Nerdology

During their press conference, Sony said that they “support used games,” and “that they won’t require an online check in.” Polygon is reporting a little bit of a backpedal:

“Well, I mean, we create the platform, we’ve certainly stated that our first-party games are not going to be doing that, but we welcome publishers and their business models to our platform,”

…

Tretton received a standing ovation at yesterday’s Sony E3 press conference after announcing that gamers would be able to share their games as they wished without worrying about licenses or 24-hour checks — policies adopted by the Xbox One that have proven fairly unpopular for Microsoft’s platform. Today’s comments seem to walk that announcement back somewhat, giving third-party publishers leverage to use their own copy protections on the platform; though the PS4 still won’t have platform-wide restrictions like the aforementioned daily online checks.

Sony responded to the Polygon article by adding:

“Similar to PS3, we will not dictate the online used game strategy (the ability to play used games online) of its publishing partners,” a Sony representative told Polygon. “As announced last night, PS4 will not have any gating restrictions for used disc-based games. When a gamer buys a PS4 disc they have right to use that copy of the game, so they can trade-in the game at retail, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend, or keep it forever.”

It sounds like they’re being very choosy with their wording. They’re saying they “do not dictate online used game strategy of it’s publishers.” So if Activision want’s to build in a check in every 24 hours it sounds like they are at liberty to do so. Kind of a bummer. Regardless of the policy, Sony got the applause, and the initial press saying no DRM. It’s a win for Sony, maybe not so much for gamers. 

[via Polygon]

PS4. 399. This holiday season.

I’m absolutely shocked that this is less than the Xbox. Wow. Good for Sony. They brought EXACTLY what gamers wanted. This plays into exactly what I said about their conference in February, they’re putting the gamer at the center.

• PS4 will play used games.
• We know what the PS4 looks like.

I think Sony won the day. They were a little slow to start, and there was a lot of “we don’t have enough time to talk about this” in some places but, overall, we saw some good looking games and they appealed to gamers. And really, that’s what E3 is all about.

Kotaku has a first look at the new Xbox One hedset. Two initial thoughts:

1. I’m happy it’s wired.
2. I’m VERY happy the moved the volume / mute controls back to the bottom and not inline. It’s SO much better when you don’t have to take your hand off the controller.

Microsoft Xbox Press Conference

Microsoft did what Microsoft does at E3. It brought games. The stand outs were:

• Halo
• Killer Instinct
• Dead Rising 3
• Sunset Overdrive (new IP from Insomniac!)
• Quantum Break (from Remedy Entertainment)
• Forza

And, most importantly the Xbox One will launch in 21 markets this year at $499 US 499€ in Europe and £429 for the U.K. Also, good news is that Microsoft has scrapped MS Points in favor of dollars and cents. Finally. Now I’m just going to try really hard to forget that 1600 MS Points is 20 dollars.

To counter Sony’s annoucement of UStream intergration, Microsoft has announced a partnership with Twitch.TV. Gold members can stream from their Xbox One directly to their channels.

The most interesting announcement was about Xbox Live Gold members. Starting July 1st Gold members can download 2 free games a month. This is kind of cool, I’m just not certain how it works. It’s been hard to find information about it. I can’t tell if there will be a back catalog or if you have to download and keep it yourself. I’ll update this when I find out more.

Curious to see what Sony brings tonight!

Love this poster.

(via typographie)