PS4 vs XBox 1... I think Sony has won me over

[sabrinathecat]

Makes me wonder if it wasn't all just some marketing/PR stunt (there is no such think as negative publicity), just to get name recognition started, and then to show that "they do care what the consumers want" by dropping the objectionable restrictions.

 

[jonesy]

If anyone was against buying the thing before the reversal and are now going to get one because they went and changed some of it back I'm just going to call them unprincipled. You don't let a corporation bounce you around like that.

"Here's a new version of the product you liked; now with annoying, inhibiting and user-unfriendly features. Buy one!"
"Go away."
"Look. We took some of them away. Please, buy one now?"
"You're the best!"

Ugh.

 

[Janx]

If anyone was against buying the thing before the reversal and are now going to get one because they went and changed some of it back I'm just going to call them unprincipled. You don't let a corporation bounce you around like that.

"Here's a new version of the product you liked; now with annoying, inhibiting and user-unfriendly features. Buy one!"
"Go away."
"Look. We took some of them away. Please, buy one now?"
"You're the best!"

Ugh.

I'm afraid, with logic like that, it leaves no room for a person/corporation to make a mistake and to work to correct it. If you're just going to blame them for making a mistake and blame them again for trying to fix it, they can't win.

That's kind of bogus.

 

[dd.stevenson]

It's interesting to me that MS chose to chop their DRM plan instead of their plans to bundle the Kinect with the xbone.

I mean, it seems like Joe Consumer isn't really going to change his mind based on a last-minute waffle on their EULA. OTOH, a hundred dollar price drop to match their competitor? That might make a real difference.

Obviously there are good business reasons why one is more flexible than the other--but I don't see MS regaining a ton of market share from this backtrack alone. (Especially since a lot of people are still expecting xbone to reinstate their DRM by other means.)

 

[Deset Gled]

It's interesting to me that MS chose to chop their DRM plan instead of their plans to bundle the Kinect with the xbone.

Dropping the network requirement can (probably) be handled purely with software. It'll be a huge pain and a major rush for them to change at this stage in the game, but it's still feasible.

Conversely, the fact that the system requires a Kinect to operate means it's pretty heavily integrate in to the design. Removing the Kinect would probably require a hardware change. With a Q4 release, they should be pretty far into the manufacturing process at this point. They are guaranteed to have all designs completed, have definitely started manufacturing sub-assemblies like circuit boards, and may have even started final production. Changing any hardware at this point would put them at a major risk for pushing back the release date.

Also, keep in mind that the Kinect hardware should be relatively cheap when mass produced. The biggest cost is the software integration, and Microsoft has already committed to that.

 

[jonesy]

I'm afraid, with logic like that, it leaves no room for a person/corporation to make a mistake and to work to correct it. If you're just going to blame them for making a mistake and blame them again for trying to fix it, they can't win.

That's kind of bogus.

Except that they were on a fishing expedition, making claims to gauge peoples reactions and see what they could get away with. And they went a bit too far with it, and found they had to back down. That's not 'trying to fix it'. That's finding out that your attempt to screw your customer over would hurt them financially.

 

[Jhaelen]

Except that they were on a fishing expedition, making claims to gauge peoples reactions and see what they could get away with. And they went a bit too far with it, and found they had to back down. That's not 'trying to fix it'. That's finding out that your attempt to screw your customer over would hurt them financially.

I suppose you'll blame them next for trying to make money?
Of course they're testing how much they can get away with. Seems like fairly typical corp behaviour to me.

And the only thing that ever manages to get a corp to change anything for the better is if their sales would drop otherwise. E.g. with Windows 8.1 they'll take back some of the 'innovations' that cause Windows 8 to be virtually unusable in a company environment. And why are they doing it? Because sales dropped to an all-time low.

We've already seen that a couple of times in the past, e.g. with Windows Me or Vista.

Shunning a company because they made a bad business call or made a mistake once will quickly lead you to have to shun _every_ company.

 

[jonesy]

Shunning a company because they made a bad business call or made a mistake once will quickly lead you to have to shun _every_ company.

Once? With the new xbox they made a whole bundle of blunders, that everyone already knew were bad decisions, just hoping somehow to slip all of it under the radar.

And I'm not talking about 'shunning' anyone. I'm talking about one product. And they still haven't reversed all of the derpness. Now they just get to get away with some of it because they 'made it better'.

 

[dd.stevenson]

Changing any hardware at this point would put them at a major risk for pushing back the release date.

Also, keep in mind that the Kinect hardware should be relatively cheap when mass produced. The biggest cost is the software integration, and Microsoft has already committed to that.

Depending on what they have planned, they still should be able to offer the option of buying xb-ones unbundled, albeit maybe with a later delivery date.

The fact that they haven't makes it look like they really are facing down a scenario similar to what you outlined. That's why I find their decision interesting--it seems that Microsoft is pretty deeply committed to both their current price point and the inclusion of the kinect in all units.

If so, I think they've shot themselves in the foot, since I believe that only a price change will make a difference to their market share at this point.

 

[Jhaelen]

And I'm not talking about 'shunning' anyone. I'm talking about one product.

Ah, alright, I missed that, sorry.
I'm not interested in the x-box by principle, since it's just a pc in a different dress. Except for the artificially created bonus of 'exclusive' game titles, it has nothing going for it - if there wasn't the Kinect.
Considering that, I certainly understand why Microstation wants the Kinect to become a standard part of the x-box.