CNET: Death of Microsoft's Xbox One vision means we all lose

Commentary: By unbundling the Kinect sensor from Xbox One, Microsoft strips away the console's last differentiating element. The industry and gamers will suffer for it.

A very interesting perspective from CNET in which they proclaim that because the console video gamer dislikes when consoles attempt to be innovated we are being forced into the exact same cycle we were supposed to have just left.

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Because by unbundling the Kinect from the Xbox One -- a splintering of the peripheral's install base that may kill Kinect's future and, at best, will undoubtedly hamper game development that incorporates motion control -- we're left with two video game consoles that are essentially identical. Granted, the PS4 has a graphical edge, and the Xbox One cable-box functionality, though the former is entirely negligible to the everyday consumer and the latter now jeopardized given the One's reliance on the Kinect's IR blasting functionality to control your television.

After months of adamant defense of the Kinect's role in the Xbox One experience, Microsoft has yet again reversed its stance, bringing full circle a thorough stripping of nearly every interesting element from its console -- it's daring yet poorly handled promise of a disc-less future and digital resale program; its forward-thinking family-sharing plan; the motion and voice-controlled centerpiece of its entertainment vision. That means that the Xbox One and PS4 are not only barely differentiable from each other, but also at their core offer nothing substantially different than what their predecessors did nine years ago.

The central issue lies in the original promise of the Xbox One, the reality of where we are roughly one year later, and what was accomplished in the collective crusade. We did not need two separate consoles that do the exact same things, play pretty much the same games, and stream the same services you get with a $99 Roku. What we needed were real choices that represented not which console you wanted to play Destiny or Watch Dogs or Call of Duty on, but different systems that cater to wider audiences, provide different use cases, look forward, and aren't chained down to the status quo.

Microsoft tried to escape those confines of the console war and it failed, caving to nearly every demand put forth by the gaming audience with a shoulder shrug and a "maybe one day." Now, the Xbox is back to fighting a battle in which everyone loses.

but teh prize drupz

The thing is that the kinnect it's like a ADD-on to the console. Not really something you need to play your games to the extend you may want to play them. Then there's the thing about being forced to purchase an Add-on you have no interest in using. Consumer should have a choice of doing so.. it's 100 dollars worth of something you don't care for using.

that's a good article.

xb1 is losing to PS4 at the moment anyway, and that's after MS has reversed so much. reversing hasn't helped, ****, i'd have more respect for MS if they deployed their vision with family sharing and what not.

now the consoles are too similar, it's fucking boring.

Like a said in another thread, the Xbox One is a box without a vision at this point.

It's a slap in the face to all early adopted because Microsoft's "next gen" vision no longer exists.

I kind of agree. If you want Resolution and the best graphics get a high end PC and not a PS4.

Kinect v2.0 isn't for gaming though. The Xbox One was designed around using the Kinect to improve the experience of the console - which it does. The voice controls and the extended freedom to maneuver through the system are what make Kinect more than just a novelty - something actually useful.

I'd be inclined to agree if all of the Xbone's "differentiating elements" weren't so damn unpopular.

There comes a point when you're just being different to be different, not because you're advancing anything worthwhile. Consumers figured that out, MS did too. CNET will figure that out in time, or someone kind will clue them in.

lol cnut trying to suck some m$ dizzles. the truth of the matter once xbone dies n that's by this year, gaming will be in the golden diamond years from now on unless m$ comes back n ruin gaming again. gamers are uniting now to get rid of the xbone n m$ from gaming. we are winning so far by getting rid of the kinect then wiiu. ps4 is the only one

The only losers are the early Xbone adopters. The vision M$ had for the future sucked and consumers rightfully rejected it.

@R3FURBISHED: Even if it is, it is still an add on and something that cost money forced into the consumer. Would be like buying a Monitor and having to pay 100$ mandatory because of the universal controller it brings.

The Kinect-less Xbox One isn't where the vision was lost though. When the Xbox One was announced it was a truly new piece of video gaming/entertainment hardware - built with a goal in mind.

A box that is constantly operating and always working (the always on) digital sharing (dead because people didn't understand it) TV incorporation (personal preferences aside, it was a very new (innovative) direction)

But how much did people actually understand about them? How many people understood what Microsoft was trying to do with their digital sharing before they jumped on it as being the end to used games, that it means we are getting less choice?

The PS3 and 360 where more different than the Xbox One and PS4 are now.

Well, my dislike of the Kinect was that it's voice commands didn't work, and how is that my fault? It says it all about Microsoft, they drop support after 7 months in and didn't offer any innovative games for Kinect. If they really wanted to cater to becoming the ultimate entertainment vision, Kinect should have been more convenient to my experience, but instead it was a hassle. I'm all for the video-game industry becoming more innovative (oculus rift), but Microsoft just seems to be tone deaf and backwards at times. I'm confident they'll turn it around at E3 once they focus more on games, hopefully they'll deliver on that promise.

Whatever, Microsoft had all of these months to prove to us that the kinect was a thing we needed. Everytime I hear about the kinect for xbox one, all I hear is complaints. Bad menu controls, inaccurate voice system, and hardly improving the core game experience. Even the games that rely on the kinect for xbox one are fuking trash that are just as bad as the first kinect for 360.

Kinect might have been something cool and unique, but that's all pointless if the thing isn't living up to audience expectations. Microsoft had its chance with kinect, and they failed.

I have Xbone. I don't need the Kinect. It would be okay if it worked as accurately as the Xbone and 360 controllers, but it doesn't. When I have to repeat myself, it's game over for the peripheral.

Furthermore, M$ should have had AAA Kinect ready games at launch instead of releasing in the wild with little and poor game support. It soon became a joke and the best defenses were, well it's not about the games, it's about talking from your seat to your TV! Not worth the price of admission. Best if they gave consumers a choice if M$ themselves don't have the ability to develop amazing games for their own product. They needed to LEAD the way and show the world through amazing games why Kinect was worth it, and they failed to do so. Nintendo did just that with the Wii launch in 2006.

I saw this Kinectless Xbone sku coming though last year, over a year ago. I know their 1st party talent too well and I don't have confidence in the product or Motion gaming in general. Here's one of my posts, this one was before Xbone launched (which I had pre-ordered):

SolidTy 6 months, 6 days ago (BEFORE THE XBONE RELEASED):

"The specs are done cooked and out of the oven, but it's very likely a $400ish Kinectless Xbone is coming off the meat train next year if sales don't go their way."

I would disagree. MS doing a 180 on Kinect means the customers won and M$ lost. Customers clearly didn't want the useless Kinect forced on them and they made their demands known by ignoring the POS. Everytime the consumers win is a good time. These stupid large corporations need to understand that they can't force shit on us. M$ doing a 180 on DRM and Kinect is one of the greatest things to happen in gaming as it is a lesson for future companies not to **** with their customers.

Read the article, that's not what this thread is about.

If Kinect was so amazing they should have better supported it. Not simply force people to buy it.

Good riddance. Motion Control isn't the future Cnet. If a product is truly awesome then gamers will want it. Cnet acts like we don't know what is good, or not.

Hard to know, really. MS did such a terrible job of revealing the system and then gave contradictory statements trying to explain it before dumping the whole thing. Perhaps more consumers would have embraced the features if they had a better understanding, but that's on MS to bring the information needed, not on consumers.

I agree, the consoles are now more similar than ever, hell I even agree that's not a good thing. But again, that's on MS for making poor choices, or explaining smart choices poorly, and then ditching all of them in an attempt to look more like a PS4.

lets just say your a kid with xbox kinect doing voice commands and your parents bitched at you for talking because they're trying to sleep it's useless.

it's best overall just navigating with a controller.all around it's not loud as **** like talking.

he doesn't read, he just moooooooooooooooooooooos

Gamers know what they want. They like the way consoles currently function. Yes, they're basically the same boxes that we've been buying for 30 years now...but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Would you criticize car companies because they've been essentially making the same product for 100+ years? I mean...it's just a bunch a seats inside of a metal box with a steering wheel, engine and 4-tires. Why won't a car company "be creative" and let me drive with motion controls or have a car with 5 wheels instead?

Some things don't change because they WORK.

Change simply for the sake of change and lacking any fundamental and APPRECIATED evolution isn't progress.

The man's suit has been essentially the same thing for a century...HOW LAZY!!!

though I agree with the article on some things I do really think It's obvious kinect isn't a peripheral that's wanted. When 20% of the user base doesn't use it and the 80% that do have on average of 120 commands a month or 4 each a day it really shows how underused and not necessary it really is.

kinect is a useless piece of shit.

we need innovation in gameplay ....the dual analog is almost 20 years old and still finding new uses.

I think that if Microsoft had gone ahead with their original plan for the Xbox One it would have turned into a more niche device - with the people who can utilize it to its fullest being absolutely head-over-heels in love with it, but alienating a larger portion of people at the same time. I would think the Xbox One of old would do quiet badly in this day and age.

However(!) much like what Apple did with the iPod, revolutions in tech come from someone expanding upon already existing technology. Generation 9 would have brought new consoles that would have expanded on Microsoft's Generation 8 vision in amazing ways...but now? Who is to say if we will see any new ideas in the next 10-15 years.

For as successful as the PS4 has been, it isn't new or all that exciting (Hell, even Sony dropped the PS4 Camera to undercut the Xbox One price). The PS4 is very powerful and has a very reasonable pricetag, which seems to be the only thing console buyers want in their console.

2 things with this article...

1.How dare this morons actually try to justify MS DRM,disc less crap,and stupid family plan,stripping from consumers the right to sell what you legally own is the biggest abuse a company can make,we all know the Diablo and sims city DRM fiasco we are talking here about not having internet and not been able to play,we are talking here about blocking people from selling their legally own games,and worse resting all are hopes on a industry that every day that pass try to nickel and dime us more,MS vision since the very start was making money,is the reason why XBL cost $50 when every freaking one before MS played games online free,is the reason sony now charge as well because with what moral can MS or any one say something to sony when MS have do the same for year,did you see the media slaying sony for charging for online play.? No they could not because MS already pave the way,the same sh** with microtransactions,now content is strip from games in order to be sell just a week or 2 after launch ,in order to squeeze every time more and more from us,not to mention leaving us at the mercy of developer like EA which just for fun would kill their games support for the game and will render your game useless.

The whole family plan was a joke share you games with your family only 1 can play at a time,hello that is the same freaking way it has always been on physical copies what was the advantage.?

Hell you don't even need a damn camera to do voice command,MS can issue a damn patch and you can use your head set,all you need for voice recognition is a damn mic,which bring me to the next point a camera that was mostly used for voice commands,well dah you don't need a camera for that..

2-The second is calling Kinect innovative,is a damn eye toy with depth perception,is not an original concept what so ever,since the point of the eye toy was that motion controls and use your body as a controller,kinect has zero innovation,it was a more advance eye toy nothing more nothing less.

This article is poor crap.

Video game to car correlations NEVER work. The upgrades cars manufacturers incorporate into their newest models are monumental at the very least.

Compare a 1980 to a 1990 to a 2000 to a 2010 Toyota Corolla - every aspect has undergone massive upgrades. This goes for every manufacturer.

Implying Kinect was "something" to begin with.

The Xflop is now a PS3.5

So like the PS4 camera is a piece of shit.

Move games are worthless. A touch pad is innovation. :|

Compare a PS2 to a PS4 or an original Xbox to an Xbone. There are huge changes to the hardware on both systems. Today's consoles are way more advanced than anything we had in 2000. We don't need a POS camera to change things or make us feel like consoles have evolved. I'm a firm believer in "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and Kinect fits perfectly with this idea. It's a useless solution to a problem we've never had and gamers have spoken by rejecting it.

And yet I'm still using a steering wheel (game controller) that turns the front wheels and I press a pedal with my right foot to generate power from the engine. Nothing revolutionary has changed. Yes, I can know call my house and track my location via GPS and have the cup holder cool my beverage as I drive but the basic action is still exactly the same. Which new development in cars in the past 30 years has fundamentally changed the action of driving a car?

Tesla Auto is the largest evolution in cars since the Ford Model T and yet I'm still doing the same basic action. Why doesn't the car fly? Wheels are sooo 20th century.

Game consoles have increased in power by orders of magnitude, new input devices have been created, online connectivity has gone from non-existent to fundamental, voice chat, wi-Fi, download games without having to go to a store, etc. Saying consoles are stagnating simply because we still use a controller is a shallow argument.

Why don't new S&W 1911s shoot confetti and make me breakfast? That's because they do one thing and do it very well.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Video games cannot be compared to cars. They are nothing alike.

What you in the seat see is one thing, what the work you apply to the mechanisms creates is where the change has occurred.

He just gave an eloquent analogy why they are alike and you still say they are not? LOL, some people. He's right they are alike, steering wheels and pedals are analogous to control pads on videogame consoles. They are the ways people control these machines and they haven't changed in cars for decades and the same thing with consoles.

"Microsoft tried to escape those confines of the console war and it failed, caving to nearly every demand put forth by the gaming audience with a shoulder shrug and a "maybe one day."

First of all the goal in mind was to strip any right consumer had over the game,by making the physical game useless,you could not..

Share your game without losing it unless it was by family plan which only allowed 1 person to play at a time.

Sell your game to normal retailer like game spot or who ever you just wanted,they stripped the value of the game.

Not only that developers could block all games,from been resale,developers could kill your game or the server access to it,just to make you move to a new game something done now with online games already,by MS,sony EA and other developers.

The console need it online,so if your internet was down,bad or you have problem you could not play,xbox live have been down before,so if xbox live is down you could not play because your console would lock in 24 hours.

MS drakonian measures were more to stop pirates and to control the used sales market which they wanted a piece alone side some developers,it wasn't good or helpfull in any way,and digital sharing was par of the PS3 for many years it was abuse and basically drop because of it,i my self shared several games with some friends.

MS plan would not have lasted,MS since the start was devious about the plan and didn't wanted to talk up front about it,because the feature that was coming was one of restriction where in order to do the minimal thing with your game you need it MS approval,in fact that future would have also been pretty the xbox one has only 500GB HDD which can't be replace..

The whole digital plan was a joke to justify MS cutting you from your right to legally sell the game you owned,which is why people didn't like it this MS not the Virgin Marie company,which is why people went in an uproar about it, this is the same company who charged you for online play first,who started microransactions,and who charged people a premium for apps that are free to every one on any device that support them,this is why people fiercely opposed MS about their policies,giving a little now could have mean giving it all up..

I was real close to getting an xbox one instead of a ps4 at launch because of the kinect. The device didn't do much for gaming but it was different. Ps4 at the moment is a barebones ps3 upgrade. The xbox one with the voice commands and snapping functions was looking like a true 8th gen device.

That being said, i like the $399 price point. I might take the plunge this june.

And all that happen because people know about DRM and used games block,MS actually had no intention to talk about the xbox one DRM features,the leaks were face with strong criticism,they knew the moment they talked about blocking used games people would panic,and they try to just not talk about it and was a circus seeing Phill Harrison talk about it,then seen Major Nelson deny his comments,only to latter confirm them latter on,MS really try to pull a fast one the media and sites like neogaf just didn't allow it,they were relentless about it until they had no more choice but to come clean.

I bet you that if the whole leak that happen since late 2011 would not had happen,MS would have not talk about DRM at all at E3 and people would have face a problem on launch..

All very well said.

I still think MS is in an excellent position to bring real innovation to the industry over the near to mid-term. They have the resources, and they certainly have lots of ideas, but now they have an executive in Spencer that can actually focus the brand on an initiative while also being able to communicate effectively with the masses. I think if they build in that manner - focus the brand on tackling one new idea, making it the best it can be, and then getting out in front of it and communicating the benefits effectively they'll have far more success.

ps4 and xboxone can suck my ( )======D how about them apples?

I approve this message

Or maybe the Kinect being the next-gen vision was nothing more than a marketing ploy by MS to brainwash fanboys. Your statement assumes that all of it is true, which IMO, you shouldn't.

Because people can't see past their own 2 feet.

Always online, Kinect, Family sharing, true innovation and MS was looking to the future. Sure it was a major shift and it was going to take some time to get the used to the ideas. But thats what needed to happen.

With all the short sided, feable minded people driving the narrative, we are right back where we ended last gen.We should have given their vision a chance.

I know the arguments against everything I mention above. But you have to crack some eggs to get omelets.

Always online, promise of constant updates in games and the power of the cloud have been reduced to last gen model.

Kinect is great piece of tech and devs might have used to add little Kinect centric moments like in Ryse and DR3. Who knows what would have come from it. (Think about yourself as a game dev and what you could use kinect for in your game.)

And of course digital family sharing, maybe online trading of games (who knows) would have been super awesome.

But alas the lowest common, most vocal denominator won out.

i wish people would make up their damn mind,

random media journalist: "XBOX NEEDS TO GIVE US CHOICE TO BUY KINECT"

Microsoft: "we will give you choice to purchase kinect "

random media journalist: "OMG MICROSOFT PULLING 180 AND LOSING ITS VISION"

a million people will have a million different opinions, who cares. go with what you feel is right.

I for one am happy that Phil Spencer is delivering on his promise about making the Xbone more about the gaming

Anyone worried that dropping the kinect is a bad thing, look what happened to google+, they tried hard to force that stupid social network on everyone, people did end up making google+ accounts but because they didn't want to use a product that was forced on them, they simply used it as a log-in rather than an actual social network

Or in short: No one really used google+ because it was forced on people, same way here, people don't want to buy the xbox one because they don't want the kinect forced on them, let people decide if they want it or not

In the end the xbox benefits from this because the kinect hasn't been good for gaming for the past 4 years

I already have a PC I use that shit for spreadsheets.

The original "vision" was a failure though.

I don't see how anyone loses, other than those that bought into or believed in the failure from day 1. But early adopters generally never get the best deal anyway, so who cares?. Going forward, at least some of the onerous policies that were originally proposed are now gone - as well as some of the preposterously bad stuff that was carried forward from the 360 (i.e. Netflix paywall).

It's not like Kinect ever has been, or ever can be an essential part of gaming anyway. It's pretty comical to paint a Kinect-less bundle as some sort of bad thing for gamers, when I would guess the vast majority of Gamers would probably rather have $100 in their pocket than a Kinect.