To go along with #5 I would add bio's, locations, and mottos to profile customization. 360 has them and they add some personality by making them your own and unique.
I don't think its necessarily the console that is in low demand, but rather the Kinect. Unfortunately its included with every console and what should be a $350 console is instead $500. I'm sure there are many that would buy an Xbone at $350 and they would fly off the shelves, however, not many seem to want to pay an aditional high premium for an accessary to turn the console on with their voice. Until MS gets their price under PS4, since it isnt as powerfull, they will continue to g...
Becuase of Kinect the Xbone isn't selling as well as expected.
Options are great, such as the option to buy an Xbone without Kinect for $100-150 less. How 'bout that option?
Don't forget bringing western games that traditionaly were limited to the PC to the forefront of cosoles with games like Morrowind and Halo. I think overall that's MS greatest contribution...bringing a whole new genre of gaming to consoles beyond a bunch of JRPG's
Good article, competition forces companies to step up their game. Without MS and the 360 being what it was Sony wouldn't have learned from the mistakes they made with the PS3. Without Sony and the PS4 MS would have stuck with the original online required DRM nightmare they originally had for the Xbone.
Its called retailing, part of the business. Stores, any store, that has excess supply will offer sales or incentives to clear inventory, sometimes to sell something before it expires, sometimes to make room for new models, and in the case of the Xbone to get rid of them before the dust collects to thick..
The only thing MS decided was more important than tv was Kinect. Its been the bane of Xbox since it came out in 2010...the reason for a lack of new exclusives and ip's on 360, and the reason for MS going cheap and putting a weak GPU and RAM in the Xbone.
Guess not many people want the weaker console that plays games in last-gen resolutions that also cost $100 more to include the needless Kinect. Xbone might stand a chance at $350 without Kinect.
Well, at least with the Kinect you can turn the console on without pressing a button. Thanks MS for putting cheapo RAM and GPU in the Xbone so your precious Kinect can be included with every console.
Looks to me like the filter improved image quality which is probobly why it was there in the first place. Where exactly are all the jaggies in the before shots that the filter caused becuase I can't find them. To get rid of jaggies, that I can't even see, the image is washed out and bluured. Looks worse now and I'd say a bad trade off. Why not just put an option in the system controls of the One to turn off the filter if your'e one that prefers a blurry image.
Good idea and would satisfy both sides but MS is a one size fits all kinda company. I present mandatory Kinect with the console as an example.
All this talk of MS dumping Xbox can't be helping sales and confidence in the Xbone. Why invest $500 in a console when you don't know where it will be in a couple years or how it will be run? At this point there is no security in the future of Xbox. Buying one would be taking a risk...like buying an HDDVD player or BetaMax.
No, weaker hardware at a higher price will kill Xbone
I know, sometimes I like to just sit on the sofa and turn the Xbone on and off with voice commands, pretty awesome.
Exactly, $400 is still too much for the weaker console with cheaper and less powerful RAM and GPU. With Kinect gone, the cheaper hardware of the Xbone should allow for a price lower than PS4, at say $350.
$400 still to much for an under powered console relative to PS4. Should come in at $350 without Kinect since it has cheaper and weaker memory and GPU compared to PS4.
The brand might still be around but much weaker without a large company backing it. Maybe good for MS but horrible for Xbox. It would undermine any confidence in the future of the console as to what another company would do with it or how they would run it.
Talk of MS getting rid of Xbox certainly won't help Xbox One sales. Without MS support and backing the console would struggle even more. I would hesitate to buy one if sometime down the road the business would lose the support of the company making and backing it. Even if a giant like Samsung bought the division it would take years to adjust and learn the ins-and-outs of the business. It would leave many questions to ask such as 1st party support and how compitant would Live be under...
I like achievements if they are just that...awards for achieving something based on accomplishment or skill. There are to many lame, easy, and pointless achievements that spoil the system though. Halo 4 is an offender with achievements like PWND, Badge, and What a Poser.