual plan for rentals and none are being pursued, so they are going out of their way to avoid questions on the subject.

-The cloud MS advertises was designed from the start primarily for their DRM and product control programs. Unlike previous speculation elsewhere it was Microsoft, not 3rd parties, who generated the idea of the DRM and took it to publishers. EA and Ubisoft have become the biggest supporters of the DRM since MS presented it.

-According to the post by the leaker, the DRM on Xbone is actually worse than what has been revealed but he can't get solid info on specifics because his sources are afraid for their jobs.

-At the MS conference will be Mirror's Edge 2, Dead Rising 3, exclusive DLC for another Capcom game, a Phil Spencer title and a new Prince of Persia game.

-"Live paywall": Now whether this means XBL Gold is required for all services or if it means that online multiplayer is still in need of subscription is unclear to me. If it's the former then yes, the DRM on Xbone is actually getting worse and worse as time goes on.

Finally, the source of these leaks has posted a couple things about Sony as well:

-No online paywall for Sony

-Sony's E3 showing is secured so tightly that info is hard to come by.

All we can do now is wait and see if this source, who has accurately leaked info in the past such as the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas voice actor cast and Xbox 360 technical specs, has done it again. Some of the info is so awful though I think it would be better if he was wrong.

The Calm Before the Storm

 

Today is the final day of relative peace and quiet before E3, and for the first time I'm not excited by the prospect of what I'm going to hear. I should be, considering that we have 2 brand new consoles debuting and we have a contender who's not doing so well right now and knows they need to knock it out of the park with killer games to stop the stagnation of their recently launched platform. This should be a grand show with the blockbuster announcements from all those hungry to get a foothold in the hearts and minds of the gaming audience as the new generation descend upon us.

But thanks to the malicious activity of the industry of late I'm filled with dread instead of hope. The WiiU is DRM-free but 3rd parties have all but abandoned the device. Microsoft is going forth with a horrible DRM platform on Xbone that virtually ensures I won't ever own one so long as that software is a "feature". It's still unclear how Sony is proceeding on the DRM front. If Sony advances a DRM scheme similar to Microsoft I may just call it quits on console gaming altogether. Even if they announce that the forever-in-development games The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5 and speculated unannounced games like Kingdom Hearts 3 are now being designed for the Playstation 4, I would be hard-pressed to find justification in buying the machine to play them. And yes, if Sony has DRM similar to Xbone on the PS4 they will receive just as much hatred as Microsoft has in my future ranting blog posts.

So we now stand on the eve of E3, with both the Microsoft and Sony conferences happening tomorrow. I find myself wondering, as I did in one of the very first blog posts I wrote here, if the AAA Gaemz Industree™ which is pointing a gun at it's own head will squeeze the trigger and pre-emptively ruin the entire next console generation before it even starts. Is there is anyone coming to their senses before they ruin things? Microsoft can choose to remove the DRM if they want to, Sony can choose to not implement it at all, the question is will they? The ball is now in their court and all we can do is wait. 

The storm is coming my friends, the storm is coming.

Propoganda, For a Good Cause

The Ballad of the AAA Gaemz Industree™

gave up trying to figure it out but my head got lost along the way
worn out from giving it up my soul I pissed it all away
still stings these shattered nerves
pigs we get what pigs deserve
I'm going all the way down I'm leaving today

come come come on you've gotta fill me up
come come gotta let me inside of you
come come come on you gotta fix me up
come come gotta let me inside of you

still feel it all slipping away but it doesn't matter anymore
everybody's still chipping away but it doesn't matter anymore
look through these blackened eyes
you'll see ten thousand lies
my lips may promise but my heart is a whore

come come come on you gotta fill me up
come come gotta let me inside of you
come come come on you gotta fix me up
come come gotta let me get through to you

this isn't meant to last
this is for right now

I know it's all getting away and it comes to me as no surprise
I know what's coming to me is never going to arrive
fresh blood through tired skin
new sweat to drown me in
dress up this rotten carcass just to make it look alive

come come come on you gotta fill me up
come come gotta let me inside of you
come come come on you gotta fix me up
come come gotta let me get through to you

this isn't meant to last
this is for right now

I wish I could put the blame on you
I want you to make me
I want you to take me
I want you to break me
then I want you to throw me away

This preceding musical interlude of the song "Last", courtesy of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, is dedicated to our dearly beloved AAA Gaemz Industree™.

Today Microsoft confirmed most of the horrible anti-consumer policies that were speculated on for the Xbone on their official website. As we witness Microsoft conspire with the mega-publishers to create complicated systems to limit user freedoms and punish end consumers, all in a desperate bid to stop the financial bleeding from our dear friends at the likes of EA, Activision and Ubisoft, let us ponder the lyrics to this song and see just how much of it describes the rotting mindset of an industry that is killing itself.

Leading the Sheep

According to a story posted today by MCV the Xbone TV input device is breaking pre-order records at Blockbuster.

Someone, please kill me now.

In all seriousness though, this is another instance of the gaming audience disappointingly acting like trained sheep by supporting the worst aspects of the AAA Gaemz Industree™. In all the years of gaming I've been aware that there are single platform loyalists; people who care more about the health of a specific console maker like Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft than they do about gaming in general. I've seen one guy who to this day refuses to touch a Nintendo or Sony platform because he blames those companies for Sega's exit of the console business and early demise of the Dreamcast. But how anyone, even the most diehard of Xbox-only gamers, can want to place a pre-order on a potentially DRM-infested and privacy invading TV switching box with an unknown price tag and an unknown release date following an unveiling that showed more footage of The Price is Right than actual in-game footage of all the announced games combined is beyond me.

Unfortunately this all falls in line with previous instances of the AAA Gaemz Industree™ training it's subjects so well that they seem to buy, support and validate some of the most ludicrous and awful cash-grabs one can imagine. Apparently with enough hype and a whole slew of corporate Gaemz Jurnalistz™ who do nothing but parrot publisher PR speak while receiving free consoles, games, paid expenses trips and bribery swag, you can get enough of the audience to plop down their cash and buy anything no matter how fucked up it is.

Beginning in the early life of the Xbox Live Marketplace when EA would sell downloadable content for the 360 version of The Godfather that was present and usable on the disc for free in the PS2 version of the game, which retailed for $10 cheaper, to modern times when we have an industry riddled with shitty season passes for DLC, DLC content on the disc locked behind a paywall and an attitude that says releasing a broken and buggy game only to patch it after the $60+ sale has been made is acceptable, it's become quite clear that it's not just the industry that's at fault, part of the blame also belongs to the consumers who put money into this machine.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling for people to not be able to spend their money how they want, but clearly there needs to be enough of a pushback against anti-consumer practices to counter the noise of the industry PR so that the audience is much better educated about how often they are getting the shaft from the companies whom they often defend quite vocally. The news of rapid uptake of pre-orders of the Xbone suggest there is a long ways to go.

Xbox One: Not Just Game DRM?

As the backlash to the Xbone console rages on, MCV continues to post rumors that if true will make this device the absolutely most anti-user and unappealing home electronic contraption to ever be conceived.

The latest in the train of bad rumors came today with a story claiming insiders have confirmed that the Xbone's mandatory Kinect camera functions will act as a visual DRM measure to check how many people are in a room viewing a piece of media. Apparently this is supposed to fall in line with a patent filed by Microsoft in the recent past.

The general idea is that the copyright holder of something like a movie or TV series could decide as part of a licensing agreement just how many people are allowed to view that media and Kinect would read and detect whether you are over your licensed limit and respond by stopping playback or demanding more goddamned money via microtransactions if your viewing party is too large.

" If it is deemed that too many people are present, the user will be prompted to pay an additional fee to upgrade the licence.

Says the filing: “The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken.”

It should be noted too that Kinect is designed to continuously observe its roommates. It also adds that the T&Cs for any particular piece of content can be determined by the copyright holder."

Again, it must be noted that this is all rumor right now, and nothing regarding the Xbone is set in stone, but if this comes to pass as true then I can only hope this device tanks harder than the Virtual Boy, the NGage or the 3D0. This is unacceptable to force a mandatory spy camera in with a device to monitor people in their own homes in order to police how well they comply with corporate mandates. This is like something out of a George Orwell work, and what I would expect from a games console if it were designed in North Fucking Korea.

If this becomes reality in the end product then Microsoft's executives have truly gone beyond being simply out of touch with normal humanity and entered into a domain of being a comic book villain made real.