Dear Gamers: STFU.
Seriously. Just stop it.
For whatever reason, us gamers (yes, I’m going to clump myself in that broad “gamer” category, as well) like to think the world is against us. We like to believe that “The Man” is trying to ruin not only the world, but more importantly, the gaming industry. In response, we are on a lifelong mission to stick it to said man.
I must say, though, that as a gamer and tech lover myself, I can’t believe how narrow sighted gamers are these days. Most recently, with the release of all of the details for the Xbox One, gamers have banded together and formed an anti-Microsoft parade. Anything that MSFT seems to do with the Xbox One, gamers will throw it into bathtub of corrosive acid.
Over the past month (the last few days, especially), I have seen 3 main areas of contention with the Xbox One, and I will outline all of them below, and why every gamer’s argument against the Xbox One is moot:
PRICE
(edit: It appears I let my Xbox bias get the best of me! I stand corrected…PS+ is $49.99 per year. Thought I had seen $9.99 elsewhere!)
Lets start here, because it’s easy to differentiate good from bad. $499 for the Xbox One, $399 for the PS4. Okay so PS4 wins right? Whoa hold on there, Cowboy. Price is not won or lost on an upfront cost. Now, since this is 2013, I’m going to assume that anyone buying one of these consoles on launch day will be dishing out for the respective online services in order to play multiplayer. That’s right, Sony isn’t being quite as friendly as it once was with it’s online gaming offering. You may not need to “always” be connected (we’ll touch on that soon), but you do have to dish out $49.99 a year if you want to play multiplayer online $9.99 a month (that’s $120 a year, or twice the cost of Xbox Live Gold). So lets do some quick math and see what our costs will be for 2 years out from launch:
Xbox One
$500 - Console, 1 Controller, Kinect
$60 - Xbox Live (Year 1)
$60 - Xbox Live (Year 2)
$620 TOTAL
PS4
$400 - Console, 1 Controller
$60 - Playstation Eye
$120$50 - Playstation Plus (Year 1,$9.99 per month, 12 months)
$120$50 - Playstation Plus (Year 2)
$640$560 TOTAL
Now unless I’m crazy, the PS4 looks to be more expensive than the Xbox One after only 2 years. Oh yeah, and every Xbox One comes bundles with a Kinect. So if you were look at the two comparable consoles, the PS4 is slightly cheaper. Maybe you don’t want a Kinect or PS Camera (or don’t think you want one), but I truly believe that Kinect (not the PS Camera) will surprise everyone and will be so intuitive, that you won’t even realize you’re actively using it.
The other advantage to bundling this Kinect goes to the developers. There is no hiding the fact that up until this point, the Kinect on the 360 has been quite a disappointment, even despite its 24 million units sold. It simply has not been used effectively and to its full potential. It is a cute little gimick that kids enjoy because they get to wave their arms around. However, with this 2nd generation which includes a bevy of improvements and refinements, it is a much more promising add-on. Especially since every single Xbox One owner will have one, it makes sense for developers to build there game with some sort of Kinect integration. Even something as simple as voice commands, or the ability to lean around a corner…it just makes sense to add in these intuitive and natural responses to create a more immersive game.
Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but it is certainly where things are headed. Either way, even with the Kinect 2.0 bundled in, the Xbox One is only slightly more expensive after 2 years. So lets just assume that you’re a PS4 owner, and you want also want the Playstation Camera, well there’s another $60. So in reality, for a comparable console over the course of 2 years, you’d be looking at the PS4 costing $80 more than the Xbox One. Take that, math.
Used, Trading, Renting Games
Here’s one area that gamers are REALLY pissed about. What I keep hearing is “How can Microsoft tell me who I can and can’t sell or share my game with??”. Well the reality is that they can do whatever the hell they want. It’s their platform, and if you don’t like it, then go elsewhere. Obviously a lot of people will gladly do that and go buy a PS4, but that’s besides the point I’m about to make.
MSFT is looking towards the future. They realize that our world is becoming more and more digital each day, and physical media is soon going to be obsolete. Ironically, gamers must be old fashioned, because they seem to like the idea of a physical disc, and are against going digital. How long will that really last, though?
In an attempt to future-proof, Microsoft has taken a page out of the book of another very successful (entirely digital) platform, Steam. Now in case you aren’t familiar with Steam, it is a PC only platform (for now) where developers can publish games. It has become a huge success in the PC gaming world, and people haven’t batted an eyelash over the fact that you can’t share games, you can’t resell games, and you can’t rent games. All because it’s a digital platform. Well people…that is what Microsoft is trying to do! Once our world is entirely digital, you will care less that you can’t resell a digital game. In fact, Microsoft is offering an even better feature, where you can share the digital copy of a game with friends and family on their console! That is honestly really cool, and has one-upped Steam on that front.
But the main reason Steam has been so successful is because of their amazing sales. Every single day, Steam has games that are for sale at an incredible price. Sometimes over 75% off the retail value! In preparation for the Xbox One, Microsoft took this for a spin a few months back with their Xbox Live Spring Sale. They were actually pretty darn good prices! And it got quite a good reception, too. But for whatever reason, people seem to have forgot that ever happened. For Microsoft to really hammer home this digital marketplace, though, they have to offer some great deals on a daily basis. They have to prove that this digital marketplace is an advantage to the consumer, and not just another way for Microsoft to restrict users and make more money (which is what it seems like right now, to the average consumer).
So in a nutshell, Microsoft is focusing big time on their digital marketplace. They put these “restrictive” measures in place just to even the field when it comes to digital and physical media, which (at least logistically) makes a lot of sense. This is their way of future proofing and past proofing, as we stand in this limbo, of sorts, until digital fully takes over.
Online Access
Alright here’s the final thing that people have been getting quite upset about. “Why does the Xbox One have to be ‘always connected’ and check in every 24 hours?”. My goodness people…as I have pointed out before, this is 2013. Are you seriously concerned over a device that requires connecting to the internet to use to its full potential? Could you imagine what would happen if somebody said that you can’t hook up your computer, or your iPad, or your phone, or whatever to the internet? That would be AWFUL.
Now I realize gamers are more upset over the fact that the Xbox One requires to check in over the internet every 24 hours. Because gamers don’t like being told what to do. Fine. At the end of the day, though, having an always-connected device creates a more immersive and more integrated platform, and is aimed at better helping the end-user.
I want to emphasize, though, that this is not just a video game console. This is a Home Entertainment System. Think, Roku. Roku’s require internet 24/7 to use them. Do people care? Nope. Why? Because people aren’t getting a Roku confused with with a pure gaming console.
In today’s world of technology, the lines between “console” and “entertainment system” are blurring. Even going back to this current generation of devices, the PS3 and Xbox 360 were (at least initially) intended to be a gaming console. So we had our PS3 for gaming and watching the occasional BluRay, we had our Roku for streaming, we had our iPod for listening to music.
With this new generation, though, these devices (PS4 & Xbox One) are aiming to be front and center in your living room. With the Xbox One, especially, Microsoft is going mainstream. The Xbox One isn't just trying to be that console you play all night during a sleep over. It’s trying to be the device you use for your 10 hour Game of Throne marathons. They are the device you use to Skype with Grandma and Grandpa (okay, whose grandparents actually use Skype, let alone own a computer?). And now, the device you use to watch Live TV, all in a unified experience. This has the potential to be the ultimate all-in-one home entertainment theater, and people don’t like that it has to connect to the internet? Really? In reality, this device isn’t made just for you. It’s made for the general public. It’s made for anybody who wants to lose the clutter, and use just one device in their living room. The $500 launch price may not initially say that, but soon enough, it will catch on, and you will be wishing you bought an Xbox One. Maybe not with the purpose of being your sole gaming machine, but to do it all.
It’s possible that I’ve looked at the Xbox One more in the eye of the mainstream, but that’s exactly what it is. Gamers, don’t get this confused with your PS2 that you brought to friend’s houses, or your N64 that you played hours of split screen Golden Eye on. Don’t get me wrong, it will still do all of that (and very well, at that), but it will do so much more.
You just wait and see. But for the time being, please STFU.
9 Notes/ Hide
- angelbondagekitty liked this
- phlyge1-blog-blog reblogged this from iloveranch and added:
Atleast u won’t have to be online to play disk games like Xbox
- jerrodkun-blog1 reblogged this from mginsburg-blog and added:
I was really struggling to write 6 paragraphs on my English final today and you make a argument supporting the Xbox one...
- iloveranch reblogged this from mginsburg-blog and added:
Perfect article is perfect.
- cnvertbleweathr liked this
- mginsburg-blog posted this