Pay Microsoft to play a pre owned game?
It was getting a lot of stick on twitter yesterday. There were 3 main groups:
1) Those who have an Xbox 360 saying how amazing it looks.
2) Those who have a PS3 saying how bad it looks.
3) The neutrals saying that the PS4 is edging it at the moment.
Since the announcement, Sony's stock has risen by almost 10% and Microsofts has dropped by almost 1%.
I didn't watch the unveiling, but I got a list of facts through from a friend and it sounded pretty good. I've forgotten what the features of the PS4 are to be honest so I can't really compare them yet. Apparently Microsoft had to put back the reveal by a month after the saw the PS4 reveal. What does that say? They seem to have similar hardware in terms of RAM, processor, etc.
We'll see.
At least Microsoft haven't gone with the 'always on' functionality that was rumoured.
Was in touch with their PR team for a while, this was never something that was on the table (we weren't allowed to share that at the time, hence why the rumour persisted). No information about the playing games on a second account, waiting for them to get in touch with me. From what I have been told though, it isn't as bad as many people are making out.
Do you work in the industry?
I am a journalist. In the past I have had links with gaming companies who sent me review copies from time to time. I am not as active in it as I once was (onto better paid things), but I still talk with the people who gave me my 'big break' so to speak.
Fair enough - I'd love to work on something in that field. I'm at a newspaper at the moment and jobhunting but openings at games/films/sport publications seem to be few and far between.
Where do you fall on round one of the PS4 v Xbox battle?
Blimey - I assume the used game fee would be about £5-£10 but it's worse than that:
However, Microsoft executive Phil Harrison, in an interview with Kotaku, has some potentially bad news. The aforementioned 'fee' to play games on a second account? Full MSRP. So if you want to play your game on another system, you'll be dishing out an extra $40, $50, $60 - unless you're logged into your main account. (Parental controls will allow you to grant access to other accounts on the same hardware.) Harrison did tell Kotaku that his company plans to allow gamers to 'trade' their used games online somehow - though declined to get into further details.
Wow. That's a deal breaker. Part of the joy of some gaming is that you can pop round a friends house and play and swap games, especially for younger people. I remember borrowing Pokemon games and mario games when I was very young which I would have never bought or played otherwise.
More greed from the billion dollar industry.