Xbox One new marketing, a Kinectless version and a game for 400? CBOAT: Maybe

I walk in the room home from work and say Xbox On... EVERYTHING turns on. My TV, receiver and Direct TV all turn on. Having to put a head set on imo is not the same as just walking into a room and just start saying commands. It's an awesome feature if you have your whole home entertainment system hooked up to it.

MiMms1ol.jpg


Been doing this for years, except instead of speaking I press 1 button.
Turns on SAT, TV, Surround Sound Receiver, Ambient Lights, and switches all the inputs so I'm watching TV.
 
I know it's not the same but I was able to say "Playstation, Battlefield, Start" from across the room when my pulse elites were plugged into my controller before the headset patch, I can't imagine why it wouldn't still work now. So it's not like you have to have a headset on to do the voice controls, I know they are no way as deep as the xbox voice commands but still thats just a software issue. Get rid of kinnect, put a decent cheap mic in the box instead, job done.
 
Xbone isn't even 3 months old yet. Give them at least a year to come up with better uses/ games for the Kinect.

3 months people ! Relax, and take a deep breath. I know everyone wants Xbone to fail but come on now, it's only been 3 months.

The idea of kinect and motion gaming has been tried for more than 7 years now. Wii, Move, Kinect on 360 etc. so far the only success has been Wii Sports, Dance Central, Just Dance.

It is a good accessory to have, but inventing new game types to suit the motion controls has been hard for the industry. So far no one has cracked the code yet.
 
I hope it's true. The concept of kinect has failed in my eyes, it couldn't deliver on the promise, the potential was never unlocked. Now this thing only costs money and takes space away.

Ditch it, bury it ... the damage this thing has dealt to the xbox brand was in the end not worth the temporarily gain in profits in the later 360 years.

Bring it back when someone found out to realise minority report controls with it and truly make it work.

Well, i'm kinda serious about that
 
Cool about the price but without Kinect? That's a dumb idea and another reversal that won't sit well with early adopters.

Early adopters are often a casualty when sales don't meet expectations. As a day-one 3DS owner, i can relate, even with the embassador program.
 
Early adopters are often a casualty when sales don't meet expectations. As a day-one 3DS owner, i can relate, even with the embassador program.

I dunno about the 3DS, what did Nintendo do?
But yeah, I don't think getting rid of Kinect will solve MS problems. Just my opinion.
 
they need to do more than just drop the price to convince me

at the moment the only reason to buy an xbone is if i really liked buying halo, forza, gears of war, and fable every two years, and don't mind the fact that all of them have been redesigned to wring as much money out of me through fee-to-pay shite as possible

at the moment i don't believe MS would drop the price (hence cut revenue) without trying to 'diversify revenue streams' elsewhere by filling their games with microtransactions
 
I dunno about the 3DS, what did Nintendo do?
But yeah, I don't think getting rid of Kinect will solve MS problems. Just my opinion.

They significantly dropped the price (from 249 to 169) just 5 months after the release.
They offered gba games as digital downloads to early adopters.
 
I've been saying for months that Microsoft won't ditch Kinect out of fear of fragmentation. But you know what, I have to admit I'm extremely disappointed that its technology isn't being utilised to its full extent. And I don't think there's anything on the horizon that does either, apart from maybe D4.

There's so much potential and it seems to be just wasting away like last time.
 
Dang I wish I had waited. I don't really like Kinect other than a big microphone in the room lol. Maybe they could have a mic built into the system where you could still do verbal commands. That's really the only unique thing anyone uses Kinect for anyone nowadays.
 
I dunno, the Kinectless version should have been an option from day one. It's going to be really hard to remove it and convince people they're getting a deal. A lot of people are going to ask Best Buy employees what the difference is between the two SKUs and, upon hearing the $100 cheaper one removed something (something they have heard about in the mainstream, to boot), they'll still look at the $500 one as the main one and decide it is too expensive. A game might mitigate this somewhat, but probably not by enough to matter.

They can't take a loss because investors are already upset with the tenuous grasp the entertainment division has on profitability, they can't ditch the Kinect, and they can't go back in time. Only thing they can do is move forward and try to position $500 Xbox Ones as a better value than $400 PS4s.
 
Like there are a ton of 3rd party studios developing interesting stuff for Kinect anyway.
I'm not sure that for most people the Kinect wasn't just a neat new device the way Wii and Wii Sports/Fit were for them. I'd be interested to see polls about Kinect's appeal as of today.
 
I can't see why people are so obsessed about Kinect as a differentiator, being different doesn't automatically sell. The good thing about so many people being on-line is that MS should know how many people are using Kinect in a meaningful way, I suspect that will tell them they need to ditch it ASAP.
 
For some reason, I have a hard time believing that they will drop Kinect when it was such an important part of the system in the first place.
 
So how much would a standalone Kinect retail for? I don't see it retailing for less than the 360 kinect so I don't think this is a good value, but it would probably sucker some people into considering it at 399 when they werent even looking at it at 499. There's also the whole throwing away your core vision thing.

Personally I would rather get the 499 SKU, but I don't want either really.
 
I personally think Kinect is a good thing for the X1. I don't believe it really has useful game applications but it does serve as a nice feature that compliments the OS. Juggling apps all running in real time is nicely managed with voice control. I use it as a media box (I mostly game on PS4) but I will certainly enjoy X1 exclusives as they roll in. Ti.Tan.Fall.

Kinect really is the feature that sets the box apart from just being a lower powered PS4. Microsoft does need to decrease the console price, but should do so by refining production as opposed to tossing out something that defines the console's experience.

Everyone here who says to throw it out and drop $100.00 would be just as well served by simply dropping $100.00 and keeping Kinect in. That way MS at least has a shot at grabbing you with the media features and keeping you on the console more. (no matter how much you may complain, once you start using Kinect it grows on you)

Microsoft needs a price drop and as many exclusives as they can grab. If a game's better on PS4, I'm going to play it there. If it's not on PS4 at all... You got me Xbox.
 
Now we wait for Sony to announce a new PS4 + PlayStation Camera bundle for $400.

Microsoft, you just activated their trap card.
 
I could get behind the idea of a kinectless XO sku if it was priced no more than $299. MS has a lot decisions to make. Just really reinforces that the Xbox team had no idea what core gamers value. Its always been about the more powerful hardware since the 16bit days.
 
Wow, I still am skeptical they would ever ditch Kinect. That would be such a failure.

That's my take. I haven't jumped into next-gen yet, but if they ditch Kinect I'm definitely going PS4. MS would have basically abandoned everything they championed and would confirm that they have absolutely no clue what they're doing and are running around like a chicken with it's head cutoff. Who knows what they'll take out next. HDMI input? Rumble triggers? Literally everything the X1 has that PS4 doesn't?
 
I could get behind the idea of a kinectless XO sku if it was priced no more than $299. MS has a lot decisions to make. Just really reinforces that the Xbox team had no idea what core gamers value. Its always been about the more powerful hardware since the 16bit days.

that isn't actually true. if anything, it's the opposite. PSone beat out the N64, PS2 beat out the GC and xbox, the wii beat out the PS3 and 360.

price is the biggest factor, and when THAT is combined with a systems capabilities, then you see a landslide win. for me, much like the wii-u, MS is stuck trying to sell their system solely on their exclusives, because i see no reason anyone would buy the machine for it's multiplatform titles given they are consistently worse.

but you're right, they need to price accordingly. 399 with no kinect is all well and good, but it still sits next to a console that's the same price but more powerful. they need to undercut. no-one wants to pay the same/more for less.
 
The marketing is absolutely atrocious.

The tv ads here in Germany feature UK Liverpool football players, quotes from American magazine (which nobody knows) how amazing the system is and of course it is mostly about tv/multimedia features. And the voice over in the ads is just sooo bad.

When you advertise here, at least make some ads that are appropriate for our country. So i would say a new marketing is definitely needed. Get on that asap.
 
I know it's not the same but I was able to say "Playstation, Battlefield, Start" from across the room when my pulse elites were plugged into my controller before the headset patch, I can't imagine why it wouldn't still work now. So it's not like you have to have a headset on to do the voice controls, I know they are no way as deep as the xbox voice commands but still thats just a software issue. Get rid of kinnect, put a decent cheap mic in the box instead, job done.

Yes. Gestures work fine in Kinect Sports Rivals but even there controller would work better. The only good thing about Kinect is voice recognition (although that's shitty on a different level, yesterday I was coughing and suddenly the Xbox started Crimson Dragon. In Dead Rising 3 the slightest noises can force you to the map. It clearly doesn't understand what you're saying, it's just based on a certain combination of sound level and pauses. Probably the cheap solution to make the launch (which is also why it is so limited).
 
I know it's not the same but I was able to say "Playstation, Battlefield, Start" from across the room when my pulse elites were plugged into my controller before the headset patch, I can't imagine why it wouldn't still work now. So it's not like you have to have a headset on to do the voice controls, I know they are no way as deep as the xbox voice commands but still thats just a software issue. Get rid of kinnect, put a decent cheap mic in the box instead, job done.

The irony here is that the Xbox One does ship with a headset in every box already, but most of the voice commands are still Kinect exclusive because reasons.

I dunno, the Kinectless version should have been an option from day one. It's going to be really hard to remove it and convince people they're getting a deal. A lot of people are going to ask Best Buy employees what the difference is between the two SKUs and, upon hearing the $100 cheaper one removed something (something they have heard about in the mainstream, to boot), they'll still look at the $500 one as the main one and decide it is too expensive. A game might mitigate this somewhat, but probably not by enough to matter.

They can't take a loss because investors are already upset with the tenuous grasp the entertainment division has on profitability, they can't ditch the Kinect, and they can't go back in time. Only thing they can do is move forward and try to position $500 Xbox Ones as a better value than $400 PS4s.

Unfortunately, this isn't possible. Ever. You will never convince consumers that a console is worth $100 more when 90% of the library runs worse, no matter how many non-gaming functions you have. It's easier to fight the "we're only slightly worse value" war than it is to fight the "we're worth a premium" war that MS has never won in any consumer electronics field.
 
People are saying Kinect is the difference between the PS4 and Xbone, please tell me how? The voice commands can all be done with a cheap microphone (see PS4) and what value has the Kinect camera brought to gaming?
 
Well I have a bet in with my boss that there will be a Kinectless SKU by the end of the year. Looking good for me if this does turn out to be true.

Would be shocked if it happened as early as summer. Thought they would try and hold off until Christmas
 
People are saying Kinect is the difference between the PS4 and Xbone, please tell me how? The voice commands can all be done with a cheap microphone (see PS4) and what value has the Kinect camera brought to gaming?

The quality of the microphone does effect the quality of the speech recognition, just like the quality of the camera effects face recognition.

Value of products is extremely subjective. But +6m people bough the Kinect Sports franchise. And as of 2011, 2.5m bought Dance Central. With those types of sales it would be natural to conclude that there is a interest and a market for Kinect games.

Again the value of a product is subjective.
 
The quality of the microphone does effect the quality of the speech recognition, just like the quality of the camera effects face recognition.

Value of products is extremely subjective. But +6m people bough the Kinect Sports franchise. And as of 2011, 2.5m bought Dance Central. With those types of sales it would be natural to conclude that there is a interest and a market for Kinect games.

Again the value of a product is subjective.

Your Right, it is subjective, and I can't under estimate that. But your referring to is the 360 numbers.... I'm simply talking about Kinect 2.0 I have yet to see a "killer app" for 2.0. I get what your trying to compare, but this was the same thinking that Nintendo did with the Wii to the Wii U, I don't think that turned out to well for them.
 
For me, I think price justification is really the core issue, not Kinect in and of itself. The inability to justify the Xbone's price tag is straight up killing their momentum. If the Xbone as-is was at price parity with the PS4, then the price of the Xbone - despite being completely under-powered for a next-gen console - could be rationalised or explained with a half-decent marketing campaign. If they ditch Kinect and only achieve price parity, the problem of justifying the price will remain: if they drop Kinect, they need to eat a bigger price cut and come in under the PS4. Being as the Xbone appears to be Microsoft's last chance to make the Xbox brand profitable, I can't see them taking yet even more loses to play the long game for a third generation. Microsoft banked on the Xbone setting the world on fire.

On a side note, as the start of this gen continues to roll on I'm still really intrigued by the Xbone's performance. Did the circus that occurred pre-launch really do this much damage? Or did the unjustified price tag and under-powered hardware do it? Or both?
 
A price drop just in time for Microsoft to go chasing the casual market once more at the expense of the core gamer.

We learn from history that we don't learn from history.
 
The quality of the microphone does effect the quality of the speech recognition, just like the quality of the camera effects face recognition.

Value of products is extremely subjective. But +6m people bough the Kinect Sports franchise. And as of 2011, 2.5m bought Dance Central. With those types of sales it would be natural to conclude that there is a interest and a market for Kinect games.

Again the value of a product is subjective.

Can't these people just buy Kinect separately, or the Kinect SKU?


You don't have to answer, you're not saying that kinect shouldn't be removed. I missed the context of your comment, my bad.
 
Not going to happen, but a $400 XBox One with Kinect will if they continue to fall behind by big numbers. What will be interesting are those who still complain about Kinect even at that price. Microsoft is best to simply ignore those people all-together if that's the case.
 
Early adopters always pay more for less, it happens all the time.

No the point I was making...

You think that Microsoft will keep on churning out core friendly titles once they start chasing those casual mass market dollars?

If the 360 is anything to go by there will be slim pickings for core gamers when this happens and more emphasis on family friendly shovelware.

It's bad news for core gamers if Microsoft are going to a more mass market friendly price point already, you'll be seeing fewer core gamer titles, not more.
 
For some reason, I have a hard time believing that they will drop Kinect when it was such an important part of the system in the first place.

Also how much R&D cost they will incur to re-write the OS. They still need to fix things like party chat etc. Unless they start the kinectless OS development now.. it wont happen by Summer. It will take a long time to update core OS features.

If they make the decision only by May.. we may not see a cheap kinectless version till fall.
 
Top Bottom