The only thing that still nags at me: online first time requirement. It just feels wrong to accept that, even though I know it would basically never be an actual problem for me. Hopefully that'll get revoked eventually. But who knows. Getting rid of it would clash with their philosophy, but keeping it clashes with mine. I'll probably just get over myself and buy One anyway at some point.
Then there are smaller things. They aren't deal breakers, but they're enough to make me get a PS4 first this year, and get a One whenever I can afford it.
Many (most?) One games seem to be built around the plan of always being online. I don't like the integration to start with, but they take it to the point where a lot of those require the connection for 'the infinite power of the cloud'. No thanks. Plus, features could easily end up locked behind a paywall in a variety of 'online-only' games, who knows.
There's the whole idea of Microsoft patching in their original vision. They've said over and over that the original plan for X1 is still what they'd like to move towards (or something similar to that effect). Obviously I can avoid it by keeping my system offline, but what about when games come out that require latest firmware? I can just not play new X1 games after a certain point I guess. But man, what a gimped experience that would be.
The price. Being a hundred bucks over the competitor doesn't help, but it's not even the big thing for me. I just can't afford to get two new consoles, and buy a new TV (so these crazy new-fangled gadgets will even work), and buy games, and buy Christmas presents this year all in addition to living expenses. It just isn't going to work out. MS has already given me a loud, clear message that they hate the things I love. They have no interest in appealing to someone stuck in the past. It all ends up making the X1 an easy cut for now.
The games. Can't fault them too much, seeing that Sony looks to have the same issue, and Nintendo did last year too. But it really doesn't help them in my eyes to have nothing enticing in the line up. The couple of games that do look pretty cool to me (Killer Instinct mainly, Crimson Dragon some) are relegated to DD anyway (which just personally isn't for me. Nothing all that wrong with it, I just don't like it). Forza maybe is the only thing I would really get, but there are already 3 or 4 Forzas for 360 I haven't played.
I keep making comparisons to PS4. I hope I'm not over doing that. When I think of "winning back" consumers though, for now my mind goes immediately to this holiday. I guess it doesn't really matter any more which one does better, since they'll get the same third party games either way. There's definitely a competition factor that will be at play, but I'm not sure how much it will even matter in the face of launch/holiday sellouts. But I'm not really looking at PS4 as some gold standard or any kind of perfection, just a system that hasn't made itself nearly irrelevant to me. I'm not really hyped about it, it just seems like the choice to make.
To answer the question - totally move away from the online focus. Make it like the past 7 generations, where almost every game has some form of offline. Try to push split screen in games that have multiplayer. Stop charging for Gold. Make Kinect optional and cut 100 off the price. Help facilitate smaller games (hopefully all first party games) getting retail releases (in particular put KI in a box). Make more games that are appealing to me (though I don't even know how I'd put that more specifically). And actually, I'm sure that last one will happen in time. (I know some/most of these are super unrealistic and financially terrible ideas)
Ugh, that ended up long winded. This is probably one of those posts I should have typed out, then hit my browser's back button before submitting. Ah well. Topic asked about winning me back, and I gave my ridiculous opinions (with a bit of venting).
TL;DR - Nothing much they can do to win me back fully, because I don't like the basis of their forward-thinking vision. However, I'll probably bend and pick up an X1 cheap after a couple years, or sooner depending on games.
