theApoc said:
So Jim is complaining about a situation that he and the others who are like him created? You are complaining because they backed off of creating a media device and subsequently neutered it to stop the whining of people like yourself? It had clear potential that was eliminated the moment the company started making decisions based on game reviewers and silly rant videos.
No he's made it abundantly clear that he's upset because BEFORE they backed off they lied their asses off trying to pretend like they knew what people needed or wanted (obviously they didn't) and that they "couldn't" change it. And then when they changed it (see the lie there) they then, AFTER backing off, lied about always caring about giving choice to the consumer and then acted as though they were heroes to everyone. That's what this episode was about. No one forced Microsoft to go down the route of DRM/Kinect fetish. And when people called them out on it by saying "no we don't want this" they could have had the respect to admit they were wrong, but they didn't. Jim isn't upset because they backpedaled, he's upset because they're habitual liars. Being called on bullshit doesn't give Microsoft the "okay" to pretend like it was really concerned about the customer at all. It wasn't looking out for us, it was looking out for execs and shareholders. Had they apologized, admitted their fault and then fixed things, it could have gone smoother and maybe just MAYBE people would have a reason to trust Microsoft again. But they chose not to. They showed their true colors because they thought they had people by the balls (true dictator fashion) and now that they realized that they didn't, they tried to cover it up and act like they were really just caring about us. Bullshit.
Kinect may not be ready for prime time. But it is better than it was, and it will continue to get better still. And 5 years from now, people will wonder how there was every a device that wasn't spacial aware and capable of true voice command. It was never going to be anything more than a gimmick when it comes to games, and gaming should never have been the focus of the device.
The only thing the failed to do was emphasize the strengths of the kinect as its own thing. Instead they keep trying to tie it to gaming. When many of the features that could actually make it useful are pushed off as secondary.
Your right, it should have been its own device completely separate from gaming. Although you don't have to worry about speech recognition software in the future. If you have Windows PC you can go straight to Control Panel and click 'Speech Recognition' and with the use of a microphone that's far cheaper than Kinect you can have that exact experience.
MS has a terrible marketing department, for all of their devices and all of their software. Not because of what they are producing, but rather because they are marketing these things as if they are following rather than innovating.
The PS4 is no more relevant than the XBOX one, and that has nothing to do with fanboys or hardware. There was no real need for current gen, and they would have been a lot better off waiting until they were able to mass produce true next gen experiences. Until developers can utilize these devices 100%, both machines are a complete waste of money.
Actually even with all their excellent marketing, PS4 hasn't convinced me that its the future. Because sometimes, no amount of marketing can make something that isn't special, be special. PS4 played the Microsoft card and charged for online play acting as though they're using anything other than peer-to-peer or that they couldn't have made the money from devs just like steam does with their servers, instead of charging the end user for what clearly can be done for no extra charge. All that wonderful advertising about the new graphics didn't convince me that it was anymore necessary. Some of us know innovation when we see it. We don't need or are completely uninfluenced by advertisements. We look for evidence, proof beyond the wordplay.
Unfortunately neither device is as relevant as they want it to be. And there isn't a way to utilize these devices more than they already are. They don't use bogus/hidden tech that's exclusive to them anymore. They use x86/x64 based architecture (same as Computer) and have already been noted by several media outlets, devs and guys like Rich of ReviewTechUSA that these systems are tapped out. Devs are hitting more walls, faster than they have in any generation prior. They can barely get 1080p on games. Now that being said, I couldn't give a flip really. I'm not a "Graphics first, Gameplay last" kind of guy, but that being said it's still the case that these machines don't have any hidden features or horsepower to fall back on. Developers have already stated that much. The reason devs figured out secrets to "unlocking" the power of PS3 was because they had to learn to code with the insanely ridiculous CPU core they had on PS3. Once they figured that out (usually only done on exclusives) they could increase the power and offload resources more towards the CPU since it was the most powerful thing in the console. That just isn't going to happen on architecture that developers have been accustomed to for years (x86/x64), which is exactly what these consoles are using. And to the cloud, there have already been numerous articles as to why the cloud isn't going to redeem their lack of power in the systems.