Microsoft announces Xbox One bundle without Kinect

@riki good to know riki that you sent me a link to misterxmedia who by in large is unproven and just pure conjecture about the xbox one "hidden" power argument surely you would think I can not deduce with my own reasoning without using sites with pure speculation as proof positive that the PS4 is "stronger" than the Xbox one without Microsoft releasing full tech details surely your "open minded" fanboy reasoning would go in so far to allow it right? As for the chip scans without a full disclosure from Microsoft about the full specs than you can post the PS4 tech all day and night it will not change the fact that those "expert" techies who analyze the chip works of the Xbox one do not know every chip function as their are some hardware details that the "All Knowing" techies do not know what they do chalk it up as non important good luck with that.

Much like your maligned statement about the PS4 being more "STRONGER" which by all means is subjective using once again old dev tools rather than mature dev tools for BOTH Xbox one and PS4 surely you jest that using multiplatform games using old dev tools to gauge the strength of BOTH systems right now is a reliable measurable for the "Life" of both systems I can reserve judgement for that when both Xbox One an PS4 dev tools mature in the months to come instead of jump the gun and bring out m foam finger or pom poms and declare a winner based on so little info and Next-gen games not old multiplatform games? All your anti-Microsoft banter shows is that you are a fanboy through and through nothing else. The next thing should ask you is if you are a brainwashed Sony, and Nintendo tool but I won't give you that satisfaction either tough guy .

 

@darcagn by all means I respect you opinion and value it but your valued opinion much like my valued opinion will not change the fact that the Wii U is not evolving from their Nintendo centric roots and have by and large alienated the public at large i.e sales of software and Hardware being soft and slow with regards to the PS4 and Xbox one. I'm with you from what I played of the Wii U it is unique and fun experience and share your enthusiastic feelings towards it but there is a line between our experience and expectations and what is really happening in the real world in general. Don't get me started with the whole retro gaming thing I have so many retro backlog games to get through it will take a lifetime to get through them all .

So in essence I don't agree or disagree with you opinion the problem lies in Nintendo as a whole not your fun and enjoyable experiences that is experiencing a downturn for the worst. Otherwise continue to enjoy your Wii U gaming . And that statement is genuine and not some snarky or sarcastic remark.

 

You see that little dot on your keyboard? It's called a full stop. For fun, try reading your posts out loud and breathing whenever you see a full stop. And this and that and I like using and because it means I can make really long sentances and it's incredibly annoying to try and read and I think I've just passed out but I haven't used a full stop yet because I don't read my posts before hitting submit because that's what cool people do.

Anyway, tech specs don't mean anything, it's games that sell consoles. You can make game play great and look pretty with 1GHz and you can make a game that looks and plays like crap that needs 10GHz of CPU.

 

Ok Sonny thanks for the heads up anything else you English highness? If there is nothing else may I go back to my peon work and educate and enlighten the masses my lord.

 

The new Zelda on 3DS is pretty awesome if you enjoyed the 2D Zelda games.

 

Why this lame attitude? If you want to post your opinions, try doing that in a way people can read it. Don't act like they are trying to be superior on you.

And never forget thay they are your opinions.

 

This is something I don't understand. Don't schools teach people about punctuation? It seems like something anyone over the age of 5 ought to know, and yet many people seem to have absolutely no clue. I also think it's a perfectly legitimate thing to bring up. If you write something and put it out there for people to see, you ought to be prepared for people to notice glaring errors. It matters, even if it doesn't matter to you.

Try to look at this from the perspective of someone who actually cares about the English language. Are you supposed to remain perfectly silent while people butcher the language? It happens constantly, so it's a little difficult not to say anything.

 

True that la-li-lu-le-lo and that's why cooler heads prevail and it takes a short break in the heated discussions to see the error of ones way.

 

That's a good way to look at it.

 

Bah. Don't bother. Nintendo ran over his dog or something. He's about as reasonable as GodofHardcore at this point.

Anyways, Microsoft made an obvious move. Good for them. Personally, I like the voice commands on the Xbox One and I think the library is fine and looks to improve in the future (Sunset Overdrive and Quantum Break both look to be pretty good).

I'd still take the Wii U over it, but I don't have my panties bunched up over a controller that allows me to keep playing my games while my wife is watching (terrible) television.

 

I was going to post it in another topic, but this seemed perfect for it.

Eurogamer just did an article about Microsoft and Kinect. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-why-xbox-ones-media-strategy-failed

I think it's a nice read and really shows how Microsoft totally lost their focus when developing the Xbox One.

 

I think the real fuckup was leaving power behind. Granted, after years of nintendo printing money with the super underpowered wii this was bound to happen, I called it years ago that when the nextgen came the beancounters would fight the engineers over specs using the success of the wii as an excuse.

TBH M$ should have made it considerably more powerful and then offer one "cheap" version that was just for gaming and some content and another pack with the whole DVR and kinect functions for people who want the whole enchilada

I only have cable because my gf wants it, but the moment she grows tired of it then its gone, so why would I spend so much on a console for features I'm not gonna use?

 

This is a great article, thanks for posting it!

Its an interesting observation that Microsoft may have looked to the Wii as proof that underpowered consoles were ok and created a gaming tv box. However I'm wondering if they just began development too early on the Durango project and underestimated what sony would bring to the table. By the time the hardware was finalized it was already out of date.

 

Just 3 months ago we were being told MS has no plans to release an xbox one without kinect. Yet here we are!

Bloody useless company.

 

They're changing their strategy quickly in response to market conditions.
Better that they do it now, rather than 6 months down the road.
They're playing their cards right.

 

Kinect has little to no use right now anyhow. When it initially came out, my first opinion when it was still in the Project Natal was that it would be a fad and die off just as the "guitar" games did. Simply a peripheral that would have an initial blast of interest and die off over about 1 year, which it did. Now that the Xbox One launched I was surprised to see the revival of the otherwise dead peripheral. Now that its here, the only function I ever use for mine is "Xbox, On" when I can't readily find the media remote one of my kids took off with. Otherwise it barely understands my commands now as is like simple things ie: "Xbox, volume up" somehow is mistaken for "Xbox, Sign Out" repeatedly even after multiple recalibrations. Funny enough I just figured out hand gestures and only when I am using Netflix, and even then it barely works.

Point I initially was trying to make before this turned into a rant was Kinect isn't worth a $100 in my eyes so seeing the price drop from that much is a great thing. I just wished we would've had the option from the get-go.

 

It's not that they're playing their cards right. They just realised their whole plan for Xbox One was dead wrong.

I'm not saying it's a bad console, it's just that their plans for it were totally bizarre. After last year's E3, people were like "WTF is Microsoft thinking?"

Yeah, it's nice to see they are getting back to reality (forced), but they'll have to work their asses off to clean their image.

 

@Johnny IMO YMMV on the Kinect functionality where aside from the problems of gestures my kinect experience works fairly well. But I do agree with having the kinect as an optional accessory from the get go.

Sadly I do not see any meaningful software that takes advantage of the new kinects functions hopefully E3 will show something interesting.
As for price and what games and services lie ahead for the future I see games and more games released IMO that will appeal to just about anybody.

But one should hold out to see the future plans for both Microsoft and Sony before one makes a decision if one hasn't decided on what platform to get. My bet is on Microsoft this upcoming E3 as I sense a big surprise and a lot of angry fanboys coming as this whole PS4 is more powerful than the Xbox one comparisons will be null in void as the games that are coming will put that sad resolution nonsense to bed .

 

Microsoft had better have some crazy exclusives to announce at E3 if they want to stay in this race. Like, it better be like the early years of the Xbox 360 (if not better).


On that note, am I the only person on this forum (the internet?) that actually uses the Kinect with the Xbox One? I use it to turn the system on, turn it off, navigate menus, when watching movies, I use it in Dead Rising 3, I used it in Mass Effect 3, and so on. I don't have any Kinect-specific games, but in my mind overall the Kinect functionality is just a part of the Xbox experience.

 

agreed