There have been a lot of rumors bouncing around the internet these days. Mostly surrounding the lack of anything tangible about Microsoft’s answer to the PlayStation 4. With Sony’s announcement of the PS4 last week everyone’s naturally been speculating about what Microsoft’s answer will be. Whatever their answer, it has to be good. Microsoft has been doing nothing but screwing up over the last few years with their online service. Right now they’re the only console that still charges for online service and if that weren’t enough they charge you again to use their useless web browser and again for Netflix (a service I already pay for). If they don’t shape up and pull something big out at their reveal show Microsoft is in hot water.
Come on Microsoft…
Perhaps most worrying is the rumor that the Xbox 720 (or whatever) wont support used games. In a console market that’s still focused primarily on disks as a distribution method this would be a stupid move for Microsoft. That’s why I think this particular one is false. If you think about it Microsoft doesn’t lose anything from used game sales. It’s the developers who are missing out on resale revenue from these games and Microsoft doesn’t have any IP in development. They have nothing to gain from this kind of move and a lot to lose since gamers would rather buy a different console if they’ll get the games for cheaper. The fact that Microsoft hasn’t denied this yet is worrying but it could be simply that they’re trying to keep all details under wraps until their reveal show.
The other big rumor circling the neXtBox is that Microsoft may be working on an exclusivity deal with EA. This could mean that Microsoft is courting the idea of only allowing EA games on the Xbox. It doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense because Microsoft would be greatly limiting the amount of games available on their system and like the rumor above, they have nothing to gain from that. On the other hand it might be that EA is looking at exclusively publishing their games on the Xbox. Once again EA would be limiting their market to their detriment. It seems like the only way this rumor makes any sense is if the Xbox 1080 is going to be EA’s answer to the Steam Box. Origin Box?
I’m already kind of iffy about buying another Microsoft console. My 360 crashes more than a drunken senior citizen with cataracts, after all. So if either of these rumors are true Microsoft is going to have to do something huge to earn my money back.
