Xbox version is NEVER going to be the FULL FAT version?

[Mole HD]

That would annoy me, as I also stick with console because I don’t have the inclination to constantly be buying new hardware.

I'll forever be a console player. I can't keep up with the whole PC hardware thing--constantly worrying if my PC can run a game. When I buy a game for console, I know that it'll run smooth (mostly) because it was designed for that specific hardware in mind. I buy that hardware once and it lasts me 5-8 years, no worries about compatibility. Sure, we don't always have the best graphics and frame rates, but I'm willing to make that concession for not having to be constantly keeping up with the Joneses.

To be fair, I haven't upgraded anything on my PC for 2 years, not really interested in keeping up with anyone either...Jones's or otherwise. I bought it for what I wanted it to do, not for what anyone else had. It also runs everything I've thrown at it up to and including latest AAA titles without having to check if I have the spec to run it.
Developing games for next gen and persistently upgrading PC's to run the latest titles is 1990's stuff and more than likely suicide for any game title that would suggest it. (Star Citizen) Like Xbox, there's a limit to what folks will buy into.

I bought back into the PC dark side when I left the Xbox at a level that wouldn't need upgrading for a decent period of time. The Xbox, I would have upgraded to the Xbox 1X after 5 years of the Xbox one... with probably a 4K TV to add to the cost. There was also the rumour that the Scorpio was to be a modular console with upgrade choices of CPU/GPU back then...it made the choice to go back to PC a lot simpler since the writing was already on the wall for the next and future gen console market.

Current info from Game Developers is that they are already programming for the next gen consoles for games releasing over the next year or so...Bethesda for one hinted at this at E3 with regard to Elder scrolls VI and Starfield. We're not looking at a 6 to 10 year shelf life of the Xbox 1 X as we had with the 360 any longer. The talk of backwards compatibility is creeping in again with regard to consoles...there's no such issue with PC since I have 10 year+ old and well supported game titles I'm still playing from my Steam account without the need of a built in emulator.

Realistically, I'm at a similar 4 or 5 year upgrade timescale with my current PC but I'll be replacing components as opposed to the entire machine....newer motherboard and CPU perhaps in a year or so, but I'm still at the top of the line after 2 years which isn't bad going by any standards.

It was more a choice in the way I wanted to continue gaming...pay for the (then) future Xbox Scorpio upgrade, a new expensive TV, continue to pay £45 PA for Xbox Live subscriptions and more expensive games or head back to PC at a not too dissimilar cost with games at half the price and more hardware and software options...horses for courses.

 

[UseLessUK]

I bought my current PC in 2012 and have no interest (or the funds) to upgrade it. Luckily, it plays everything I want it to.

I used to be a big fan of PC gaming but got sick of the constant upgrading. So in the end settled for a console. But I still prefer the mouse/keyboard to a controller, so when the chance came to buy The Orange Box I took it, was a big fan of Half Life/Opposing Force/Blue Shift, but I do prefer the comfort of the sofa to a computer chair. So I tend to play more on the Xbox than the PC.

Hopefully the PC will last a few more years yet, but it wasn't built to play games it was built to run virtual machines. I used to run 2 Servers, but due to rising power costs virtualised the actual servers and I now run them on my PC along with a few others. Only downside now is my PC has to be on for the servers to run and I cannot access them from anywhere anymore. But as I don't do as much development as I used to it's not really an issue.

 

[DanGriswold]

To be fair, I haven't upgraded anything on my PC for 2 years, not really interested in keeping up with anyone either...Jones's or otherwise. I bought it for what I wanted it to do, not for what anyone else had. It also runs everything I've thrown at it up to and including latest AAA titles without having to check if I have the spec to run it.
Developing games for next gen and persistently upgrading PC's to run the latest titles is 1990's stuff and more than likely suicide for any game title that would suggest it. (Star Citizen) Like Xbox, there's a limit to what folks will buy into.

I bought back into the PC dark side when I left the Xbox at a level that wouldn't need upgrading for a decent period of time. The Xbox, I would have upgraded to the Xbox 1X after 5 years of the Xbox one... with probably a 4K TV to add to the cost. There was also the rumour that the Scorpio was to be a modular console with upgrade choices of CPU/GPU back then...it made the choice to go back to PC a lot simpler since the writing was already on the wall for the next and future gen console market.

Current info from Game Developers is that they are already programming for the next gen consoles for games releasing over the next year or so...Bethesda for one hinted at this at E3 with regard to Elder scrolls VI and Starfield. We're not looking at a 6 to 10 year shelf life of the Xbox 1 X as we had with the 360 any longer. The talk of backwards compatibility is creeping in again with regard to consoles...there's no such issue with PC since I have 10 year+ old and well supported game titles I'm still playing from my Steam account without the need of a built in emulator.

Realistically, I'm at a similar 4 or 5 year upgrade timescale with my current PC but I'll be replacing components as opposed to the entire machine....newer motherboard and CPU perhaps in a year or so, but I'm still at the top of the line after 2 years which isn't bad going by any standards.

It was more a choice in the way I wanted to continue gaming...pay for the (then) future Xbox Scorpio upgrade, a new expensive TV, continue to pay £45 PA for Xbox Live subscriptions and more expensive games or head back to PC at a not too dissimilar cost with games at half the price and more hardware and software options...horses for courses.

You make some good points. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. Yes, I sure did plunk down $1,000 for a new 4K TV to go with my XBox One X, but I would have bought it anyways. It was well worth many monies. I guess I'm just more comfortable with consoles as I'm just not familiar enough with computer hardware to make informed decisions about what to buy. Maybe one day, as you and many others have pointed out, when consoles as we know it are a thing of the past, I may have to make that leap to a more modular-hardware-focused gaming environment.

 

[Mole HD]

You make some good points. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. Yes, I sure did plunk down $1,000 for a new 4K TV to go with my XBox One X, but I would have bought it anyways. It was well worth many monies. I guess I'm just more comfortable with consoles as I'm just not familiar enough with computer hardware to make informed decisions about what to buy. Maybe one day, as you and many others have pointed out, when consoles as we know it are a thing of the past, I may have to make that leap to a more modular-hardware-focused gaming environment.

Just to add a bit to this...a recent discussion with David Braben at E3 produced some very interesting viewpoints including this one...

"Were you surprised at the open signalling at this year’s E3 about a new console generation being so close?"

"I was. I’m slightly worried at the motives as to why people need to do that. Because Sony also more than hinted at it. And I’m trying to understand the logic in that. I suspect Microsoft did it in order to preempt any signalling that Sony might be thinking of doing. I would have thought it was inevitable that there would be new machines. Nobody announces there’s a new PC coming out, because everyone knows there is. And everyone knows that when you spend $1000 on a PC, the next day there will be something better. That’s the way of the world. PCs are continuously getting better at a relatively constant rate, and it’s not something that gets announced. There’s an occasional announcement of a new graphics card family, and people get excited about that, but it doesn’t get the sort of attention that the announcement of a new Xbox or PlayStation would.

Maybe we’ll end up with annual updates to consoles, and then console updates will be de rigueur, they’ll just be as expected. So it didn’t especially surprise me, but what surprised me is the lack of a reason to do it. Usually they’ll say we’re doing it because of this, and show something amazing."

Link to full article, certainly worth a read.

 

[Maymo]

As has been already said...all those functions you imagine us PC players have supplied free by FDev just for E-D...aren't really anything of the sort. Voice attack is voice control software for everything you can run on a PC with a keyboard. Simply mapping a keypress to a spoken command like saying "Boost" sends the 'press the B key' to the game...or whatever you want it to. We also have fancy HCS voice packs for Voice Attack that replace the vanilla Verity and Victor ships computer voices with the likes of ASTRA, who you can have a conversation with whilst she arranges docking permission or jumps to supercruise without pressing a single button...

Voice Attack is a 3rd party program we had to pay for (£8 on Steam for me), just like the 3rd party 'Dr Kaii's E-D Profiler' to edit HUD/UI colours although that one is free. Or the HCS voice packs which retail at £20 apiece....Nothing to do with FDev at all. The rule is, if you'd like the ability to mod or edit your games like those E-D YouTube vids you like so much, you'll need a PC to do it.

I'll also point out that all the current limitations in the Xbox or PS4 versions of E-D when compared with the PC version are strictly down to Microsoft or Sony, not Frontier.

As for the Xbox being superior in performance to current gen PC's? That's mostly untrue...the Xbox is certainly better optimised to use it's hardware more efficiently...but you go ahead and run E-D in native 4K with all the ultra graphic setting bells and whistles turned on and let me know how that goes for you...that's right...you can't, there aren't any graphic settings in the Xbox version that allow you to do that. You simply have the choice between 4k quality mode or 1080p 1x super-sampled at a limited 60FPS (as far as I'm aware).

My PC runs E-D at around 120 FPS at 4K resolutions on ultra graphic settings, as it does with all current game titles to date.



Basically, we pay through the nose for all this 3rd party stuff and the hardware performance to go with it, my graphics card alone cost nearly twice the price of an Xbox 1X...we certainly don't have our multi-screen 4K displays, eye tracking hardware and HOTAS rigs supplied by FDev either.

All this fancy schmancy stuff isn't at all necessary to enjoy gaming of course, I enjoyed E-D and lots of other games on the Xbox for many years before returning to the dark side...but you get what you pay for when it comes to PC gear and it ain't cheap.

It's not an ideal platform for everyone, especially having to drop a fairly substantial cash outlay on something that is used for playing games if you only have 2 or 3 hours a week to sit and play those games or simply grab a few precious minutes when the wife hasn't captured the TV to watch Eastenders.

Fortunately, if you spend a great deal of your free time in front of it like I do... all this fancy gear can be used for other games outside of E-D...but you'll more than likely also get relegated to the 'Harry Potter' cupboard under the stairs to play with it all [rolleyes]

That looks mint Mole!
And here’s me with an Xbox controller in one hand and an iPhone with a cracked screen in the other...

 

[MickyG1982]

My prediction...

There will be two versions of the new Xbox,

(1) An online only version utilising a streaming service not unlike GeForce Now! or the like with cheap hardware & low cost, everything is handled online.
(2) A full fat version - does above plus allows for downloadable games, upgraded graphics etc probably priced about the same as the current XB1X.

 

[iconoclypse]

My prediction...

There will be two versions of the new Xbox,

(1) An online only version utilising a streaming service not unlike GeForce Now! or the like with cheap hardware & low cost, everything is handled online.
(2) A full fat version - does above plus allows for downloadable games, upgraded graphics etc probably priced about the same as the current XB1X.

Phil Spencer already pretty much nixed any potential streaming or DL only console. He seems fairly committed to physical releases for the foreseeable future. Which reflects a change in tone from all the console manufacturers. Anyone remember the PSP Go?

I'd hate to see consoles go down the PC-ish route of regular upgrades, but at least Microsoft's stated commitment to games being playable across the XB 'family' s mildly encouraging. Sony though? They'd have your wallet every other week with no thought even for the player satisfaction consequences (see also Fortnite account debacle )

Back to OP... You're not playing ED Lite. How about thankfulness something as complex and 'un-console' as ED is available outside PC at all. Just a thought.

 

[Lori Jameson]

As has been already said...all those functions you imagine us PC players have supplied free by FDev just for E-D...aren't really anything of the sort. Voice attack is voice control software for everything you can run on a PC with a keyboard. Simply mapping a keypress to a spoken command like saying "Boost" sends the 'press the B key' to the game...or whatever you want it to. We also have fancy HCS voice packs for Voice Attack that replace the vanilla Verity and Victor ships computer voices with the likes of ASTRA, who you can have a conversation with whilst she arranges docking permission or jumps to supercruise without pressing a single button...

Voice Attack is a 3rd party program we had to pay for (£8 on Steam for me), just like the 3rd party 'Dr Kaii's E-D Profiler' to edit HUD/UI colours although that one is free. Or the HCS voice packs which retail at £20 apiece....Nothing to do with FDev at all. The rule is, if you'd like the ability to mod or edit your games like those E-D YouTube vids you like so much, you'll need a PC to do it.

I'll also point out that all the current limitations in the Xbox or PS4 versions of E-D when compared with the PC version are strictly down to Microsoft or Sony, not Frontier.

As for the Xbox being superior in performance to current gen PC's? That's mostly untrue...the Xbox is certainly better optimised to use it's hardware more efficiently...but you go ahead and run E-D in native 4K with all the ultra graphic setting bells and whistles turned on and let me know how that goes for you...that's right...you can't, there aren't any graphic settings in the Xbox version that allow you to do that. You simply have the choice between 4k quality mode or 1080p 1x super-sampled at a limited 60FPS (as far as I'm aware).

My PC runs E-D at around 120 FPS at 4K resolutions on ultra graphic settings, as it does with all current game titles to date.



Basically, we pay through the nose for all this 3rd party stuff and the hardware performance to go with it, my graphics card alone cost nearly twice the price of an Xbox 1X...we certainly don't have our multi-screen 4K displays, eye tracking hardware and HOTAS rigs supplied by FDev either.

All this fancy schmancy stuff isn't at all necessary to enjoy gaming of course, I enjoyed E-D and lots of other games on the Xbox for many years before returning to the dark side...but you get what you pay for when it comes to PC gear and it ain't cheap.

It's not an ideal platform for everyone, especially having to drop a fairly substantial cash outlay on something that is used for playing games if you only have 2 or 3 hours a week to sit and play those games or simply grab a few precious minutes when the wife hasn't captured the TV to watch Eastenders.

Fortunately, if you spend a great deal of your free time in front of it like I do... all this fancy gear can be used for other games outside of E-D...but you'll more than likely also get relegated to the 'Harry Potter' cupboard under the stairs to play with it all [rolleyes]

Nice Rig! I used to have on like that... I miss it.

But yeah, OP? Xbox ED is absolutely the 'full fat' game minus VR as MS has yet to release a VR headset (here's hoping Project Scarlet will have VR!).

 

[Jon flint]

My PC runs E-D at around 120 FPS at 4K resolutions on ultra graphic settings, as it does with all current game titles to date.

Sweet Jesus, 120fps/ultra on all current games.. what GPU(s) you running with?? There's games out there where I struggle to hit 60 @1080p/ultra with a measly 8700k(5.2ghz) and 1080ti. I can only assume you're on twin TitanVs or something crazy

 

[dreampage]

I've seen some discussion online about the possibility of "next gen" consoles having upgradable video cards. To me, that would be the death of the console.

CMDR Ex

No need to panic, there won't be such a thing. Consoles don't work that way. It's not like a video card, a graphics card and some memory units put together in a modular form. Consoles are extremely tightly designed in order to squeeze out all possible performance from their specs. The Xbox One X consoles are even unique because every single motherboard is fine-tuned for their exact SoC to waste as little energy as possible. Consoles are deliberately designed like this and their concept would simply not work with exchangeable parts. So you shouldn't really believe those discussions.

 

[dreampage]

My prediction...

There will be two versions of the new Xbox,

(1) An online only version utilising a streaming service not unlike GeForce Now! or the like with cheap hardware & low cost, everything is handled online.
(2) A full fat version - does above plus allows for downloadable games, upgraded graphics etc probably priced about the same as the current XB1X.

There won't be a streaming-only Xbox console. What Spencer announced at E3 was a service that could eventually stream games to any device. Said service will most certainly not be ready for primetime when the new Xbox console lands in 2020. It will be something rolled out later but the consoles themselves will remain as they currently are, capable of accepting discs. There might be two configurations, though, from the start, just like with the S and the X at the moment, a more affordable ($399) next-gen console and a truly high-end machine that will obviously be more expensive. However, because of compatibility requirements I don't think the difference will be that big. Certainly not as big as between the S and the X as they have been separated by 4 years of development. 4K resolution will be a standard in the next generation and judging from Spencer's comments 60 fps will be an absolute priority for most games as well. And this will apply to all next-gen Xbox consoles, if there will be more than one at all.

 

[Mole HD]

Sweet Jesus, 120fps/ultra on all current games.. what GPU(s) you running with?? There's games out there where I struggle to hit 60 @1080p/ultra with a measly 8700k(5.2ghz) and 1080ti. I can only assume you're on twin TitanVs or something crazy

I've got the twin 1080 ti's but with a modest i7-7700k slightly over clocked ...the second ti is hardly used TBH since I prefer running in HDR 1080p with super sampling rather than 4K since on my monitors, 4K doesn't make that much of a difference.

Even with the single 1080ti...I've certainly had surplus of 75FPS at HDR resolutions with everything...Far Cry 5, AC Origins etc... E-D I usually set the limit to 120 FPS.

This screenie was at 1080p HDR super-sampled 2X on the single ti, usual bells and whistles settings in game with all ultra settings...FPS counter in the top left corner.

The only thing that made my PC run like a 486 is Star Citizen...not really a game of course, but it certainly runs like carp even from my SSD drive [rolleyes]