Xbox One

They made the same mistake Nintendo did: They created the hardware and tried to leave taking advantage of it up to 3rd party devs, who had almost no incentive to do so.

What Kinect needed was a killer app. Preferably at launch. And no third party was going to do that. What's their incentive to take a huge risk on a fundamentally un-portable game? What company other than MS really has it in their interests to release a game for a brand-new console that revolves around a piece of hardware that the gaming public is lukewarm on?

MS needed to be the one to take the ball and run with it. They needed to make a game that really showed what could be done with the Kinect. Have Rare really go to town and create something more creative and interesting than another collection of minigames. Hire Double Fine to make something.

Instead they left it to third parties who threw a few C-grade efforts at it, then gave up. Just like the Wii, with the only difference being that the Xbox One is at least powerful enough to run AAA action games as a backup.

Honestly, Don Matrick deserves to start every day of the rest of his life with a kick in the nuts. He wasted most of the 360's generation just milking an already successful product and making publishing deals while genuine in-house game development withered. MS as it stands doesn't really have the tools to push the Kinect creatively.

I don't like shows about drug dealers in general, and shows about drug dealers with the amount of hype that that one got in particular. For personal reasons I'm not going into on an open forum - so don't ask. So that show's cultural impact means nada afaic.

But yeah, the story is rather funny, dawg.

People did predict it happening, yeah, and to see it happening is beyond hilarious.

The Kinect HAS potential...but not in gaming. There's lots of cool stuff done in non-gaming field. For gaming? No, not unless someone can actually show that it's worth it for gaming.

edited 16th Jun '14 10:18:11 AM by onyhow

It doesn't have a ton of potential for fast 3D action games. Something like a Myst could be really, really cool on the system.

I think you'll see it become more useful with VR, but that's not going to happen on the X1. PC, sure, and maybe the next Xbox, but not this one.

As long as they fix the Steel Battalion problem, where the game can't tell what you're trying to interact with.

The biggest problem is the lack of feedback for gestures. Swiping to look at another screen is one thing, but when you're trying to actually interact with something in more than completely superficial ways, it's really hard to tell if you're doing it right.

edited 16th Jun '14 10:56:09 AM by Zendervai

That's why I'm thinking AR or VR would help. The 3D to 2D translation issues are a big part of why precise motion controls are so tough; you're never 100% sure where to put your hand, which hugely exacerbates any existing inaccuracies. Having a clearly visible 3 dimensional target would make things a lot easier.

Well I have interesting news.

Which is weird because 360 died in Japan, but then again I have heard that PS 4 isn't selling that well in Japan. I wonder what Sony did that Microsoft might gain a foothold in Sony front yard? Plus Destiny is only coming out on the PS 4 in Japan I wonder if that will change.

iOS and handhelds are huge in japan so neither console has sold extremely well in japan. Xbone will probably have an alright opening week but the question is if they will have as good one as PS 4 did.

Yeah that is what we have too wait to see. I'm just surprise so far that this is happening.

Huh. That is surprising.

So I've been talking with a co-worker about video games in general and he told me something I found pretty interesting. In the last generation he eventually had both a PS 3 and a 360, and was pressured by friends to get the PS 4 because of all the anti-XBONE stuff going around and claims of it being more powerful. Well now months later he is realizing what I told him when I was going to get a XBONE, that all games I wanted to play and/or had loyalty to were either cross-platform or XB.

I had a PS 2 and loved the Ratchet And Clank and Jak And Daxter series, but those games have not had much life in the PS 3 era. So really its all about the games you want to play and not just having a bit of fancy hardware.

Since I got mine its been interesting playing with the Kinect, which I hadn't had much experience with beforehand. One thing I thought was weird was that the controllers didn't list the port they were connected to like the 360. But while playing Titanfall my controller died and I instinctively grabbed my second controller and turned it on. To my surprise, the Kinect registered my face with the controller and I continued playing without interruption. It all made sense, and I'm getting accustomed to all of the voice commands so that it really is a different way to use a console.

Another thing being dropped.

Edit: And now they are saying it isn't dropped. Make up your mind!

edited 9th Jul '14 11:57:43 AM by LordofLore

Seems like they've denied the implosion of the console-to-dev-kit functionality. I don't think Microsoft's divisions are very aware of what the others are doing and/or saying.

What worries me is that folks are taking a Kotaku story on this as gospel.

I wouldn't. Let's put it that way, shall we?

Ah, slow news days. Will you never cease to amuse?

Not much else on the Xbox Neue front, I suppose. BTW, I'm proud that I managed to spell "Neue" without using spell check. Another German word mastered. Now, if I could only get schiesse/scheisse right in terms of their respective meanings I would be a bit more happy.

Well.

If that isn't a sign of desperation, I don't know what is.....

Delicious.

So, what remains to be fixed?

Who was it that said something like this would happen? The only thing left to retcon away from the reveal is the console itself at this point.

edited 17th Jul '14 11:50:46 AM by LordofLore

Not me, for once. It is a bit of a surprise though.

This new CEO is engaging in classic new CEO "thinking" - sack everyone you think you can get away with sacking, focus on the "core strengths of the business" and wonder why erryone hates you?

That approach is entirely valid for a lot of companies that have developed cruft under the old CEO.

MS does *tons* of stuff. They've got so many hands in so many things that there's bound to be some that a new CEO will see as pointless. Compared to what a lot of tech journalists were clamoring for (DUR, SELL EVERYTHING EXCEPT WINDOWS AND OFFICE!) Nadella has been pretty restrained.

To be fair, I can understand wanting to get rid of all the superfluous bullshit. The past... what, 2 years? They haven't been kind to Microsoft at all.

Surface and their phone business have been picking up, and their core businesses have continued to bring home massive amounts of bacon. Even Bing has been moving toward profitability. Their profits are enviably high.

MS's real challenge is that they're trying to find somewhere to go as PC sales and the need for new operating systems decline. Technology is becoming mature enough that there's decreasing need to update your computer and no real reason to have a new version of the operating system every few years. Outside of security and driver updates, what really needs to be improved over Windows 7?

They've branched out into a lot of areas, and have found mixed success. Nadella's new plan seems to be cloud services.

It also makes sense that its kinda pointless to keep the tv servies thing if it had no actual organized gameplan. disorganized money-wasting boondoggles are always bad.