Recent rumblings have given us reason to believe that Sony’s PS4 launch isn’t going to be as polished as it hoped. However, a new source makes it appear that Microsoft is in much more dire straights.
Trusted source Pete Dodd, also known as famousmortimer on NeoGaf, has a new post on his blog where he claims that the Xbox One’s operating system is in serious trouble. An unnamed Xbox developer he has spoken to has gone as far as to say the current state of the Xbox One OS and Xbox Live is a “****ing mess” that isn’t near ready for a November 22nd debut. Apparently, core online functionalities aren’t working, things fundamentally critical to the Xbox experience such as friend requests, game invites, and party creation.
He goes on to explain that this is due in-part to the new Xbox One environment being “written by a group of people who do not play games”. This oversight has now cost Microsoft thousands of man hours and invaluable time.
This wouldn’t come as too much surprise after the Xbox One DRM was removed. Engineers put a lot of work into designing that infrastructure only to have to spend time finding a way to make the console work without it.
We haven’t seen a proper live demonstration of the Xbox One UI and there’s less than a month to go until launch. What we have seen are pre-staged interactions that are far from genuine. Even journalism veteran Jeff Gerstmann has found these rumors unsurprising, stating that Microsoft “haven’t exactly been out there showing it off in live environments”.
This doesn’t mean the Xbox One won’t come out on November 22nd. What it does mean is Microsoft could have a lot more to deal with than the floods of gamers angry that the Xbox One isn’t as powerful as the PS4 or that Microsoft requires the purchase of a Kinect with its new console. As if those walls of burden weren’t enough.
If this rumor is true, you can bet that Microsoft’s engineers are working overtime to make sure things are settled before the next-gen battle begins next month. Stay tuned for a comment by Microsoft on the matter.
