Announcements
- Xbox One console w/o Kinect for $399 debuts June 9th (via Press Release)
- Games with Gold & Deals with Gold promotions coming to Xbox One in June (via Press Release)
- Apps (like YouTube, Netflix, Internet Explorer etc) will no longer require Xbox Live! Gold subscription in June (via Press Release)
- Watch_Dogs will run 900p30 on PlayStation 4 and 792p30 on Xbox One (via Ubisoft Blog)
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The $399 Kinect-less Xbox One was always a matter of “when”. Like most people, I thought it was going to be announced at E3; not at 11:00 AM on Tuesday morning. It is always nice to give consumers choices and I commend Microsoft for stepping up and removing the Kinect from the box. But I’m still not picking up an Xbox One any time soon.
There’s nothing on the Xbox One that library that I’m willing to plop $400 for right now. Like with the Xbox 360, the Xbox One will serve as a single player exclusives machine. I am not going to pay for Xbox Live! Gold. Sure, they’re offering free games and deep discounts for the Xbox One in June but that’s not enough. Xbox Live! Gold is still $10 more than PlayStation Plus.
I’m more excited about the fact that my Xbox 360 can be used a Netflix and YouTube machine without the need for Xbox Live! Gold. It’s about time.
In Canada, the Xbox One will end up being the cheaper solution if pricing plans remain as they are. The Xbox One will be $399 while the PlayStation 4 will be $50 more at $449. Is that $50 difference enough to sway people from purchasing the more powerful machine?
Watch_Dogs continues the trend of multiplatform games performing better on PlayStation 4 hardware. But let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture with Ubisoft’s upcoming open world game, it’s running below 1080p for both consoles and nowhere as pretty as the initial E3 2012 reveal. If you want that, it can only be found in the PC version.
Is this the fault of Ubisoft or the hardware? I don’t know. I just hope it’s not an ongoing trend.
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