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Xbox, A New Generation Revealed (livesteam)

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Re: Xbox, A New Generation Revealed (livesteam)

#11

Post by archgrove »

princess3000 wrote: post #10
archgrove wrote: post #3

Most annoying to me, is we're 30 minutes into the reveal, and they've still not discussed games. Literally, we've had about 7 seconds of a game playing in the background. As far as I people can tell, this would (so far) seem to be a voice controlled cable box. Oh, and it looks like a shiny VCR. Bleh. Edit: Ah, at 31 minutes, we have a games developer. Pity it's EA, but c'est la vie.

I think that's the point. They're trying to capture a market far larger than people who care about the next Halo, because those people are going to buy this anyway.

And these are precisely the people who won't be watching the reveal of a new console.

Re: Xbox, A New Generation Revealed (livesteam)

#12

Post by mikestew »

"Practically silent" means my wife will practically force me to buy one, as she (rightfully) complains about the jet engine turbines the launch day 360 uses for fans.

I've been holding off buying a dedicated Blu-ray player, so that has some value. Don't care about Kinect, not enough room in the TV room. Don't care about being "connected" as I have enough Skype-enabled, etc. devices around the house.

The hard questions are how Microsoft's ad service, er, Xbox Live will improve my experience. Right now I'm of the opinion that the XL experience has really gone down hill with poor UI and loaded with ads. How is the gaming experience? Is it really going to require "always on"? Do I have to physically hold up my controller to "raise a shield"? I just want to move my thumbs. Am I going to be nickeled-and-dimed with micro payments/DLC?

My point is, this is the first time I'll make an actual decision about buying a new Xbox. Halo made the first one a no-brainer for me. I bought the 2nd because I still worked at MSFT, and I was a company man. This time there is the real possibility that I won't buy an Xbox One. Give recent trends, they better make sure the experience doesn't suck. But I see EA is on the stage right now, so I'm not optimistic.

Re: Xbox, A New Generation Revealed (livesteam)

#14

Post by w1ntermute »

mikeevans wrote: post #5
Drakim wrote: post #4

Xbox One? That's a rather confusing name since it's the third Xbox.

That didn't stop Apple from naming the newest iPhone the "iPhone 5", despite being the sixth.

Or HTC from naming their newest flagship phone the "HTC One".

Re: Xbox, A New Generation Revealed (livesteam)

#15

Post by FreeBird »

From the web:

"8 gigs of RAM, USB 3.0, Wi-Fi Direct, a Blu-Ray disc drive, 64-bit architecture and "practically silent operation." Super fast switching of TV inputs between TV, Gaming, Skype,IE etc. Runs the Windows NT kernel. Kinect 2.0 also gets a substantial upgrade. Whitten promised the integrated camera will have a wider field of view, and the sensor will be able to detect more joints, to include rotation of wrists and shoulders. "When you are exercising it can read your heartrate."

Re: Xbox, A New Generation Revealed (livesteam)

#16

Post by droopybuns »

Microsoft's communications are always so unnatural. Why does Microsoft maintain this corporate communication style? Every announcement event is just so uncomfortable.

These are clearly executives on stage whose asset is leadership, but they insist on injecting unnatural banter & distracting idioms. What corporate communications person hears a marketing manager talking about "photons" w/r/t kinect and doesn't cringe?

Is it just momentum within a communications team? Is it that they can't abandon this style because it's so deeply embedded in their communications team's culture? Or does this style actually work on some market segment?

Re: Xbox, A New Generation Revealed (livesteam)

#17

Post by chc »

mikeevans wrote: post #5
Drakim wrote: post #4

Xbox One? That's a rather confusing name since it's the third Xbox.

That didn't stop Apple from naming the newest iPhone the "iPhone 5", despite being the sixth.

That's because the numbering only gets bumped for sufficiently "major" upgrades, typically marked by a redesign. There was the original iPhone, then there was the 3G (which introduced 3G and a new design) and its minor upgrade the 3Gs, then the 4 (which introduced the retina display and a new design) and its upgrade the 4S, then the 5 (which introduced the new aspect ratio).

Re: Xbox, A New Generation Revealed (livesteam)

#18

Post by princess3000 »

archgrove wrote: post #11
princess3000 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the point. They're trying to capture a market far larger than people who care about the next Halo, because those people are going to buy this anyway.

And these are precisely the people who won't be watching the reveal of a new console.

True but the press/blogs will summarize this and a ton of people will have heard about it by the end of the day. They really want to be the only box in your living room, not just something you boot up when you want to play Halo, so they're emphasizing things other than the games at this point.

Re: Xbox, A New Generation Revealed (livesteam)

#19

Post by Yhippa »

droopybuns wrote: post #16

Microsoft's communications are always so unnatural. Why does Microsoft maintain this corporate communication style? Every announcement event is just so uncomfortable. These are clearly executives on stage whose asset is leadership, but they insist on injecting unnatural banter & distracting idioms. What corporate communications person hears a marketing manager talking about "photons" w/r/t kinect and doesn't cringe?…

The audience for this is probably stock analysts.

Re: Xbox, A New Generation Revealed (livesteam)

#20

Post by droopybuns »

droopybuns wrote: post #16

Microsoft's communications are always so unnatural. Why does Microsoft maintain this corporate communication style? Every announcement event is just so uncomfortable. These are clearly executives on stage whose asset is leadership, but they insist on injecting unnatural banter & distracting idioms. What corporate communications person hears a marketing manager talking about "photons" w/r/t kinect and doesn't cringe?…

"When you are exercising it can read your heartrate."

Why would you present a device that clearly looks like HAL 9000, integrates a very skynet-esque xbox live and choose to say it can read your heartbeat?

Wouldn't it be better to give the context as a choice? It comes across as telescreen that is taking your biometrics without permission. Why did they choose to take the creepy angle? What is wrong with these people?

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