Silicon Studio Providing YEBIS 2 Middleware for Xbox One
Silicon Studio, creators of the YEBIS 2 post-processing middleware engine, which powers some of the visual effects seen in games like Square-Enix’s Gunslinger Stratos, TECMO KOEI’s Dynasty Warriors 7, and the “Final Fantasy Agni’s Philosophy demo” from E3 2012, has announced that they’re bringing their development tools to Xbox One.
They’ve also compiled some footage of what their tools can do, such as provide more realistic lighting and glare (lens flare!), dynamic color grading, and “extreme” depth of field effects. The presentation of the game’s tools is also handled pretty nicely in the trailer – you can actually see how the effects are applied with side-by-side and progressively adapting video.
PS4′s ‘Answer to the Pre-Owned Games Question’ is Still Just as Unclear as Xbox One’s
We’ve all seen a lot of flak hurled at Microsoft for its lack of a satisfying answer to the question of used games and DRM even for disc-based games. Even I’ve decided that the fact that Microsoft has to actually work out a policy for such things is a strong indication that they’re taking an anti-consumer approach.
Frankly, trading and buying used games shouldn’t require any kind of “solution.” It should be possible and practical by default because they’re based on physical freaking media that can serve as its own DRM if companies are really concerned about people simply installing and giving their discs away. Why does it have to be any more complicated than “if you want to play media installed from the disc, you need the disc”?
Microsoft isn’t alone in being horrendously vague and unclear about the “solution” to pre-owned games – implying of course that pre-owned games are a problem that has to be “solved.” Sony’s contributed its fair share of non-answers to the discussion as well.
Xbox Live Marketplace Deal of the Week: May 22nd
This week have 11 Xbox Live arcade games on sale for up to 50% off. This deal is available to Xbox Live Gold members only and is valid through May 27th.
In addition, Crysis 3 has been added to the On-Demand Library.
Sony Takes a Few Jabs at Xbox One Reveal Over Twitter
With the long-awaited reveal of Xbox One finally behind us, the competition for the next generation of consoles is officially heating up. Naturally, this means that trash-talking (albeit very subtle) has already kicked off. Sony Computer Entertainment president Shuhei Yoshida and PlayStation EU wasted no time taking shots at their newest competition via Twitter.
Report: Applause and Cheering at Xbox One Reveal Didn’t Come From the Press
After delaying for a month, Microsoft finally unveiled Xbox One, and the reception has been pretty mixed. There are numerous unanswered questions that have gamers feeling a little uneasy, and many were hoping to see a more robust game lineup. Gamers generally felt underwhelmed by the reveal, but you wouldn’t get that vibe from listening to the audience. Steady applause and cheering punctuated the entire presentation, but two very well-known journalists who were in attendance claim that things are not as they seem.
Indie Developers Can’t Self-Publish on Xbox One
On Xbox 360, if you’re an indie developer you need to find a publisher in order to get your game on the Xbox Live service. That practice will continue on Xbox One, general manager Matt Booty of Microsoft Redmond Game Studios says.
This runs in sharp contrast to PS4 and Wii U’s indie strategy, which allows smaller studios to self-publish their games to their platforms’ digital delivery services. We’ve seen plenty of Kickstarter projects without big publishers attached pledge to bring their games to Wii U, and Braid creator Jonathan Blow is developing and publishing a new game titled The Witness for PS4.
Microsoft Has Had Months to Prepare for Xbox One Internet and DRM Questions
The first rumors about an online requirement and some kind of DRM scheme for retail Xbox One games showed up as early as April 2012. That means people have been speculating about it for over a year, and most of the commentary hasn’t been pretty.
We know Microsoft has been listening in on the conversation because one of their software developers had to resign after responding to it. They’ve had several months to prepare Xbox One to appropriately, adequately, and acceptably respond to the rumors in a way that puts Microsoft in a positive light.
All they had to do was say something to the effect of “Xbox One doesn’t require an online connection” or “Xbox One doesn’t have any restrictions for used games.” So far, however, that’s not what they’re saying – at least, not exactly – which suggests that, yes, Microsoft really is imposing anti-consumer measures with Xbox One, and yes, they’re aware that those measures will make them look bad.
It’s Confirmed: Ryse is Coming to Xbox One, Debuting at E3
Ryse was originally a Kinect-only game by Crytek, but now it seems like it’ll be a “controller-based” game that’s “enhanced by Kinect” on Xbox One. Crytek brought the new IP out of its long silence to reveal that it’ll debut at E3 for Microsoft’s brand-new console, which we assume means it could be one of Microsoft’s “major exclusives” for this year – you know, the ones they mentioned during their press conference.
Click below for a look at the game’s original trailer.
Report: Xbox One Requires Internet Connection at Least Once a Day…Maybe
It seems like we really can’t get any straight answers about the juiciest rumors that circled Xbox One before its reveal. On the subject of second owner fees for used games every new report contradicts the last one, and it looks like there’s not much more clarity on the “always online” rumor either. During the preliminary Q&A for Xbox One, it seemed that this rumor was debunked, but another report suggests that that’s not entirely true.
Xbox One Claims to be All-in-One, But Misses the Mark in a Pretty Critical Area
The big selling point for Xbox One right now is that it’s an “all-in-one entertainment system.” You can run your cable box through it with HDMI, you can run your Netflix, Hulu, and other Internet-connected content delivery services on it, you can even talk with family and friends on via Skype. Microsoft spent a large part of its press conference focusing on how robust Xbox One will be at all this multi-tasking, and it’s all sounding very impressive in that regard.
However, if you’re a gamer, the “all-in-one” promise is a bit of a false one. Xbox One quite frankly won’t be the only device you need to satisfy all your gaming needs.
Xbox One ‘Purposefully’ Didn’t Aim for ‘Highest-End Graphics’ to Target ‘Broad Entertainment’
We know that PS4 is using a “super-charged” GPU, and we’re hearing that Xbox One isn’t aiming for such a high graphics target with its own GPU. Now, a video interview with Engadget confirms it: “We purposefully did not target the highest end graphics. We targeted it more as a broad entertainment play,” said Greg Williams, one of the engineers who worked on Microsoft’s latest hardware box.
So it’s true: Microsoft sees a “vertically” aligned piece of hardware as the way to grow within the game console business. This is radically different from both Sony and Nintendo, who while they both seem to include general entertainment functions in PS4 and Wii U, aren’t as interested this generation in creating that vertical entertainment ecosystem.
Check out the full interview by clicking below. The relevant quote begins around the 5:41 mark.
Microsoft Releases Preliminary Xbox One Q&A
Microsoft kept a lot of news out of their press conference, and a lot of it was related to some of the of-rumored functions: Internet connection requirements, the relationship between games and installs, and the lack of backward compatibility. They’ve rounded up details related to a lot of these issues in a Q&A to avoid people taking their words out of context.
This will be the purest clarification we’ll get on any of these issues for the time being, so check it out!
