I have a serious question...

[PedalTank]

I like Microsoft's products overall. I have a PC, I use Windows 8, and I have a Windows phone. I like the 360.

I'm not saying the Xbox One is good. I know what MS was trying to accomplish with no discs and eventually is can be a workable, decent idea. But with all the crap coming down, major parts of the industry turning against them, and overall just really avoiding hot button issues; is there any way MS is getting out of this?

Is it possible for them to redeem themselves?

I'm not asking this sarcastically or to be some kind of dick but it just seems like every time I read something about them it's either a major company doing something that will further hurt the release of their system or them saying/doing something that hurts the future sale of their products.

Anyone remember the CDi? Should we be expecting a similar result? Or do you think that despite all the bad press and set backs they will still make money?

 

[thesilentman]

Yes, but it requires them to cut being mobile platform on a desktop and stop fiddling DRM on top of DRM in their console immediately. Most concise answer I can give for now. =P

 

[FalloutJack]

They would have to remove their head from their asses so they could see the frowns we're making at them first. And yeah, that's a serious answer. They're not really understanding what their customers want...

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think the chance to COMPLETELY redeem themselves is long gone. They sure took their time to address the fiasco of an announcement they made. By the time they did, everybody was making fun and memes about the "Xbone", they'd lost a lot of credibility, even the competition jumped in to mock them with the kind of common sense consumers like to think they enjoy ("this is how you share a game on the PS4"). They'll always have staunch loyalists saying "Well it's not THAT bad" or explaining why DRM, 24/7 connection, no backwards compatibility and an emphasis on everything BUT videogames is a good thing. I for one am not buying it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well sadly people hang onto their brand as if it's a parent so there is nothing MS can actually do to make fans stop buying their console.

Perhaps they will see lesser sales and stop buying exclusives but I honestly can't see them lose momentum on the fan front.

 

[Aris Khandr]

If they promote the hell out of the shared library feature, that'll move a lot of consoles on its own. Being able to download and play your friends' games, even do multiplayer with them, without buying them yourself is huge. If Steam did that, they'd be heralded as gaming divinity (more so than they already are). That's where they need to be advertising. That feature is freaking awesome.

Of course, I say that as a PC gamer who uses Steam for almost all of her game purchases anyway. So I really don't care about the "connect once a day"/"no used games" thing. PC hasn't had used games in over a decade, and we got through it fine.

 

[Vylox]

If they started from scratch, and scrapped the whole XBox One entirely, they could potentially get back on solid footing.
The thing is, they are trying to fight battles on too many fronts. Between attacking Google and Android via their commercials (even though they do the exact same thing) to attempting to battle it out over consoles with Sony and Nintendo, they are not faring very well in the technology department. They need to step back and look at reality, plus, as a business, they need to understand that consumers tend to purchase things that they desire or want. Attempting to sell people something they aren't interested in or don't want is not a good business strategy. What they are currently doing with the XBox One is basically like trying to sell sand to desert nomads, or water to a drowning person. Its just not going to work out well.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Everytime they're given the chance for redemption they piss it away.

Every interview they get is an opportunity to actually give a straight answer and gain some public support but they always just dance around the serious questions and hope nobody noticed.
This is one of the reasons everyone is so mad with them.

 

[Bruce]

Unlikely.

Their chief problem is that they are staying out of Japan, Singapore and about half the EU. That means for developers their games have an automatic cap as to their maximum market.

The online every 24 hours issue is essentially one more thing that can break - and that will restrict their market even further, then add in the Kinect and you shrink the potential market even more due to space requirements.

The thing to remember with public companies is that they largely look for growth, and an automatic cut to their maximum audience size is not attractive to them. The limits the system places on who can use it will likely outweigh the money publishers think they are losing to pirates.

Throw in the inevitable server issues it will have in its first month, the increased likelihood of the system being jail-broken early and the repeated PR failures put across by Microsoft, and this might actually be the system that forces Microsoft out of the console business.

 

[Doclector]

Technically, at any time they could realise what's going on, and either make major changes to the xbox one or scrap it altogether.

However, the first option's unlikely, the second one even more so.

Firstly, they'd actually have to realise what's going on here. They'd have to realise that the majority of people, some of them who have stuck with the xbox from the very beginning, aren't even seeing xbox one as an option for next gen. It's beyond not wanting it, it's practically being ignored. Every time a game is mentioned with the words "xbox one exclusive" the majority of the audience either switch off or look on in curiousity, perhaps at the end, lamenting that such a good looking game is stuck with this console.

Putting it shortly, they have major problems. There are defenders and people who'll get the xbox one for the exclusives, but even if it makes them money, it isn't going to be making them more money than they'd be making if they didn't include the DRM/used game stuff/etc. They have turned away and pissed off far more people than they can hope to win over.

They need to realise that, and then they need to act on it.