Games Thirst – Amazing Life
To say it’s been a rough time for Microsoft and its new console, Xbox One, would be an understatement. The company has had to do 180s, giveaway free games, and twist truths just to save face in light of the DRM fiasco. But now, even bigger problems have emerged. Problems with the Xbox One’s User Interface and, more troubling, the console’s OS.
Reputable developer sources have told Kotaku that “the Xbox One software development kit—the set of tools that development studios use to facilitate game creation—has been stumbling recently.” And yesterday two other developer sources told the site that “Microsoft found a number of bugs in one of the most recent versions of the SDK.”
Earlier today, Famousmortimer, who’s real name is Pete Dodd — the guy who started the #NOPS4DRM campaign, said that two developers contacted him to reveal that the Xbox One operating system is plagued by bugs that affect applications like party grouping on Xbox Live. Mr. Dodd is well respected on NeoGAF, the popular games forum he frequents, where a lot of his rumors have turned out to be true, the latest being when he predicted two days before Sony announced that Driveclub would be delayed.
One source told Kotaku that as of at least a few weeks ago, Xbox One SDKs were very buggy. Another source said some developers who have already submitted their games to Microsoft for certification have had to resubmit those games with a more recent version of the SDK. “It’s going to be a fun few weeks in Microsoft QA,” one developer source said.
Microsoft has issued responses but none of them directly deal with the rumored problems. One of the firm’s top executive, Phil Spencer, said, “Games are in certification now and we are playing SP & MP nightly,” he wrote. “Anyone can post ‘stuff’ to the web.”
Microsoft spokesman Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb added: “As far as Xbox One, I’ve been testing the OS at home it’s been great.”
To be fair, even PS4 has seen its share of issues, although not as troubling as what Microsoft is experiencing with the Xbox One. For example, there will be a major PS4 firmware update on day one that will implement a lot of the boasted PS4 features, hinting that Sony itself has been working overtime to get ready for the launch of its new console.
So expect things to get all the more heated as we head to November 15th and 22nd, when the PS4 and Xbox One will launch in the U.S., respectively.
Europe sees PS4 on November 29th, one week later than Xbox One.
