Wonder what exactly happened to Microsoft this time around. They beat Sony to the punch by being first to launch and also having great support for the first two years. They constantly upgraded their online services and started introducing new experiences into xbox live. And now here we are, months before release and Microsoft is still constantly fumbling the ball.
Its really sad to see because the original xbox got me into console gaming, despite all the available consoles at the time. I loved xbox live and I wouldn't have got into gaming as much without it. They don't seem to be ready for launch and it just makes me wonder what exactly have they been doing these last few years considering the performance of Sony these last few months. Sony hasn't stop throwing the punches and you knew things were going to go down when Kaz mentioned that he had no intention on showing his cards first. Sony is even releasing their console in October! That just shows how on point they are this time around.
And now MS is considering a Kinectless SKU. That just shows how things are right now.
The Third Console curse would be the short answer.
A longer answer would be that Microsoft lost sight of what their console - a video game console - should be focused on and who it's for. It reminds me of when someone said something akin to "we make video games for people that don't play video games." There was a Penny Arcade strip about it, I think.
The Xbox One was (and maybe still is) all about living room media center domination; that's why the Kinect is really so important to Microsoft, it lends legitimacy to the notion that the Xbox One isn't just a loser console for losers, but a respectable set top box for normal people. Think of the harder sell it will be if the ads contain people using the controller as opposed to using Kinect. Despite its growing acceptance, video games and 'gamers' in particular are still surrounded in social stigma.
There's also the hard push for digital only distribution by Microsoft and its Windows 8 platform. I'm sure much of it was directly influenced by industry giants going for strict anti-piracy and anti-used games measures. They're trying to cash in as much as possible - and there's nothing wrong with that per se - but, unfortunately, at the expense of consumer rights and freedoms; they're treating everyone like crooks unwilling to give them every last cent they
rightfully deserve.
Kinect could be great for games. There's no doubt about that. However, we would be blind not to see the immense marketing and DRM potential it presents. That's beside the added cost without added benefit it provides to gamers. According to CBOAT, there's an actual possibility now (not just wishliting from us) of a sans Kinect SKU: shafting early adopters and consigning Kinect to useless peripheral once more.
Pride, arrogance, and greed at the assured success of Xbox One has led Microsoft down this road. They'll probably do alright if they continue backpedaling but I'm certain it'll be nowhere near where they envisioned themselves.
