Canuck
5189
It really doesn’t at all. MS bet on the Kinect which many people find intrusive and leads to gameplay styles that they don’t enjoy. Sony bet on Cell which…what normal gamer even cares what kind of processor is producing their graphics? Sony put out an expensive console but they weren’t skimming $200 of profit off of each one. They were losing money like crazy. I don’t think anyone has criticized MS for trying to recoup their costs. All the complaints are about having to pay for a peripheral that they don’t want or need, not because MS was price gouging.
Nesrie
5190
I think there have been a fair amount of complaints about MS offering an inferior machine, regardless of Kinect.
When basically everything else is the same now, it seems pretty obvious to question why you would get an xbone when the ps4 is more powerful. Arguments that multiplatform games would not use this extra power also seem to have been proven false, even so early in the generation.
I dunno, the dual shock 4 is a huge improvement and I like it better than the wired 360 pad I’d been using for my pc for years.
It really depends on what you want. If you don’t care about ms exclusive stuff or the TV gimmicks then I would say there’s no reason to bother unless all your friends play stuff online on it or something specific like that.
I agree, mostly, but comparing the PS2 success to the 360 success is nuts. PS2’s 153 millions vs Xbox’s 24 millions does not compare to the 360’s 83 millions vs the PS3’s 80 millions…
PS2 owned the market, the 360 shared it. That’s an important difference, even if it doe not, by any means, justify Sony’s stance on the PS3’s launch.
It’s a very nicely built console and I have been pleased with it. I enjoy the UI and voice commands and appreciate having Kinect there (but it has been no use in games so far. It’s there for auto login, “Record That”, Skype and navigation, really). Considering my daughter has played a ton of Kinect games on the 360, I’m sure it will be worth the investment here too. But that probably puts me in a minority group.
As for whether to go for this or the PS4, as usual, it’s a mixture or what exclusives interest you and where your friends are. If there are no must have MS exclusives you must have (I’ve personally enjoyed both some exclusives and multi platform games on it) and you’ll mostly be playing multi platform, give the PS4 controller a try. You might end up appreciate the focus on gaming and higher specs of that console. If you have friends on XBox Live or the Kinect features tempt you, then consider the One. I don’t think the choice is clear cut unless you must be sure you have the highest resolution on every multi platform game. I’ve had a great time with the games on it and really love the navigation and the apps.
I personally think a One without Kinect is less appealing. Because you lose the differentiation and get a slightly slower PS4 at a similar price. But I know many are rejoicing at the announcement.
Wendelius
LMN8R
5195
My question is: Does Microsoft deserve any credit for doing a 180 on the horrible decisions? Especially considering that it was within a fairly short amount of time instead of taking years and years to own up to their mistakes?
Coming from “inside the house”, there’s obviously been a massive change in perspective amongst the leadership of every org - Ballmer leaving, Mattrick leaving, Spencer taking over Xbox, the entire Windows leadership responsible for Windows 8 moving to other things or leaving, the massive “One Microsoft” reorg, etc. etc.
Along with those changes seems to be a much needed revival of sorely lacking consumer empathy, especially with Mattrick leaving. Mattrick was IMO the epitome of arrogance and a lack of consumer empathy, so it’s nice that he’s now the CEO of a company where that’s their entire business model.
I can’t even tell you how bad I’ve wanted to say I want Zynga to crash and burn worse than ever since Mattrick is at their helm but was scared I was somehow being unfair to him. So thank you. I wish future MS could sue him for screwing things up so bad. Instead he’s sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars from MS and Zynga for being a total tool. Some people give him credit for Xbox360 success but I think it succeeded despite him… not because of him.
Teiman
5197
I think they deserve credit for every decision change. And this make Microsoft looks like a more nimble and smart company to my eyes.
Moore
5198
That is how I see it. I need a 99$ one to even consider it. So end of life, used, and I’ll play the 4 or so exclusives they might have by then that I miss out on. I thought the price delta and crappier HW was due to the kinect costing so much, so price parity does nothing for value to me.
Yeah, but this is a double edged sword. The company that changes for the better and understands how the marketplace flows is one thing. But a company that keeps doing 180’s makes you lose faith in their original direction and decision making.
For me, I think this is really bad. We got the extremely hard sell on the Kinect, and how it would change the system and was necessary for the future of gaming. Going back on that (while being the smart move in the eyes of gamers and shareholders) just comes off as tacky to me. If you can’t believe in your own technology and hype, then surely I can’t be expected to.
I’m the exact opposite. I’m fine paying $500, if it has a game I really want and can’t play anywhere else. If it doesn’t have that, I wouldn’t buy it for ten bucks. I have enough crap under my TV already.
KevinC
5201
Absolutely. I even posted as much when this announcement was made. Kudos to MS for responding to feedback.
Personally I find this kinda crazy. There are already more games than I can play that I want to play on platforms I already own. If I was to get any new additional platform, it would have to have a lot more than just one “must play” game for me. I intend to get PS4, but only when Last of Us Remastered, Last Guardian, MGS5, FF15, Destiny, Driveclub, Order and some others are out…and that bets on no PC versions of those games (and I suspect at least some of those - like MGS or FF - will come to PC).
With Xbone, I am only somewhat interested in Quantum Break, which quite possibly could come to PC too (Alan Wake style), and that’s about it, so there is zero appeal for me, for now.
Microsoft are going to have to do more than reverse a number of bad decisions in my book. They need to regain my trust, and so far they have a lot more work to do.
Right now our 360 serves us well, but if it blew up tomorrow (always a possibility!) I’d replace it with a HTPC that can stream Steam games. If it lasts for another 6-12 months and the landscape in the console world has changed in some way that appeals to us, we might consider replacing it with a PS4 or an XBO, but neither is an essential purchase right now. I tend to think we’ll be skipping this console generation completely, but things can change.
Diff’rent strokes, I guess. Everybody has different price sensitivity. If Bioware made Dragon Age 3 xbone-only (and it looked like DA3 wouldn’t suck like DA2) I would get an xbone.
No no no no no. No. The worst thing is when a company refuses to adapt for the very thing you posted. “We’re going to ram this down your throat if it kills you or us”. That’s the Republican/Tea Party mantra in America and it is destroying us (middle class). That’s like saying you wouldn’t want EA to stop their bloodsucking ways of buying out competition and make lame reruns (hello Madden) or when forced to compete, find out they can’t and drop out (hello NBA) leaving consumers with one choice.
Microsoft has my respect for getting rid of the dead weight at the top, bringing in some good guys, and listening/looking at what their users (some of us have been MS fans for nearly 30 years now) would like.
As a member of the INNER CIRCLE (update preview group) I have to say that I’ve been impressed with how fast the dev team work and how responsive they are to the feedback on the preview forums. It’s fair to say they’re battering out updates as fast as they can make them, and I have no doubt they’re genuinely committed to making the XBO a great experience. That said, I still don’t have GTA V, BBC iPlayer or full DLNA control, so none of my critical boxes are ticked yet.
I’m sorry but you don’t get a net positive result by telling me you’re going to fuck me over and then deciding not to when i FORCE you not to at basically gun point.
Microsoft hasn’t been fast at all.
For one, they forced inclusion of the kinect in this generation up until now even though they knew people didn’t want it soon after it came out LAST GENERATION.
For another, they knew their fans didn’t like these ideas the second some suit at microsoft thought them up, they just thought they could get away with it. This is 100% not microsoft adapting to what it finds out its customer wants.
So yes, i’m not impressed with Microsoft at all. I’m impressed by gamers. A company tried to screw us and instead of repeating the iconic “i’m boycotting CoD but when it comes out i’m playing” joke, people stuck to their guns and FORCED Microsoft to back down and do the right thing (for the wrong reasons, but the end result is the same). Now maybe Microsoft will think twice the next time they think about treating their customers like shit.
That is the kind of attitude that perpetuates a system of not listening to consumers… when they finally do the right thing people complain as always. It appears as if executive level management has now been wiped clean and is starting over. The entire organizational structure has been changing in ways that should create less inter-company competition and more cooperation now that individuals are not graded on a curve. Microsoft has been seriously sick for years and you don’t recover from that in a week or a month. Read Hidden Path’s account of working with Microsoft Game Studios from several years ago:
Hopefully whoever Spencer reports to doesn’t turn into another ignoranus.
