Quite the click bait headline, I don't see his character and argument being much more than that, it got you to post it here, so mission accomplished.
They couldn't just flip a switch, it obviously took a lot of work to roll back the DRM scheme. It didn't change overnight. The Kinect absolutely is a requirement to smoothly operate the console even today. 'Xbox Snap ESPN' accomplishes with 3 words something that is probably over a dozen button presses to accomplish otherwise and applies to a variety of uses - gaming or otherwise - across the console. Saying 'What was in MS's head is something they were not capable of producing' (his words) is disingenuous... since reacting to what consumers (think they) want is now a bad thing - we never saw what was in their head. Even now they're still talking about going down that path in some ways, they've mentioned exploring thing like gifting and loaning your digital titles in the future.
Couldn't get through the video blog, he was pouring it on way too thick. I expect stuff like this continue to be created/posted for the duration of the console generation though.
Personally I wish we'd gotten their always-connected original vision for the console. We've already gotten that for many titles. Destiny is always online, NBA2k patched in an always-online requirement after launch, etc. But we can't have that, because the internet. I am hopeful we'll get many of the features they intended to introduce in time as they crank out monthly updates to console that have been pretty awesome. Unlike my PS4 I am excited for how the Xbox One will continue to evolve to meet consumer demands (known by some as lying apparently), because I know it will. My PS4 on the other hand will look the same in a decade, as my PS3 did. Yet somehow that will be a net positive.
First off, I resent this being considered a case of "click bait" and that I was "baited" by Mr. Sterling. While I don't agree with EVERYTHING he says, I strongly agree with his pro-consumer stance on many things, and as far as the One is concerned, Microsoft has been very UNfriendly.
At the end of the day, you can NOT deny the fact that Microsoft either A: Flat out lied, or B: Tried to shove bullsh*t down our throats. For one, declaring that the Kinect was a requirement was a massively dumb decision, because A: It was NOT required, and B: It pushed the One out of the pricing range of many consumers, many of whom decided to get the PS4 instead because it was $100 cheaper and didn't have any hardware they didn't want. The massive sales increase they got when they removed the Kinect is proof positive of that. You said it's a requirement for "Smooth operation" and cite an example for snapping in ESPN. Then in your next statement you say you could do the same thing without Kinect but it would require more steps. For many people, it's not worth paying the extra $100 to do that in 1 step.
Many people don't care about Kinect features, and it's becoming increasingly more evident over time that the whole "motion control" craze is about to meet the same fate as the Guitar Hero/Rock Band one. Yet Microsoft was insistent that "YOU NEED THE KINECT!!!" And I don't give them a lot of credit for releasing the One without the Kinect, because A: It's an admission that they lied, and B: They're just doing what they should have done from the beginning! The Kinect should really be marketed as an accessory as opposed to a requirement. It's clear that it's not essential for gameplay or enhances regular gaming in any way. Take a look at the various Kinect only games. They're all either party games or dance games, and I'd argue the majority of gamers don't partake in either of those types of games. And yelling out voice commands isn't beneficial when the same thing can be accomplished quicker and easier with a button press. And for full disclosure, when I do end up eventually picking up the One, I will be likely getting the Kinect version, because my family likes playing Dance games and I've heard they're going to try and create some more interactive educational games with those features. And maybe someday I'll finally have enough money to where I can start paying for a STB for my cable service and take advantage of those features. And finally, from what I've read the Kinect is hardly a god-send for navigating the One. People are still complaining about lack of recognition, and I don't like any system that will just pick up ANY voice and follow it's command. Scott was talking about how his kids would constantly yell "Xbox Turn Off!" Still, they do have time to improve on this and I hope they do because as of now they're not quite at the full multimedia experience that they declared it would be at last year's E3.
As far as the always online DRM thing, there is NO defending that. Okay, so it wasn't as simple as "flipping a switch" but at the end of the day they were able to remove it. And they don't get credit for removing that either because they "listened to the consumer." The consumer never wanted it in the first place. That would be like if I walked into my friend's kitchen and took a crap on their floor. Then as people yelled at me, I denied a took a crap there and let it sit there, refusing to clean it. Then a month later I came back to the house and said, "You're right, I crapped on the floor!" and then cleaned it up. I don't get "credit" for "listening" to people complaining, I should be scorned for making such a stupid decision in the first place!
There has never been an instance that I know of in the history of gaming where a game's experience was enhanced by requiring a constant internet connection to play the game. I am NOT referring to MMOs or multiplayer only games where online is part of the core experience, but rather games like Assassin's Creed 2 that constantly broke because of people's internet going out or Ubisoft's servers not being able to handle the load, which would then cause OTHER games to fail because people couldn't log into Ubisoft's COMPLETELY unnecessary uPlay DRM service. Or the new Simcity which had MULTIPLE problems due to always being online due to a DRM system that was CLEARLY thought up by EA and not Maxis, which Maxis eventually removed.
I didn't post this video with the intention of participating in "click baiting" or to troll people who own the One. I feel that Microsoft's issues with the One are part of a bigger problem among various game publishers where they try to push sh*t down our throats under the pretenses of "This is the way it has to be!" I'd almost have more respect for Microsoft if they'd just stuck with their original positions (well not the DRM but the Kinect requirement) and really made them true. Apple is infamous for the "it has to be this way" method of marketing and it's worked well because they had solid and logical technology behind it. Microsoft isn't as smart apparently with their methods of doing so. And now companies like Harmonix are SOL because they made development decisions based on the belief that the Kinect would be on all One consoles. Now they've learned their potential market share has shrunk. And that's because they believed the lie.
Anyways that's my thoughts on the matter.. now then..
