PC World can't build a PC comparable to the Xbox One X near the same price. As we all assumed, the Xbox One X is a very powerful machine for the price - and Microsoft is likely selling it at a loss, or near cost. Scale decreases prices for them obviously, but likely not 30% or more.
That's pretty neat, and for the record, I wish Phil Spencer could be cloned and put in charge of Playstation and Nintendo as well. He's been nothing but awesome since he took over. That said, as a gamer who's definitely in the "enthusiast" category, the XBX still doesn't mean much to me since, as has been pointed out, the XBX doesn't allow me to do much that I can't already do on my ~$2,500 PC. So it's a great value for a lot of people, but if you're a hardcore gamer who already has a beefy PC, how many games does XB1/X really get you that can't be played already on PC? And, to Phil Spencer's point in interviews when he answered that exact question: Microsoft is fine with that. Practically all PC gamers are on Windows by necessity, and MS is happy to sell them games on Windows PCs instead of XB1... but the console option is there if people want it. It's a good, consumer-friendly business plan that I can only applaud, even though it makes the XB1 largely pointless to me personally. Now if they keep adding more of that sweet, sweet disc-based backwards compatibility, enough that it would support 100% of the OG Xbox and X360 games I still have on my wall, I would probably buy an XBX just out of principle though!
Exactly, they don't care how you consume games - they just hope you do so on Xbox or PC. They make money either way. The Xbox One X is meant for 4K gamers on a budget, those who prefer console, achievement hunters, etc. Die-hard PCMASTERRACE gamers are going to drop thousands on their water cooled systems, and that won't change. I've given up on PC gaming because when I have time to game (rarely), I don't want to have to worry about drivers, or patching, or performance tweaking. I'm also an achievement w****, which lacks on most PC games - but hopefully that changes in the future with Xbox Anywhere growing in popularity. I like with Xbox I can pick up and play within a few moments, and I like that I can invest in other tech rather than keep dropping $1000-2000 a year on a desktop PC I don't use as often as a tablet or phone.
Yeah, I get it. My patience for PC games beyond plug-and-play games on Steam has dwindled to nearly nothing. Untold hours working out mysterious driver issues and the like is something I tend to just not put up with anymore. And fortunately for me I don't care about achievements/trophies, but if you do then consoles are certainly the way to go at the moment. Though, as you suggest, I fully expect the Play Anywhere initiative to result in an achievements system built more-or-less straight into Windows 10 at some point in the future.
Any of y'all looking to get the Marvel Heroes Omega that comes out 6/30? Kind of like DC Universe. Looks pretty fun. Spoiler It's free
Yeah, it's a pretty great value price for a console. It is essentially a mid-range PC for the price of a budget PC, but less variable hardware and most likely lower level APIs and languages (? This seems right, but I honestly have no idea about console game development) will allow game developers to get the most out of the hardware. Unified memory is also a plus factor. The biggest downside is that consoles are still relying on HDDs. It's louder, heavier, bigger, runs hotter, and has much higher access times and slower transfer speeds than SSDs. I am surprised they don't have options to pick SSDs for like $100 more when buying the console. Microsoft should honestly come out with a high-end console to target the high-end enthusiast market. If Microsoft can put out a high-end console for $1000-1100, I feel like it would sell decently well.
I have a 2TB 7200RPM and 512GB SSD HD for my Xbox Ones. I only use the internal HDs for apps and media. Games load extremely quick on the 7200RPM when compared to the internal 5400 RPM - and the SSD is lightning fast. The problem with Microsoft building a high-end console is that it would eat into it's hardware partner's PC gaming market. I'd love for them to do so, but understand completely why they don't. I think Azure compute offloading is the biggest thing they can offer, it is going to be interesting in the near future to see which games copy Crackdown 3 in utilizing Azure Compute... and Azure GPU which is available now as well.
I bought the $200 Marvel Heroes package when it first launched on PC many moons ago. The game is fun enough I guess, but I lost interest after about three to four months. They've made a ton of changes since launch, and I've tried to give it a go several more times as I have friends who still play but the gameplay just isn't for me. It is basically the same mechanics as Diablo III with comic book characters. End game is mind-numbingly boring for me.
Aven Colony: 8/10 It lacks the landscaping factor of a city building game which is too bad, but somewhat addictive to play once you figure it out. Yet, repetitive. Still, we now have two city building games finally. And it's a good start to taking it next level.