Here I was, trying to think of what I was going to write for my Friday article. Driving along during an uncharacteristically sunny day in the Highlands, attempting to dredge an idea from the recesses of my mind. Then along come Microsoft to the rescue. My heroes.
I want to imagine the conversation went something like this.
There’s a knock on Phil Spencer’s office door. Yusuf Mehdi pokes his head in.
“Uh, Phil?”
“What’s up?”
“Have you seen the sales figures for April?”
“No. Are they awesome?” Phil asks with a grin, reaching for his coffee. “I bet they’re awesome.”
“Not as such,” Yusuf replies, visibly sweating as he hands Phil a piece of paper.
“This is an application form for Zynga.”
“Whoops, wrong one,” Yusuf chuckles, snatching back his potential future. “Here they are.”
Phil takes a sip of his coffee as he reads the new document.
“PFFFFFFBBBBBBBBBT.”
Turns out that the Xbone isn’t doing all that well. Microsoft’s strategy thus far has been to, in approximate order:
– Tell us we’re wrong and/or we don’t understand their vision (DRM, always-connected Kinect).
– Back-pedalled and claimed that they were “listening to gamers” (remove DRM, Kinect optional).
– Insist that Kinect and Xbone are one and the same; inseparable.
– Spout meaningless figures to cover up poor sales (Xbones “sold to market”, gameplay statistics).
They pinned their hopes on Titanfall turning their fortunes around, but that hasn’t happened. While Call of Robots managed to top the overall sales for April according to NPD, that’s across all platforms. Microsoft were lightning-quick off the mark trying to spin this news into something positive for their foundering console. When you look a little closer, however – especially at those titles that didn’t make the top 10 – a different story emerges.
For a start, inFAMOUS: Second Son on PS4 outsold Titanfall on Xbone. inFAMOUS sold 1 million copies within 9 days, while Titanfall took 3 weeks to reach that mark. This trend seems to have continued, with little left for Microsoft to do than backpedal even harder.
In a move that’s meant to be beneficial to consumers, Microsoft have finally ditched the mandate that Kinect needs to be bundled with every Xbone. From June the 9th, a Kinect-less SKU (lovingly dubbed The Diskinect) will be available from retailers. This should mean a significant discount to those looking to purchase an Xbone, but they can’t seem to even get that part right. As of right now, I could go and buy an Xbone, with both Kinect and Titanfall, for £390. The Diskinect is available for pre-order, on its own, for £350. As a comparison, I can get a PS4 with inFAMOUS or Watch_Dogs for £385 or on its own for £345.
So what we end up with is the same situation as before: Microsoft’s console is still more expensive, regardless of which bundle you buy, with the Diskinect representing the worst value of all. Why is the price difference the same between PS4 and Xbone bundles – that £40 gap covers the cost of the game (let’s not even mention the fact that you need to subscribe to XBLG to even PLAY Titanfall), but what about the Kinect? Useless as it was, its loss represents a loss in functionality that’s not reflected by a lower price. I’d have hoped to see Microsoft selling the Xbone at £300, complete with a voucher allowing the holder to punch Major Nelson in the face should they ever meet him.
Gamers as a whole have been screaming from the rooftops for some time now: Kinect is stupid, it doesn’t work, get rid of it. The trouble is that by doing so, Microsoft have lost the last shred of integrity that they might have retained throughout this past year. It’s too little and too late. The Xbone is now a technologically inferior PS4, devoid of just about any redeeming feature. It’s too big, its UI is a mess, third party games run universally poorer than on the PS4, the TV-related features mean bugger all to anyone outside the US and its current line-up of first party exclusives is poor.
Not to mention that XBLG is still crap value when compared to PlayStation Plus, even though Microsoft have ditched the pay wall for many previously Gold-restricted features. Yes, good news – now you no longer need to pay Microsoft to click on the Netflix or Amazon Prime Instant Video icon! But no, you can’t play that F2P title online with others without paying up, because double standards.
Of course, a lot of what I’ve just written is conjecture and bile: I’m still angry at Microsoft for being such a dick back at E3 2013. To this day, they’ve not apologised for any of the crap they’ve pulled – it’s always spun in such a way to make it look like it was their idea. They come up with excuse after excuse to try and legitimise their furious scramble to try and sell their cursed console. With hundreds of thousands of unsold Xbones on shelves across (some) of the globe – most of which will need to be taken down and re-packaged in order to even sell – there’s a very real possibility that the Wii U, or even the Xbox 360, may outsell the Xbone in May.
Microsoft aren’t about to answer to me or anyone else in a remotely honest way. They’re going to continue bullshitting until the Xbone turns a profit, then bullshit some more. The only positive to take away from this situation is that they’ve now removed the last reason to actively avoid the Xbone – all they need to do now is give us a reason to buy it. Maybe Halo will be enough, but when some of the third party “exclusives” that Microsoft have been relying on start making their way across to PS4, even Master Chief won’t be enough.
Gamers have chosen – for now, they’ve chosen PS4.
© 2014, zero1gaming.com. All rights reserved. On republishing this article your must provide a link to this original post
A twenty-something gamer from the North-East of Scotland. By day, I’m a Computer Technician at a local IT recycling charity, where I fix and build PCs. Outside of that, most of my time is spent either sleeping or gaming, which I try accomplish in equal amounts.
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