Players Will Be Required to Pay for Xbox One Features

Xbox One console

Was there ever any doubt that Microsoft would go this route?  Not in my mind.  Why?  Simple, because they already do this.  A story reported on today from BBC News mentions that the Xbox One will require the user/player to subscribe to a Live Gold account in order to utilize some functions of the new Xbox One.  Is this really that much of a change?  Nope.

Long story short, here is the deal.  In order to use the following functions, players must be an Xbox Live Gold account subscriber.  Items marked *Currently Required indicates Xbox 360 features that currenly requires a Gold subscriptions well.

-Multiplayer Gaming *Currently Required
-Netflix (or other video streaming services) *Currently Required
-Matchmaking for Online Games (considered a function of online play) *Currently Required
-OneGuide (think of a recommendation service for online media content)
-Access to communicate via Skype.

I don't particularly see anything worthy of arguing about int his list.  As it stands, it doesn't appear that all that much will change between current Live Gold accounts and current-gen Live Gold accounts.  This doesn't mean that changes will not pop up elsewhere, it just means there isn't a whole lot that us current-gen gamers can argue about.

And with Sony also starting to charge for online access and similar features on the PS4, there goes the excuse that paying for online on an Xbox console is more expensive.  Looks like we're all on a level playing field now.  Like it or not.

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What does the new PSN Terms of Service Agreement Contain?

The other I day powered on my PS3 for the first time in about a week to play a little 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution'.  And I was greeted with a prompt to accept the new PSN TOS before I could login.  Not a big deal since 'Deus Ex' doesn't feature online play.  But I do like to browser the PSN Store on occassion to see what's new.  So I decided to be a good little PS3 owner and do as I was being told by Sony.  Like many user's, I rarely read the entire TOS agreements.  Simply put they are long and drawn out.  And in the case of my situation, I have a smaller television and the small print this agreement is typed up in (and some game text as well) makes it absolute murder to read onscreen.  So, I scroll down and click on 'Accept'.

So what was in it that was so noteworthy I needed to accept it now?  Simply put, a little 'cover-their-butt' strategy by Sony.  In layman terms, the new Terms of Services agreement will prevent customer's from filing class-action lawsuits against Sony.  If you digg around enough there are a few loopholes to the new agreement, but if you want to play on their device you have to accept it.

So what about those involved in lawsuits for this past summer's PSN outage and data leak?  Those people aren't covered under this new TOS for that lawsuit since it occured before the new TOS was issued and put into action.

Here is where the red flag jumps out to me.  After this summer's issues that impacted not only Sony, but game publisher's market wide and customer's alike.  What has Sony discovered (if anything) that would cause them to go out of their way to issue this TOS now?  I would fully expect either something crazy to hit the headlines soon about a new internal issue or a drastic change to existing services that may impact customer's experience with their products?  Time will tell.

I love my PS3, and haven't had any real issues or qualms about Sony (with the exception the events from April/May 2011).  And one reason I jumped ship from the Xbox 360, is Sony doesn't charge for online access.  But with all the controversy flying around the last several months, I have to ask myself: "Is a single, dedicated platform for any service really that good of an idea?"

And my answer is "No".  It only benefits the companies behind the platform.  As demonstrated in April and May, a dedicated platform can be brought down and can greatly impact not only transactions and business conducted via the product, but also completely shut down the online portions of games people just wanted to play.  This is where PC gaming is mostly different.  Most PC games feature hosts for online playing.  Where the game servers are not dependent upon a e-commerce platform to operate.  So you may not be able to by a player skin for your character, but at least you can play.  I completely understand that this is not how Sony or Microsoft has setup either of their platforms, but moving forward maybe it is something that should at least be considered.

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EA Shutting Down Game Servers

Announced yesterday, EA will be shutting down game servers used for online play for the following titles in two phases.  The first phase in August 2011 and the second in October 2011:

First Phase:
-Army of Two for PS3, Xbox 360 (also includes the Demo for the 360)
-Battlefield 2142 demo for PC
-Battlefield 2: Modern Combat + Demo for Xbox 360
-Medal of Honor Airborne for PSP
-Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for Wii and PSP
-NASCAR '09 for PS3 + Xbox 360 (in North America, you mean other countries like NASCAR too?)
-NCAA Basketball 10 and NCAA Football 10 for PS3 and Xbox 360
-Need for Speed Most Wanted for PC and Xbox 360
-Need for Speed Undercover for PSP
-SKATE for PS3 and Xbox 360
-Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PSP
-Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 Demo for the PS3 and Xbox 360

Second Phase:
-Madden NFL 10 for PS3 and Xbox 360
-NHL 10 for PS3 and Xbox 360

So alas to games on the list.  Farewell to online play.

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Software of The Week: TVersity free media streaming!

Recently, I was in need of a solution for accessing my media via streaming from my computer. First, I figured out exactly what my needs were.  Simple, I needed away to access media from my desktop computer via my local wireless network.  I would be accessing the files mainly from my iPod Touch and possibly from a laptop or two later down the road.  After a few minutes searching the web, I landed on TVersity.  The download was only 13.5 MB's for the free edition.  TVersity is rather versatile as well; you can easily stream to iPod Touch/iPhones, Nintendo Wii's, PSP, Xbox 360 and PS3 systems.  As well as various other wifi enabled devices.

The setup was pretty easy, pretty much double click the setup icon and roll through the wizard.  Once up, I was able to use my iPod Touch's Safari web browser to navigate to my hosts computer's local IP address and I was able to stream a video clip in just a few minutes.  When the program initially accesses a video is transcodes it on the fly, this eliminates the need for having to convert a video file from it's native format to an iPod/Apple ready format.  It does take a few minutes to do the on-the-fly conversion, but it worked very well when it finished.  Likewise, I was able to access the same video file from my laptop as well.

Think of this little gem as setting up your own Video On Demand service within your local network.  The host interface is very well laid out and makes it easy to stream your media files; as well as, subscribe to web content as well.  During setup, the wizard does ask you to enter your YouTube login if you desire to aggregate your favorite YouTube clips too.  The free version looks like it will handle all of my needs for the time being, but should you need to access premium content on sites like Hulu, Sling, and several others; there is a Pro version which costs $39.99 per license.  However, the free version will serve your local content and access some web stuff.  Overall, this is an excellent solution for streaming media.  There are ways you can stream via the internet, but for local streaming setup was a snap.  Likewise, there are other methods of streaming your content, some of which are available for a price from Apple's App Store.  Personally, I like free.  And with the free TVersity and the web browsers I already use, I can achieve my goal.

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Dark Void Demo Review

After playing through the 'Dark Void' PC Demo.  I've come to a few conclusions.  First, let me say that this review is purely for the PC Demo of this game.  Not the console versions.  I have an Xbox 360, but to be honest I have been too lazy to try it out on the 360.  From what I have read, it plays very well on the console.  But personally, I cannot attest to that fact.

The basic plot of the game is that your character got lost in the Bermuda Triangle and was pulled through a void which dumps him into another dimension, where his plan proceeds to break down.  He stumbles across some refugees who want to get back home to our dimension.  But these creepy robot creatures called 'Watchers' stand in the way. And somewhere in the mix Nikola Tesla makes an appearance.  (Unfortunately, most of this isn't seen in the demo).

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Dark Void Demo is Live

Hey everybody,
Just a quick note to let everyone know that the DarkVoid demo is now live. So go and download it. It is available for the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3!

http://www.darkvoidgame.com/demo/

Look for my first impression in a day or so, after I've had several chances to play through the demo.

Enjoy!

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Minutes to Midnight..And the Wii

This morning at 10:00a EST (3:00p GMT) there will be a live streaming event from the New York Academy of Sciences, looks as though the hands on the Doomsday clock are being moved again. Which way will they go? Tune in to find out. The streaming event can be found at: http://www.turnbacktheclock.org/

When the Doomsclock was first setup it was set as as icon upcoming world catastrophe by nuclear threat. That was in 1947. And since the clock has been moved less than 20 times. Now the clock is more a symbol of threats such as nuclear, global warming, and other such threats. For more information on the history of the clock, check out this really good article which was featured on Google News this morning. ABCNews: Doomsday Clock to Be Moved


And on a lighter note, all you fans of the Nintendo Wii and Netflix. Rest assured, you have not been forgotten. Now that the 360 and PS3 both have Netflix streaming features, so do you. Looks like this spring, Netflix members will be able to stream to the Wii console. Article

Ok, great. But one request Nintendo. Before the end of the world, could you please release a firmware update that unlocks the Wii's dvd player without having to do a softmod? It just makes sense.

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