This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
Let’s start off by saying, yes Microsoft could have done a better job revealing the Xbox One. They fumbled their message several times that day leading to mass amounts of confusion all over Twitter and various news publications. All the mis-reports about Microsoft’s new policies concerning always-online and used games made them look bad. However, let’s not hold that against the Xbox One.
Michael Kyle recently wrote an article about how the Xbox One will fail in the upcoming generation of consoles. I have to strongly disagree with Michael, and I think he is being a little rash. Michael states that three issues will prevent the Xbox One from succeeding, these are: Lack of focus on games, always-connected to the internet, and Microsoft’s new policy on game licenses and used games. These are all sensitive issues, but it’s not as bad as the naysayers think.
“The lack of games at the reveal was stupid. Microsoft totally neglected its entire audience and following and tried to convince us other things mattered.”
Above: 15 exclusives could actually be too many exclusives in one year. Wait, is too many games a bad thing?
First off, stupid is a pretty strong word to be throwing around. We knew going into the reveal that there wouldn’t be any gameplay footage. Microsoft stated before hand that the games would be focused on at E3 where for the most part only gamers watch those press conferences. This was a world reveal, not a “gamer reveal.” Microsoft wanted to spread the news as fast and as far as possible. And they were very successful. It wasn’t just Gamesbeat, IGN, and Polygon covering this event. Every news publication was covering the reveal. Microsoft is playing the long-term game here. They want to appeal to as many people as possible to keep the Xbox brand selling for years to come. Sure gamers will be the ones buying the console at midnight, but it will be the entertainment features that give the Xbox One legs through out its lifespan. Also Michael, let’s not forget they did announce 15 exclusive titles for the first year of the console’s life, eight of which are brand new IP’s. There are games, and we will see them at E3. Whether or not these games are actually good is still to be seen, but calling this reveal stupid is rash.
“How many times did people have to yell and scream and make it clear that they did not want online to be a necessity?”
Now there is a lot going on here. First off, Microsoft themselves has been very shaky with their answers. It has yet to be confirmed if the console must connect to the internet every 24 hours, that time period may be extend. At this point no one knows for sure, and it even seems Microsoft doesn’t know themselves. Second, a multi-billion dollar corporation doesn’t make this big of a business decision without doing research. It’s pretty clear they see a large enough market in America that is always connected to the internet, and most likely that market is growing every year. And yes this does alienate the international market; but since when has the Xbox brand been the go-to console outside of North America?The irony is that the people who are complaining the loudest about an always connected Xbox are the ones who are using the internet to complain about it. The consumers don’t speak with their voices, they speak with their wallet. Ben Kuchera explains it better than I can.
“It’s almost like Microsoft thought the pros outweigh the cons, but didn’t realize everyone was going to be looking at the bad parts of the new console?”
Above: One console to rule them all, one console to find them, one console to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
My title explains this whole situation; gamers are scared of change. You make a lot of arguments in this section of your article that only reflect this notion. You say gamers care about being able to lend games to their friends. If that is the majority feeling among gamers, then why is Steam such a popular store front? Every single game you buy from them cannot traded or given to a friend. The used game market has been slowly becoming a minefield the past few years. Whether the sale of used games actually hurt the bottom line of publishers or not, it’s very clear that third party publishers — Activision, EA, Ubisoft — want used games gone, and Microsoft is setting the stage for them.
Like it or not Michael, but people are going to buy the Xbox One, actually lots of “gamers and consumers” are going to buy it. Mainly because Twitter and forums are not a good indicator as to how a market will respond to a product. Just because a few gamers start screaming in forums doesn’t represent the other hundreds of thousands who heard about the Xbox One last week. Not to mention Microsoft and Sony have six more months to sell us their consoles. A lot can happen in six months so let’s not be rash and say Microsoft screwed over their fan-base, and that they are going to fail. Believe it or not, but all the commotion this past week only shows us that gamers are scared of change.