Phil Spencer on the Future of Xbox: Upgradeable console

Thank you... Error's, Compatibility issues, drivers, updates and bugs will always be a part of PC gaming.... This is not an issue to someone who is investing time and knows their system enough to work around it and make their software work. For some people an error is a few clicks away from being gone while for some it means no game today... PC gamer's need to stop thinking everyone is on their level of nerdyness....

 

Salvy, IIRC, you didn't purchase a xbox at $399 or $499. How could you afford a $700 xbox?

Btw, I got caught up on the Atari Jaguar hype as well. What a pos. Even the gamestop employees warned me not to purchase it and that it was doomed.

 

Fair enough, my initial comment was more about paying Microsoft prices on upgrading their consoles. I know initially just for a bigger hard drive on the 360 they were charging ridiculous prices (if you do it on your own buying reg hard drive and xbox caddy it obviously was cheaper) , and if that's the trend while potentially allowing the customer choices, it'd basically be one step closer to a pc. On side note I do own consoles and custom pcs etc (Yeah I'm a nerd/tech guy), I just get more frustrated than usual lately with the ****ty load times on consoles (especially 2k series on ps4).

 

I didn't purchase a black Xbox at $399 or $499.... I wanted a white Xbox and I bought a white one the first chance I got.... You're stupid for assuming finances had anything to with it......

 

I KINDA like consoles and I partially just forced to buy them because of exclusives. Upgrades will be a cash cow. The scare tactics of Salvy is really insane. Most everyone here is aware that sometimes the Windows machine they use has errors. If you use a computer in your office or at home it won't be an issue for you.

 

It was expensive buying an official 360 hard drive... It was also expensive buying an expansion pack or memory card for the Nintendo 64.....Times have changed and we can now easily purchase a 32gb flash drive for $10..... For $15-20 a 64gb flash drive... What was the size of the original Xbox 360 hard drives again? 20? 60? If I remember correctly. What I'm trying to say is the cost of memory is a joke now....... Will come back to this in a second....


Almost everything today is a PC... A personal computer.... Our phones, our consoles our watches our car radios....... Everything runs of a processor with memory and a small hard drive. You can download apps on TV's and even home appliances... That same TV and home appliances is also now connected to the internet as well as some of our home's central cooling and heating systems. Both the PS4 and Xbox One are low end gaming computers with software that has been optimized for that specific configuration of hardware. This is why it always works.... Yes it may be slow to load but its going to load and the chances of crashing reduced.

With that said..... Since everything today is similar to a PC in one way or another that means components can also be swapped more easily. And as I mentioned before memory's price is a joke. Microsoft's real challenge is making sure the swappable components are easy to install and literally plug and play. If that's the case this could be a game changer and our consoles will look fantastic without the hassle of old-school modding and overclocking.

 

So you are saying that someone that can figure out a small windows problem from an operating system that was designed to be user friendly for everyone to use and extremely efficient and consistent can also figure out how to correctly overclock and processor without having heating problems or crashing? Because if you are gaming on PC without mods or an overclocked processor you are an idiot.......

 

The Dreamcast was ahead of its time.

 

I've read this many times and I just don't know WTF you are trying to say. If you can clarify I will tell you what I am saying.

So not only does overclocking give you marginal improvements at best, the CPU is not a critical gaming component. I always buy the unlocked K series CPU and never overclock. I tried, frame rates didn't move. The technical information that you (I think)are basing this opinion on is completely false. I don't know what you mean by mods here as we already has a misunderstanding earlier in the thread concerning that word.

 

What cpu do you currently have and how much do you want to spend? I'm partial to nvidia because of better support for gpu's but AMD has made some decent cards lately. If looking for something really nice and decent budget (better than xbox/ps4) I'd start with the 960 and up on this hierarchy if going nvidia, and definitely consider the amd counterparts if you can find better pricing for more performance etc: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

Theres also some recent articles referencing what gpu to look at at each resolution/price point here these also mention the better option over 960 for amd at that price: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gpus,4380.html

Now if you can spend decent amount I'd look 970 gtx and up... But unless you're going 1440p I'd probably save the money, also I'm pretty sure new cards are going to be announced fairly soon (iirc), I think in April since this series has been out ~1.5 years... And those could be huge gains and hopefully cause some nice sales on the older ones. I don't game like I used to but... I still put gaming systems together regularly and I seriously haven't had a failure since about 1994/95 (Yes, 20+ years ago).. Haha, some ****ty pentium mobo that was trouble from the start. Anyway on these newer parts it's easier and warranty is longer than you'll own the card/part typically... + resale is decent on some of this stuff compared to the old days (thanks to console for holding it all back, lol).

 

You're right on the gains on OC, it's not like it used to be... Also with those K series it's so ****ing easy compared to old days too on the OC Lately on cpu front you could still be using older i5 2500k and be fine up until recently (and even then still be fine unless pushing some crazy res). It's really started to be all on the GPU

 

Oh, lastly... K series resell for insane values... I've never see something depreciate so little for computer parts.

 

Sandy Bridge was just such a giant leap from the previous generation it pushed CPU bottlenecking out of relevancy. I have had a noctua cooler for 5-6 years now but still don't overclock. I even low volted my Haswell. My Skylake is running stock.

 

Exactly, man! I had Sandy Bridge for quite a lot longer than my normal upgrading binges... And am currently on i7 Haswell setup, I normally skip i7 and go 5 but got some silly deal on it... Might hold on Skylake but will definitely make jump afterwards.

Quick question, have you tried any of the newer SSDs on Skylake? The ones at like crazy speeds...

 

Its not what I'm "trying" to say..... Its what I'm saying that you are having a hard time comprehending..... You assume that just because someone has experience with a computer at home or office that they are tech savvy or in one way or another able to fix errors and driver problems associated with PC gaming.... You are wrong.... Once again, you figured out how to create and use a PC for gaming with high fps and decent graphics.. You invested in an expensive processor that YOU knew could handle the operations needed for your application.

If you are just maxing out settings and not modding your game then your setup is pointless... I'm sorry... The benefit for all the work and money you had to put in and will continue to put in to stay relevant is not worth it in my opinion.....

I have a "gaming" PC.... I built it myself and it has been a workhorse. Extremely reliable for the operations Windows expects a normal user to to use its OS for. When you start gaming with PC I would assume its because you want more from the game. You want crazy graphics and modifications that will make the game look 10X better.... You wont get that from just buying an expensive graphics card/processor/ram and so on.... You have to really know your stuff in order achieve results that are actually worth all the money and work put into a machine that is superior to a console.


A console is for people who enjoy playing games, a PC is for people who enjoy enhancing games..... Some people just want to play.... So why the hell do we keep having idiots always saying "Just build a PC"? Its not that simple....I wouldn't entourage anyone who is looking to play games to freaking build a PC.... That is just stupid.....

 

I game on PC, and I don't need to go all out OC to enhance games. Here's why even a casual casual builder that just want to slap reasonably compatible parts together should look into PC.

• Ability to scale - Able to upgrade HDD, graphics card, memory fairly easily
• Backwards compatible - I'm not re-buying steam games I bought a decade ago
• Peripherals - The fight stick that I bought when PS2 was around still works today. No need buy new stuff every "gen"

 

Two things:

1. I believe this was just the execs talking out loud. I truly doubt Microsoft would go that far, however I could see certain exclusives slowly moving over to PC.

2. This defeats the literal purpose of a console. While I do understand that consoles will obviously be sub-par in comparison to the PC, and that an up-gradable console could sound enticing, it would honestly be an awful move for Microsoft and even Sony if they wen't this route.

The main strength of consoles is that it has set hardware. A developer can then work with these specifications and have a standard experience for every console. If we took this away and basically made every console like a PC with different specifications, it would be a living hell for the casual console gamer. For example, If the developers of a triple A game like Call of Duty came out and said, "Yeah, you're going to need to upgrade your Xbox to the Xbox 2.45 since the Xbox 2 can't run this game properly" people would be in an uproar. They buy consoles for the simplicity. Taking this factor away just doesn't make sense from a business perspective.

 

You could swap HDD, graphics card and memory on a PC.... The question thou is why?.... Why would anyone want to upgrade the graphics card or memory? There are only two reasons I can think of....

1. Newer games will have higher specs that a current setup will have a hard time running at max/near max settings. This investment alone is not going to be any cheaper than $300 plus the finances that were already invested in the original equipment. You don't have to upgrade a system to run games at normal settings..... But at normal settings your off the shelf PS4 and Xbox One will offer the same experience without the headache....

2. You are actually enhancing the game, you are modding the game's lighting and shadows and textures and so on.... For something like this then yes, absolutely.... This is what PC gaming is about. Enhancing and modifying games..... Problem is there are a lot of people who feel they are above console owners because they game on PC but have no idea how to run mods or overclock...

Consoles are headache free gaming devices. They are designed for playing games not enhancing them. The people you $60 to for a title are the ones that work day and nights figuring out whats the best that game will look and perform and the console you already invested in.


But if Microsoft can take a console and add upgrade capability that will enhance the game I believe that would fantastic. I'm sure PC fanboys would be outraged that they are no longer special...... Not that they ever were to begin with but they sure do love to believe so....

 

The consoles are not suited for the games of tomorrow either, to get the games playable on the aging console hardwares compromises in the resolution, frame rate & graphical quality have to be made.
You only need to keep up with expensive PC hardware upgrades if you are the type that's obsessive about playing games at the highest possible graphical setting.
If you bought an entry level GTX 950 TI graphics card when it was released (released about 3 month after the PS4, at about $140) and kept it till today, you can still play games at better graphical quality than current generation consoles.