Microsoft E3 Presser
My in-box at 1:10 PM:Subject: $500
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
That was my reaction, too.
So here's what we know.
Price: $499
Availability: November
Used Games: at publisher discretion.
Rentals: at publisher's discretion. Not available at launch.
Game loans to friends: once, publisher's discretion, not available at launch.
Internet: must be connected at least once every 24 hours. Persistent connection could be required by publisher.
Microsoft Points: dead. Now transactions conducted in local currency. Hope you didn't load up on them.
Xbox Live: no one knows at this point whether a subscription is mandatory.
Benefit to us? None.
They did show games:
Metal Gear Solid V (insert your joke about twenty hours of cut scenes here)
Dark Souls II
Ryse: Son of Rome (Crytek)
Sunset Overdrive (Insomniac, open-world shooter)
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (platformer)
Forza 5
Minecraft
D4 (episodic murder mystery)
Quantum Break
Dead Rising 3 (much more exciting before 1,000 other zombie games came out)
Crimson Dragon (Panzer Dragoon developer)
Below (from the guys who did Sword & Sorcery)
The Witcher 3 (that's nice)
Battlefield 4
Halo Something Or Other
Titanfall (from Respawn)
I think Below looks interesting, and Dark Souls II. Maybe D4. The Witcher 3.
Look at $499, they'll sell out at launch, and then there will be pallets full of systems sitting at stores within a month, just like the PS3. It's just not that hard to figure out.
Now, if they announce something like "only $299 with a 2-year Xbox Live subscription", that might actually work, because people are bad at math. Or maybe they planned on subscribing to Live anyway.
All Sony has to do tonight is not shoot themselves in the face. Now, what constitutes shooting themselves in the face?
1. $499 launch price or higher. Actually, anything over $399 is a fail.
2. Used/rental game policy similar to Microsoft.
3. Mandatory subscription to online service.
The point: what Microsoft has done is take all of our rights as consumers and give them to the publishers. That's the real takeaway.
I'm picking up Eli from camp, then taking him to goalie practice, so I'll be out of pocket until about 7:30 CST tonight. But if I see any additional information, I'll post it then.
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