Microsoft has long been a company that I admire. I'm not at all ashamed to admit that. Hell, I worked for the company when Windows 8, the Surface tablet, Office 365, and the Xbox One were all released. I worked for Microsoft's retail division in sales during a big shakeup in the company's management, reinvention of their image, and the mind-boggling gambles of the last two years. I no longer work for the company, and while that is a story in and of itself, I want to discuss the Xbox One and Microsoft's approach to gaming from the perspective of someone who has worked on the inside and was privy to a lot of internal discussion about the future of Xbox.
I do like my Xbox One, although I don't use it very much. I prefer my gaming PC, but there are a few games I play on the thing. I got it on launch day for a slight discount and I have most of the AAA titles for it. I mostly use it for music and video content, and I do enjoy the cohesive experience with my phone and tablet. All that being said, Microsoft has been issuing a lot of "**** you" statements to people who bought the console on day one, and now that Microsoft is going to sell the device without Kinect for $100 less than the asking price at launch, I can't help but feel this is a move being made for the wrong reasons and at the wrong time.
The Kinect 2.0 is a nifty peripheral, but it's not the selling point of the console. When I worked for Microsoft, they wanted us to demonstrate the Kinect during just about every customer interaction involving the Xbox One. I managed to sell a few consoles to non-gamers on the promise of the Kinect alone, but I have certainly never much cared for it. It's there, I use it for some convenient voice commands, but I can take it or leave it.
EVERYONE can take it or leave it, and forcing people to pay a premium for it was a mistake.
The games for it aren't particularly good, and navigating menus using the device can be slipshod at best. Using voice commands like "Xbox go to Netflix" while there are other people in the room will inevitably lead to your friends shouting things like "Xbox turn off," or "Xbox suck a fat dick." That last one got real old, real fast. And watching a Netflix movie with people on the couch will often cause the Kinect to pick up on someone's hand reaching for a tasty beverage, sometimes pausing, rewinding, or changing some sort of setting. The Kinect is awesome when you want to use it, which is seldom.
So now they're selling the console for a hundred bucks less without the thing, and those of us who bought it on day one are feeling a bit cheated. Even the Titanfall bundle that was being sold for $450 and packaged with the game was a slap in the face to everyone who bought the console day one, while Sony is enjoying plenty of satisfied customers who have a console with a lot of power and a lower price point.
The option to purchase the console without the thing should have been an option from the start, and making it an option just over six months from launch with no consideration for other consumers is caving to demand while abandoning those who were there from the beginning. Yes, there are a lot of Xbox One owners with a bit of buyer's remorse. There aren't many games, the console isn't as powerful as the PS4, and it's a bulky monstrosity in my entertainment unit. That being said, I still like the device, but this new price reduction leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Microsoft made a lot of mistakes with the rollout of the new console, sending all the goodwill earned by the stellar Xbox 360 up in flames. As one of the experts in my store regarding all things Xbox, I had to answer a lot of questions about a lot of things I wish Microsoft had just not said or done. Microsoft is Microsoft's biggest enemy right now. They're the Peter Molyneux of console manufacturers. They promised a lot that sounded good and a whole lot more that was little more than the wishful thinking of a marketing department run amok. All Sony had to do to seal up launch supremacy was say, "this here. It plays games. Look at them games. Them games is awesome. Buy this and play games." And it worked. Hell, it worked beautifully. If Microsoft had any sense, they would give every "day one edition" consumer a free $60 game of their choice to make up for this.
I still have hope for the Xbox One, but right now the thing is sitting in my entertainment unit gathering dust. My Astro A50 headphones began to have connection issues and firmware-flashing problems from the day I plugged them into the thing, and right now, I use it mostly to watch Blu-ray movies and watch Netflix, occasionally playing a few games of Titanfall or Dead Rising 3. I still have hope, but right now I'm really not appreciating the way Microsoft is looking down its nose at the gamers that were there on launch day, ready to fork over more money for something that didn't live up to its promise.
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