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

I'd rather consoles be similar and actually decent rather than have one be different in ways that makes it fucking garbage.

LOL @ the XBOX One announcement having a "vision" or being innovative.

It was pretty clear at the reveal, even MICROSOFT had no idea what they were doing or what direction they were going.

The rumors leading into that E3 were all about it being an actual "cable box" replacement. Now that idea might have gained traction, if they had partnered with all the big cable companies to make the XBOX One an actual cable box replacement (that could do everything, cable tuner, streaming channels, gaming, etc). I thought they had something if that turned out to be true. There has been talk for years, even throughout last gen of video game consoles becoming "all-in-on" entertainment devices, that's why there have been so many movie and TV apps even on PS3/360. The idea of it evolving into a fully fledged integrated cable box, actually would have been a great idea to open up new markets to them. Unfortunately, the XBOX One had none of that, it's big feature was nothing but a cheap HDMI pass-through device, with a fantasy football app overlay. Wow. So innovative. NOT. Did we really need to spend an entire E3 conference talking about HDMI pass through? That totally doesn't make up for hardware that is literally the same type of off the shelf parts as PS4... except that it across the board has lower class parts than the PS4.

I still have no idea why anyone is still clinging to a convoluted DRM system, as a LOSS to gamers...everything Microsoft has been doing lately is because their original ideas were clearly REJECTED as being harmful to or unwanted by consumers. Now they just have to suffer the fact that their hardware design was cheap, and unfocused.

Yeah, I'd say that's a fair assessment. But I also think that's how I'd describe Don Mattrick's entire tenure at the head of the XBox division. He took a focused, lean console in the 360 that was doing well with the core audience and turned the focus to Kinect, while committing misstep after misstep leading development of the XBone. Once he had gone and buggered that sufficiently, he was back out the door to run (ruin?) Zygna. Good riddance.

well nobody ever accused you of being smart.

and lol @ "gamers are uniting". how cute! you're like what 10 or 12?

I'm gonna suffer because M$ finally did something good and removed that useless piece of trash? WTF...

i think the consoles could be dissimilar and decent. in your eyes, isn't one of the 8th gen consoles dissimilar and decent?

as for the rest of what you're saying, well, what can I say? i never said their original proposal would be superior, so you're very welcome to the outlook that the original proposal would have made xbox one fucking garbage.

no worries dude.

MS is greedy and doesn't listen to the people, thats all i know.. All they do is lie and once they get the money they abandon you

would be nice if they made some games for it....maybe that's why it wasn't accepted

CNET I disagree, it's a great thing for a lot of us who know the BS crap MS was pulling with their original "vision". Splinter away, I can't say I'd give a rats ass.

Blame Sony console peasants and their fixation on upping only specifications and not anything else.

Like it or not, this duel's outcome is to be determined in the old-fashioned way - without gimmicks, but with software only.

Gamers are such crybabies they don't want changes.

We're back to where we came from - before gen 8 even began.

Same analogy can be said for consoles. An Atari 2600 and a PS4 are worlds apart in every aspect.

He's making it less about bloated crap, not neccesarily about more gaming.

@tormentos: How on earth can you not see the advantage in the family sharing plan???

The ONLY disadvantage is that you couldnt play the same game at the same time.

The advantage being that you could play ANY of their other games without purchasing it. Where else is that freedom available on consoles.

Can someone show me the data where it shows that gamers were getting sick and tired of standard controllers? Where is this large group of gamers that demanded motion controls become the standard in gaming? What is wrong with sticking to what works? All we wanted from these new consoles was refinements. Refine the controller, online infrastructure, graphics and the gameplay. Why try to innovate just for innovation sake?

Couldn't disagree more. Controller was always quicker and more convenient than using kinect.

I still think they did the right thing... It gives consumers more choice. Sure it's a bit of a slap in the face to early adopters, but overall I think it's a good move. To me it shows Microsoft realises that gamers should come first.

Its a pity gamers rejected the original XOne. Sony effectively re-releasing the 360 really didn't help either.

Ms lost because they tried to make the market do what they wanted instead of doing what the market wanted.

Early adopters actually do generally get the best deals. Generally speaking launch consoles are the least profitable for companies, and best value for consumers. Then as time goes on and technology becomes cheaper a healthy profit margin naturally works it way into the hardware sales.

Kinect for the 360 was never essential because it was an add on peripheral only 1/3rd of customers owned. Motion controls for the wii were an essential part of the console experience because they were included from the getgo. But ultimately the kinect is now devalued, and current kinect owners will receive less support for their device.

Oh no the gamers suffer from not having to buy bad technology that did not work half the time and had almost zero support.
I can't believe the amount of MS d:ck riding by the media.
The thing that separated them from the competition was a façade.

LOL Kinect was always shit and "digital sharing" was a load of crap MS made up on the fly to retroactively justify DRM. Instead of having it all locked up in time for reveal, they made up some garbage to try and excuse themselves.

75% of people prefer discs, by the way.

Then again I should expect this level of foolishness from someone who said this.

Yes we'll lose:

-pay to play online

-paid DLC

-Games that ship with loads of microtransactions

All things that MS tried to make standard with each new Xbox.

Still the media's number one beloved company. I wonder why?

They gave out free Xboxes at E3 when they announced the Xbox 360 slim. They have good ways to hype up the media.

But do they give love to gamers ? I wouldn't agree. 360 got barely any exclusives in its last years. Xbox original also died out really fast.

In the following you will read

what some people don't seem to understand....

Who the hell said "innovation" is always a good thing? MS failed... not because consumers "didn't understand", but because they understood all too well ;) I would have NEVER bought an X1 if policies had not changed.... All the changes they are making now are ones that should have never been in place to begin with.

oh and by the way... the car analogy is a good one.

yeap both systems are now just shitty ass pc's...sad days ahead

Xbox is hungry and they can smell Sony is dying. They will do whatever it takes to make sure Sony loses. Making Kinect an option is just one change in the ultimate goal.

The Kinect was never and will never be the killer app for the XB1. Great games is what will always matter. Gimmicks can only take a console so far, and without great games, gimmicks mean jack.

Show me just one great game that needs the Kinect to work properly? I'm waiting........

Do you people honestly believe that voice commands is a truly innovating feature? Is using a controller really that much of a pain to navigate through menus? Never once did I wish I could navigate my PS3/360's U.I. with my voice. Who the hell wants to hear someone yelling at their TV? The damn thing doesn't even work half of the time anyways. BTW, what most of you guys like about the Kinect could be replaced with a simple mic. You don't need a freaking $100 camera to do voice commands.

Kinect is a totally useless device for gaming, so thank god it is no longer forced on gamers who are interested in purchasing an XB1.

Well considering MS's vision for the future sucked and most consumers hated it, I think they made a smart move. There is a difference between innovation and being different just for the sake of being different. The Xbone was the latter. It just introduced a bunch of features that were unpopular to the core audience.

Kinect as a motion gaming device was never going to work. Gamers simply don't want to pretend to steer a car, climb a wall or throw a football by using an empty hand. For my own personal tastes I like the Kinect 2.0 for what I believe it's true intended use which is to navigate the Xbox One and its accompanying UI. So everyone that is jumping off bridges saying that MS has once again slapped its fan base in the face, that isn't quite true. I guess if you were some one that really saw the peripheral as a next gen gaming device then I would be mad that it is not going to be a mandatory part of the future plans of the X1 platform. But if you look at the Kinect 2.0 as something that simply enhances your ability to navigate the X1 menus, switch channels while watching TV, record game clips and what have you, then this isn't really that big of a deal. Early adopters always have and always will get the shaft in one way or another. Look back to how many gamers dropped $600 on a PS3 at launch only to watch Sony cut the price of the system less than a year later. This isn't a MS thing, it is a business thing!!!

Interesting article. I partly agree, part of me wishes that they would have stuck with their guns and seen it through . Unfortunately, we are not in the 1990's and with a big recession behind us, companies need to react faster these days if they sense their sales performance is lagging in the face of competition. Also, the way I see it, not much has changed......all Kinect needs is one high-profile and critically acclaimed Kinect game, if that happens, more people will want Kinect. Right now that game does not exist, so Kinect is a tougher sell. I love it on Xbox One, I use it quite a lot and I find it great for Skype as well....alas, I don't really use it in the games, save for a few minor implementations here and there. It's all good, E3 will be great.......great time to be a console owner, regardless of your choice!

CNET: Kinect is good. Later we will demonstrate our arm and leg flailing skills.

Here's a can of STFU Cnet.

Does anyone remember the power gun that came with the box of the NES? How did video games fair with the power gun as a hardware accessory? Was the power gun a vital piece for people's experience with video games? Did Microsoft and Sony create their own power gun 20 years later thinking that Nintendo had everything right by offering a hardware accessory that you could actually pull the trigger at your screen?

We as gamers we didnt win because the power gun nor do we win with the kinect.

Nobody wanted the fucking thing. Titanfall didn't even push the console hard. It had no purpose because the casual audience they wanted to attract with their extraneous feature-set wasn't going to buy a $500 companion device in 2013 or 2014 the same way that no one wanted a goddamn Entertainment Supercomputer back in 2006.

You Lems crying about this shit are just delusional. Without dumping kinect, you'd have a glorified paper weight in three years as developer support would be all but completely gone.

Maybe so but has high enough frame rate that's perfect for VR

Move was garbage but it had direct input so it actually did what it was supposed to unlike kinect.

Pretty sure it's already had more use by developers than kinect. It was smart to include it onto the actual controller the controller being the bread and butter in gaming since, like...forever. lol

Not at all. Those million guys that bought the console in anticipation for the game don't matter.

That's BS. If someone would actually make a decent game for it then people will buy Kinect for it. Too bad there will never be a decent Kinect game.

Such hot garbage vitriol and hyperbole in one comment. I'm impressed, you're living up to your user name in great strides sir.

OT: disagree with the article. To say that the consoles are now too similar therefore it's bad is disingenuous especially since that's probably what gamers wanted originally? Nobody asked for kinect, it was a fad like the Wii. With this logic, maybe MS should have just focused on Kinect asthe console instead of making a traditional box console. Ship the kinect on its own and make motion control only games for that one audience. Then we'd have one console that solely relied on motion controls and that audience and then Sony's traditional console for the core gamer, they'd be different wouldn't they then? Nonsense article. The only thing they got right is that it is now a lose/lose situation for MS because they built their box around kinect and now have to reverse engineer it so to speak. It's their own fault for not being in tune with the gaming world.

@b4x said:

@Shewgenja said:

Nobody wanted the fucking thing. Titanfall didn't even push the console hard. It had no purpose because the casual audience they wanted to attract with their extraneous feature-set wasn't going to buy a $500 companion device in 2013 or 2014 the same way that no one wanted a goddamn Entertainment Supercomputer back in 2006.

You Lems crying about this shit are just delusional. Without dumping kinect, you'd have a glorified paper weight in three years as developer support would be all but completely gone.

Not at all. Those million guys that bought the console in anticipation for the game don't matter.

Fanboys can't float a console alone. Only Gen7 cows thought it could. Try harder. Maybe if the 360 sold 150 million units, your indignation would be justified. However, we all know it's not so let's get real here.

lol MS console peasants are worse last gen 100 lines of resolution was enough to call the xbox 360 version superior,this gen double the resolution is nothing...lol

Yeah that is a hard one to determine a dual between MS and sony with exclusives i wonder how it will go,didn't MS abandon the xbox 360 since 2011 all it had is Halo,gears forza.?

Good luck...

No company apologist like you are the problem,MS vision was horrible,you no longer owned the game period in any form and know how this is MS it would have been much worse once the plans were in motion and people were in.

In fact MS could have allow the whole family plan even after dropping DRM,nothing stop them,oh yeah the fact that all was a hoax to trick people into biting once in you were going to be screwed,look at xbox live games on 360 and how the games turned into demos and require online to work in some cases the extreme DRM around them.

The only advantage the family plan had,was allowing people to access the game in different xbox one,it was lock only to 1 person so you came home try to play the game and hoops you can't another person is using your game in his house,at least if you lend the game to a friend you know you can't play it,and don't get a surprise of not been able to play,worse it was limit to 10 people,i can share my games now with 100 if i want to.

In fact family plan was basically a rip off of PSN game share,the only difference was that on sony consoles both could play at the same time,the only game that i know that was lock was Warhawk which could not be share,but the rest was game on,you could even share downloadable content on the PS3,in fact i split with my friend the cost of maps,could you do that on xbox 360 xbox one or PS4.?

I downloaded MW2 maps and MW3 as well,i an a friend would split the cost and share our accounts and boom both had the maps and it worked on both consoles at the same time,it was latter lower and i think drop because developers started to complain is ok to over charge you a quart of what the entire game cost for 5 maps,but sharing the maps was an abuse no that it going to far..lol

And second it was tied to 10 family members,not any one around could do it,and i am sure latter on MS would insert some kind of filter for this,or even prevent you from adding friends,after all if you claim to be my brother you can't be call Joe Jackson Smith,and i Joseph Bacon Strip...hahaha

I am sure MS would have introduce a filter or catch they always do,my game now can be share with any of my friend,it has been like this for decades,why change what works in the so call name of "" moving forward"" MS plan was to strip you from any right over the game,oh did i mention your console need it online mandatory,if your internet is down,there was a problem or live servers went down like it happen once for almost 2 weeks you would have problems.

Look at Sim City Diablo they are indisputable fact that DRM sucks,if the servers fail your game fails.

That same advantage i have it now any of my friend can play any of my games,and not just 10 or family,they could have still implement it for people who had always online,how you think live games work,you can't share live games have you try on xbox 360 they would turn into demos unless you connect and log in with your account.

Exactly and more especially in this case,the wii motion controls actually worked,Kinect only allowed for shallow gameplay,and it didn't work like the wii mote did,it had problems.

MS was blinded by the wii success and wanted to continue the motion thing,this time how ever they build the unit around kinect,and the whole DRM crap it was awful,people didn't want that and since the leaks came out forums had been on fire about it.

Well voice commands are old when it comes to gaming,games like Socom on 2002 had voice command which you could issue to your squad,it was fun but nothing more than a gimmick,and seeing how kinect is a camera but that get mostly used for voice command is a joke,you don't need a camera for that a cheap mic would have do.

In this case the xbox one was build around Kinect,the console is weak and has DDR3 because of Kinect so MS could fit kinect in without having huge losses,if Kinect was out of the picture since the go i am sure MS would have a powerful console now in their hand,hell i dare say more powerful than the PS4 quite easy since sony could not go big this time..

So, if the Oculus VR fails, it necessarily means we all lose? Because I fail to see why Kinect failing means we lose anything. It might very well mean that actually, it wasn't relevant to gaming anyway. It only shows that it was either a bad product (and I doubt this, given the many advanced hardware features it had) or it was just a complete failure in providing relevant gameplay innovation.

Why did the Wiimote justify the Wii, especially through the beginning to the mid of the 7th gen? Because people were having a lot of fun with it. And that's all there is to it.

Like Kinect, new approaches on how we play the game have to justify it's existance and added cost to consumer. Let's see what VR can do for us gamers now, because Kinect had plenty of time, and a considerable userbase (25 million on 360), and yet didn't make itself neither necessary or relevant.

XB1 is literally a PS4 but worse in every way. It has no differentiating factor to make up for the lack of power on even a theoretical or potential level.

They don't even have the games. Bungie is making Halo but better as a multiplat. Maybe they have a Fable game but Fable ain't worth crappy versions of Witcher 3, Dragon Age 3, Final Fantasy 15, and literally every multiplat RPG. Forza = GT so it's not like you're missing out. What else there? A bunch of titles that will probably get 6s or 7s and be completely forgotten about 6 months later.

I basically said that just a couple days ago. I don't mind Kinect per seThe price is a bit high it's true. But I tend to pick up consoles after a price drop. My issue with the X1 is waiting to see if they develop any games for it that belong solely to X1 that interest me. Not the Kinect vision.

I think it's quite a shame actually.

Please explain how MS ruined gaming? i hear you all saying it but i have yet to see somebody explain to me HOW they actually did that.

Put your money where your mouth is and back up your statement with reasoning.

Also, explain how gamers are uniting to get rid of Xbox, it may not be selling as well as the PS4 but its still selling well, it had a better launch in the UK than the 360 did when it released.

So after a whole generation claiming that the xbox 360 was the best console ever,now some how is bad that sony release a 360 like console.?

But hey second question how is the PS4 just a 360 re release.?

In fact the PS4 mimic more the PS3 than the xbox 360,the only think is party chat and hiding online play under a pay wall,which would have happen even if the PS4 mimic the wii or xbox one same strategy.

MS was just trying to mimic the wrong horse they went after the wii user base and failed.

That was when Kinect was shown,hahaha i remember the only applause and cheers heard were when they say that all journalist on the conference would get a free 360 slim..hahahahahaha

Best post ever...

In fact the only people who don't really understand what MS was trying to do are blind lemmings,nothing but the most hardcore xbox fans.

There was no need to do what MS was trying to do with the whole use games block,drm and online require,the only reason was to control every single aspect of your games,i just wonder what would have happen once MS decided the xbox one ran its course and decide to kill server support for the games,instant collection of games render useless..

Thats funny considering that last month the xbox one was cheaper at $449 with Kinect and Titanfall than a $399 xbox one without kinect and without games would be,already MS say Kinect will not just be $100 optional so probably like the one on xbox 360 $150 just to make people byte into the $500 model..lol

Basically MS was selling on March the xbox one for $299...

$299 the console $100 for Kinect and $49 for Titanfall.

Now it will be $399 for the console alone,if you want kinect latter on $150 more.

But they had no choice 3 million lead in just 4 months was allot if MS doesn't stop the beating by years end the game could very well be 7 or 8 millions in just the first year.

kinect=gamers lose we got a weak piece of shit console because of kinect.

This article is beyond stupid, really. The Xbox One all-in-one entertainment system still does exactly what it intended to do the day it launched. The only thing removing Kinect 2.0 does is give options to those that don't care about what the device does and just want games. Kinect will still be bundled and sold separately. The company is still updating and buildings apps around it. Game wise, you'll still see dance and kids games occasionally. But the NFL app, Xbox Fitness, Skype, Twitch. Upload Studio, and upcoming Netflix voice command app, as well as others are still being developed. You can still snap programs, quick switch between them and games, and control the entire OS via voice or motion. But a number of gamers don't care about those things and don't want to pay for the device, hence MS giving them a cheaper option. Nothing MS launched with has been discontinued, lol. And nothing it launched with isn't being updated, optimized, or developed for. When I look at the lineup of the next 2 years of Sunset Overdrive, Killer Instinct Season 2, Gears of War 4, Quantum Break, Halo 2 Anniversary, Forza Horizon 2, Fable Legends, Halo 5 and the unannounced new games we'll here about at E3 if I have to play Dragons Age 3 and Watchdogs at a lower resolution than the PS4 counterpart I'm fine with that. I'm not missing out on those exclusive games. I'll enjoy Watch Dogs, Mass Effect 4, and everything else just as much as my PS4 pals, but with Halo and Gears and Fable as well.