It is a goof, yes, but it's one that they probably aren't going to take lying down. The Xbone is going to come out, and I too predict that most people are going to stick with the 360 and just supplement it with the WiiU/PS4/PC.

At this point, Microsoft will have three choices.

A.) Throw more support to the 360 and try to rush out a 'real' next-gen console in the meantime, doing damage control for the Bone.

B.) Realize they hosed up with the Bone and start patching the holy hell out of it to make it a decent gaming machine, dropping the DRM measures and the Kinetic-requirement for all play.

C.) Stop all support for the 360, shut down any dedicated 360 servers for multiplayer games that they control, stop patching 360 games or allowing patches to be approved, and freeze the marketplace and arcade by adding no new content in a bid to force people to switch over to the Bone by making the 360 unsupported, stagnant, and quasi-unplayable for certain games.

Which one do you think Microsoft is more likely to do?

Because I already know what my guess is. I think they'll do the simplest thing they can to try and fix the problem. And stopping something that you're already doing, i.e. doing 'nothing,' is as easy and simple as it gets.

When the 360 proves to be more popular by a vast margin than the Xbone, I think they'll try and sink it instead of supporting it or trying to fix the Xbone. If I was a corporate executive who didn't care about the consumers and only liked the bottom line, it's what I would do. It's simple, cheap, quick, requires less work than what they're already currently doing, and I'd argue that supporting the 360 anyway would be a losing bet, because it's outdated hardware and not worth preserving, because it can't compete. Shoot it in the head now and force everyone to move on. It's the smart thing to do.

You have to keep in mind, guys, that like Samkar said, Microsoft is playing a different game than everyone else. They're more concerned about what Google or Apple might do than anything Sony or Nintendo are doing. I saw a YouTube advertisement about an hour ago for the Xbone, and the spokesman who was showing it off to the other guy flat-out SAID that "it's a multimedia center, not a gaming platform." He flat out said that, literally. It is not. A gaming. Machine.

The game they're playing is all about SmartTVs and home computers. They want to be your internet browser, your cable television provider, your operating system, and your home entertainment player for accessing movies and using social networking services like FaceBook and Tumblr. Don't get me wrong; the Xbox One will play games. But playing games on the Xbone isn't the point of the machine. That's not what it's designed for.

Don't believe me? How about that Bing campaign? You've probably seen it by now. It's scattered fairly openly across the internet, and there are advertisements for it on television as well as internet ads. "Bing is better than Google! Take our challenge! We'll prove it to you right now! Bing is so much better than Google in every way, it's just amazing! Stop being a Google user, and switch to Bing today!"

Wanna take a guess who owns and publishes Bing, assuming you don't know already?

Microsoft, that's who.

They're infinitely more threatened by Google Chrominum OS than the WiiU or the PS4, and they'd be far more likely to shit their pants over a rumor that Google and Apple were merging than anything about how much more powerful the PS4 will be than their machine. From Microsoft's point of view and the way they see things, the console "wars" are just an unimportant skeetball sideshow attraction. They want control the whole metaphorical carnival.

You want the truth? This was never about putting out a next-generation console. That was never really their plan with this machine. What they're trying to do is predict what the other tech-giants are going to do, and beat them to the punch. In this particular instance, they're trying to beat Apple and Google to the multimedia home entertainment market. This was never about a next-generation gaming console, and I'm pretty sure that if they could have gotten away with it, the Xbox One wouldn't have even played games besides app-games like Angry Birds, nor would it have been called the Xbox One. They're just trying to use the Xbox brand name as a springboard to get people to use the device for all of it's peripherals, which are what they're really trying to sell. It's the gaming that is the accessory this time, and the multimedia suite is now the main attraction. Their demonstration at the reveal and their own not-even-really-indirect admission that it is not a gaming machine is proof of that, if nothing else. It is only called an Xbox because the need to call it that to sell it, and it only plays games because even they know they could never sell the idea of an Xbox that doesn't play games.

Their ideal vision of what they want to happen is your living room with a SmartTV, made by Microsoft that uses Microsoft software and has a built-in Kinetic or some equivalant hardware, and an Xbox One or future descendent device underneath, and it is the only thing underneath. No VCR, no DVD player, no cable box or sattelite hookup. Just that one thing, which does everything, and has Bing 2.0 and a Windows 18 OS to replace your computer as well, and you're charged a monthly bundled fee for all of the services.

They aren't going to spin things like the Kinetic as "always watching." It will be, but they're going to spin it and the DRM features as being something to the tune of "it will automatically block R or PG-13 movies, shows, and content if Jimmy walks in the room. He won't even be able to see them to select them if he uses the television. It will just make them invisible to anyone the Kinetic recognizes as not being allowed to see it. If he walks in and you're watching Boondock Saints or something, it will just automatically pause and kick you to a screensaver or the news."

That's what this always on Kinetic feature is. That's what it was DESIGNED FOR. That is literally why it exists. They don't care that it screws over gamers massively, because we aren't their target anymore. This is a gaming console that is being marketed at people who don't play games.

 

There is no way in hell they just drop the Xbone and try to design a new next-gen game console. The costs involved are way the fuck too high for that. They either stay the course and fall behind Sony (and eventually Nintendo, when a real Mario and Zelda game come out that system will start fucking selling) or they will release patches to try to fix the perceived issues with the system.

 

You're forgetting that Microsoft doesn't really view this as a next-gen console. They're only using the Xbox brand to sell something that was never about gaming to begin with. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they come out with some kind of incredibly expensive peripheral to the Xbone itself that allows it to play games better (i.e. better graphics, more processing power, more memory and storage, ect), and market that as an attachment "for the gaming segment."

 

The XBone already has the hardware to run games well, though. They won't need that peripheral. It's certainly an order of magnitude stronger than the WiiU, for example. What they'll need is to patch the system or, hell, change their marketing.

 

They're not going to patch the system the way it needs to be patched, though. Again, they're not putting out a console. Not really. They're producing something else. They're just re-labeling it into an Xbox, the same way most RTS games on console got pitched as something different because they know being honest won't sell anything.

It's not like there's no precedent for doing this, either.

Brutal Legend is totally the exaggerated adventures of Jack Black playing a Mary Sue of himself! It's not an RTS! Don't be absurd, we would never make a deep and interesting character-driven narrative about bandfights as an RTS, set in a universe that is a parody-loveletter to the golden age of rock and roll! That would never sell! IT HAS JACK BLACK IN IT! HE'S FUNNY AND JACK BLACK!

 

How on Earth can anyone seriously look at the XBone and say "Oh boy I want to fork over my money for this!" You're paying for the death of video games and smiling while you're doing it.

 

Your Brutal Legend example is way more apt to my argument than you think. As it stands, the XBone has 8 gigabytes of DDR3 RAM, with 5 dedicated to playing games, 3 dedicated to system level shit (kinect, those multitasking features, etc.) The marketing has been all about those features, not really talking about games, or really talking about the fact that it can play next-gen games at all.

Make no mistake, the fact that it can play next-gen games with a controller as the primary video game input system and isn't a PC makes it a video game console. Its specs make it a next-gen system. Regardless of what you say about the system, the fact remains that it is also a video game console. The fact that it has internet explorer and TV features doesn't stop it from playing Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Brutal Legend is, and always was an RTS. Its design document most likely prominently featured the acronym RTS somewhere, because that's what it was always meant to be. The marketing said it wasn't, which is unfortunate, but it was. It's the same goddamn thing as with the XBone.

 

And you're apparently not getting mine. Brutal Legend was something that was something else, but was marketed in a manner to hide that fact.

The part where they're marketing the Xbox One as something that it is not, is the part where they're marketing it as an Xbox at all. It's not. They're only using the brand to push a product they know would probably fail otherwise. They're trying to be first to market with something completely new, and they're trying to use the Xbox logo to get over the initial "why would I want this" hill.

Brutal Legend was advertised as being the Badass Adventures of Jack Black in Badassland, when it was actually an RTS where he only provided the voice of the main character and also introduced the game as an album in the opening.

The Xbox One is advertised as being a next-generation Xbox console, when it is actually a multimedia device designed to replace your computer, VCR, DVD player, and cable box, and it only plays games the same way that Jack Black only showed up for three minutes to show you this bitching album he found in a store that has secret powers.

 

Except for the fact that the XBone still does everything a video game console does?

 

All this stuff about Microsoft and PS4 fighting.

I just went and got a WiiU instead. Holy fuck I'm having fun with Monster Hunter.

 

The problem with the WiiU is that it's in the exact same position as the Wii was last generation. The Wii definitely had great content on it, but it also had the least content.

It also had an immense initial install-base that the WiiU definitely does not have, so an argument could be made that it's in a WORSE position.

 

I like Metroid and Zelda and everything, and the fact they haven't fallen into the DRM and "social" cesspool, but I can't take Nintendo very seriously with their focus on gimmicky wagglan crap and family. They just need to make another N64.

 

But does it while attempting to fuck over the consumer as best they can so that they can increase their profits as much as possible.

Their entire philosophy was entirely anti-consumer. Used Game Fee, DRM, Online-Only Single Player Games, Always-Listening Kinect.

If you use Skype, microsoft has patented technology that allows Law Enforcement to listen in on your calls.So, note, never, ever, ever talk about anything illegal anyone you know might have ever done. Smoke some weed? Don't mention it on Skype. Drink under age? Don't mention it on skype. Torrent a couple games? Don't mention it on skype. Speed every day on your way to work? Don't mention it on skype.

Oh, and how about CHARGING PER VIEWER. That's right. If you and your friends get a movie on netflix, or some other service, Microsoft has patented a service whereby the Kinect notices you have five friends watching, stops the movie, and demands you all pay before the movie continues.

Yeah. This shit isn't made up, it's not rumors. Microsoft has spent millions developing these technologies, they have spent man hours changing the very infrastructure of Skype, after they purchased it, so that they can record your calls, when before it could not be done...

I will never, ever, EVER buy an XBone. Microsoft will have to make MAJOR headway in clearing this shit up if they want me to even CONSIDER the console that's comes after.

Time to brush up on Linux again, I refuse to let Windows be my main OS anymore.

 

I'm aware of all of this, believe it or not. I'm not saying the Xbone is desirable; shit, look at virtually every other post I've made in this thread. The Xbone is a fucking joke. My point is, while it's a bad video game console with endless disturbing implications based on the information that's out there right now, it's still a video game console. It plays video games, and it will probably play them very well.

 

Well, if you got it for a game you like, ok. But as a console it looks to be on death row. EA has already dropped the support and with the miserable sales numbers others will follow.

 

I wouldn't want to buy any game EA makes, anyway.

And the Wii will still have plenty as time goes on. Zelda, Mario, and probably some Pokemon. That's all I need to have fun with this.

Plus I can still play all my old Wii games, because backwards compatibility is a neat thing to have.

 

I'm glad I've been with PlayStation since the start. My back is safe from stabs there.

 

Xbox is about 10% of Microsoft's revenue. If they released a badass gaming focused console that number would stay about the same. They gambled and went to go after Apple and Google, I think it's going to pay off.

 

I don't. What is their market exactly? TVs can already do the things they're marketing their system as able to do, and you need a TV to use it anyway. The only thing it can do that a TV can't is play games, but they're not taking advantage of it's capabilities to do so, and are instead shooting themselves in the foot in regard to it. Is the kind of casual that would pick it up as a "multimedia system" going to want to go through all the trouble it's going to be to play games on this thing? Fuck no, they're going to want to chuck a disk in and play a game for 20-30 minutes on a whim.

They're intentionally marketing it at people who don't want to play games and instead want to watch TV and movies, and use the internet on there TV, but their are already plenty of devices already out that can do all of that. There are even TVs with voice recognition that can do more with it than the XBone was shown to do, and the Xbone isn't going to be out for another year at least.

This is of course all ignoring that the only people who watched their damn reveal were going to be people who care about how it plays games. This new market they're aiming for were never going to see this reveal in the first place!

 

"People who buy unconscionably priced lifestyle totems" pretty much sums up Apple's whole demo, so I'd assume that is the target audience.

Realistically, as bad as it looked and as justified as the criticism is, Microsoft's liable to sell a lot of these bloody things. Never ever ever assume the average consumer is savvy in any way.