Xbox One's downsides outweigh its benefits

"XO has good day one and launch titles not coming ever or soon to other platforms[XO_exclusives]: day one: Ryse: Son of Rome, Dead Rising 3, Forza 5, Killer Instinct; launch window: Titanfall, Halo, Quantum Break, Project Spark. That is besides the better visuals and the countless other games coming to the platform that would differentiate it from any other platform except PS4 and high end PC"I'm not going to argue on games at this point, because speculating on them seems a bit premature. However, it has been clearly established that, although Xbone is more powerful than Xbox 360, it is less powerful than PS4. According to Eurogamer, "PlayStation 4's 18 CU graphics core has 50 per cent more raw power than the GPU in the new Microsoft console".[1]"XO also is a good platform to develop for, having adopted an x86 CPU with similar performance to PS4[simple_xbox_hardware]. Microsoft is also a lot more experienced in creating development tools than Sony as John Carmack has said in the past[xbox_tools_better]. This means that developers will find it easy to develop for XO and the other platforms will not gain an edge in this regard."Once again, this is a pure software issue. However, one thing to note is that Microsoft is actually only friendly to developers from major studios. While PS4 allows indie developers to self-publish, Xbone does not.[2]"I will present an example of huge internet backlash that has not influenced most buyer's and players opinion about a game. The game is Battlefield Heroes that launched with a free to play with an item store. It later increased it's prices beyond most players ability to purchase most items for use from an hour's worth of gameplay daily. That created a huge backlash on the internet at the time. But the players continued to play the game and revenues increased to sustain the continued operation of the game[backlash_fallacies]. XO is also coming at the same time as it's primary rival the PS4[XO_on_time_launch]. It will not be at a disadvantage like the PS3 that launched with a year's worth of games less."Once again, software issue. The article says the base that complained about the game was only 2% of all people who played it; however, virtually every major poll of gamers has shown support for PS4 over Xbone by significant margins - as much as 94% of all gamers in some polls.[3] Forbes notes that "[$499 USD] is a price aimed directly at the core gaming community. Hardcore gamers are the only people who spend that much money on new consoles — they’re the ones who need to experience the biggest, newest games, no matter what the cost, and they’re the ones who can prop up a system until it grabs a large enough install base. But they’re also the people who have been most vocal about their displeasure with Microsoft Xbox One’s used games policies.[4] In other words, Microsoft is screwed because they have alienated the core gamer base and have made the price of the console one which will market primarily to hardcore gamers."One platform registering a lot of growth is the mobile platform. Resale of apps in the Iphone App Store and the Android Marketplace are completely forbidden as opposed to XO which has a better policy in this regard[mobile_apps_non_resalable]. That has not stopped the release of games far more expensive than the 99 cent usual price on mobile."Mobile growth is interesting in that regard, but a 99 cent app is a lot less expensive than a $60 USD game. If I pay $60 for something, I want to own it - not rent it indefinately - and most gamers seem to agree with me."As we speak there is confidence by PC gamers in DRM done right. The platform of choice for many PC gamers that buy their games digitally is Steam. It has a strict DRM policy of 'phoning' home every two weeks[steam_drm_now]. At launch it had to deal with a backlash in the media about that restriction of not playing your games when you are not connected to the internet. By comparison when there was news about Dark Souls coming to PC a community of potential buyers appeared to back the Steam platform instead of the Windows Live platform of digital distribution[dark_souls_pro_steam_petition]."I don't use Steam, but, unlike Xbone, it allows you to play Steam games on multiple machines in return for the DRM limitations. Its still a bad deal, but at least it provides you something for it. On Xbone, you can only play games you have bought on the Xbone - not, say, Windows 8, Windows Phone, and Surface Tablet. Additionally, Steam is actually trying to eliminate the 'authentication period' for all games (meaning they are aiming for an indefinate offline mode[6]) still, two weeks is far less restrictive than the one-day login requirement for Xbox. Look at it this way - if the Steam servers crash, there is far more time for them to be fixed before you can't play games on it. Using the worst-case Sony scenario - 24 days - you would have 14 days of gaming on Steam, meaning ten days with no gaming, as opposed to only one day of gaming on Xbone, meaning 23 days with no gaming. Of course, both of these are far more restrictive than PS4 and Wii U, which let you play games whenever you want."Microsoft's Xbox One will live or die by the quality of the DRM in XO, so they will push the quality assurance of the DRM involved to much higher levels than what was going on in Windows Live. They also have an experience in running the Xbox Live and Windows Live platforms for a very long time now, like Valve had with Steam in the above example. Like Windows 7 was a stable platform compared to Windows Vista, so should Xbox One be a stable platform without major issues at launch that would transform the initial media backlash into a secondary disaster confirmation backlash when the console actually launches and ends up in actual customer usage[microsoft_learns_from_experience]."As demonstrated above, Microsoft has a tremedous task ahead of them. They have to sell a high-priced, restrictive console with inferior graphics to the hardcore gamer audience, who are already pretty solidly against it. The problem with Xbone is not that it has a single very bad issue, it is that there are many bad issues that combine to make a very bad system. For example, let's say Xbone removes DRM and online checkin. You still have to deal with the price and the always-watching-you Kinect. If they lower the price, you still have to deal with DRM, Kinect, and online checkin. Can it be done? Sure. Sony's PS3 had a very bad launches, but it has rebounded to the point where it has out-shipped the 360.[8] But, as it stands right now, Xbone has its work cut out for it.References:1. http://www.eurogamer.net...2. http://www.develop-online.net...3. http://www.cinemablend.com...4. http://www.forbes.com...5. http://www.wired.com...6. http://www.wired.com...7. http://steamcommunity.com...8. http://www.gamesindustry.biz...