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CVG Editor: MS has misunderstood core spectacularly; Xbox One like Ballmer's creation

It means Neogaf reflected the consumer reaction to the WiiU and was not some out-of-touch vocal minority.

I agree. With all of these articles and documentaries, etc. on Neogaf, and it's rapid growth over the past year, I think it's safe to say that we can not be discredited by being called the "vocal minority" anymore.
 
I'm personally a cord cutter, and I have both of those services due to my parents having subscriptions. Considering the cord cutting movement is anchored by the younger generation, it's safe to assume that a lot of people are utilizing this same crutch.
You're making the reverse of the argument you seem to think you're making.
 
What TV functionality does it even do? I missed the conference and all everyone is talking about is the DRM / Always online mess. At it's surface, it seems like the article hit the nail on the head. It would "get in the way" of standard TV viewing. From what I understand it still needs to be connected to a cable box, so it's not even replacing my device. It's like putting a device in between my wall outlet and my toaster that also toasts bread.

A better example would be putting a device between your wall and toaster that allows you to bake a cake. In case you want to switch between baking a cake and toasting bread.

I agree. With all of these articles and documentaries, etc. on Neogaf, and it's rapid growth over the past year, I think it's safe to say that we can not be discredited by being called the "vocal minority" anymore.

Even if GAF had 100k active members it would be a vocal minority.
 
Undoubtably, but will they be timed exclusive or not? They cried wolf with that nonsense before and I'm a patient man.

For me, it depends on what they get. There are a number of exclusives that I think could kill Sony's momentum, then there are those that would really make it hard for me personally. MGS would sting.
 
Their focus on TV was just baffling to me in a time when a record number of consumers have an unfavorable opinion of their cable provider and more and more people are abandoning cable all together for services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO Go etc (services which are behind a paywall on XBox Live btw).
 
I'm personally a cord cutter, and I have both of those services due to my parents having subscriptions. Considering the cord cutting movement is anchored by the younger generation, it's safe to assume that a lot of people are utilizing this same crutch.

You haven't even cut your umbilical cord, dude.
 
Sony just have to do the opposite of Microsoft and they will clean up.
Not that simple. If publishers and investors fall on board with what MS is doing, Sony will be pressured to follow suit in some way. Sony put all it's eggs in the developers and gamers basket, but if gamers don't respond with their wallets, they will be in a pinch.
 
Windows 8 failure.
Xbox one failure incoming??


As it stands the general consensus seems to be ps4 > xbox one in the realm of hardware.

Hardware is better but software matters. But xbox showed bro and cod boy games were the focus of the system. Football watching, basketball swaggin bro kids that play cod seem to be the target. Quite frankly the living room is where i personally do the least gaming.

On the other hand sony seems to be lazer focused on games and developer relations. All the extra features presented by sony only compliment games. And the sense of comfort from that message is warm and encouraging.

Basically in the end
Xbox 1 = live tv, sport games, Codbox, new DRM
Ps4 = games, games, sightly better hardware, games, developers (indie and all parties) and gamers are focal points for system, and you guesses it...games.
 
MS won't improve until Ballmer is pushed the fuck out. In a way it's a shame shareholders don't really have that much control over the company when one of the largest share holders wants to get rid of Ballmer IIRC.

As much as I loathe MS' direction, I think everything's going to change once E3 arrives. Something tells me they've thrown a lot of money around to get exclusives we care about, so I'm sure many of us will "submit" eventually.

Nothing will change as long as I need to connect my box to the internet once every 24 hours. It three weeks for me to get an internet connection when I moved recently. My $400-$500 box would have been an expensive dust collector if I owned the stupid console during this time.
 
More to the point, it's frankly staggering that Microsoft observed the modern ways people view cable TV and believed, somehow, that it could add to the experience by getting in the way of it.

The existing consumer demand to interrupt TV with Skype calls, and a hand-gesture controlled Internet Explorer, can only be described as fictional.

It's as if Microsoft cannot comprehend that its entire market already has phones and qwerty internet browsers at their thumbs when watching re-runs of Friends. Or whatever's on in the background. It's as though Microsoft has wilfully ignored that Siri and other voice command gimmicks, and QR codes and other camera-based technologies, have flat-lined despite their comprehensive promotion.

nailed...

The thing that blows my mind the most about the reveal is that with all of the rumors and leaks, MS knew exactly how people would react to the console. They had months of seeing the writing on the wall and could have easily made some changes to how they presented things in order to curb some of the negativity. They just blatantly ignored it and went with their original plan.

this's the part that mystifies me the most, as well. the utter, complete lack of flexibility manages to actually surpass the cluelessness of the vision. 'lumbering giant' confirmed...
 
I agree. With all of these articles and documentaries, etc. on Neogaf, and it's rapid growth over the past year, I think it's safe to say that we can not be discredited by being called the "vocal minority" anymore.

Hundreds of millions of people bought video game consoles in the last 10 or so years.

GAF is still a tiny part of that audience.
 
the xbox one still plays games, seems fine to me. Game fans seems to think their world revolves around them. They said awhile ago that e3 would be where they showed off the games. Less than a month away, and its not like you can buy the damn thing yet so i don't know why people expect everything to be known right away. And Build is at the end of june which will have xbox stuff.
 
I've been a MS supporter for a long long long time....hell I was an evangelist of the original XBox from the day they announced it.

but this is just over the top....it's like they are TRYING to sabotage themselves.......its very sad to me that I have no interest in buying the next generation of Xbox.........and only a minor passing interest in PS4 and I'd piss on a plugged in WiiU before playing it.

I really feel that if MS doesn't get out in front of this(and make some changes) they are fucked

Assuming you were interested in the Xbox and 360 because of games, it seems like you'd have a major interest in the PS4.

This article really hits the nail on the head of all the issues with Microsoft's conference yesterday.
 
A better example would be putting a device between your wall and toaster that allows you to bake a cake. In case you want to switch between baking a cake and toasting bread.

So what does baking a cake entail here? Is it addeditve to the TV experience or, is it just a quick way to swap between th two? My reciever does that.

Speaking of that ... I wonder how this would wire to a reciever. Cable > Box > Reciever > TV
 
That's a problem.

The whole thing seems a little out-of-touch with reality in all honesty. The conclusion at MS seems to be that Cable TV is the future.

?
Why do you get that vibe? They clearly view digital distribution of TV content as the future. Cable TV is just the thing that isn't going away in the short to medium term and that is essential to any holistic approach to living-room entertainment provision.
 
Disagree with the article's headline. I don't think MS has misunderstood the core at all, their priorities have simply moved on.
 
People are going to be so disappointed when this thing ultimately succeeds. It's going to succeed on the fact that the Xbox name has grown to be synonymous with gaming in several regions alone. The only things that stands in their way is price point, and/or having their release date undercut by a significant duration.

I personally disagree with the notion of the article. They're heading into uncharted territories, and personally, I think pushing the non-gaming aspects of the console is a smart move considering gaming is to be expected with a games console. You have to set yourself apart, and in terms of expanding marketshare, I don't think doubling down on games is an intelligent way to do that.

But it's not like PS4 isn't a multimedia machine. I can stream content from my bedroom's hard drive through my Ps3 already and can take video files and plug them in via USB. PS3 also has a blu-ray player and streaming services like Netflix. It just seems like the Xbox is going for multimedia things that nobody asked for, like voice recognition and gesture controls and being a different interface into the cable box that you already have.

It also becomes absolutely an American only machine due to the US focus of all the multimedia features and Americans have always been graphics whores as well so even in America it isn't the most powerful gaming system and if the multiplatform games truly look leagues better on PS4, Americans will notice.
 
Good article. I'm not one to root for anything to fail but if everything we've read and heard over the past 24 hours is what we expect it to be then I'll make an exception. It would set such a bad precedent for the rest of the industry (if Sony announces the same shit at E3 they can fuck off too) that I'm not really sure why anyone would support this. It's the most anti-consumer approach to gaming we've ever seen.
 
I rarely watch TV myself, but even my wife (and she's 50 49 years old) is using her tablet and computer to stream her shows. The younger people at work seem to be slowly ditching cable and using their computers for TV. Is this a trend now?

Serious question, I honestly have no clue.
 
12efe12e9edamme.gifwwbpg.gif
 
The next hot feature of the Xbone will be that it comes with six months free of AOL

MSN surely? And by that I mean The Microsoft Network walled garden where companies had to pay Microsoft to get their website included.

The idea of the system is awful

People are disconnecting from cable at a record pace so the killer app for the new console is... cable?! What kind of backward ass thinking is that?

That cord cutting is happening relatively slowly doesn't negate that it's occurring. And it would seem likely to me that it's more prevalent amongst a younger, tech-savvy demographic that would also (one would think) be MS' core audience for Xbox One.

It doesn't matter whether people are disconnecting or not. Remember when Nintendo was crowing about how awesome it is to play games and surf the web on the Wii U Gamepad whilst someone else watches TV in the same room, even though people had been doing these things for years on tablets, phones, laptops and Game Boys? Well Microsoft are selling you something even dumber.

They are selling you the ability to watch TV on your TV. And not some crazy, new fangled TV that will shake up the way we watch things and throw the cable and dish companies under the bus, but the cable TV that you already have, from the box that you already have.

When Apple released the iPod and the iTunes Music Store, they irreversibly changed the way we listen to, buy and store music. This TV function would be what would happen if the iPod was a way to keep playing your same CDs, but you had to already have a Discman to use as a source. The iPod would be a dumb terminal that did nothing but sit there, displaying ads and sending your listening habits back to their advertisers.

Cos that's really all this is. Microsoft want to know what you watch on cable because it's worth advertising revenue to them.

I don't see what's wrong with one device that does many things well.

Because it isn't one device. You still need a cable box.
 
So gen after last you just put in a game and played it. Last gen opened up the multimedia and online aspects of gaming.

The Xbox one as was the 360 are still gong consoles with extras.

Why is everyone so upset about media functions?
 
I'm wondering if watching TV through your Xbox will be behind the paywall of Xbox Live.

Wouldn't surprise me considering Netflix is behind the paywall.
 
It's almost impressive how they managed to fuck up this reveal completely.

The general public doesn't bat a fucking eye at the proposed features and they alienated all their core followers by showing fucking nothing of worth from a gaming perspective.
And after the conference, when the real nitty gritty details about the device came out, they make the Xbox One look even worse! It all felt really poorly planned.
 
It's almost impressive how they managed to fuck up this reveal completely.

The general public doesn't bat a fucking eye at the proposed features and they alienated all their core followers by showing fucking nothing of worth from a gaming perspective.
And after the conference, when the real nitty gritty details about the device came out, they make the Xbox One look even worse! It all felt really poorly planned.


It is harder to follow a success than it is a failure, just ask Nintendo or most movie sequels or follow up albums.
 
Hundreds of millions of people bought video game consoles in the last 10 or so years.

GAF is still a tiny part of that audience.

Right, but piggybacking off of the person I quoted, I didn't mean "We have a lot of members." I was going more for "our views are indicative of the masses' views".

IMO, we can't be called the 'vocal minority' anymore because the regular ol' consumers are starting to feel the same way that we do.
 
Not that simple. If publishers and investors fall on board with what MS is doing, Sony will be pressured to follow suit in some way. Sony put all it's eggs in the developers and gamers basket, but if gamers don't respond with their wallets, they will be in a pinch.

What will publishers do? Not publish games on sony platforms?

Sure... if they want to go bankrupt over night.

Disagree with the article's headline. I don't think MS has misunderstood the core at all, their priorities have simply moved on.

And so may the core audience that made the 360 a success. Brand loyalty is a joke, look no further than the PS3.
 
I agree with some of the points in the article. Ive worked weekends in an electronics store for about 4 years now and separate cable boxes are disliked by most customers. The demand demand for them is dying off completely mostly because you have that feature built into the smart-tvs of today, not to mention the other platforms that are stealing a lot of customers, such as netflix and other streaming services. Sure, you could actually use netflix on the xbox, but that still bypasses most of what they talked about in their presentation.
 
And often necessary when picture quality/game mode settings are different for movies/tv and games.

Hooooly shit. You are so right. Never even thought about this aspect. I bet they didn't either.

"Xbox TV!" *grabs tv remote - brightness down - THX mode enabled - color cool - noise reduction off* etc.

Yea...much better than hitting the input button. :(
 
People are going to be so disappointed when this thing ultimately succeeds. It's going to succeed on the fact that the Xbox name has grown to be synonymous with gaming in several regions alone. The only things that stands in their way is price point, and/or having their release date undercut by a significant duration.

I personally disagree with the notion of the article. They're heading into uncharted territories, and personally, I think pushing the non-gaming aspects of the console is a smart move considering gaming is to be expected with a games console. You have to set yourself apart, and in terms of expanding marketshare, I don't think doubling down on games is an intelligent way to do that.

The Playstation name was synonymous with gaming at one point, and then the PS3 happened.

But, no matter if Microsoft had positioned the original Xbox onward as an "all in one entertainment" box, the Xbox brand was built on the games and the gamers.

What they're going for, is a different consumer segment --and that's fine. They're looking growth in numbers, and they think they've identified an untapped base. But that segment is a completely different segment that doesn't necessarily comprise of gamers, and that segment already have their own brand prejudices.

And again, that's fine, but for that new consumer segment, they don't necessarily equate the "Xbox" brand with what Microsoft is going for.
 
As I read the OP, I ask myself...

"What if MS never went the Kinect route? What would the new Xbox be like then?"

Everything feels like MS is trying to cram Kinect down our throats... and convince us that it is the future.

They are not giving us something we are asking for. They are telling us what we want.

This seems to be the entire philosophy of the XboxOne.

(It was kind of similar with Windows 8)
 
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