Game On or Game Over: Luke, I am your father

Microsoft versus Sony, Battlefield versus Call of Duty and Forza versus Gran Turismo. These are some of the rivalries that can get people talking about console wars. “Game On or Game Over” is your place to get inside the minds of Nicholas and Andy as they seek to find the true meaning of gaming and tackle some of gaming’s most controversial subjects. Both are award winning authors – although the awards haven’t been mailed or created yet — but trust them. Would they lie to you?

Nicholas: Last week I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive media event hosted by PlayStation. Now I could talk about the (seriously) awesome view out onto the ocean that we had and the collection of unreleased exclusives we had the chance to check out, but it was the topic of the presentation by Michael Ephraim, Managing Director at Sony Computer Entertainment ANZ that I’d like to discuss this week.

The event marked the one year anniversary of the launch of the PlayStation 4, and with it was the news that the console was the fastest selling home video games console in Australian history. I figured this would be an appropriate time to look back on the last twelve months of gaming and see what the major players have accomplished with their new toys. So to kick things off, what do you think what are the things the new consoles have done right so far?

Andy: Man, I think there has been a lot to like from both Microsoft and Sony. I like some of the things Sony has rolled out such as sharing screenshots, remote play, the new game share options that allow your friends to try out a game with you for an hour (I think that has the potential to really help sell some games) and of course their excellent PSN Plus offerings. Sony seems really committed on making sure the core experience is a solid one. They also seem to be trying to let the gamers draw each other into games, and that’s an idea I really like. The ability to share clips, screenshots, and (for some games) have a friend help you beat a boss/level. I have always been of the belief that word of mouth is the best form of advertising you can get. Encouraging gamers to share with friends is both free and effective.

Microsoft has done the same thing, to some extent. The ability to send game clips to individuals or post them on your activity feed is fun – especially when you beat a friend’s score or time and want to rub a little salt into the wound (not that I’d ever do that of course). The thing that has really stood out to me though with Microsoft is their willingness to listen to gamers. They created the Feedback/Idea page on their site where gamers can suggest features for future updates and let the community vote on them. Sort of like a Reddit for feedback, and that has led to some pretty nice updates since release. Updates are another thing that Microsoft has done extremely well – monthly updates focusing on a few features instead of the giant annual updates they used for the Xbox 360. The other thing that many of my friends talk about is the amount of different apps that are available for the Xbox One. Granted I am not one that has many apps installed, but many like that feature and it’s nice that they have that option available to them.

I think the past year has been a good year to be a gamer, where we’ve got to experience some new technology with more on the way. It’s been an exciting time because developers, as well as both Sony and Microsoft, are still learning what these new machines can do. They will only continue to push their limits and expand on what are already two solid systems – ignoring the fanboys on both sides. Those are the things I’ve seen so far, what about you though? Did I leave anything out that you think either of them have done particularly well and gamers should be excited about?

Nicholas: I certainly agree that pushing the social and sharing side of things has been a great step in the right direction. Something as simple as saying “Xbox record that” after you’ve pulled off an awesome feat or trick in a game and having it automatically record the last 30 seconds of gameplay is a really neat feature and one I’m glad to see they thought of during the console’s development.

For me, perhaps the biggest ‘well done’ feature about the new consoles, and the Xbox One specifically, is the automation of the login process. I really love that I can walk into my room, say “Xbox on” and it powers itself up without having to press a button. Going even further, the Kinect can then recognise who I am and sign me into my Xbox LIVE profile. I can even go as far as saying, “Xbox play <insert game title>” and it will launch the game too. That’s all done without me using a controller or buttons and doesn’t fail to impress me each time. Yes, the voice controls need to be tweaked a little because it’s not always responsive, but the fact it works most times without a problem is amazing.

On the PlayStation front they’re soon to release PlayStation TV, and that allows you to stream your game to another TV in the house or even play off a mobile device. The fact all this is even a ‘thing’ and it’s possible with just a small adapter is mind-boggling. We’ve come a long way since the days of the SNES and using cabled controllers for everything, so I’m really appreciative for what we have today.

Now not to immediately turn to the negative side of things, but let’s flip the table a little. There’s no denying the consoles are great and kicking some serious goals, but they aren’t without faults. What are some of the features you think they aren’t doing so well, and which need improving?

Andy: Ah, good call on mentioning the Kinect features. I was one of those who thought the Kinect was nothing more than a gimmick. I had no interest in it initially, but after using it the past year it’s become part of the console and one I really like. Granted I don’t use it much (if at all) while playing games but I use it for everything else. Moving onto your question, the things I think that need improving is an equally big list as well. Granted, since I don’t own a PS4 my knowledge of it is a less than the Xbox One that I use every day, but I have friends that have a PS4 and we talk often. I think one of the biggest things is install times on a new game from a disc. It’s so incredibly frustrating to get a game on launch, get home, open the case, put the game in the disc drive… then wait. Wait for upwards of an hour while the game fully installs so that I can play. It’s akin to getting ready to watch your favorite show on TV only to have to sit through an hour long commercial before you can get to the actual show. It completely ruins the moment every time. Something needs to be done about that.

Piggybacking off of last week’s article a little bit, both companies would love to see gamers go digital but I have yet to see a definitive reason for me to do it. Game prices are the same so there’s no incentive there. I like the idea of pre-loading games, but why can’t someone who is buying the disc version pre-load a game or an update? Maybe put a time stamp on it something like if the game isn’t put in the disc tray in a week the update and game data is deleted automatically? Especially true with the Halo Master Chief collection and how big that update is. The update was available before the games release to people who preordered the digital edition, but not those who are getting the retail version. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Another issue that both consoles faced, and will largely be wiped away in the next month, is they both release with far too few games on the slate. There was the initial launch window titles but after that they were few and far between. It wasn’t fun having a brand new shiny console and not much to play. I would have liked to have seen that handled a little better. The other thing I think both have struggled with a little is just general stability of their system. I understand its new tech, yet it seems like every couple of weeks one system or the other is down for a handful of hours, or a part of the system at least. There was a week stretch about a month ago where the ‘Friends’ list was absolutely  borked on Xbox One. The engineers have had plenty of time now to work out the kinks, I would hope that those speed bumps that we have encountered this past year and mostly ironed out and we can really start to enjoy the full experience these new machines can offer.

I know I did the same thing in my first reply, but being that you thought of some things I didn’t I’m doing it again. What do you think? What are something that you think either, or both, could improve on to make the experience better for gamers?

Nicholas: I think you hit the nail on the head when speaking about the initial disc installs. The big feature with the Xbox One was that the entire game didn’t need to be installed like on the Xbox 360, but it now takes longer to install enough of the game so that you can start to play than it took to install the whole disc in the last generation. Combine that with the fact that most games have their own launch day updates and it just adds to the wait. If they want to force everyone to pre-load their games on the first time, they should work on making it as quick and seamless as possible. Like you’ve said, it does kill the excitement of buying a new game when you’re waiting 20-30+ minutes to finally get stuck into it.

Another area that I feel the ball was dropped with was the initial hard drives that the Xbox One was launched with. A 500GB HDD just isn’t enough given how much space most games are now requiring. Yes you can purchase an external hard drive but I can’t help but feel a little shafted that Microsoft are releasing a white Xbox One with a 1TB HDD just 12 months after the console was released. I much rather would have liked to have that option when I bought the console on at the start than be forced to spend $100+ on a new hard drive down the line as it starts to reach capacity.

You mentioned that you liked the fact both consoles are now allowing gamers to share their experiences with screenshots and gameplay footage, but the one thing that gets my goat is the fact that any videos captured with the Xbox One are of horrible quality. It’s nice and well that I can show you that awesome drift I pulled off in Forza Horizon 2 or a particular kill in Assassin’s Creed 4, but it sucks when it’s at a low resolution. Perhaps I’m being picky, but it shouldn’t be less than 720p. I also would have liked to be able to upload these videos directly to my Facebook or Twitter like the PS4 does (unless that’s a feature already and I can’t see it).

What about looking forward though? We can each look at our consoles and say, “they did this right and that wrong”, but what features would you like to see that aren’t there yet, or are you getting everything out of your current generation console that you need?

Andy: This is always a tough question for me because my ideas are usually terrible and not very innovative. Before I suggest any new features I’d like to see them really tighten up the speed at which we can open apps, and ‘snap’ things on the Xbox One. When it was first announced and showed off, the speed of loading when saying something like “Xbox snap Achievements” was almost instantaneous. Yet, every time I do it there is the wonderful little spinning circle telling me it’s working on it before it pops up. Granted it’s probably less than 10 seconds, but I’m all about instant gratification and thus far with those snapped apps I’m not getting it. Sure it’s very minor in the scope of things, but when we are paying this much for a console I have some pretty high standards.

Onto features that I’d like to see. The first one for me would be a game rental type app/feature whatever you want to call it. PS4 has the streaming service for past generations of games, but I’d love to be able to rent a game, try it out and decide if I want to pick it up or not. It’s easy to look at something like that and give reasons why it wouldn’t work. People could beat games, never buy them, and what have you. I really think if done right, and marketed correctly you could get a lot of gamers to ultimately purchase the games. For instance, you rent a game for a set time period, if you end up buying that game within 48 hours (or however long) of your rental expiring you get a 10% off credit, or whatever the rental price is type of discount. That way if I like the game, I don’t pay full retail + the rental fee. No gamer wants to buy a game that sucks or they don’t like. Allowing them to rent it digitally makes sense. It keeps the money in house and keeps gamers engaged with the machine.

Another feature I’d like to see added is the ability to trade in a digital game. Before you jump out of your chair and say you can’t trade digital stuff let me explain. Let’s say I buy a game digitally, I beat it, complete it 100% get all the achievements/trophies and I’ll most likely never play it again. At that point the game is literally no value to me. It’s in limbo and does no good. I delete it off my hard drive and get no benefit from it. Why not have the ability to click a button and get some type of credit towards another digital purchase? It does a couple things all wrapped up into one package. It gives me some incentive to buy digital, and it automatically makes that next digital purchase cheaper than buying a game at full retail value. If Microsoft and Sony really want to encourage gamers to embrace the digital distribution model there has to be a big enough carrot for gamers to jump on board.  That lack of residual/trade-in value is the biggest reason I haven’t bought any digital games. That and I love seeing the cases on my shelf, but I’d consider it if I could save some money doing it.

I think both of those ideas add real value to the system, but also for the push that both companies are obviously doing. They make sense, get the most amount of games in front of the most amount of gamers you can. After all that’s what both the developers and the console manufacturers want right? Those are the first two things that came to my mind, do you have any that jump out to you that you’d like to see added? Or maybe, put your thinking cap on for a seconds. Fast forward one year – does the console experience then change a lot from what it is right now? Or do you think it will be mainly little tweaks and updates?

Nicholas: When I asked you my last question I anticipated that you’d want to get my thoughts on it too, so I was already thinking of what features I might want to see from my Xbox One. The thing is, there’s really nothing that comes to mind. I’ve always said that I want my console to play games and DVDs, and that it does – and pretty well. Things like social sharing and Kinect functionality are awesome, but they always come second to what I’m really using the Xbox for. For that reason there’s really nothing that I’d like to see, but I certainly agree with you that the load times to launch and switch between apps (especially view unlocked achievements) need to be improved.

Looking towards the next 12 months, it’s interesting to think where gaming will be. I think the best glimpse into the future is with what PlayStation are planning with the PS TV and remote play. We’ve explored motion and voice controls and while Nintendo have delved into being able to play off the screen with the gamepad, I think Sony are really pushing the boundaries with what they’re trying to do now. I think we’re also going to start to see more noise about virtual reality. I had friends who used Oculus Rift at PAX two weeks’ ago and they loved it, and there’s a colleague of mine who raves about it too. Whether or not it’s going to take off or not is another thing, but I think that’s the next step for gaming.

To end things I wanted to go back to the event I attended last week. It was great to check out some of the exclusive titles for the PS4 and the PlayStation TV concept was really interesting to see. I owned all three consoles last generation but the PS3 was always just a blu-ray player and a dust-collector. That said, I’m getting those feels to purchase a PS4 now. What would it take for you to purchase the PS4 to go along with your Xbox One? If not, is there any feature/game that the Xbox One would need to implement that would continue to see it be your only current-generation console with no desire to purchase a PlayStation?

Andy: Haha, that’s a question that I have been asked many, many times. Why do I prefer the Xbox over the PlayStation? Well, truth be told there’s one thing really and for some people it may seem trivial, but I hate the PlayStation controller. Yes, I know the new Dual Shock 4 has been tweaked and what not, but it still feels the same. There is no reason for two analog sticks to be that close together. I have small hands, but that controller still makes my hands cramp up and it feels so unnatural to me. When Microsoft had their bungled Xbox One announcement there was a brief period of time where I considered jumping ship and going to the Darkside, but at the end of the day my gamer profile, Xbox LIVE time, and friends are on Xbox so it was an easy decision for me.

Even thinking about exclusives I’m not sure anything would get me to spend that much money on another console. That’s the thing, in order to switch – or at the very least add – another console there’s a fairly significant amount of money you need to spend. The console, plus the game, plus PSN+ if it’s a multiplayer game – I’m not sure I could justify spending $550+ just to play one or two titles. Are there games on the PlayStation that I would like to play? Yeah absolutely. Are they interesting enough for me to have over $1,000 invested in just consoles… that I’m not sure about. Like you, I want my console to play games, stream movies from my computer and play DVDs. I’m a fairly easy to please gamer I guess.

That’s why it’s hard for me to think ahead at where these consoles will be in 12 months. I’m happy with it now, aside from a few tweaks I’d like to see. Every time Microsoft adds a new feature I usually sit back and say “Huh, I didn’t know I needed that.” Then I keep doing what I have done before. The next week my friends start raving about the update and additions and I just shrug and keep playing games. When the new consoles were announced I was a little worried that both companies were focusing too much on things that took away from just playing games. Making the consoles media centers instead of game consoles that also do media. I have to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised with. They have added things without taking away from just playing games. If I had to guess where we will be in 12 months I think the media aspect will be a bigger piece of the pie, but for the most part I think what we have right now is where we will be in a years’ time. Virtual Reality is coming, but I think it’s still a little way out. As long as I am able to play games, have new experiences and chat with friends that’s all I really want. Everything after that is a bonus for me. Maybe I am too easy to please, or maybe I just know what I like and stick to it. Whether you’re a Microsoft fan, or a Sony fan – or both, it’s a great time to be a gamer.

Tune in next time for the next instalment of Game On or Game Over. If you have any ideas for our next article, feel free to contact Andy or Nicholas on Twitter.