Be Excellent To Each Other

Because Internet Explorer has access to the Office Web Apps, pair that with a Wi-Fi keyboard and mouse and you have the means to edit documents, when necessary, even if you aren't near your PC.

Flagship Xbox One launch title Forza Motorsport 5 – which will make extensive use of the console’s cloud capabilities and always-online functionality – will also be playable offline now that Microsoft has changed its policies. However, it will require a one-time connection to Xbox Live before you can play.

In an interview with IGN, Dan Greenawalt, the studio head at Forza developer Turn 10 Studios, clarified how their day-one racing game will work if your Xbox One isn’t connected to Xbox Live.

“So when you first boot up the game, we’re going to ask you to log in,” he explained. “And when you log in you’re going to get the Drivatars and you’re also going to get a whole bunch of content: tracks and cars. Our production schedule is such that we are putting them in as late as possible and that means making them free as downloadable content on Day One.

“[But] that is required content to play the game. We basically have designed the game to work with all that content no matter how late is coming in, in order to make the biggest game possible.”

In other words, because games have to be submitted to Microsoft testing, certified, and then pressed onto discs and shipped, Forza 5 has to be done much, much sooner than November. By requiring part of the game as a download on launch day, it gives Turn 10 extra time to finish everything. And so what you get on the disc you buy at the store won’t be the entire game. You’ll need to download the rest of it from Xbox Live (which should be possible to occur as you play, Greenawalt clarified).

After that, Greenawalt said, Forza 5 is like your refrigerator. “You have to fill it up with food the first time,” he explained. “And from then on, you connect whenever you want when you want to update your food. The Drivatars are as fresh as they are. It’s not like they’re going to degrade, but when you’re looking for new stuff – fresh stuff…it’s going to keep evolving. That’s the nature of this Drivatar system.”

Drivatar is Forza 5’s attempt at next-generation AI in that there is no pre-programmed artificial intelligence. Instead, a ghost version of yourself races on your behalf, using your repeated behavior and tendencies to mimic how you’d race if you were actually playing. Drivatars of random gamers all over the world are what you race against in your single-player campaign.

To that end, Greenawalt told us, “You do have to connect the game in order to get the latest Drivatars, because we need as many people training them as possible. And so rather than having just a launch-day set that was created by us, every day that people race is going to make the Drivatar set that much more accurate, that much more diverse, that much more interesting.

“All of the cloud and online features make the game far, far better,” Greenawalt summed up. “In fact I’d even say revolutionary. The things we’re doing with opponents and Drivatar are not something that anyone can envision unless you’ve played it. But we’re trying to get as much of that into the unconnected, offline mode as well.

“We’re not making a launch game. We’re making Forza 5, at launch.”

And from then on, you connect whenever you want when you want to update your food.

Talk yesterday about MS doing a higher-spec model within a year, too. If that's true it'll kill initial sales.

Talk yesterday about MS doing a higher-spec model within a year, too. If that's true it'll kill initial sales.

I guess there was the ram expansion pack for the N64, but I don't think people would be happy with something like that so early on, and even then that was an optional upgrade, not just two different configurations of the same console.

Isn't one of the massive benefits of developing for consoles rather than PCs, that the hardware doesn't fucking change at all during its lifecycle though?

Talk yesterday about MS doing a higher-spec model within a year, too. If that's true it'll kill initial sales.

so there'll be two Xbox Ones?

I had a great chat with Marc Whitten about self publishing and Xbox One. I’ve got him scheduled to come on the podcast next week update us on Xbox One, but in the meantime he wanted me to share some great news with you about the upcoming Xbox One Self Publishing program that we’ve been working on for some time.

Marc had this to say:

Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox LIVE. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox LIVE. We’ll have more details on the program and the timeline at Gamescom in August.

So….now you know one of the reasons I am looking forward to GamesCom.

Not all indies are completely enthralled by Microsoft's efforts. Jennifer Schneidereit of Nyamyam Games (Tengami), a former Microsoft employee herself, isn't entirely ready to forget the publisher's previous antipathy towards the indie community. "Up until now Microsoft have displayed a mentality that excludes independent developers," she said. "This makes it difficult for me to trust their motives for reversing their stance now. From my time at Microsoft, I know that company goals and direction change frequently. These new plans might just be a last minute band-aid and we'll end up with a similar situation to Xbox Live Indie Games, where Microsoft provides a system, but doesn't give it the support it needs to be successful."

While Schneidereit is supportive of Microsoft's latest move, she points out that they have some catching up to do. "Nintendo and Sony are already doing a fantastic job at building relationships with independent developers and showing us how we fit into their strategies long-term," she added. "Microsoft will have to do a lot more to gain my trust than just changing their self-publishing policy."

UPDATE #2: After the dust has settled on Microsoft's latest policy change, Retro City Rampage developer Brian Provinciano has offered hints that all may not be quite as good as it seems.

"This is yet another example of them changing policy, but it sounding better than it is when the whole story is revealed," Provinciano told Engadget. "Make no mistake; while this is a great thing, it's again not the equivalent to what other platforms offer."

"On PS4, for example, developers can tap right into the system; use every bit of RAM and all of its power. Indies have access to everything that the AAA studios do, from platform support to development and release. The indication on Xbox One is that it's essentially XBLIG 2.0. Instead of XNA, it's Windows 8. Windows 8, which is already struggling to gain developer interest, will gain a boost from developers wishing to target the console. However, it won't be as full-fledged as published games on the system."

Phil Spencer specifically denies that indie devs won't be able to access the whole machine.

"Doesnt want to limit"

"Goals is to allow devs access to full pool of resources available, no indie RAM limit."

Matchmaking on Xbox One with Smart Match

At E3 we shared details on how Smart Match that is coming to Xbox One. I thought you’d like to hear more about Xbox One’s Smart Match how it will will work:

Smart Match on Xbox One is matchmaking evolved. It’s smarter, faster and optimized to help you play with exactly the people you want, when you want. The advanced party system goes way beyond the beacons of Xbox 360, which was limited to people you already knew. Helping you discover and connect easily with players is now central to the experience. In addition, for the first time ever, games will be able to share player stats with Xbox Live and each other; to learn, evolve, and provide gamers with the best possible matchmaking available. The results? Titles have the ability to match you with other players based on reputation (which we will be talking more about in a post tomorrow), skill, language, age, and even your specific gameplay style. You won’t find yourself in way over your head but you’ll always have a good challenge.

With Smart Match, you can do whatever you want while Xbox One finds your perfect match. This means that less popular multiplayer modes and maps that have traditionally taken a long time to find players suddenly become playable. Because Snap mode is a core feature of Xbox One that lets you do two things at once, you no longer have to wait in lobbies while Xbox Live is matchmaking for you. One friend can even set up matches for your whole party. While Xbox Live is matchmaking, you’re untethered and free to do what you want, like watch TV or check out your favorite website or apps while waiting for your next game. If you’re playing digital games, you can even play one game while Smart Match prepares a second. This freedom to break out of waiting in lobbies and do whatever you want is what separates Xbox One from systems that don’t have a way to instantly switch between tasks.

After you or a party member inputs the criteria for your perfect game, do something more fun than waiting; it’s up to you. Play another game. Find some new DLC. Jump on Reddit. Update your movie queue. Play some music. Skype with your friends. Like. Comment. Retweet. Take yourself as many touch points away from the matchmaking process as you can and you still don’t need to worry about finding your way back. Once Xbox One is done finding your perfect match, it will prompt you with a simple toast—no matter where you are or what you’re doing—so you can jump straight into playing

One of the most amazing things about working at Xbox Live is getting to see how fiercely loyal you – our members – are. We find that overwhelming majority of Xbox Live members are devoted to keeping Xbox Live a fair and fun place to play your games and experience entertainment. However, it’s no secret that we sometimes come across members who don’t necessarily play by the rules and can ruin the fun for everyone else. Last month at E3 we shared some of the exciting enhancements like Smart Match and Reputation that our teams at Xbox have been working on to help improve the community experience on Xbox Live.

Today, we are excited to announce the beta of an exciting new community feature tentatively called Xbox Enforcement United. Members like you will be able to get involved to help ensure that Xbox Live remains a fun, fair and safer place for everyone.

For those unfamiliar with our Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement Team, we are a dedicated team of agents who work closely with you, the community, to identify and resolve issues that negatively impact your experience on Xbox Live. We process every complaint we receive – thousands a day – and many of them require relatively simple judgment calls like whether a Gamertag or profile content abides by the Xbox Live Code of Conduct. That’s where the Enforcement United beta program comes in. We love that our community is smart and engaged, and we want to harness that talent to give you a sense of ownership on the service.

Members who join the Enforcement United beta will participate by providing their opinions on whether particular content, initially Gamertags, violate the Xbox Live Code of Conduct. These decisions from participants feed into an algorithm our team developed. That algorithm takes several factors into account like how many participants believe there had been a violation and how reliably those individual members’ historical decisions aligned with the general consensus. The system can then determine whether or not to apply an enforcement action like requiring a Gamertag change, or if the complaint should be escalated for one of our enforcers to review more closely.

We have built in a series of carefully designed controls so no individual participant can wield unchecked power over another. The system will also continually calibrate itself to understand how reliable the data is and the sources it comes from.

Why involve the community in these decisions? We’ve heard your feedback that you want ways to positively shape your Xbox Live experience and we feel this is a great way for you to get involved. Also launching today is Xbox Community Level, a new site where Xbox Live members can earn rewards and recognition for contributing to the Xbox Live community through programs like the Enforcement United beta and the long-standing Xbox Live Ambassadors. The program will also allow our team of enforcers to devote more time not only to complaints that require more experience and knowledge, but also time to invest in future enhancements that will continue to improve Xbox Live.

Current Xbox Live Ambassadors who meet qualifying criteria can register now to get involved in the Enforcement United beta. We plan to make the program available to broader Xbox Live members when it officially launches in the coming months.

We look forward to your continued feedback about how we’re helping make the Xbox Live community the best place to enjoy your games and entertainment with others and hope you’ll join us by getting involved.

The sort of people who will want to do this job are exactly the sort of people who shouldn't be doing this job.

A bit like politicians.

And juries.

And programmers.

And programmers.

Hey! Oh, you mean the guy sitting next to me, right?

Yeah, he said "programmers"

Game DVR, the Xbox One’s system for recording and uploading footage from users’ games will be restricted to Xbox Live Gold members.

This comes from an Xbox Live features page on Xbox.com, which lists features like SmartMatch, NFL on Xbox, Xbox One’s TV Guide feature and, crucially, its Game DVR feature as Xbox live Gold specific features.

We contacted Microsoft to get confirmation that Game DVR features would indeed be limited to Xbox Live Gold members. Microsoft responded, saying “I can confirm that Game DVR features will be available to Xbox Live Gold members only.”

Microsoft’s Game DVR allows Gold members to record up to 5 minutes of in-game footage for editing and upload to the Xbox live service. Players can also save the last 30 seconds of a game instantly during times when pausing the game may not be possible, such as during an online multiplayer match.

Sony’s Share feature for PlayStation 4 allows users to record and upload up to 15 minutes of footage and is not restricted to PlayStation Plus users.

Microsoft’s Xbox One will release this November at a price of £429/€499.

Remember weeks back when the Xbox One didn't come with a headset, and then there was a rumour it did, but then Microsoft said that was an untrue rumour? Xbox 180.

Also, they're trying to make as much money as possible. That's something else they're good at.

Gamers to pay for key Xbox One features

Key features of Microsoft's Xbox One console, which is expected to go on sale in November, will only be available with an annual subscription.

The requirement covers recording and sharing of gameplay videos, making Skype video calls and using a service that finds gaming opponents.

An Xbox Live Gold account that currently costs $60 (£40) will be needed for all these features.

Sony PlayStation 4 owners will also have to pay for some online services.

Microsoft revealed the requirement in an update to webpages detailing the Xbox One's features.

The webpage shows that, as with the current Xbox 360, a Live Gold account is needed if owners want to use their new console for online multiplayer gaming, watch Netflix or similar streaming services and to browse the web via their TV.

In addition, on the Xbox One the annual subscription will let players share videos with friends. The console records a rolling sample of a player's previous five minutes gameplay to make it easier to share key moments.

The payment will also let owners chat to friends via video on Skype and use the OneGuide and SmartMatch services.

OneGuide analyses what Xbox One owners usually watch and recommends TV shows and YouTube content to match. The SmartMatch service links players with other gamers of a similar ability to ensure they are not outclassed in multiplayer matches.

In June, Sony revealed a change to its previous policy which gave all owners of its PlayStation 3 console access to online multiplayer games. With the PlayStation 4, owners will have to pay $50 (£32) a year for a PlayStation Plus account to do the same.