I, as many of you, experienced the unveiling of the Xbox One, or XBone, as coined by Ryan on Twitter. After fully absorbing it, I have to say that it's a severe misstep for Microsoft to pursue the general audience before tying up the core market.

First and foremost, this machine is meant to play video games. Microsoft can talk around the subject all it wants, but the people who buy this want to play video games and the main people who buy things like this are people like you and me, the people in-the-know... you know, the "core demographic." No matter how useful the Xbox One will be to play those hot titles like "John Madden's Fantasy Football 2013" or "Xbox, watch MTV," if it doesn't have the software, it won't fly.

The people who they've marketed to with this release are people who already have things like NFL Sunday Ticket, already have DVR through their cable company, watch Netflix through the software on their TVs and get together in REAL LIFE to do their Final Fantasy Football. So, needless to say, these features are value added, as the real selling point will be the software, of which, they showed only a few pieces. This is a strange thing, because they need the core demographic to pick this up to make any traction, as the general audience is just fine with the Xbox 360 they bought three or four years ago(these people are not early adopters.)

Which leads me to this: the really good, ground-breaking, and games, the games that are made for people like us, they aren't always accepted by the general audience. With the democratization of game development, many of the coolest games coming out are from small developers and this announcement makes me feel like there might not be room on the new XBone for that type of experience. What with the bells, whistles, football, voice commands and pizza delivery, support for new experiences might fall by the wayside.

After all, if the initial segment they market to is the same share where innovation is not the currency of the realm, that means our segment is secondary. If our segment is secondary and what's catered to us is an afterthought, why would I be that all-important initial adopter that they need so desperately at launch?

This was one press-only event. For fuck's sake, give them 19 days to screw up their E3 presser before packing up the criticism train for November.

OH MY GOD! A console reveal didn't focus on GAMES and instead focused on the CONSOLE. this CONSOLE is doomed because it has no GAMES that will be revealed in 3 weeks OMG! PANIC EVERYONE!

The general public still does not have the ability to talk to their devices to make all the entertainment happen. If Microsoft can make the Kinect actually function as they want it, I think that is a big deal.

As a gamer, I feel your pain. Hopefully some cooler things will come out of E3.

@ruthloose: I just think it's a huge misstep not going for us first, it reeks of the Hubris Sony had during E3 2006. Microsoft doesn't seem hungry enough with this offering, and honestly, it has only a small window of opportunity to court us. As an audience, we're pretty goddamn vindictive.

Games will be announced at E3!! They have said this multiple times, yet everyone still needs to bitch about the lack of games at this event.

15 exclusives 8 new IP's in the first year, they said enough for this conference.

I live in the UK, easily 40% of that press conference is not available in this country.

Whatever, E3 is soon, and they said they had like 19 exclusive titles coming to the xbox. The duel operating system seemed cool, and I like that they're actually changing the controller design a smidge.

@zombie2011: What this felt to me, was a lot like Sony's PS3 announcement. With one bad presser, blam, they screwed the pooch this generation and only caught up near the tail end of the cycle. I see Microsoft's announcement in the same light. Also, if they were to announce games at E3, why not just announce the system then too? Sony managed not to piss the bed too hard this time around, why didn't Microsoft wear the underoos?

No we're not, rememeber how everyone was going to boycott MW2 on PC, how did that end up? How about how much gamers love new IP's and hate annualized sequals, yet what games sell and what games tank? Gamers like to think they should be caterd to first, but compared to the general public we don't matter.

@green_incarnate: Honestly, the only real cool announcement to me was the fixed digital pad...

Sony launched a year late with an unreasonable price thats why they failed. You read way to much into these press conferences.

Except where year-over-year sales keep coming down on those super-annualized pieces of software(save sports games). Hell, just look at how soft the launch of CoD Blops2 was, that game was on sale two months after launch. I don't see that demographic holding water over the long haul as they aren't as invested as people like you and me.

Microsoft goes first on June 10th, Calm Down, breathe.

I feel two things about this cycle, 1) It will be the last with traditional consoles and 2) Success will be defined on how much of the core market they can capture. Arguably, the healthiest company in the industry is Valve and they've done little other than court the core demographic.

Wasn't it aired on Spike TV?

I say meh...

I don't subscribe to cable...all their little TV tricks are worthless to me. Now, we are hearing always on is STILL a thing they are doing, they deny it but it seems like they are merely boobing & weaving around the same terms without trying to say it...the system want to always be connected cable TV, Internet...period.

Owwh, no it doesn't need to be always on...no not at all...it need to be never off...yeah that's the ticket!!!

@bigjeffrey: Not really irritated or excited, I just thought it was a letdown is all. I'm no market analyst, but I can say, as someone who buys a lot of vidja games, this was their time to impress me. They built up hype, they got the train down the track and they delivered an empty box car. Now I'm looking at either Sony, or just making a new PC as the next system investment at the end of the year, it will be an uphill battle for Microsoft to capture me after that announcement.

@hailinel: Far far far cry from Elijah Wood on MTV during primetime. I actually laughed when I went to add the event to my DVR queue and 1,000 Ways to Die was playing beforehand.

Thanks. Feels like mid-aughts GameFAQs up in this bitch all of a sudden.

That probably says a lot about who they were targeting. :P

This console is a water cooler AND has eggs?

This is going to be awesome.

I don't understand the need to make a thread like this when you introduced absolutely no new compelling argument against the Xbox One. None. There are plenty of hate threads that currently litter the site right now. I'm sure they could use yet another post which provides absolutely little contribution to the debate at hand.

That says everything about who they were targeting and who the show was for. That's why they pushed so much TV and sports. It worked too, my brother is big into football and not really at all games and he said he's gonna get one because of the NFL stuff. This show wasn't for us, E3 will be where they drop the info we care about.

I think you missed the 'set top box' memo. Xbox is an experience now - it's no longer about the games. You say everything else is just perks, but at this point people have those perks, they just need a central piece of hardware to play it. I doubt they intend to sell NFL packages; they're just offering a box that plays your NFL ticket season whatevers, while giving you the opportunity to play some games or check some Twitters or watch some fine CBS programming. Consoles are no longer dedicated game boxes, they're meant to be your everything - Microsoft is just going at it harder than Sony did in February.

@respighi: Who's making an argument against the xbox one? I'm making an argument against the presentation and what it means for the core audience. I'm comparing it to Sony's presser for E3 and how, in my opinion, due the the way the market is skewed, it will be the core demo that keeps a game system afloat.

You can tell people to "calm down" and repeat that "this event wasn't intended for you," but nothing can change one simple fact.

Sony showed off their console months ago, and they still managed to show playable games on stage. Microsoft couldn't even do that for five minutes out of an hour long conference. People have a right to be disappointed.

Of course, all of that pales in comparison to what we found out about the system AFTER the press conference was over. Microsoft really is looking dead to me, and I say that as someone who spent a lot of money and time playing the Xbox 360, and as someone who hasn't owned a Sony console since the PS2.

Should they not actually focus on the VIDEO GAME part? If this is where Microsoft is going then I could just buy a PC and a Roku and I've got an Xbone with better hardware right there with years and years of games to play. Sony focused on the console and how it's a gaming machine first. Microsoft focused on everything else that Sony didn't, but what they don't realize is that people aren't going to pay 500 dollars for a Roku that plays games and gamers aren't going to buy something from a company that seems to hate them. They are going to lose both markets and fall right on their face.

oh man, i wish they focused on the console.

I think that comment pretty much nails it. I myself was not to impressed with the lack of focus on games, but all the wiping, etc. it looked kinda neat and 'from the future'. But.... a lot of the actual core functionality they offer:

a) won't be available anywhere but in the US.

b) Isn't any different from other setup boxes. Which at the highest range regular setupboxes would get you something like a Boxee for 120 to 150 euro's.

Also take into account most people aren't even fully adopting these setup boxes and are already happy with whatever piece of junk their cable provider gives them. Convincing them to pay somewhere around 500 dollars probably for being able to 'swipe' and talk to their tv? That might actually be quite hard. That's a small market of the most expensive setup boxes. The ones sold in specialized shops...that nobody ever buys.

To validate the pricepoint they need... games. As gamers are willing to pay that kind of money for it. And then these features might become the difference between a PS4 and a Xbox One. Because it will come down more and more to which interface you like more and what extra options do you give me. Since hardware and exclusives are less and less important these days. They kinda cancel one and other out. So good on Microsoft to add those features... but as the OP said, by totally focusing on them in this way, you might just alienate those gamers. Esp. as most are very hostile to some choices you made to get those extra features in (like the Kinect and it being mandatory and always on!).

And it's about feeling. Sony messed that up with the PS3 big time but is on the money this time around. Bringing out indies, bringing out developers and really communicating 'we love games! we love gamers!'. And Microsoft didn't as they are going for a wider audience with the press conference. But will that wider audience pay that price? It's a huge gamble...

I do think it was a poor presentation, but I don't think it necessarily reflects what that console will be. It's too early to say 'PS4 is the games console and X1 is the TV console'. Let's face it, 90% of games will come out on both consoles and 100% of those games will be look and play almost identically regardless of which system you buy them for, just like they do now.

A killer exclusive could still make a big difference, but that's as likely to be a new breed of MMOFPS on X1 as it is something graphically impressive on PS4. I'm not entirely convinced Microsoft are throwing a billion servers at XBL just so people can watch TV a bit better.

I'm expecting the general consensus post-E3 to be very different to what it is right now, and E3 is soon enough that this initial response probably isn't going to worry Microsoft all that much.

but valve have not put out a game in nearly 3 years. its easy to not piss people off if you don't actually do anything and just live off the promise of HL3.

The only thing that hangs me up is mandatory Kinect, their shoving that stupid piece of tech down people's throats really rubs me the wrong way.

@green_incarnate: @zombie2011: @respighi: @ch3burashka: @jimbo: @ruthloose:

Today, Microsoft confirmed my suspicions with this comment. As I said, Their focus is too far from the core. http://kotaku.com/indie-developers-won-t-be-able-to-self-publish-on-xbox-509271999

I think this just means we are in for a hell of a interesting console fight as Sony and MS try new draconian measures and continually see their market shares dissolve.

I would not be to surprised as we watch MS do a "180" at E3 on a lot of these ideas they were obviously publicly "pressure testing."

EDIT: There is still a ton of stuff that will shake out in coming months. To nail MS or Sony to the wall this soon only furthers the stereotype that gamers are the most self-indulgent, entitled fuck-wads the industry execs already think. Let's let them undo their earned trust themselves, folks, after we see actual games shown off at E3 / TGS / PAX.