Redditor talks to Major Nelson about Xbox One at E3

[PhoenixSoul]

Just passing along some more info.

I just talked to Xbox's Major Nelson at E3 and asked him about DRM & more and here's what he said : gaming

Major Nelson (Larry Hyrb), the community manager for Xbox, said:

• MS understands the current opinion of Xbox and they are working to "educate" the masses but it doesn't sound like they are considering changing the DRM strategy in any way, including the 24 hour check-in.

• The 24 hour check-in was not designed as DRM but as a system to update your game library for when you give games to friends. I pointed out that they're now limiting game trades and asked why would it be a "feature" to update so often? He didn't have a good answer. They don't seem to understand that it doesn't matter WHY they have the check-in, the fact that it exists is a disadvantage to consumers.

• MS will likely implement a system where you can order/buy game discs at any time, and they will "activate" the game on release date, thereby locking down leaks and people playing early.

• MS considers the PS4 an "Xbox 360 version 2" in that the PS4 doesn't have many of the social and multi-tasking features the Xbone does. It doesn't seem like MS really believes they are in competition with Sony at this point. He did say that MS considers this point in time to be a "jump ball" in that neither system is backwards compatible and users may easily switch platforms.

• MS believes that while the PS4 may have slightly faster graphics RAM, the graphics RAM in the PS4 will run hotter and harder to cool. They also believe that the PS4 hardware is not as optimized as the Xbone and thus the systems will be evenly matched or Xbox will perform better.

• MS understands Don Mattrick of MS is making MS sound even worse and they're trying to essentially get him to stop talking.

• Regarding military personnel playing consoles: PS3/PS4 isn't allowed on DoD networks so they're not worried that military members will switch to PS while on overseas deployment.

• I told him that although I love Xbox and XBL, if all my friends move to PSN, I'd be going too. He said they understood that and were going to be working to actively change the messaging and marketing campaigns.

• MS isn't super concerned at this point because they don't think buying decisions are being made yet. Pre-orders, yes, but until people have the consoles, the war won't really start.

• The two free games per month you'll get as an XBL member are yours to keep, unlike the many free games on PSN, which you can't play after you cancel your PSN membership.

• Apparently Major Nelson is now in an interview with Reddit officially, so hopefully we'll soon have more info to augment this.

Let me know if you have questions!

EDIT: I've been in touch with Major Nelson and he made it clear that he didn't understand that the information he gave me was going to be passed along to others. I misunderstood, obviously. He was very gracious and took extra time to provide me additional info about Xbox and XBL. MS is doing some really cool things with cloud processing that I think will very much enhance the abilities of the Xbox One and differentiate it from the PS4.

I asked specifically about the possibility of forgoing the 24-hr check-in if the user has a physical disc. He said he'd do some research and get back to me. I'll update this post with that info when he provides it.

I also attended a pretty cool presentation demoing some new Kinect features for more hardcore games. It included raising or lowering your controller to raise/lower a shield, and physically leaning your body side to side to take cover. This was in addition to all the normal physical buttons. I could actually see myself using Kinect in this capacity where I never used it before (I tried Dance Central but didn't like it and the Kinect has pretty much sat unused since).

After talking to Major Nelson and learning more about the aforementioned new features, I am definitely more excited about the Xbox One and I'm cautiously optimistic that Microsoft will address the issues that the community is currently presenting. Microsoft seems very community focused and my faith is returning in the Xbox platform.

 

[Xithryl]

Sounds good, I too am sure that Microsoft will make a few tweaks here and there and restore faith to a lot of people. I can't wait for their marketing campaign to take off. We shall see!

 

[theeboredone]

• MS understands Don Mattrick of MS is making MS sound even worse and they're trying to essentially get him to stop talking.

This made me lol.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Not a lot of new stuff here, but 3 things seem worth addressing:

1. Shutting Don up sounds like a good idea.
2. Even if a PlayStation won't run on a DoD network, at least it would be playable offline for military members. Therefore, the point he made is nullified, as the PlayStation has the simple feature of WORKING while offline for those folks, which is the issue that has been brought up the whole time.
3. The controller-based Kinect stuff mentioned at the end sounds bad. I think the raising and lowering of the controller or the leaning of the body would be a crappy game mechanic. It would force you to play in an atypical/uncomfortable position, compared to how most of us typically sit. I wouldn't want to hold my controller up for more than a second or two and play like that, nor would I want to play while leaning, as it would just feel awkward. Any prolonged holding of either position sounds like it would suck.

 

[paulxxwall]

Not a lot of new stuff here, but 3 things seem worth addressing:

1. Shutting Don up sounds like a good idea.
2. Even if a PlayStation won't run on a DoD network, at least it would be playable offline for military members. Therefore, the point he made is nullified, as the PlayStation has the simple feature of WORKING while offline for those folks, which is the issue that has been brought up the whole time.
3. The controller-based Kinect stuff mentioned at the end sounds bad. I think the raising and lowering of the controller or the leaning of the body would be a crappy game mechanic. It would force you to play in an atypical/uncomfortable position, compared to how most of us typically sit. I wouldn't want to hold my controller up for more than a second or two and play like that, nor would I want to play while leaning, as it would just feel awkward. Any prolonged holding of either position sounds like it would suck.

please no more bad stuff about the Kinect im already so iffy about this thing