With E3 over and months to go yet until the Fall releases of the next-gen consoles, there’s not much to say about them for now. Except one thing. Microsoft apparently didn’t like the negative feedback regarding DRM and used game sales and have changed their plans accordingly. This has resulted in a few other changes as well. According to Xbox Live Vice President Marc Whitten, “There’s a few things we won’t be able to deliver as a result of this change. One of the things we were very excited about was ‘wherever we go my games are always with me.’ Now, of course your physical games won’t show up that way. The games you bought digitally will. You’ll have to bring your discs with you to have your games with you.” Abandoning the region locking doesn’t seem to come with any caveats. You can import your console if needed, then import games from somewhere else entirely and it will all work together. Of course, there are some hurdles to making a change this late in the game. The console may not release until November, but they hardware is already being built with the “old” plans in place. That means you should expect a day one firmware patch to remove the “always online” requirement, among other things.
Despite the policy change, do not expect a price change for the Xbox One. Microsoft has confirmed they are standing firm with the $499 price tag and mandatory Kinect. Marc Whitten has verified that the Kinect will be considered part of the architecture for Kinect. Which I have to applaud, even if I don’t care for the device. If you want creators to make content for it, you have to insure that it has enough market saturation to make it worth their while.
Microsoft’s reversal on their DRM policy raises another question: What about EA’s Online Pass fees? EA announced, about a month ago, that they were ending the Online Pass strategy, purportedly because Microsoft’s essential ban on used games would make them unnecessary. Thankfully, despite Microsoft’s 180, EA is sticking with their decision to end the fees. EA’s Director of Corporate Communications, John Reseburg, said Wednesday that “none of our new EA titles will include online pass, and we are removing it from existing games as well.” Yay!
Speaking of next-gen, wondering when you can collect on that PS4 preorder? For the EU it looks to be November 13, 2013. Zombietron predicts US release is within a week in either direction of that date. I think he’s right, but I’m predicting November 12th specifically. Check back here for a confirmation as soon as we have it.
The Xbox One release date has seemingly also been revealed by a retailer, this time Amazon. They’ve got it listed for release on November 27, 2013 – roughly two weeks after Sony’s PS4. It’s also notable that this would be the day after Thanksgiving. Could that mean we’ll see even more loonyness on Black Friday if it gets an early sale price? The early expectation is that only preordered systems will be available on day one, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a few retailers held some units back just to get more people into their store on the biggest shopping day of the year.
But not everyone is making the jump to next-gen on launch day. Eidos Montreal recognizes that and has confirmed that the next-gen Thief will also see a release on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2014. The “little brother” version will have no differences in core gampeplay, but it will obviously have a drop in visual presentation.
Another of the great X-Men lineup has been announced for High Moon’s Deadpool. The power leeching southern belle Rogue is the latest reveal for the game, scheduled for release next week (June 25). I’m not sure if this is a totally new look or if it’s based on a costume from the comics, but I like it.
Perhaps the next reversal Microsoft will need to make is in regards to self-publishing. We’ve already heard from a few developers that they won’t be bringing their content to XBLA on XBOne because they don’t want to Microsoft or a third party publishing the game. Add Phil Fish to that list. Fez II is not coming to Xbox One. Fish is known for being very outspoken and this circumstance is feeling his verbal wrath: “Microsoft have made it painfully clear they don’t want my ilk on their platform. I can’t even self-publish there.” But his frustration with Microsoft clearly does not extend to Sony, who’s platform is looking to be much more indie-friendly. Fish says “PS4 seems to be doing everything right. It’s too early to tell how everything is going to unfold, but their heart definitely seems to be in the right place. Which is a weird thing to say when talking about giant monolithic corporation, but there’s a handful of people working at Sony today who are really trying to do some good.”
Let’s not be too hard on Microsoft though. They did promise to provide two free games per month for Xbox Gold members. Those deals will start July 1st and 16th, keeping the same dates each month through the end of the year. Assassin’s Creed II (amazing game) and Halo 3 will start the parade. Like Sony’s PlayStation Plus program, the easy complaint is that these are older games that most hardcore players have already completed. But, they’re free. Unlike PS+, those two free games are yours to keep even if you let your Gold membership lapse. No word yet on what other games will be included through out the year, or what their plans are for 2014 and Xbox One early adopters.
That’s all for this week. Definitely a little heavy on the XBOne, but what can you do. At least it’s mostly good news.