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Xbox One sells 150k units in 48 hours in UK

Microsoft’s Xbox One sold around 150k units in its first 48 hours in the UK, MCV understands.

Chart-Track this morning confirmed that Xbox One doubled the week one UK sales of its predecessor Xbox 360, which was launched worldwide in 2005.

Numbers released the week after Xbox 360’s launch showed that the console sold 70k in the UK in the same period, although MCV has since been informed that the Xbox One number is in fact slightly over double this.

Perhaps more tellingly this means that Xbox One is, according to the same source, now just a few thousand units short of beating the Wii U’s total UK sales accrued since its release a year ago this week.

Stock permitting Xbox One should shoot ahead of Nintendo’s machine this week. And a strong launch for PS4 this Friday could see Nintendo relegated to third place in the UK next-gen battle.

It looks like an improvement. And as long as you aren’t actually using it, it is. The Xbox 360’s sprawling, multi-layered, ad-splattered interface, crammed as best as the engineers could manage into hardware that was never designed to support it, has been replaced by an elegant three-pane view. Home shows recent activity, Pins shows user-created shortcuts, Store holds everything you might want to buy.

Advertising, though present, is less obtrusive. Three blocks on the main screen are apparently targeted based on user activity, and even if they aren’t then it’s hardly the obstruction that it used to be. Not having a social feed in the main interface, like PS4, is a missed opportunity, although to Microsoft’s credit it takes only a single button press to launch the quick-loading, Facebook-like activity feed. It’s when you try and do anything from here that problems arise.

Mindful of its prior issues updating the functionality of Xbox 360, Microsoft has elected to make almost every system function an app. This might make more sense from a development point of view, enabling more rapid updates – and for Microsoft’s sake, let’s hope so – but Xbox One’s debut user experience is stuttering, clunky, and a serious challenge to Xbox Live’s long-held status as the premier console service. Bluntly, they take too long to load, don’t offer the functionality that Xbox Live was built on, and are, inexplicably, badly handled by the OS.

The most perfect example of Microsoft ruining its prior work is Achievements, and the number of hoops you have to jump through to view them. Rather than the quick tap of yore, you have to spend several seconds holding the button down. This, incredibly, then reboots the Achievement app – even if it’s already running – in order to display some challenges, which you have to skip past to view an Achievement list built not around charmingly crafted icons but a slew of previously-released screenshots, which take several seconds to appear and then have to be selected to show what you did to unlock them.

By the time you’ve discovered what you unlocked, you’ve stopped caring. That’s assuming you even knew it happened in the first place, as the app is online-only and offline play silently adds your tally to a register you have to go online to view. Thus, what was once a strength of the platform is either blocked entirely or hidden many layers deep, an ignominy previously reserved for Xbox Live Indie Games.

The party system, another former highlight, is similarly broken. It now insists on inviting every member to each game launched. The Friends list, which also grinds ponderously to life where previously it was available instantly from the Guide menu, doesn’t show if people are in parties, gives no option to join them and no longer shows the biographical detail that enabled you to identify people. It not only fails to match Sony’s smart Real Name feature but actually takes a step backwards from its implementation on 360.

This shambling, zomboid clunkiness permeates the entire interface. You have to go into the Games & Apps list to view downloads. Missed game invitations aren’t stored, but lost forever. You can’t view or manage storage, a spectacularly poor decision given that the 500GB hard drive will be approaching capacity by March. The overall sense is of a design handed over to the team behind the similarly unloved Windows 8 interface, rather than anybody who has used an Xbox 360 regularly or had any familiarity with its strengths.

There are no core-friendly abbreviations, no way to cut through all this partially-featured, tablet-based guff and get to the features you want. Press the nexus and you’re just returned instantly to the dashboard. The only “shortcut” is to use Kinect, an improved but still fundamentally unreliable input that’s incapable of solving the problems that the interface should never have had in the first place. The only functional, speedy part of the whole affair is the comprehensive and well-explained Settings menu which, not coincidentally, is primarily text-based and can be accessed at almost any point from the Menu button. Not unlike the old Guide menu, in fact.

The most bewildering thing is that Microsoft has deliberately restricted the machine’s gaming ability to do all of this, locking off a chunk of system resources for apps and OS and then singularly failing to exploit it.

It can’t even offer feature parity with Sony. Incredibly, having signed an exclusivity deal with Twitch, it then failed to have the service ready at launch, instantly preventing people from sharing their game footage with the world. This could, in time, prove to be the most significant failure of the Xbox One launch; the removal of a marketing tool that even Microsoft’s millions will struggle to replace. For all the public mea culpas, the blunders of the initial reveal and the potency of Sony’s E3 riposte lasted all the way to launch, and those early adopters – the CoD, ACIV and FIFA players – are heading to PS4.

Beyond Sony’s superior early sales figures, you can see it play out on social media as people tentatively sign up to PSN for the first time, after years of Xbox Live. Once there, they start sharing: screenshots and Twitch footage is how games and platforms are marketed in this new generation, and Microsoft has launched with no easy way to do either.

In fairness, the tools it has provided are superior to Sony’s: Upload Studio, developed at Microsoft’s Soho Studio, is a smart, user-friendly piece of software and its YouTube-style featureset will welcome a thriving on-console community that could engage gamers far more than Major Nelson could hope to. The Skydrive implementation, added to the launch at the last minute, opens the door to YouTube sharing – but it’s not as simple as it should be, and requires yet another app. When Microsoft should be making it easy for people to show off the console’s strengths – the superior games lineup, the superior editing tools, even the superior picture quality of Kinect 2.0 – it has made it hard.

There are two bright spots in Xbox One’s future. The first, as previously mentioned, is that all of these problems can, hypothetically, be fixed by app updates rather than a full-scale interface reboot. Given the strident complaints around the party system in particular, we would hope it does so sooner rather than later. The second is Titanfall.

Respawn’s shooter, still the most impressive next-gen title, arrives in March largely unchallenged by Sony. It’s also multiplayer-only, and it will be preceded by a beta period. In the glory days of 2007, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s beta tempted the hardcore over to Xbox Live, establishing an audience that lasted the lifespan of the console. It’s possible, just, that Titanfall could do the same for Xbox One. But Microsoft has a great many problems to fix first. If it cannot get its house in order, it will attract guests, but not residents, to its new console.

Edge do not like the X1 UI at all.

.@TychoBrahe's post today sums up my feelings on the Xbox One UI. It's a large step back from the 360, not forward. http://www.penny-arcade.com

After a week w/ the Xbox One I can objectively say, everything I want to do that I did on the 360 is either not there, or much harder to do.

Saying the 360 wasn't perfect at launch doesn't really map. The 360 did everything the original Xbox did better, out of the gate.

I can see the potential of the Xbox One UI, but its overly complex home screen and app-ifying everything needs serious revision.

Do I regret getting an Xbox One? No, it's my platform of choice. But from a usability/feature perspective its a Beta. Lot to ask for $500.

Xbox One: Billions of Zombies Killed, Millions of Miles Driven, Enemies Defeated and Combos Created

Designed to be the all-in-one games and entertainment system, Xbox One is delivering on this promise already with people spending over 50 million hours in games and entertainment on Xbox One in the last eleven days. With unprecedented demand, Xbox One is sold out at major retailers, with the Xbox team and retailers working around the clock to re-stock.

“We are humbled and gratified by the overwhelming response from our fans to the launch of Xbox One. Eleven days in we are seeing record breaking sales and are selling every Xbox One we can make. Demand is far exceeding supply in the 13 countries we’ve launched and we are sold out at retailers around the world. We are seeing incredible usage from our engaged fans who have purchased Xbox One with more than 50 million hours spent on Xbox One games and entertainment,” said Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Strategy and Marketing, Xbox.

Xbox One is furthering its position as the most popular online multiplayer community for gamers, who are taking Xbox One games by storm, including:

Over 3 billion zombies killed in “Dead Rising 3”
Over 90 million miles driven in “Forza Motorsport 5” – equal to 3,673 trips around the world
Over 186 million enemies defeated in “Ryse: Son of Rome”
Over 150 million combos in “Killer Instinct”

The team is working hard to meet consumer demand and we are delivering consoles to retailers as fast as possible this holiday season. As more and more people are looking to join the fun, it has become increasingly more challenging to find Xbox One in stores. The community is banding together, sharing tips and tricks to finding an Xbox One – check out the latest tips from Major Nelson here.

So "less than Sony", then.

Since it launched, Xbox One has been flying off store shelves and is sold out at most major retailers. The Xbox team is working hard to meet consumer demand and we are delivering consoles to retailers as fast as possible this holiday season. If you’re hunting for one, you haven’t missed your opportunity. Here are some tips and tricks to finding Xbox One this holiday season – you don’t want to miss out.

-Sign up for email newsletters and alerts from your favorite retailers and follow them on Twitter and Facebook for real-time updates.
-Call your local retailers to find out which day of the week they receive shipments. You can check in each week to see if they have new stock.
-Use retailers’ online stock checkers to find a store with Xbox One in stock near you, although we recommend calling to confirm.
-Check with stores outside of densely populated areas – you may have more luck in smaller locations.

You can also use tracking sites to help. Here are a couple I’ve found:

-XboxOneLocator
-NowInStock

You can also monitor social media – fans have been helping fans find Xbox One and I will be doing the same. Follow me for regular updates of where to find it this holiday.

If a single person drove those 90 million miles in Forza 5 then they would have unlocked almost 75% of all the cars.

The tv advert last nightimade me want one.

I will still get an XB1 but not for a long time I'll wait till it has a large collection of exclusives I want to play & drops in price to around the £150 to £200 mark so at least four to five years off.

MS are very good at software how many times have they updated the 360 dashboard, I am sure the issues with the current XB1 dashboard will be fixed in the next update.

what is wrong with the 360 interface?

It seems crisp and clean and easy to navigate.

what is wrong with the 360 interface?

It seems crisp and clean and easy to navigate.

I have only had it a year or so (I think), I think this is the one my xbox came with, so I am can't comment on previous versions.

It's fucking horrible. It has got worse with every iteration. The blades were clean and simple, the NXE was ok. The rest have been ad-riddled, bloated messes.

I sold my Xbox a while back, so this is from memory, but didn't they move "Games" to be after "music" and "videos" on the main menu a while back? They also hid XBLIGs under several layers of menus.

Nottingham teenager furious after paying £450 for a photo of an XBox One on eBay

By Nottingham Post | Posted: December 05, 2013

By Bryan Henesey

A TEENAGER has been left fuming after mistakenly buying a photo of an in-demand computer console online.

Peter Clatworthy thought he had paid £450 for an XBox One console on eBay, but actually received a picture of one in the post.

The 19-year-old student, of Bilborough, had saved up in order to buy a limited edition Day One version of the console as a surprise Christmas present for his four-year-old son, McKenzie.

He has now contested the purchase with eBay, which has investigated and stated he should get a full refund from the seller.

Mr Clatworthy said: "I've had to make a joke out of it because I was that angry. At least we've now got something to laugh about in the years to come.

"I always buy stuff on eBay and this had never happened before."

Mr Clatworthy made the purchase on November 28, paying £450 plus £8 packaging.

Despite the listing stating it was a photo of an XBox One Day One edition console, Mr Clatworthy said he'd expected to receive the console as it was listed in the video games and consoles category on eBay.

He said: "It said 'photo' and I was in two minds, but I looked at the description and the fact it was in the right category made me think it was genuine.

"I looked at the seller's feedback and there was nothing negative. I bought it there and then because I thought it was a good deal.

"It's obvious now I've been conned out of my money."

Mr Clatworthy received the photo in the post on Monday, saying: "They'd written on the back of it 'thank you for your purchase'. I was fuming."

The XBox One was released in the UK on November 22, with a special Day One edition reserved for those who picked the machine up on its first day of sale.

Since then, there have been reports of people buying empty XBox One packaging via eBay, and paying hundreds of pounds for the privilege.

When the Post searched for 'XBox One Day One edition consoles' on the website yesterday, a number of genuine consoles were up for sale.

There was, however, one lot of 'XBox One Day One edition retail packaging' which received 80 bids and sold for £7,200.

Mr Clatworthy was informed by eBay yesterday that, as he paid via PayPal, he can expect to receive a full refund from the seller, who has until Monday to pay up.

A spokesman for eBay, the online marketplace, said: "We don't allow listings which mislead, and will take action against this seller.

"Customers can shop with confidence on eBay as we guarantee you will get your item or your money back. Mr Clatworthy is covered by the eBay money-back guarantee and we will be contacting him to put things right."

Tessa Coates, Trading Standards Officer at Notts County Council, said: "We are not aware of an eBay scam of this nature.

"However, we would encourage all eBay buyers to pay for their goods using PayPal to give them extra protection.

"PayPal states that if the item doesn't match the seller's description or gets lost in the post then it will give the buyer their money back."

She added: "Our main tips for buying online generally this Christmas is make sure you're getting a good deal, know who you're dealing with and protect your personal and financial information."

"Thank you for your purchase" on the back of the photo makes it superb.

He is 19 and has a 4 year old son? Only in Bilborough, I suppose.

A 4 year old son that needs an Xbone, of course.

Of course he does.

CeX saves Christmas for Nottingham teenager hit by Xbox eBay scam

A TEENAGER stung by an internet scam has finally got his hands on an Xbox One games console, thanks to a business’ generosity.

Peter Clatworthy thought he had paid £450 for one of the in-demand consoles on eBay, but actually received a picture of one from the seller.

Since the Post first highlighted his story on Thursday, it has gone on to gain worldwide attention.

At the height of interest, over one million readers visited the Post’s website – nottinghampost.com – in less than 24 hours.
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In a new twist, high street electronics company CeX was so touched by Mr Clatworthy’s case that bosses have decided to donate an Xbox One to him in time for Christmas.

Staff at CeX’s store in Exchange Walk, Nottingham city centre, presented him with the console on Saturday.

Mr Clatworthy, of Bilborough, said: “I’m just overwhelmed by the reaction to the story.

“All I wanted was a refund. I cannot believe this.”

Student Mr Clatworthy had saved up to buy a limited-edition Xbox One Day One version of the console as a surprise Christmas present for his four-year-old son, McKenzie.

He made the purchase on November 28, paying the asking price of £450 plus £8 packaging.

Despite the listing stating it was a photo of an Xbox One Day One edition console, Mr Clatworthy said he expected to receive the console as it was listed in the video games and consoles category on eBay.

He instead received the photo on December 2, with “thank you for your purchase” written on the back.

The teenager has now received a full refund with the help of eBay, while the seller has been banned from the website.

Of CeX’s generosity, Mr Clatworthy said: “This shows there are some nice, kind people out there and it’s really overwhelming. I can’t thank them enough.

“I’ve had other people contact me to say they have been stung too but not reported it. I don’t think I’ll be shopping online anymore.”

He added: “I think McKenzie is going to be over the moon. this is the thing he said to me that he really wanted.

“I can’t wait to see his face, it’ll be a picture.”

Of the public’s reaction to the story, Mr Clatworthy said: “People are saying I’ve become an internet celebrity, but I want it all to die down now.”

The shop’s assistant manager, David Draycott, handed the console over to Mr Clatworthy.

Mr Draycott, 27, of Mapperley, said: “We as a company are always looking to do a good thing for somebody.

“Hopefully Peter and his son will both be able to enjoy this together.”

He added that there has been high demand for both Xbox One and Playstation 4 consoles since they were both launched last month.(Nov 22 and 29 respectively)

“As soon as any new technology comes out that is hard to get hold of, you are bound to get a scam,” he said.

“My girlfriend had heard about Peter’s story and mentioned it to me. I’d heard of scams before but never something like this.

“Many people are looking to take advantage of people shopping online and trying to get something for Christmas in a hurry.”

Mr Clatworthy previously made headlines in 2007 when, aged 12, he used his judo skills to catch a drink-driver who had crashed into three cars in Ilkeston Road, Radford.

Are you doing something generous this Christmas? Let us know by e-mailing [email protected].

SINCE the Post first published Peter’s story on Thursday(Dec5), more than 1,500,000 visitors to nottinghampost.com have read about his exploits.

They include readers from across the globe who were directed to the Post’s website by around 500 other web domains.

Readers included people linked to the story via Facebook and Google, but users of other niche computer gamer and football websites also gave Peter’s tale a look.

Numbers were also boosted further by the story being ranked among the top entries of news website reddit.com, while US online news website the Huffington Post also carried the story.

As news spread, Peter himself gained over 200 new followers on Twitter with people eager to contact him about it.

He told the Post that among those to contact him were other eBay users who had previously fallen for scams but hadn’t reported it.

I don’t think I’ll be shopping online anymore.

He told the Post that among those to contact him were other eBay users who had previously fallen for scams but hadn’t reported it.

What the hell? Why wouldn't you report it?

So he got his money back and a free Xbone? Bah.

It's all right. He lives in Bilborough - it'll be nicked before Xmas.

Crushing shame at being so fucking stupid?

& then traded into CEX?

“I can’t wait to see his face, it’ll be a picture.”

Xbox One Digital Game Prices Raised

Paul Walker

Microsoft raises prices for Xbox One exclusives, Forza 5, Dead Rising 3 and Ryse: Son of Rome.

Published on Dec 10, 2013

There's been a lot of talk regarding high digital prices of games on the PS4 and the Xbox One, with Sony in particular coming in for criticism for high prices that have since been adjusted.

However, rather than lower their prices, Microsoft has now gone in the opposite direction, with the price of Xbox One exclusives Forza 5, Ryse: Son of Rome and Dead Rising 3 all being raised on the Xbox store.

Forza 5, Ryse and Dead Rising 3 were all previously priced at £44.99, but are now on sale for £49.99.

Digital pricing on console platforms has understandably been criticised by those who question why digital prices should be equal to, or even higher than, retail copies of the same games.

The logic behind Microsoft' £5 price hike for Xbox One exclusives is likely to be lost on those already unhappy with the price of digital game downloads.

Xbox One sells 2 Million Units in 18 Days

Some solid numbers coming out of the global Xbox One launch last month:

2 Million Consoles sold through in 13-markets in the first 18-days
Over 83 million hours in games, TV, and apps on Xbox One since the system launched
39 million Xbox One achievements unlocked
595 million total Gamerscore achieved on Xbox One
At peak demand, customers were ordering the Xbox One console at over 1000 units per minute on Amazon.com

"Thank you for your purchase" on the back of the photo makes it superb.

There was another EBay sale where the guy was selling the download code to FIFA 14, he couldn’t have made it clearer what he was selling, it was all in big bold font etc, the winning bid was £580!

Xbox One's 24 Hour Check-In DRM Returns During Killer Instinct Tournament

Out of the blue moon one of the most surprising things happened: the Xbox One may have done a 180 on its 180 and started acting like its original self. By that, I mean that the console – during a live tournament that was being broadcast on Twitch – seemed to stop in the middle of the game to ensure that those using the console were the proper owners of the content.

The story was originally captured by satirist site FGCNN, where they were watching the stream and claim they noticed that right during the middle of the bout, the game kicked the users out and asked them to verify the content by checking in online. Don't believe them? Of course you don't. It's a darn good thing we have video footage below, courtesy of Twitch user NYCFurby.

FGCNN decided to give the Xbox One the benefit of the doubt regarding the DRM incident and did their due diligence by contacting Microsoft about the issue before running the story but they say they've received no response.

Now it's easy to say that FGCNN isn't a big name site and Microsoft had no reason to respond to a potentially damaging story, but what happens when Kotaku gets a hold of it? Or Eurogamer? Or Game Informer? I doubt making a shrewd remark will go over well when the gaming community.

Worse yet it appears that the DRM check-in, as showcased in the video above, completely kicked the users out of the game. So before saving anything, logging anything or issuing a warning, the check-in just completely exited the user with complete and total disregard to the user activity or the content.

If you think the incident was isolated, maybe not.

On the Test Your Might forum, one user responds to the incident, noting that it wasn't isolated and has occurred a couple of times during their experience with Killer Instinct tournaments...



Originally, a lot of gamers were peeved about the inclusion of a 24-hour check-in when Microsoft announced the policies back during the Xbox One's reveal. To this very day we've yet to receive an answer from Microsoft as to why they initially felt the need to include such stringent DRM measures, especially considering that even with the old policies the Family Share Plan was never going to be available at launch.

Essentially this seems an inconvenience for inconvenience's sake. Hackers, modders and crackers will bypass the DRM eventually since that's just what they do.

If what's going on in this video is for real, then this could seriously hamper Killer Instinct's presence at FGC tournaments and, if the issue isn't properly resolved, could prevent the game from making a showing at the 2014 EVO tournament. There's no way tournament organizers will allow for a game where it could cut out during the middle of an intense semi-finals match.


Update: Some people are claiming this is the same issue and DRM as the Xbox 360 and PS3, however, this apparent disconnection occurred during actual gameplay instead of before the game started, which is where most DRM prompts take place (i.e., the Xbox 360 and PS3 don't kick you out of the middle of a game you're playing offline). In addition to this, it happened after all parties were seemingly logged in.

As for anyone who thinks that there were shenanigans involved or that the users were switching accounts mid-match, think again. You can watch the whole match, including the incident involving the Xbox One's supposed DRM flag in the eight minute clip below, courtesy of the original streamer and FGC tournament organizer, Arturo Sanchez.