Category: Xbox

China: PlayStation Pulls Ahead of Xbox in One Month

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Image courtesy of K73.com

After its Chinese debut in March, the PlayStation 4 has rushed to meet and exceed the sales of its competitor, the Xbox One. Combined with the PlayStation Vita, Sony has quickly made a deep impact that has quickly overtaken almost eight months of Microsoft's marketing efforts.
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K73 suspects that the lead is due to the availability of Dynasty Warriors on the PS4, perhaps due to the familiarity of Chinese writer Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, on which the story is based.

The numbers reported in the chart specify online and retail units that are in the hands of end users, and although Microsoft has shipped 100k Xbox One consoles in its first month, these have not yet been sold through.

Please note that details of this story have been attained through a web translation of a Chinese news site, and we will update as soon as possible when a localized source is available.

Source: N4G

Xbox Founder Ed Frieds Admits PS4 Will Stay Ahead

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Ed Fries, Microsoft's former vice president of game publishing, says the Xbox company won't be able to close the gap. Partially blaming this on the bungling of the Xbox One launch and marketing, he believes the winner of the console wars to already be evident: "I think it’s PS4 by a nose."
He is quick to point out that there are a lot of changes going on for the Xbox, slashing prices and an emphasis on core games as opposed to the general audience to which they originally focused their products and services.
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Fries says that the market could see a shake up with the launch of VR and AR accessories, although it's difficult to see a peripheral making a difference, considering the history of attach rates, as well as the additional expense after a large initial investment.
Source: BizJournals

Poll: How Are Those New Consoles Working Out For You?

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I've recently been playing a ton of Bloodborne, and decided to check out Demon's Souls and Dark Souls on the PlayStation 3 to see if I could now wrap my head around them. Boy, those visuals are hard to go back to. The transition to the current state of game visuals must have been so gradual that I didn't notice how far we've come. The first batch of games on new systems were cross-generation, and there are a lot of HD remakes, all of these not fully exploiting the new systems.

Sure, the Souls games might not look as good as the cream of the crop like The Last of Us, Witcher 2, Uncharted 3, or Halo 4. These four games were released in the latter half of the previous generation, and we're at about one and a half years in the current cycle and already seeing something as amazing as Bloodborne. I can't imagine what we'll see a couple of years from now when developers really know how to get the most out of the new hardware. What do you think?

Xbox Deals With Gold: 28th April – 4th May 2015

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This week's Xbox Deals With Gold features a scary good Capcom sale. It includes several games in the Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Lost Planet and Dead Rising series and covers both consoles. Also, Mega Man 9, the new Strider, DuckTales, and maybe one or two non-Capcom games. Head past the break to see some of the standouts. (I'm not going to list them all because there's just too damn many!) Go have a look, fire up your Xbox of choice, and get to downloading!
Xbox One & 360

Xbox 360

[Image: Capcom]

Andrew J Amideo
[Source: Major Nelson]

Project CARS Will Feature Extensive Graphics Options on Consoles

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Console users have been offered very few chances to change minute settings in the way that PC games have featured in order to achieve optimal performance, but this is mostly due to the game being designed for a specific set of hardware.
Games like Tekken 4 and Quake 64 have given players the option to switch anti-aliasing on and off, BioShock Infinite allowed vsync to be disabled, and inFamous Second Son has an optional frame rate cap. These examples go beyond the typical practice of providing a single standard for dedicated gaming hardware.

Console games are fine tuned to deliver a consistent experience. While concessions are sometimes made compared to the PC version, often they are replaced with alternate techniques that are optimal for the target platform, and the overall experience reflects the developer's intent.

It's unclear whether these options will affect the game's performance, and in my opinion, hopefully that isn't the case. The reason I bought a console was to have a plug and play experience, not having to worry about any tweaking to have a good experience. While I welcome the ability to personalize the visuals, I hope it doesn't open the door for games that won't have an assured level of quality, relying on the user to decide what compromises they are willing to make.

How do you feel about this, do you see any other pros and cons arising if this becomes a trend?

Source: Eurogamer

Witcher 3 is 30fps 900p on Xbox One, 30fps 1080p on PlayStation 4

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A gaffe occurred when Microsoft posted a video featuring the PC version of The Witcher 3, running at 60fps and 1080p, while representing it as the Xbox One version of the game. In a statement to GameSpot, Microsoft apologized, saying it never intended to deceive viewers. The video has been updated with a disclaimer, alerting viewers that the footage is indeed from the PC version.
While no concrete reason was stated, perhaps the mix up was due to the fact that the footage was provided by CD Projekt Red and not captured by Microsoft themselves. Clarification of the video source might not have been contributed.
Source: GameSpot

Gears of War HD Remaster Announced

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The first title in the Gears of War series is getting an HD remaster, coming exclusively to the Xbox One. Black Tusk, now in charge of the franchise, is doing the port, with enhanced cutscenes by studio Plastic Wax.
So far there's no word if this will be a downloadable title with budget pricing, or a full physical release. In addition to the remaster, Black Tusk is also working on a sequel to Gears of War.
Source: GameSpot

Xbox Sales Drop 20% Compared to Same Period Last Year

Despite constant price drops and attractive bundles, Microsoft has shipped fewer Xbox One consoles from January until the end of March compared to the same period last year. Overall Xbox revenue fell 24% as well, due to the lowered price points and moving less units.
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On the positive side, buying Mojang has risen their first party game sales 49% for the same period, and Xbox Live revenues have increased 32%. Perhaps Microsoft will woo gamers back to its platform with a focus on exclusive titles at this year's E3 presentation.
Source: GameSpot

Elder Scrolls Online Console Beta Starts Tomorrow

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Check your inboxes! If you're one of the lucky ones who got a beta invitation, you'll be able to start the limited public beta for The Elder Scrolls Online tomorrow on PS4 and Xbox One. and lasts until the 27th of April. There's no NDA in place, so we may learn a lot about performance and stability.
Since unforeseen issues may arise, PC characters will not carry over for the duration of the beta. For that, you'll have to wait until the official launch on June 9th. Xbox One and PlayStation 4 servers will be isolated from each other and the PC version.
Source: Gematsu

Halo 3: ODST Due Next Month

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The official Halo Waypoint blog has announced that Halo 3: ODST will launch alongside the Master Chief Collection content pack due in May. The update contains the Relic multiplayer map, and many fixes for ranking, matchmaking penalties, and stability.
Remember that if you bought the Master Chief Collection between November 11, 2014, and December 19, 2014, you are entitled to receive the Halo 3: ODST campaign for free.