So the buzz from the game industry now is that Microsoft caved to the peer pressure and not only is going to release an Xbox One without Kinect, but remove the pay wall that required Xbox Live to access things like Netflix and Hulu.
It's funny when considering less than a year ago, Microsoft was trying to sell us a system that wasn't going to allow you to play used games and force Kinect to be on all the time leading to theories of the government using Kinect for government spying and after being made a fool at E3 by Sony who decided to focus on making the PS4 a game console rather than some multimedia entertainment hub that punishes gamers who buy a used game or borrow one from a friend.
So basically now the Xbox One and the PS4 are pretty much identical in terms of price and features. Both will cost $400. Both play Blu Ray movies and can stream entertainment, so many gamers are looking at this "console war" wondering what's the difference now.
It comes down to one thing GAMES. And I am happy about this. As someone who grew up in the 90s of the Sega/Nintendo wars, console wars were about what games each system had, not which generic FPS ran in 1080p. Listening to overgrown man children discuss polygon counts and resolution crap is annoying. I want to know which system has games that make me want to buy it and so far aside from a couple exclusives like Knack, Killzone and Titanfall, the only console that had exclusives I was actually interested in was the WiiU namely because I like Mario and Zelda and that's the only way I'm going to get to play Mario and Zelda. I will say if Microsoft wants me to buy an Xbox One, then make a real Banjo Kazooie sequel. None of this car building nonsense. If Kinect is not mandatory anymore, maybe whatever is left of Rare can finally get a shot at making traditional games again. But so far I have yet to see an exclusive must have game for either system that makes me want to rush out and drop $400 on a big plastic box with no backwards compatibility. As for third party games, I have a good gaming PC for now and given these new systems are basically dumbed down PCs, it comes down to their console specific exclusives to sell me.
What's more amusing is the gamers mad that Xbox "sold out." I find this amusing because all I heard since last year's Xbox 180 was how many would consider the system if they dropped the Kinect and the price by $100. Then again given how many Xbox execs were dead set on Kinect being a part of the system and how it was going to revolutionize everything. But it's clear what happened. PS4 was outselling the Xbox One, even after Titanfall's strong launch. MS knows they're not going to be able to sell much better outside the US. As popular as the 360 was in the states, it bombed in Japan and didn't fare better in other countries so they had to put the Xbox One on par with the PS4. The 360 benefited from Sony making the mistake of thinking people would pay $600 for a Blu Ray player and I often wonder how last gen would've been had the PS3 launched at the same price as the 360.
I also roll my eyes at the Xbox fanboys saying how gamers are against "innovation." Huh, that's funny because many of these same whiners slammed Nintendo last gen for being gimmicky despite the Wii introducing a new way to play and introducing many non gamers to fun, accessible games that appealed to them. So to get this straight: introducing a new control scheme and bringing gaming to the masses is gimmicky but restrictive DRM is "innovation." It's easy to see why I stopped being a hardcore gamer.
So what does this mean for this eight generation of consoles? Well, as I said earlier, it is going to come down to the games now. Unlike last gen, Microsoft is really pushing exclusive titles now realizing they can't just coast by with Call of Duty and Madden like they did during the later half of the 360's life cycle and I want MS to have more going on than just online FPSes. I want somebody, ANYBODY to make fun, lighthearted open world platformer with a wacky mascot again. It's been ages since I've played a good one. Sly Cooper 4 was the last that came close to that. I want another game like Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie or Jak and Daxter. First one of you to make something like that, then you'll get my money.
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