xbox one Summary from I am an Xbox One dev. Ask me almost anything.

[BajiRav]

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/comments/1i71s5/i_am_an_xbox_one_dev_ask_me_almost_anything/

 

I recommend reading the original thread as I am quoting here only things that caught my eye. The poster is obviously anonymous but is confirmed by reddit mods.

 

It was for full games. Can't comment too much on this but its purpose was to eliminate the need to ever have to physically hand someone a game that you bought to share with them.

Marc Whitten once told me that at E3, he fully knew Sony kicked our butts and wasn't sure how to deal with people on the demo floor. What he saw repeatedly was after people sat down and played with the Xbox One, the Kinect, the voice controls, the hand gestures, the UI, they had sparks in their eyes. This why we still believe we have the better product.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I don't know what price point the Xbox One would be at without the Kinect, but it would be much less than 399.

I see it not as a market that no longer exists, but one that haven't been explored due to technological limitations.

 

It was quite moot. One of our execs had mentioned a Sony dev came up to him at E3 and told him you won the games, we won the gamers.

 

 

I code apps for the Xbox One like I code for win8 apps.

 

Don't know, no official word within the company.

 

A lot of this information, we don't hear about it until they are announced to the public.

Snapping is only available to certain apps such as IE, Skype, the game DVR upload tool, etc. Game titles cannot be snapped. I have not tried TV input but I did hook up a PC to the Xbox and watched netflix while I skyped someone.

 

Netflix on the PC with skype(X1) snapped.

 

 

Can't comment on the rumor.

The facts are on paper, the PS4 has better specs and the most you can debate is by how much. What I can tell you is I have played Forza, Killer instinct, and Ryse on the Xbox One. They look as good as the games I play on a high end PC. Ryse reminded me of darksiders II.

The goal with having a Kinect ship with every Xbox is to guarantee to game developers if they implement Kinect features into their games, everyone who has an Xbox will be able to experience it. I often see people dismiss the Kinect instantly because they haven't seen it work like I have. It is an integral part of the Xbox One experience.

 

The number of features on the Xbox One that uses the Kinect is almost too many to count. I can't imagine using the console without it. To me, I see two ways to deal with this.

1) Not require the Kinect to be always plugged in and have all these features turned off by default.

2) Enable these features by default and turn them off if people choose to turn off the Kinect.

The first choice would undermine our guarantee to game developers.

 

Almost inaudible. I run three at a time and they are drowned out by the fans in the desktops.

[BajiRav]

I don't have any measured data to give you. But if I'm looking at my PC screen and I tell a console about 5 feet behind me to "Xbox On", I can't tell if it turned on or not unless turn around and I look at it.

 

My purpose here is not to reveal technical information but to show you that us devs are consumers too. Some of the policies we too only heard the day of the reveal or at E3. We too, ponder about their pros and cons. I can tell you we have heated discussions on our policies all the time internally. Engineering practices have taught us there are always trade offs. We lay out all the benefits of different policies and figure out what we have to give up in order to obtain those benefits.

The positive comments we read make us happy. The negatives give us the impression that we are evil and the Xbox One might as well be the Troll box. I have confidence in our management that all their decisions are always well debated before they come to a plan of action.

 

This is one of those things they don't tell us until everyone else knows. But I have heard a wired headset will be included.

[GotBored]

The majority of the masses care only about the console, except that the success of the Kinect carries much more weight to us. The sensor costs almost as much as the console to make.

 

The goal with having a Kinect ship with every Xbox is to guarantee to game developers if they implement Kinect features into their games, everyone who has an Xbox will be able to experience it. I often see people dismiss the Kinect instantly because they haven't seen it work like I have. It is an integral part of the Xbox One experience.

[trooper11]

Some very interesting points brought up, thanks for sharing. This kind of stuff is very much needed.

[Motoko.]

I love the wired headsets that came with the 360 glad we'll be getting them with the one.

[Aergan]

Interesting stuff.

 

I love the wired headsets that came with the 360 glad we'll be getting them with the one.

 

I found they work ok with the original controllers but terrible with the new transforming ones (2.5mm port doesn't fit tightly anymore) which seem to have been dumbed down to requiring a chat pad being plugged in to avoid static when the wire moves.

[trooper11]

Well if MS does include a wired headset, then that will easily outclass Sony's pack in headset at least for me. Ear buds just can't compare to the standard style to me.

[GotBored]

Well if MS does include a wired headset, then that will easily outclass Sony's pack in headset at least for me. Ear buds just can't compare to the standard style to me.

 

To be honest both are terrible, I'd say the PS4's are cheaper looking though.

 

I'd be reluctant to use either and would just buy a pair of Turtle Beach headphones anyway, but the PS4 has a audio jack in the controller which is handy if you play from further away.

But for 5.1 audio or 7.1 you need a USB connection anyway and a lot of headsets are going wireless, so the benefit isn't that great.

[IceBreakerG]

To be honest both are terrible, I'd say the PS4's are cheaper looking though.

 

I'd be reluctant to use either and would just buy a pair of Turtle Beach headphones anyway, but the PS4 has a audio jack in the controller which is handy if you play from further away.

But for 5.1 audio or 7.1 you need a USB connection anyway and a lot of headsets are going wireless, so the benefit isn't that great.

 

I just finished up doing an awesome 7.1 surround sound install in my family room last month, so including a headset would be great for me (unless the wireless 360 headset works, in which case I'd just use that).  I'd hate to spend this much money on an awesome surround sound set up only to mask most of it by using headphones.  I understand not everyone is in the same situation, but it's good to at least have options.  I'm also excited about using kinect for games (like the way they're using it in Dead Rising 3 or Ryse), but I don't want to use it for voice chat "in-game".  I want to hear my friends in my ear, not through my speakers.

[lnmnky]

 I'm also excited about using kinect for games (like the way they're using it in Dead Rising 3 or Ryse), but I don't want to use it for voice chat "in-game".  I want to hear my friends in my ear, not through my speakers.

 

The counter point to that is that having one headphone over one ear will make your nice surround-sound sound worse. I missed the part about the USB though? Why do I need a USB for 5.1 sound? Is this for headset 5.1?

 

If I have a cinema set up, does this affect me? I don't mind hearing my friends in game through the 5.1 speakers, as long as they are clear. Surround sound friends is actually a nice idea, but I don't want my girlfriend hearing what they are shouting whilst they jump on my corpse.

[IceBreakerG]

The counter point to that is that having one headphone over one ear will make your nice surround-sound sound worse. I missed the part about the USB though? Why do I need a USB for 5.1 sound? Is this for headset 5.1?

 

If I have a cinema set up, does this affect me? I don't mind hearing my friends in game through the 5.1 speakers, as long as they are clear. Surround sound friends is actually a nice idea, but I don't want my girlfriend hearing what they are shouting whilst they jump on my corpse.

 

I have the wireless 360 headset that I use, and after a few weeks with the new setup, it sounds pretty much the same with or without it in my ear, so I'm not too concerned about that.  As for why you need USB for 5.1 sound, only stereo can travel across the 3.5mm connection, USB can send multiple audio channels to the headset (higher bandwidth as well), so your headphones can do the simulated surround.