Xbox One Xbox One's Role

[pojokers]

The video game consoles have finally reached a point where they can truly claim to be an all in one entertainment box but is this good? Is society ready to adopt this?

As far as I'm concerned I see the Xbox One and PS4 as gaming systems before I see them as entertainment systems. PS4 capitalized on Microsoft's blunder of broadening the field and ultimately scaring gamers, by saying and doing seemingly all the right things to show that it still represents the gamer primarily. Xbox's backtracking is viewed as a good thing by some and an awful thing by others.

My question to you guys is:
Did Xbox One make the right call originally by pushing the industry into a digital, always online world of gaming where your console is an entertainment box first and a gaming box second?

 

[lindbergh]

From the point of view of the gamers, I think Microsoft made a mistake. They deviated a bit from gaming and would like to focus on an all around media device. They should have made their console unique rather than making it a media center. Why do I say that it's not unique? Because there are a lot of devices that could be considered as an all in one media device. There's the smartphones which can allow you to play games, watch movies, listen to music, call your friends, etc. The same could be said with a desktop PC, a laptop, netbook, tablet, etc. Does the Xbox One want to be labeled as such?

 

[Claptrap]

I think what Microsoft was trying to do was terrible. Sure, people talk about change and crap but not all change is good. The only way an all-digital console would work is if the service was even better than Steam is, and Microsoft hasn't shown that they have the capability to deliver such a service, specially with GFWL which kind of competes with Steam. Hell, Microsoft's website had issues when they announced the reversal of the X1 policies, imagine how bad it would have been when millions of users had to log-in at the same time to authenticate a newly released and extremely popular game? It would be like the Diablo 3 fiasco.

 

[Dubs420]

I also agree that Microsoft has made a mistake. People that are looking to buy gaming consoles are after just that... a console that is dedicated to the very best in gaming. A 'media centre' is a whole other thing. You can always see it in a different light though I suppose. I mean, the Xbox One is going to be great at playing games no matter if it is a media centre or not. The fact that it is a media centre too is perhaps just more beneficial than just a standalone gaming console with no additional features. Overall though, I think they should have concentrated more on the 'this is a gaming console' rather than the whole media centre thing. This is a big reason why the Xbox One reveal was such a travesty.

 

[pojokers]

I agree with all of you. The Xbox One is a gaming system. That's how gamers view it and that's how non-gamers view it. There clearly is no other group to feed this "entertainment system" pitch to.

Farmer Joe and the Crazy Old Lady next door aren't going to drop $500 to Skype or watch Netflix. The gamers came for the games and the advanced, new tech. All of the entertainment stuff is bonus and always should be.

 

[BlackSolaris]

I also agree that Microsoft has made a mistake. People that are looking to buy gaming consoles are after just that... a console that is dedicated to the very best in gaming. A 'media centre' is a whole other thing. You can always see it in a different light though I suppose. I mean, the Xbox One is going to be great at playing games no matter if it is a media centre or not. The fact that it is a media centre too is perhaps just more beneficial than just a standalone gaming console with no additional features. Overall though, I think they should have concentrated more on the 'this is a gaming console' rather than the whole media centre thing. This is a big reason why the Xbox One reveal was such a travesty.

This.
Microsoft is trying to pull a Apple move and try to push things foward. The problem is that the terrain where they are trying to do that has a lot of people that don't like huge changes, and then of course it backfires on them! They should do things slowly, not drop everything they had in mind in one piece of hardware.