"Xbox isn't a gaming console" ? Whu?

chin_grin

http://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-xbox-isn-t-a-gaming-console-191851.phtml

Do you remember Sony's schizophrenic marketing a few years ago, where it couldn't decide if the PS3 was a games system, an entertainment hub or a super computer? Fast forward to 2011, and here's Microsoft retroactively deciding that the Xbox 360 is a Family Fun Unit and no longer a gaming system. Seriously?

"Xbox isn’t a gaming console," says monstrous CEO Steve Ballmer. "Xbox is a family entertainment center. It’s a place to socialize. It’s a place to watch TV. We have Hulu coming. It’s the only system where you are the controller. Your voice, your gestures, your body.

"I think about my own family. My wife used to say, ‘No, no, that’s the machine the boys use,’ and now she says, ‘Yeah, I want to go watch movies. Let’s go play the dance game. It opens up accessibility to family entertainment because with the Kinect, you control these systems with your body, with your voice. We’ve opened up the world of content in TV, movies. You just sit there and say ‘Xbox’ or ‘play movie.’

"You go to your average 15-year-old boy, and he will say, ‘I’ll take an Xbox.’ I want that average 15-year-old girl as excited about the Kinect, and we haven’t done as good a job drawing in that broader set of demographics."

While I could now go with the line, "Steve Ballmer wants to excite 15-year-old girls," I think I'll go instead with, "STFU Microsoft, and let's not go down this pretentious little road."

0_0

I don't know about anyone else. But I bought mine primarily to play games on!

I'm afraid the "industry" (or just Microsoft) is trying to put their fingers in to as many pies as they can manage and therefore lose all sight of it being solely a games console. I mean I don't really use mine for watching TV off, but I know that functionality is there. I don't really want to end up with a "swiss army console".

Thoughts?

Retr0gamer

Since the advent of CD-Rom based consoles, console manufacturers have been trying to market their products as all in one set to boxes for all the families entertainment needs. It's not something new and this generation has gotten closer than any other. However I'm the only one in my family that uses my consoles and I use them for games, couldn't care less what else they can do.

folan

Steve "500 dollars for a phone" Ballmer?

yeah, i take everything that guy says with a pinch of "yeah, your a smart bloke"

chin_grin

folan wrote: »

Steve "500 dollars for a phone" Ballmer?

yeah, i take everything that guy says with a pinch of "yeah, your a smart bloke"

See this is the thing. He's such an odd Ball(mer. Couldn't resist!) that the industry can't ignore him. So when he makes a statement like this it's the likes of the blogs and gamers to go "ah, hang on!".

I personally would be ticked off if they start focusing more on their multimedia content. Although the Kinect chat is very handy!

I'm pretty sure that this is the part of the continuing debate about replacing the home pc with the console. But if that were the case the xbox would (should) have an internet browser!

niallon

Once you strip away his business jabber I think he's actually making a lot of sense. I know that the latest consoles have sparked interest in age groups and genders not before ever seen. My father saw Bioshock when I first got the X Box and was nearly picking up a controller to play, as it stands now he's addicted to the DS and the proud owner of NSMB and more Wii titles that he's played more than me. My brother long regarded me a nerd for being a gamer yet he now whups my ass in Guitar Hero any time I try to play him. To top it all off, even the mother tries her hand at Tiger Woods and I'm doing everything in my power to stop her buying Dance Central.

Balmer is incorrect in saying that the X Box isn't a gaming console though, what he should be pointing out is that it isn't a traditional gaming console. The development of casual gaming in the last 4 or 5 years has lead to these consoles opening up to the most unlikely of people.

Balmer's point about the X Box being the house's multimedia machine that suits all needs/cures all ailments/walks the dog etc. actually goes to the PS3 (I'm a 360 fanboy, I'm not trying to spark a console war!). Apart from Sony exclusives, my PS3 serves one purpose which is to handle all media viewing I wish to do on my TV.

Oafley Jones

folan wrote: »

Steve "500 dollars for a phone" Ballmer?

yeah, i take everything that guy says with a pinch of "yeah, your a smart bloke"

Normally not a spelling/grammar nazi but ....errr.:p

My favourite t-shirt

rizzla

If we got all the good stuff the US gets then maybe (Netflix, ESPN, Hulu) the sky player sub is too expensive. The Zune Pass would be great too.

For us its just about gaming.

deathrider

Yip, it plays movies, has Sky, facebook, weekly updates about upcoming games, Tweeter, Facebook, maybe even a radio station or two, and you can control it all with your gestures... But I still just use it to shoot things :pac:

chin_grin

deathrider wrote: »

Yip, it plays movies, has Sky, facebook, weekly updates about upcoming games, Tweeter, Facebook, maybe even a radio station or two, and you can control it all with your gestures... But I still just use it to shoot things :pac:

THAT needs to go on a tee shirt!

deathrider

Thank you, Good sir

declanx

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Since the advent of CD-Rom based consoles, console manufacturers have been trying to market their products as all in one set to boxes for all the families entertainment needs. It's not something new and this generation has gotten closer than any other. However I'm the only one in my family that uses my consoles and I use them for games, couldn't care less what else they can do.

True. I think the Amiga CDTV was the first...where are they now?

PogMoThoin

If its a family entertainment centre, where's the fooking browser Steve? Its ridiculous that its not got one, its more locked down than anything Apple sell. It doesn't natively play .mkv's either, so that rules out most HD content downloaded from the internet. Hardly an entertainment centre then so.

Venom

While the Xbox 360 is not "just" a games console its only bought for being a games console. Take all the non games stuff away and the device will still sell but if you take the game element away, the media box that's left will not sell at all.

That_Guy

Sky, Zune etc are a nice bonus but primarily it's a games console first and foremost.

Captain Chaos

All I bought it for is games and all I use it for is games still 5 years later. If the Sky, Facebook and Zune features were gone from it it would make no difference as I don't use these other services at all anywhere else either.

If it had a web browser maybe, but seeing as it's MS they would put IE8 or 9 on it which are the worst web browsers going. The PS3's not too hot either so I suppose I could live with IE8/9 when hell freezes over.

I use my PS3 to play my downloaded movies, shows, music and blurays, thats a media centre for me as I hardly play a game on it.