Or am I to doom and gloom?

I mean they're hurting in sales, multiplat games look and run better on PS4 and they've done 180 after 180. They're in damage control mode now and decoupling the Kinect. The Kinect team must be slightly annoyed, right? And that Kinect sports game bombed and Rare had to fire people. And ontop of it all MS cut corners on hardware to force the Kinect on us and now they're stuck with inferior hardware compared to PS4.

At least they change things around, but it must be a very strange feeling at MS think they would kick ass in sales as the 360 did and force all the DRM debacle and things on gamers and then the console doesn't sell well.

The kinect-less Xbox will probably help sales. But still. All those suits with that Mattrick guy, or whatever his name was, and their vision is now watered down. At least Spencer is a gamer and taking the lead to make the Xbox more appealing.

And what a ride it has been (copy/pasted from neogaf):

May 21st 2013 - Xbox One is announced (TV, TV, TV, TV, TV, TV, TV, TV, Sport, Sport, Sport, Sport, Sport. Call of Duty).
May 22nd - Phil Harrison says the console will need to be connected online every 24 hours.
May 25th - Larry Hryb says the console will support trade in and resale of games
May 27th - Microsoft says it will be regionlocked
June 6th - Microsoft says it won't charge a fee for gamers to pass game discs between friends
June 10th - E3! Microsoft announces the system will cost 499 dollar. Sony publicly takes a stand against the policies of Microsoft.
June 19th - Microsoft announces they are ditching the previously announced DRM policies, 24 hour check-in and the regionlocking. They also say that Family game sharing is being scrapped as a result of the change.
June 25th - The Kinect will be the one and only headset included in the box, says Microsoft.
July 1st - Don Mattrick leaves Microsoft
August 8th - In an Unboxing video by Larry Hryb, a standard headset is revealed.
August 12th - Microsoft confirms that Kinect is no longer required to operate the console
August 14th - Microsoft delays Xbox One in 21 markets, stating it will instead launch in "Early 2014". It ended up releasing September 2014.
November 22nd - Xbox One officially releases in the US, Canada, select European countries, Australia and New Zeeland. Microsoft announces shortly after that it sold 1 million consoles within the first 24 hours.
March 17th, 2014 - Marc Whitten leaves Microsoft to join Sonos
March 31st - Phil Spencer is appointed as new Head of Xbox
May 6th - Microsoft dates their E3 press briefing, naming it "Xbox: Game On".
May 13th - Microsoft announces a new Kinect-less SKU of the Xbox One for 399 dollar. They also announce Games for Gold for the system, and that Xbox Live Gold will no longer be required for streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu.

The new Guy is fixing everything wrong with it..

it's too late to re-design the chip, unless they slip a chip with more GPU Power in their Console Shrink, But that's not gonna help current games.

384 Stream processors difference between the 2, is a "meh" gap, easily fixed with some minor non visible changes, I think MS is testing the unit at higher Clocks..

I've bridged the gap between 7850 and 7870s with a mere 40 Mhz OC, so 50-60Mhz should work without putting out too much heat.

But when you add in that the Kinect II uses some of the Stream Processors, it further cripples the GPU.

So, Remove kinect II, tell developers it is no longer part of the Base package, Drop the Price $100, Give the GPU all of it's power back.

Overclock GPU to make up for Shader Difference.

Integrate DX12 in Spring 2015 Update, which removes most of the DX Overhead on the CPU/GPUs






Xbox Live Wise,
Fix it so People only Pay $60 if they wanna play games online, anyone that wants to watch Netflix/NHL Network/HBO/Whatever can do it for free.
Done.


Media Wise, Restore Media Center Extender Functionality.
Which is the #1 Requested XBO Feature.

Instead of making a NextGen gaming console, XBOX pissed on much of the gaming focus instead focusing on TV and DRM and Kinect.

Sony on the other hand focused on making a better NextGen gaming console and is reaping the benefits.

IMHO XBOX could still fix the fiasco and turn this around by focusing on GAMING instead of stupid crap like they did, glad to see good signs that they realize this recently.

They put the focus on Internet Streaming Supported by Ads (YouTube, Twitch, App Based Viewing).

They kinda peeved on TV by removing Media Center Functionality that alot of us used with our Ceton Tuners, in exchange for this HDMI Passthrough and guide.

Microsoft lost my business. If I buy a new system it will be a PS but that is unlikely at this point.

I approve of the removal of Kinect.

Although I don't put much fate in this DX12-thing being the best thing to ever happen. Didn't AMD tried to do that with Mantle? Anyway, we'll see how DX12 fares I imagine.

Well, they listened to customers and have given what was asked for. Used games, digital game sharing (sometime I guess), no Kinect and a price drop.
From what I heard, they're trailing Sony, but by no means failing. Possibly even selling as well as the 360 did at this point in its life cycle.

You mean they've finally woke up and are making it so you can watch streaming services without have a gold account. To little to late for me. When I upgrade it will be a PS4 since more of my friends have them.

Well, I probably won't be making a decision on a next-gen console until next fall or holiday season. But, this is a step in the right direction (finally) by MS.

In all honesty, I wantto buy an Xbox but I'm worried about performance. It really seems like they screwed the pooch with their hardware choices, all to satisfy the damn Kinect.

What happens at E3 will also have a bearing on which console I choose as well. A lot could happen between now and next fall.

As it stands now, I really only know for certain of ONE friend that as the Xbox One (slash, that'd be you, so I'd be interested in hearing your opinion if you still frequent this site).

I still haven't seen a game worth buying a console for is the problem. I don't care about new/redone Halos, and I think that will be the big E3 item.
Chromehounds is why I bought my 360, and I see nothing like that coming. Different, innovative, intelligent and MP by which I judge all other MP.

I have a PS3 for Gran Turismo. I may purchase a G27 wheel this year and that might open up a few possibilities for me. The only racing I do on the PC is Simbin stuff, so my gaming PC is mostly for FSX and SF 2.

I've heard GT6 is awesome.

GT6 was horrible, arcade rubbish. I got it with my PS3 and traded it in.

Microsoft also pissed off half of Europe by still not releasing the motherfucking console here. Won't arrive until #%&*$# september.

#%&*$# you, Microsoft.

I'd edit your post MadDog, the language filter didn't pick up MF

IMO it is still very early in the game. XBOX can still bounce back from their rough start. I've got my money put aside, I don't feel an urgency to choose yet. The last 2 gens I ending up buying both, it's more a matter of what to get first.

PS3 outsold Xbox 360 in the beginning with a more powerful systems (remember the Cell Processor Hype?).

Once XBL/Game Catalog and Features Matured on Xbox 360 it took off.

Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 for such a long time, PS3 was even hindered by a delayed launch. Plus the specs were in no very comparable due to completely different architecture and difficulty in coding which made the PS3 a poor choice for multiplatform games as well and Playstations network infrastructure was a joke.

Xbox 360 had it super easy last generation. If Microsoft had actually bothered to work on getting great games out at the end of the generation, the PS3 wouldn't have overtaken them in the end. However Microsoft stagnated hard. Also PS Plus made quite a difference because of what it offered, which was great.

However this time, they are on a comparable scale down on power, difficulty in coding, launch availability and their reputation has taken a significant hit. PS Plus also has a great reputation as mentioned from the last generation whilst with Live they kinda have to catch up now.

I honestly doubt the Xbox One will ever really catch up and overtake.

The Moon is a beautiful planet.

Sony learned from their mistakes. Microsoft seemed intent on making all new ones.

I'd heard it was WAY better than GT5.