Xbox One’s blunder has been well covered and the reasons are bound in both marketing and development. On top of these known issues, there might be an even bigger threat looming. Is a proverbial Jaws heading to chomp its large money-leaking teeth into Microsoft’s back side?
According to multiple sources it seems Microsoft’s game demos during their conference were run on Nvidia high-end gaming computers. Could this mean rumors regarding hardware failures are true? Are Xbox One gamers going to see another Xbox 360 plague?
The Well-Known “Problems” With Xbox One So Far
Always Online authentication means that if your internet goes out and you don’t have access in 24 hours, your console locks you out. That’s correct, it doesn’t matter if you have a single player game. No internet, no playing! Used Game DRM on all titles means that your friends will be paying a fee to play your used games if they aren’t using your XBLA. An expensive Kinect means less power than the PS4 for a more expensive price. SRAM (also has been quoted as DDR3 on some sites) is inferior to PS4’s GDDR5 and the Xbox One is also speculated to have a less powerful GPU. Sony’s literal “call out” at E3 over the seemingly wrong decisions Microsoft has decided upon has boosted Sony’s gamer cred recently, elevating their next generation to a point where Xbox fans might even be considering a switch.
Xbox 360 launch statistics
With a year advance on Sony’s PS3 and a cheaper price, Xbox 360 hit the ground running. In fact, Microsoft was unable to keep up with the demand for the much needed console due to their production beginning just 69 days before its launch.
Soon after launch, the emergency calls started coming in, red rings of deaths were spreading like a plague across the launch edition consoles. In fact, according to SeattlePi,
On top of this, after sending their Xbox 360 in for repair, up to 40% of those returned incurred a secondary hardware failure.
Games weren’t running on XboxOne dev kits? Say. “What?!”
Reddit has been hot with rumors since the Xbox One press conference pre-E3 stating possible leaks regarding a non-working Xbox One. It is important for these to remain rumors and not fact, but with the recent knowledge regarding E3 demos, perhaps there is some light to them.
According to an article at Gaming Blend, Xbox One demos were run on a high end Nvidia based gaming PC and not on Xbox One dev kits. If they even used actual gameplay footage at all, they certainly might not be representative of a launch experience.
A few questions also pop into mind when thinking about the causes.Could this be due to a non working console or is it a marketing ploy to show higher quality graphics than the Xbox One can actually produce? If the latter is the case than Microsoft is certainly lying to their consumer base and if the former is true than we may be in for one rough ride come November.
The “Game Demos always run on PCs at E3” Misconception
Thanks to a point out from game review icon TotalBiscuit via Twitter, a developer response from the makers of Infamous: Second Son clarify the use of PS4 developer kits in their PS4 E3 demos.
Does this mean that all demos were run on PS4 and not on PC? No, but if you check out the Sony Online Entertainment booth, working PlayStation 4 versions of DCUO were up and running with PS4 controllers.
The fact that Sony had issues with their demo’s during the press conference may give a glimpse into a transparent Sony working through their issues on actual hardware while Microsoft might be working on fixing issues that haven’t even been made aware to the public.
A Repeat Episode–Is it Plausible?
The facts of the issues and difficulties Microsoft is soon to face are centralized around a lack-luster E3, major restrictions on gamers, and now a possibility of a not finished Xbox One. Not only are pre-rendered demos nearly classifiable as fraud when it comes to an actual release version, but the fact that Microsoft relied on hardware more powerful and, in fact not even AMD based, means a huge probability of console problems and an even larger probability of buyer’s remorse.
It may be a good idea to be wary of the Xbox One pre-order until more evidence of the console is given and some actual demo’s are featured on Xbox One hardware. The fact of the matter is that Sony’s demos are a better representation of launch experience than Microsoft’s.
As it stands, we will have to await more details and as always, betting on the future is a fools errand, but based on the facts we currently have at hand, perhaps Microsoft’s marketing failure is not due to marketing itself but due to the core product. Xbox One demos being run on more powerful hardware yields the possibility of a lack-luster product at a more expensive rate than the competition.
Are you planning on pre-ordering a Xbox One? How do you feel about gaming demos not being shown on console hardware? Let me know below!
