Recently I was watching a video that was talking about the XBOX ONE. The video was a live Google + hangout and the question was "How did the reveal of the XBOX ONE make you feel". Most of the people offered standard answers, either praising or completely hating the console. One gamer said something pretty profound.
"Instead of giving us what we want, they (Microsoft) are telling us (what we want). They are telling us that we want an always online experience... they are telling us that we don't care that much about taking our games to our friends house and playing them... and they are probably going to charge us 500 bucks for this thing".
I didn't really look at the XBOX ONE reveal in that light, but what this gamer said was totally true. When I go back and watch the reveal again, it really is Microsoft telling us what we should want. Part of that strategy could be based around that if they can convince everyone that always online is something they want, then there won't be negative repercussions from it.
In our "Who is Microsoft's Target Audience" article, I mentioned that it doesn't matter to me all the extra stuff the XBOX ONE does, as long as it plays games. That is a statement that I still stand behind. But lets look at what gamers want vs what the console companies are going to give us.
What We Want
We want an online experience when its appropriate. We don't have to be connected to the internet to play a single player experience. Drop in drop out co-op is always nice, but just make a co-op lobby where we can find people to play with if we want to. It isn't necessary for our consoles to be always online. When the internet goes out, we want our consoles to remain functional. We want to have LAN parties where no one is connected online, but instead are connected in the living room.
We want to be able to borrow games from our friends and play them without licensing fees. We want MORE DEMOS! In this day and age when games are $60+ we need to try before we buy! We want less hype and more substance! We want to be able to trade in games that we don't play anymore to help pay for new games that we want.
We Don't Want or Don't Care About
Watching TV. Most of us buy consoles to play video games. We have our Netflix and Hulu Plus accounts which already work on our consoles if we want to catch up on TV shows. We don't care about live TV! Most of us don't even have cable TV anyway! Watching Dancing With the Stars on our consoles is not that important!
We don't want crippling DRM. We understand wanting to cut piracy but don't punish the people that are actually buying your games in the process. We don't want a console that won't work without an internet connection. While myself and people like me don't care if we have to be online because our consoles are always connected, we don't like the thought of our console not working if our internet goes out, or if we take it to the cabin for the weekend where there is no internet, or if we move and can't get internet turned on right away, or have something happen in our lives and have to tighten the belt by getting rid of internet for a few months.
These are the things we want, and more importantly don't want. As console manufacturers and game developers, please don't lose sight of the things that are important to US. We're not saying to abandon the things that are important to you, but lets meet halfway on this stuff. Don't forget about us or we may forget about you.
Let us know your feelings in the comments section below. Stay tuned to Big Ups Gaming for more articles like this one. Thanks for reading!
We want to be able to borrow games from our friends and play them without licensing fees. We want MORE DEMOS! In this day and age when games are $60+ we need to try before we buy! We want less hype and more substance! We want to be able to trade in games that we don't play anymore to help pay for new games that we want.
We Don't Want or Don't Care About
Watching TV. Most of us buy consoles to play video games. We have our Netflix and Hulu Plus accounts which already work on our consoles if we want to catch up on TV shows. We don't care about live TV! Most of us don't even have cable TV anyway! Watching Dancing With the Stars on our consoles is not that important!
We don't want crippling DRM. We understand wanting to cut piracy but don't punish the people that are actually buying your games in the process. We don't want a console that won't work without an internet connection. While myself and people like me don't care if we have to be online because our consoles are always connected, we don't like the thought of our console not working if our internet goes out, or if we take it to the cabin for the weekend where there is no internet, or if we move and can't get internet turned on right away, or have something happen in our lives and have to tighten the belt by getting rid of internet for a few months.
These are the things we want, and more importantly don't want. As console manufacturers and game developers, please don't lose sight of the things that are important to US. We're not saying to abandon the things that are important to you, but lets meet halfway on this stuff. Don't forget about us or we may forget about you.
Let us know your feelings in the comments section below. Stay tuned to Big Ups Gaming for more articles like this one. Thanks for reading!
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