It’s almost impressive how quickly Microsoft have managed to throw away any good will they had with the Xbox One. I’ll admit, I was quietly pleased at the end of yesterday’s reveal. Judging by the general reaction on Twitter it seems like I was in the minority, but a lot of what they had to show intrigued me.
Oh sure, the concept of an always listening Kinect in my front room is exceptionally troubling, but the quick boot time, the rapid task switching and the multitasking that the Snap concept demonstrated showed that a huge amount of time, effort and innovation has gone into designing the operating system that lies at the core of the Xbox One. Even the TV concepts looked great, although it seemed obvious that they’d only be available in the US initially.
However, as the show ended journalists started to ask questions about the new console, and that positivity rapidly drained away. We started to get answers to the troublesome topic of internet connectivity, and while it seems that you don’t need an internet connection to play, you will need one to register games when you first play them.
Always Online
Then came the news that the Xbox One needs to check in once every 24 hours, just to make sure that you’re not doing anything you shouldn’t be.
While many will find this annoying, things got a whole lot worse when questions about pre-owned games started to be asked. On the upside, you can, in theory, re-sell your games. In practice this seems like it will never, ever happen.
You see, you need to register the game against your account when you first play it, installing it as you do. Once it’s registered you can play it on as many consoles as you like, as long as your account is logged onto Xbox Live on the console.
If another account wants to play the same copy of the game, either because the game’s been resold or because you’ve loaned it out, then they’ll have to pay a fee. That fee? Anything up to the actual price of the game. It’s a little unclear what kind of fee we can actually expect, but some amount of money is going to come out of your account.
Backlash
As you’d expect, this has caused a huge backlash, as has the almost comically poor way Microsoft’s PR machine handled the announcement of this element. They seem to have revised their answer a half dozen times, before finally confirming that there will be a fee, and that the fee may well be the full price of the game.
Then there’s the fact the TV integration that seems to lie at the core of Microsoft’s vision is all smoke and mirrors, simply using an HDMI pass through from the cable or satellite box that your provider gives you. Oh there’ll probably be some clever things with a few select providers they’ve partnered with, but in general they’re just sticking the Xbox overlay on top of what your set-top box already has.
In some ways this is clever, allowing them to hook up to a much wider variety of boxes and TV providers. In others it seems disingenuous, particularly with the fact that you always need a set-top box, even if you’re using a provider that Microsoft have established a relationship with.
The thing is, I’ve got no objection to Microsoft centring the Xbox One around TV and other forms of media, it’s just the way they’ve implemented it and announced it that I find frustrating. Whatever you want to put at the core of your system should be a masterpiece that works flawlessly and simply in almost any situation. Unfortunately, the solution that Microsoft has seems inelegant and deceptive to me.
The same holds true for their internet based DRM solution and the frankly ludicrous concept of transferring a game licence for the same price as buying the game new. The solutions simply aren’t great, and the way that Microsoft put out inconsistent, conflicting statements was incredibly frustrating in the wake of yesterday’s reveal.
In need of a boost
While more facts have at least become clear in the light of day, it seems that within 24 hours of its announcement the Xbox One is already in desperate need of a boost. Hopefully that will come at E3, but right now Microsoft really need to clarify their messaging if they don’t want to fall into a deep, dark hole of negative spin and consumer mistrust.
They need consumers to be buoyant about the console, to be spreading their anticipation far and wide, not worrying about what the console means for buying their habits.
Of course the big question hanging in the air is why they didn’t have a clear message on any of these points from the get go. The questions that were going to crop up were, frankly, obvious and anyone with a modicum of common sense could have worked out what they’d need answers for. How have they managed to get it so wrong?
G_The_Enemy14
I was thoroughly underwhelmed with the reveal yesterday. First and foremost the name is stupid (IMO), the box is ugly (IMO), and all they seemed to talk about was tv!? I agree that the multitasking and task switching was impressive, but everything has had such a negative effect on my opinion. Although, the controller does look nice, and the feedback in the triggers sounds cool.
And regarding the pre-owned thing. Couldn’t they have implemented a system where the cost gradually decreases, so if you buy a pre-owned game nearer the time of release, it’s nearer the full price then it gradually gets cheaper?
the bottler
The problem with the pre-owned thing is: if i buy forza for £50 and sell it a few weeks later, if Microsoft are charging £45 to buy the pass then the max i could sell it for is £5.
But who in their right mind would buy a second hand game for the same price as a brand new one.
G_The_Enemy14
Exactly, it’s extremely flawed
woodsy321
I hopes hope its not turning in to a massive spin off the same game updated every year (HALO, FIFA, COD etc)
I bought preowned darsiders to give it a try, i liked it, so i bought no.2 brand new. ….. thats not going to happen anymore……
plutoniumdragon
Those of us on this site that are old enough to remember Apple’s troubles might see a parallel in what is happening to Microsoft in general. It seems they have a coherent strategy – but it looks like it’s something that’s been tried and is failing – Windows 8/phones/tablets and perhaps now even the Xbox 1 are not coming together as they might have hoped.
Perhaps it’s time they found a new leader ?
3shirts
That last paragraph hits the nail on the head. Having slick presentation of the good bits is fine but the most important preparation any company can make is to have a clear company line on the bad bits.
The rumours about pre-owned and always-on have been flying about for months. They must have known people would ask and should have had a clear, basically scripted, response that tried to soften the blow. They seem to have chosen to ignore the problem and hope everyone else forgets. That didn’t go so well.
KeRaSh
Honestly, I’m really disappointed that they went down the TV/media road. In my opinion Microsoft lost it halfway through the PS3/360/Wii generation. Media partnership deals were seemingly more important than exclusive games and new franchises. They threw money at publishers to secure exclusive DLC to make it seem like they still cared about gamers.
I know it’s stupid to think like that but I really hope Microsoft crashes and burns so hard that they rethink their strategy and turn their focus back on games. The anti consumer DRM behaviour has to die before it can gain any track and the companies pushing it should learn their lesson not to screw over the paying customers.
bigbaldwolf
MS have dug themselves into a hole and seem to have no idea as to how to get themselves out of it. I don’t understand why they can’t just come out and say this is what we are doing and this is how it will work.
Roynaldo
Seems now E3 isn’t going to be a showing off event for Microsoft. More of a defence in an attempt to draw consumers back.
As many have said(and i agree), the name, the design and the reveal are all pretty lacklustre… Like they have rushed it out and not paid any attention to the core of their consumer. Gamers. It seems more of a business plan thrown to a board of directors than it does an advertisement to show off what they are doing.
Dear god, please let there be some light at the end of this!
Bilbo_bobbins
It seems to me like they lost there way on what they wanted from this Gen. It’s like they put games/media/tv into one big brainstorming session and said, lets do all three.
In the meantime, they forgot that people want consoles for gaming most importantly, anything else is a bonus. They have totally lost it.
quinkill
This gen I’m making sure most of the friends I game with get the same console. We’ve decided to wait until E3 to be 100% sure, but we’ve all stated that PS4 is sounding much much better the the “One” (still can’t get over how bad the name is either)
cam the man
I was impressed with the speed of multitasking and Kinnect 2 but I’m not interested in either.
I think MS has already passed the rim and have started falling “into a deep, dark hole of negative spin and consumer mistrust”.
Peter Chapman
I think the name is a bit silly but okay, fine, people will just end up calling it “Xbox”.
I think the design is gorgeous, and very Sony-like.
I think they were always going to do /something/ about pre-owned in this generation, and Sony will likely allow 3rd parties to do something similar, when they get around to definitively answering the question.
I think that Microsoft almost announced this console a year ago and the past 3 months has been all chatter about the used game question and always online. That they didn’t have a definite message prepared is bizarre.
But it’s way, WAY too early to write it off or imply that there’s much to overcome here. E3 will be massive for both Sony and MS to clarify their positions and show their games.
skibadee
“I think the design is gorgeous” yep sonys old betamax players
Peter Chapman
Very modern design cues, actually. Very similar to some of Sony’s high end audio equipment since they got their design teams back to something like their best form.
Wait and see how the PS4 looks, my bet is that it’s quite similar to this, although they might veer slightly towards that gem-like angular finish that they’ve been favouring for Blu-ray player designs recently.
Expect sharp corners and matte/gloss contrast though – this sort of thing is very “now”.
Eldave0
I think the only saving grace to pull from all of this really is that, with second hand gaming out the way, developers will start to see more income for their hard work – I think we can agree far too many good developers have had to close during this generation and the pre-owned market wasn’t helping things.
That said, if people have to pay full price for brand new games, they are likely to buy fewer games each year, meaning only the big AAA titles are likely to succeed.
Will be interesting to see how things pan out.
bunimomike
I was just thinking that. You seem to talk like we all have more money for new game after new game. Sure, some might throw down more but many of us have budget restrictions (as well as psychological price-caps) and won’t be able to buy new.
The used game market became an ugly beast when the retailers sunk their claws into it but it’s a market that help prop up anyone buying new games as they offload the old ones onto friends for a handful of ££s.
The only way I can see things improving is if we see this alleged increase in profit offsetting the “new game” prices in the first place. PC games are regularly a tenner cheaper at launch and I’d like to see that happen with the consoles.
woodsy321
I hopes hope its not turning in to a massive spin off the same game updated every year (HALO, FIFA, COD etc)
I bought preowned darsiders to give it a try, i liked it, so i bought no.2 brand new. ….. thats not going to happen anymore……
Eldave0
“You seem to talk like we all have more money for new game after new game. Sure, some might throw down more but many of us have budget restrictions (as well as psychological price-caps) and won’t be able to buy new.”
Oh don’t get me wrong, I’m in the same boat. My Wife and I are currently functioning on one ok-ish wage and have a one baby under 1 and another on the way. Suffice to say, I am incredibly tight with my gaming expenses and typically only buy dirt cheap pre-owned games.
With pre-owned gone next-gen, I can realistically only see myself buying perhaps 3-4 games a year, meaning smaller developers won’t get a look in.