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So the Xbox One was revealed yesterday and the consensus from a huge numbers of gamers, is that they hate it. While Sony isn't doing everything right with its next-gen system, it does seem to have done one thing: listen to consumers and developers. But Microsoft, it just seems completely out of touch. If it's listened to anyone, it's game publishers.
Looking at the big Xbox One reveal, you'd be forgiven for thinking Microsoft was launching a new television service or its own TV hardware (which arguably it is) for the amount of times its spokespersons mentioned “TV” or “Television.” This raises eyebrows and red flags for many people, for several reasons: 1: The majority of people watching the reveal are gamers, they're far more interested in gaming than TV watching. 2: TV is a dying medium. Streaming and on-demand services, recorded shows to skip adverts; these are the futures of media viewing, not advert interspersed programming. 3: People can already switch between TV and gaming in an instant if they want, it's called an input select. My TV is connected to my aerial socket, my console(s) to the other AV inputs. I hit one button on the TV remote to jump between them. Explain to me how exactly the Xbox One is going to do anything outstandingly different than that?
If ever there was a time to bring back the wooden console, it's now. Source: Kotaku
But that's just one of several “features” of the new system that makes it sound like Microsoft hasn't quizzed anyone about what they want in a new games console. There's the privacy concerns. Sure if perhaps a few years ago when Facebook was new and fresh and everyone was sharing everything you could get away with saying there would be a microphone equipped camera that was always on and connected to the internet in your living room; people might have accepted that, but now? New waves of privacy advocates are spreading, with services like Kim Dotcom's Mega leading the way. A lot of people, especially more educated parents, don't want their kids to have a camera on them all day that could potentially be hacked. We know big companies get hacked and so do consoles, it happens all the time.
Then there's the issue of used games requiring a fee in order to be activated. Has Microsoft not listened to any of the raging that's been going on in the past year in the lead up to this reveal? Every time a rumour appeared that suggested the next Xbox wouldn't support used games, people went into a frenzy. People like to buy used games and people like to share games among friends, or take a console to a mate's house or perhaps give games to charity shops or send them as care packages to soldiers. None of that is doable now unless your pal logs in on your machine first or you're willing to pay a fee on top of the game's price. Microsoft knows all this stuff and it's actively choosing to ignore it.
What about no backwards compatibility? Admittedly Sony is making this mistake too, but with the recent surge in retro gaming through software like MAME, ported titles from the past onto XBLA, the increasing values of collectible consoles from yesteryear, shouldn't Microsoft consider at least allowing Xbox 360 games on its new system? That would certainly give it a much bigger game library on launch day than the 10 or so titles that it'll end up with. Again though, screw that right? It's got TV connectivity.
KitGuru Says: What did you guys think of the unveiling? I must say I'm just really unimpressed. Microsoft had so much lead up time with rumours and speculation and bitching from the press and consumers to deliver a console that ticked everyone's boxes. It might not have known what we all really wanted, but it was clear what we didn't want and so much of that is present in this “next-gen” system that just feels so restrictive and uncharacterful of what people want from a games console.
I watched the live stream last night and to be honest, I think Microsoft have done a very good job developing a next-gen system, I mean come on, 8GB RAM? That’s insane for a console, the Xbox One isn’t only for gamers, many other Xbox users want the freedom to do other things such as watch TV or even call people on Skype, the graphical difference between the Xbox One and the Xbox 360 are so much more in depth, I applaud Microsoft of their latest achievement and I hope other gamers share my opinion on this breakthrough in cutting edge technology.
This is terrible, I completely agree with this article. Why would someone want what basically is a Freeview box with medium spec gaming? They should have focused on creating something that could really rival everything for the next 6 years. This hardware isn’t great at all and it is already years behind PC gaming. that’s not an issue what is an issue is that in 2 years time this is going to feel really old. just like the xbox 360. I was hoping this would be good so I could have a living room gaming console so I can play fun games like halo and racing games on the sofa instead of my PC. but it doesn’t seem like a worthy investment.
Bring on the Steambox!
I wouldn’t go as far as to call TV a dying medium, you might notice that shows are on TV first and only some make it to services like Netflix… even then there can be some large gaps between airing on TV and appearing as available on Netflix.
I guess its Microsofts fault for thinking we might be interested in some of the new features they are adding in to the console rather than just an hour of people like EA tossing pre-rendered crap into our faces…
The concept that the games are going to be fantastically prettier and have new ways of doing things quite frankly falls in to the “duhhh” category… I think they’ve done a fantastic job with integrating their product in to more of a persons life than just sitting in a corner for when its time to play a game.
Now lets move on to your privacy concerns, sure there’s going to be some here… and sure consoles get hacked… but they are hacked by the people who own them! it’s not like theres outside forces getting in to our current gen xbox’s and taking over them… thats none-existant… Even the always on feature is essentially speculation at this point, theres been no confirmation they are going down that route, even if they did I can’t see how they’d EVER get away with allowing the camera to stream everything all the time.
Backwards compatibility! I can see how this might concern some people… but the likelihood is you’ll have an Xbox currently for the times you want to play games from yesteryear, people seem to forget that when you massively change how you want something to work it can become an insurmountable task to make it behave like a much older system. Although I imagine the XBLA stuff can be recompiled to work with the newer hardware without too much effort… most of them are pretty simple in the grand scheme of things.
Used games, I agree… this should be available… and I believe certain EU laws may even make this a null point if they want to sell it there (although I only have very vague knowledge of such things, feel free to correct me if I have misunderstood) but I think ultimately here its more the developers crying that has made this happen more than anything else. I am hoping for a backpedal on this one.
As for game libraries… both the PS4 and XBox One are going to be in the same boat here, but so were the 360 and certainly the PS3, game libraries will build quickly after release and it won’t be long before we have substantial libraries for both.
The one thing I have real concern over is the install to hard disk… sure it’ll help with load times, make the games patchable (Sore point here, I miss games being released finished, none of this day 1 patch BS) and allow them to simply be bigger… but what about when you have a game library of say 30 games… the XBox hard disk is never going to be big enough to contain them all… am I expected to have to uninstall and reinstall constantly just to play certain games?
I think we should certainly give props to Microsoft for actually having their console ready at their announcement… Unlike Sony only have a controller to hand… and to this date still only vague images of pieces of it, it takes some big balls to announce something they haven’t even got ready.
Overall I am hopeful that the Xbox one will continue to get a few tweaks and it stands to be a good console, as does the PS4 if they ever put a console together.
I’ve got to say I completely agree with Joshua Briscoe, you’re really taking a rather stupid (substitute ‘dumb’ if offended I’m just trying to make a point) approach to this. It would be nice to see maybe a less biased view. OK the security in the camera is a bit of an issue and that needs to be addressed but we’re on the verge of Google Glass for petes sake, the whole view of privacy as a whole needs to be addressed majorly not just here. Besides you CAN unplug the xbox from the internet if you want, and most people will turn their console fully off when away to save energy anyway. And yes, the styling sucks, it looks like a VCR had a lovechild with a NES they did drop the ball there, but the specs are good for people who don’t want to / aren’t techy enough to build their own pc rig or someone who can’t afford a better set of hardware. The backwards compatibility is actually not something they have deliberately turned off, the new console uses an entire different architecture that simply doesn’t work with the way the old games are designed to use hardware. The gaming fee is somewhere your point is justified, yes it does suck that they will be doing that, but really they ARE a company and always have been, they’re just trying to get a bit of profit from an untapped market. It’s not going to cost loads, you won’t be charged the price of a game or anywhere near it so suck it up. Finally, and perhaps the point I found most annoying in your article – the TV thing, firstly: TV includes streaming and on-demand, they are TV SHOWS and not a separate entity. Things you can stream / get on-demand that aren’t broadcast on TV are called webseries’ and tend by and large to not be as good. If you stream it, it is still a TV show and most people still stream via lovefilm / netflix to a TV set. Secondly – this feature is not intended for you, or me or anyone tech savvy, it is for people who don’t know their way around tech but enjoy video gaming and watching TV. It is to make life easier for them and do you know what, I say well done microsoft, it’s making it more appealing to a mass market, unfortunately most of the gaming society seem to have forgotten that if they don’t use this feature it won’t negatively impact on them at all, they can ignore it’s existence if they like and it isn’t going to come out and bite at their ankles. Please try to get more right in future articles. I, for one, am extremely excited about this console because of how functional and brilliant it seems to me. I personally couldn’t afford a setup anywhere near that spec if I was putting it in a pc, plus I prefer playing on a console. ( I think I already mentioned it’s not fair to compare PC to console specs before). Thank you for giving me something to rant to in a reply though and I am sorry for any offense I’m just trying to debate my competing opinion is all 🙂
I strongly agree with this post, i am ashamed microsoft have come up with these ideas, they all sound good on paper but when it comes to the real world and what gamers want from there prefered console whether the PS or xbox including features that can be access easier and faster using tablets or PCs shows that they spend 4 years making the alarm clock go off at the right time. Microsoft i am truely dissapointed with this launch it may truly ruin gaming consoles. In my opinion as a PC gamer, i wanted to give the console a chance to prove it is more than under specced, 30 fps box of dust but now we have TV. Glad i spent my hard earned money on a decent PC instead of waiting for this shameful product.
I am totally in agreement also. It seems this release lacks any real inspiration. I mean, come on Microsoft, 8 years. 8 Years and this is all you can come up with? Where is the motion tracking headsets, anti gravity suits and 3D projection? The original xbox felt miles ahead of the PC, the graphics were top of the line. It has lasted 8 years & still feels adequate. I cannot see this system lasting 8 years, the steambox is the more future proof machine. I do not wish to buy a machine to stream TV, when my TV does the job for me already. As for the issue with second hand games, its just being plain greedy. The second hand market is not yours to take Microsoft, and shouldn’t be. You have already made your money on the original sale. I will take my business elsewhere, to a platform that likely doesnt charge me to be an online gamer (I.E no xbox live fees).
Seriously to everyone who is harping on about specs of the new console when these drop my PC will still have more power, and it still didnt cost the ridiculous price that these next gen consoles are asking, if you ask me i think this will be microsofts downfall all they have done recently is reduce terrible products, metro UI (im not classing this with windows 8 because overall its a decent operating system) and this sham of a console thats more focused on TV than actual gaming again just another way that companies are selling out to casuals for more money instead of producing a good product for the market it was intended for.