Xbox One: Jumping to Conclusions

xbox one

Well…damn. Where does one even start?!

So, like, the Xbox One — which is the most confusing name ever — was announced, revealed, unveiled, (whatever) yesterday, and to say the majority of the internet has been ruthless would be nothing more than a big ol’ understatement. But should any of us be surprised? During my many years spent on the internet (I’ve been around the block ;D) I’ve discovered it’s typically the “cool” thing to hate on something, bash it, or to just say “TAKE IT AWAY!” and begone with it without personally researching  and coming up with one’s own, validated conclusions. (Y’know, the whole “Monkey see monkey do” syndrome but instead “Monkey sees monkey hating so monkey will hate too” syndrome. That’s an official diagnosis, right?)

For Alistair’s sake, people, the console was just announced, revealed, unveiled (whatever) yesterday! LET IT BREATHE.

Do I think Microsoft had an amazing, super-informative stellar conference? Absolutely not. I mean, Google “Xbox One” and within thirty seconds you’ll read articles on numerous loopholes, questions, misinformation and contradictions from executives regarding key features of the Xbox One (like the policy on used games, online requirement, etc.)  I get why people are upset. We have loose information floating around and no one knows WTF to do with it. That can be very frustrating, not only for consumers, but for the press. Frustrated press = frustrated consumers = INTERNET RAAAGE. But try to remember that we’ll receive answers to these questions soon. I mean, hell, it’s not like the Xbox One is going to launch without Microsoft directly addressing these issues. (At least I hope they wouldn’t do that. Eek.)

Another issue that’s been brought up again and again was the lack of game footage at the conference. Like some of you, I don’t give two craps about those “special features” Microsoft proceeded to talk about for twenty days and twenty nights. That being said, the purpose of the conference was to announce, reveal, unveil (whatever) a brand-spankin-new console and I feel like Microsoft did a, eh, decent job. As much as I would have liked to have seen Dragon Age III, a new Fable, perhaps some Halo and more than one new IP, I didn’t watch that conference with those expectations. I feel like that’s what E3 is for. And that’s just it. E3 is right around the corner, during which we’ll *hopefully* hear a buttload more about these things called “video games” ( which are why 95% of us care about the existence of the Xbox One).

But Microsoft has to be careful — they need to nail it with their software lineup or it ain’t gonna be pretty. Shit, if Microsoft concludes their E3 press conference and leaves us with nothing more than additional partnerships with, like, the NBA, MLB and some ZOMG AMAZING NEW MOVIE FEATURES AND SMARTGLASS AND TELEVISION AND SPORTS then I shall proceed to freak the fuck out and kick that shit to the curb. Then I’ll buy the console at launch because that’s what I do.

I should wrap this up by sayin’ I’m in no way a Microsoft fangirl (in fact, I’m not much of a fangirl of anything besides Dragon Age) so believe me when I say all of this is coming from an unbiased perspective. As I said above, we’re missing a good chunk of information. Maybe we can try to wait a bit before we go after Microsoft with pitchforks and torches? <3

If you still find yourself with bottled up anger and rage, check out this hilarious post on Kotaku. Actually, you should just check it out anyway. Funny stuff.

20 Comments

  1. People just like to hear their own voice.
    I think it’s odd that people will buy it regardless when we don’t have all the facts yet :)

  2. It was honestly almost pointless to watch the reveal. It was like a JJ Abrams show, it left you with more questions than answers…

    We’ll see what E3 brings us. until then, I don’t think I’m going to pay much, if any, mind to any article that professes to have details about it.

  3. It seems to me that Sony and Microsoft have taken 2 totally different approaches to their next generation. Sony came out with the whole “We gots games!” and “our console was designed by developers for gamers”. And Microsoft was all, “We’ll show games later” and “TV, TV, Sports, Sports, TV, Call of Duty”. Either way, I’m excited. And yes it definitely is too soon to draw conclusions. I’m definitely leaning more towards the Sony side again based on what I’ve seen so far, though.

      • Well thank you for agreeing with me. Now, what I posted was a very shortened version of what I put in my blog. If you’re intersted, I could give you a link?

  4. Yeah thats all I saw yesterday was complaining and rumors im a huge sports fan but I could care less about there deals with ea and the leagues themselves im going to wait and see what happens at e3 before I make my mind up

  5. Britt, to make you feel like you’re not the only one. I (before either company announced either console officially) already decided I was buying both at launch. So point of this is, YOU’RE NOT ALONE. Also, also: great job with what is a tricky topic.

    • SWEET! We can both be crazy and buy things without knowing anything about ’em! And thank you!

  6. I was kind of curious on how you would react to the Xbox reveal. Personally I know I am going to buy the Xbox one since it will probably have Halo 5. I am however kind of disappointed. One of the things I have really liked about consoles is the lack of overbearing DRM. It was nice to be respected as a customer and not get F*cked in the ass by the myriad of problems that arise from DRM. I am not a fan of the checking in once a day with Microsoft. It is silly for Microsoft to want to babysit me, and that is what the once a day check in is: Microsoft babysitting, making sure you don’t try anything sneaky like installing your friends copy of a single player game while the system is offline. I also don’t like being lied too, having cloud services does not require you to be online atleast once a day. I feel like with Xbox One having these DRM features(they have said Always online will be an option for developers.) and a sheer lack of backwards compatibility I might as well continue to build my steam library since most Xbox games end up on there anyways and even if they have crazy DRM I can always find a crack.
    Last go around I went with Xbox because it was cheaper out earlier and had Halo

    This time around I might go with playstation 4 because they will probably be about the same price, it will also have destiny, they have already announced plans for backwards compatability and they don’t want to bitch slap customers around because Gamestop is in the corner dealing out used games like meth.

    broken down into the short and narrow, I love you Microsoft but your kinda turning into a bitter girlfriend with wanting to watch me all the time.Microsoft better show some seriously impressive games at E3. I mean I better be rock hard the entirety of Microsoft E3 show cause the other girl is looking very pretty already.
    yeah yeah I don’t exactly have your mastery of turning video games into sexual euphemisms Britt, but I am trying.

    • Haha! Love the last sentence. Yeah dude, all valid points. It’s tricky right now because no one knows what to say about anything, so we’re getting all of these conflicted reports. WE NEEDZ CONCRETE!

  7. it’s like the console is more packed for skype and tv and everything that every other technology does and less leaning towards what it actually is which is a Video Game Console…. :/ You think they would be more focused on making our gaming experience better than what the next iphone’s going to do.

    • That’s what I’m hoping! I’m giving them until E3. That conference is going to be crucial!

  8. truth be told I’m not the least bit concerned about the games; I know that soon enough they’ll have good games

    The one piece of news I wanted to hear about was backwards compatibility; a feature that usually isn’t but this generation has left me with a back log that surpasses all other previous generations back logs combined (so I was hoping I’d be able to trade in my 360 to help offset the cost)

    so between that and the other stuff that has the Internets in an uproar I…well I await E3 and hopefully hear that it’ll drop for what my budget considers a reasonable price >.>

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