WHEN?.. lol… Not going to happen. The kinect is the xbox one, in the eyes of Microsoft.
time will prove you wrong
Kinect was a good idea, and many people love it. I played Kinect sports on the 360, and it was one hell of a laugh. The issue is, for it to perform 100%, you need a space the size of Jupiter. Their plans for Kinect on the Xbox One though… Bleh… It’s an accsessory that you should have the option of having. Their policies concerning Kinect being a neccessity for the console to function was a joke, as was the policy of the Kinect sensor being able to detect how many people were watching a movie on the console, as that opened up so many possibilities for Microsoft to gather data they shouldn’t be allowed to have.
I will defend Kinect in the way that it’s a good accessory and provides a lot of fun if you are competing against friends, but being an essential part of a console doesn’t work.
I suppose my main purpose was to point out that even the Sony first-party games are becoming more and more western-developed. I will agree wholeheartedly that the PS exclusives were much better towards the end of the cycle, though. Mass Effect and Bioshock becoming multi-console after their first games helped win that battle immensely (in my opinion, at least, they were the two of the best new franchises of the last generation, along with the first Dead Space, first F.E.A.R, and Borderlands - but those were cross-platform from the gate).
As an aside, I’d like to mention that I am quite proud of how well this thread has done in avoiding a flame-war (so far, hope I don’t jinx it). Granted, it is a forum for a game that is only on the one console, but there are clearly also PlayStation fans here as well - especially as far as now-current-gen goes. Well done, peers.
I was just saying I was proud that no one had disseminated into childish squabbling yet. That’s how these threads usually go. :I
I have seen quite a lot of criticism towards T10/MS go unchecked on here since the release of 5, as well as many references to excitement about Project Cars. Which is good. What is the point of doing something if you can’t handle the criticisms? The competition from P.C should only serve to make FM6 that much better, no sense in trying censor it.
One nit-pick with that: the amount that the DRM policies would have helped MS personally is almost zero. It was a push by/for the developers to try and get their due from the used game market, because they see no share of what frankly is rightfully their due. Giving them a cut of the used game market would (in an ideal world) serve to increase developer revenue, which could in return be turned around into better games, or cheaper/free - but that’s a stretch - DLC (gasp).
I was in love with the DRM policies, because it would have allowed us to share the games for free with a numbered group (I think it was something like 5?), and would have potentially opened up the opportunity for Steam-level sales in the future. The only real downside was losing out on the $5 that GameStop might give you for a used game a month after it has come out. Between all of the “next-gen” consoles, it was the only real “next-gen” thing that either company was attempting to do. Discs will likely be nearly obsolete by the end of this cycle, and MS would have been ahead of the curve (any digital purchase will forever be linked to a DRM variant of some sort anyways). Steam is actually a great comparison in many ways, and is praised for its DRM-type system.
Even now, I really don’t understand why the backlash was so violent, barring ignorance by strictly-console gamers that speed run a game and sell it again the next day - at which point I feel no pity. Simply buying the games that you know you will love and keep has always worked perfectly well for me.
The only real and legitimate complaint I had ever heard against it was for soldiers who might not have constant internet connection, but in that case I like to think that MS would have made exceptions somehow and sent them modified consoles (how awesome of a PR stunt would that have been?), but even if they had instead modified their once-a-day-connection policies it would have worked. Something like being connected as the disc was downloaded to the drive/upon DLC download to prove ownership probably would have worked just fine in most cases.
IMO, their biggest crime was not the DRM, but rather how poorly they sold the idea. Their marketing department dropped the ball so hard that it dented the floor.
It wasn’t so much that Sony “didn’t go with it” as much as they went with it, never made it public, saw how the response was going, blamed MS, and reversed theirs as well behind the scenes. I can’t get behind that.
How soon people forget about Sony’s BMG root kit scandal from 2005/2006, not only with forced DRM; but also allowed them backdoor access to a windows PC. They could see at the very least what you was listening too, and which program you was using to do so. It also opened a MASSIVE backdoor for hackers to take over peoples computer systems, which incidentally happened as a result of Sony’s underhanded rootkitting of Sony produced audio cd’s. Customers where not happy, the media wasn’t happy, the governments of the world fined them a ton, and Microsoft where furious that Sony opened up such a massive security hole in windows with their rootkits. Sony are not, nor have they ever been a squeaky clean company; especially when it comes to DRM. They will go to great lengths to protect what they make/produce, and they will do it behind peoples back. Sony use a lot of smoke and mirrors in public conferences to hide things from the media and consumers. You just have to see E3 last year for that, when they stated they had no DRM in the PS4. While everyone was busy cheering for Sony for not doing an MS, they then slipped in under the radar with “you also pay to play games online now. woohoo for us”.
I distrust Sony, they hide what they are doing with DRM and other things; at least Microsoft come right out and tell you what’s up too your face. Sure MS also have their fair share of secrets, but those secrets don’t tend to affect the end user 80% of the time.
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Pretty much my feelings exactly! Thank you for putting it into words better than I have been able to. 
Just as i said in an earlier comment microsoft to sell XB1 without kinect.
After several months of the current-gen consoles now being with us, Microsoft has again altered its strategy of how to distribute as many Xbox Ones as possible to the world at large. Last time, it was to withdraw the requirement to have the console require an always-online connection (a concept I believe should only be reserved for MMOs and similar genres), followed shortly after having the console itself work without the Kinect plugged in.
Now the strategy is to start selling the console without the Kinect entirely (along with a generous price cut)–a move that could be very beneficial to Microsoft and the Xbox One itself.
The announcement came about last week via Xbox Wire, where Microsoft’s newly promoted head of Xbox Phil Spencer detailed that the Xbox One will be receiving a $100 price cut as a result of removing the Kinect peripheral from the console’s package–a second variant of the Xbox One that’ll be made available on Monday, June 9.
With this announcement, there will now be two variants of the Xbox One console: one with the Kinect, and the other without–for $499 and $399 respectively (or your regional equivalent).
also with the Kinect being dropped from the Xbox One, Microsoft is currently in talks with other developers and publishers about squeezing out more juice with the Xbox One now that a portion of its performance won’t be dedicated to the Kinect. With the removal of additional CPU stress brought on by the peripheral, it’s thought that games will now be able to perform better on the console since its CPU will be able to focus more on the games that are being played instead of dueling processes with the game and its respectively possible Kinect features and mechanics.
In response to the further turning points for Xbox One. I’ll state the obvious.
Xbox One has now done a full 360 degree turn since E3 in order to better the PS4 which hasn’t changed a bit since E3. Yet PS4 just became the best selling of the both for the 4th month in a row. (On the flip side though, Titanfall was the best selling game again, although the majority of those sales were on 360, not X1)
In response to the new power space for Xbox One. May I also state the rumoured huge power increase for the PS4, which is stated to be highly likely to become a reality.
Also, in response to the statement about Sony’s forced DRM nearly 10 years ago. Sony learnt from their mistakes. Microsoft are now making those mistakes.
10 years ago? They had nearly the same DRM policy as MS as recently as last E3, they were just not nearly as loud about it. When it blew up in MS’ face, they quietly reversed the policy in the background while publicly pointing and laughing at MS all the while.
I can’t support that.
A power increase for the PS4 would be pretty impressive, I’ll admit, but it still doesn’t have any games that would tempt me to pick one up.
This latest move just reinforces the fact that MS have been playing catch up since day 1. They initially went for a bolder (you could say foolish) move with their policies. It backfired and Sony have taken full advantage, as the overall sales figures show.
This doesn’t mean it’s a complete disaster for MS, however. The console itself is decent enough with good features and some good games. They’ve taken the right moves to get themselves back in the game, learning from their mistakes and giving people what they want. In my opinion the gap is narrowing. And with a lot of people (me included) yet to make the jump to next gen there’s still a lot to play for.
But at the end of the day you can buy either console and be happy with it. Marketing, policies and sales figures don’t really mean much to me. It’s about which console I’ll enjoy playing on more. Because consoles are designed for entertainment, not arguments.
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Well said. I wish more people could have that attitude. 
the 360 sold one million by the time 2010 rolled around in japan. so, when you do the math, that was around two hundred and fifty thousand consoles a year. japanese just tend to be loyal to their own with the sony playstation its a no brainer you can’t tell me microsoft sells better in japan than sony does. as for the xbox one, its the little things like no themes, assigned gamerpics and no avatar marketplace that let it down imo. a hope still remains they will create all of that later on for those of us who game on their console. the c-net app is gone, i liked viewing that for the car reviews. i am pleased to see zoo tycoon for instance, i also hope there will be more of those kind of games on the xbox one they don’t have to be exclusives. the command and conquer franchise when they were ported exclusively to the xbox 360 got very favourable reviews they were a huge success games that were otherwise better suited on the personal computer worked well as console gaming with a gamepad.