After something of a turnaround from Microsoft in regard to their policies, it seemed as though the Xbox One was all set for a stable launch. There was a period of good news from the green side, with FIFA 14 being bundled in for pre-orders and Kinect not being required for the console to function.
Their triumphs wavered when it was announced that the voice commands would only launch in five countries at launch, and now it seems as though they aren’t ready to launch at all, since the all-important TV features which they focused so much on in the announcement will only be heading to two markets – North America and Japan.
This means everyone in the non-delayed European countries and here in the UK will have to wait until a currently unspecified time before they can use the TV functionality – those all-in-one mechanics that the name of the console is derived from.
“We talk a lot about TV and that’s only going to work basically in Japan and the U.S. at launch” said Albert Penello speaking to IGN, saying that even though it won’t be everywhere, they “still sell it as part of the vision.”
It’s not going to be us – it’s not the early adopters that this is a problem [for] – which is why we’re not prioritising solving it right off the bat, because the price of the consoles will have to come down like they do in every generation, the market will expand, we’ll eventually catch up to the people who are probably laggards in TV, and by that time we’ll have a more robust story than we have at launch
This is just not good enough for me, and feels like a poor excuse – they’re delaying it because people who buy the system at launch won’t want the TV features? Hardly all-in-One, is it?
blarty
My thoughts are that certainly initially, Microsoft could have got all this stuff together, including enhancing their partnership with Sky and so on, in time for release, but perhaps all the backtracking and backing out of features that are creating the day one patch has taken development time and resources away from these kind of tasks.
Bilbo_bobbins
so their whole presentation at E3 could have been entirely thrown out of the window for Europe. lol
cam the man
Looks that way.
Not surprised as all E3 TV stuff was US based.
Starman
The impression I got from most comments I saw was that nobody was bothered about the TV features anyway.
Scythegpd
Oh come on! Surely even you can admit that it’s pretty shitty that one of the major features they’re pushing is only going to work in 2 countries at launch?
What happened to “I’m prepared to criticise MS when it’s due”?
But not launching in all but 2 countries with one of their major fanfare features and all you can do is make a comment about other commentators?
Starman
I expected it to not be ready in most countries. I’m really not bothered about the tv features so can’t get upset about it like others can.
Scythegpd
Damn, how will I be able to carry on watching sky now?
Andrewww
I said it before: Thank you, Microsoft, for definitely the most entertaining console launch that I have ever experienced..!
How a once big company can pull off something this bad is just beyond me. At least they finally kicked out annoying Mr. B.
lannister
I totally agree, the constant online conection would be a problem but it has already been confirm that a constant internet connection is not necessary to play games or movies . we ‘ll watch news of that in the smartphones systems also with ipad 5 avec abonnement & housse iphone 6
Scythegpd
Whose going to click on the links first? Come on people, be brave!
boyinastairwell
Seems legit to me!
boyinastairwell
By the way, the tags were implied! Click the links at your own risk!
HunterGatherer
Usual Microsoft over promising and under delivering. There will still be plenty of brainless idiots that buy an Xbone on possible future capabilities sadly
Jones81
lets not forget he’s also calling his customers ‘laggards’, not sure what the hell that means but it doesn’t exactly sound like a compliment, quite the opposite I imagine.
Microsoft should not be letting this absolute tool speak for them
lambchop
The two people in Japan that are buying xbone at launch are very pleased about this news…..