first off, consoles have been about multi media since the ps1, granted, focused on gaming, but multi media is also its ability, in terms of today, many people use a ps3 in their home entertainment because it is an all in one package already for streaming content or disc based/home server based.  Secondly.. 40% of America is nothing to scoff at, that is a ton of business to simply cast aside. even if jim bob in the boondocks doesn’t play online, having the ability to play w/e disc based game or watch movies on one, relatively cheap, device is fantastic. You also cast aside the military, and the rest of the world who do not always have the best of internet, if any at all. very small…..  note: xbox live barely has 48 million “accounts” that is between gold, Silver (which is like not having internet) and xbl for pc… 48 million, out of 76 million consoles sold?? This tells us that either half of all xbox 360 users do not have internet, or more likely, those sales figures include the 54% failure rate of the console, meaning, more than half of the consoles were replacement systems, and did not go to new customers….  On the other hand, PSN now hosts nearly 130 million users… indicating not only is it more popular globally, but that nearly every single ps3 sold went to a new customer… (it is currently close to 78 million units sold, the psn accounts include also, psp/vita/pc).  you would doubt that any portion of the 40% of non-internet using americans (that’s about 128 million people!!) would use a gaming console? a dvd player? bd player?,  and what of the rest of the world, who MSFT does not seem to be targeting yet again? That is a ton of income to pass up on, gamers or not.  a one time update? perhaps that retailer will be kind enough to set up people’s Xbox units they buy for them, so they don’t have a brick when they get home, (doubt it, and hello? hassle?)  mandating any form of internet at all puts a serious choke on the potential market for them.  The military, please, do not attempt to assume you understand it, been in for 2 decades now as active duty, on several deployments. Internet simply is not provided, not back home or on deployment. Back home, 9 times out of ten is crap service on post, payed for by our pockets. On deployment, especially in combat areas, internet for such personal use is not there. after a while, once things get more familiar, an mwr booth may open up for chatting back home, not for gaming. later, a cafe, same thing. Then, in some places, where things are laid back and they get icecream and massages, they MIGHT, have internet, note: it is nothing you would want to even play a facebook game on…. Now, yeah, any solder taking one over will smartly have performed the initial online update, but what of those receiving this as a gift/care package?… brick…. Note also, that in combat areas, things don’t run on 110v, it’s 220-240, there’s another expense, getting a converter…  Now, onto to other countries.. you really think because they aren’t American they are automatically poor? People have money, and seeing an original xbox selling for $800 U.S. D in baghdad being sold out in minutes… you would be foolish to think they don’t have money, or do not play games.  I can forgive you not knowing due to never having left home, but you border on the ignorant, among many American kids who think they are great because they are American, it is great Americans who make the country great… stop treating it like a brand name and assuming things are automatically better. Contribute to keeping it great or making it better, or be silent.  now, onto the “average consumer” you are right, they know nothing about products, and simply buy what is perceived to be “popular”. At best, they will only hear about the last 8 months of negativity towards it, or, they will buy it because they see advertisements for it plastered everywhere, on tv, on billboards, internet, newspapers, and now in theaters.. those that go into my store will most likely not buy it, as I have an massive chart posted on the wall showing the side by side differences. The average consumer can do many things, the informed consumer already knows better and will avoid the Xbox one like the plague. as of today, I broke 2k PS4 sales (2,018 to be precise), while We have still only sold 3 of the 20 total Xbox Ones allotted by MSFT… even if I sold out of allotted units, the PS4 would be outselling XB1 by 600:1, and growing. Who will be the average consumer? The parents of child who is following the news about these with rapt attention, the friends or neighbors of a gaming geek, who finds it hard not to rant about the woes of Xbox One.. Viral advertising, and word of mouth were largest contributing factors to xbox sales of the last generation, as people learned about the system later on did they switch. Now that the word of mouth for xbox is so drastically stained, it bodes not well for their sales, not now, nor in the future.
(Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife) The Xbox One keeps changing. After Microsoft previously announced that all developers would need to find publishers for their Xbox One games -- effectively shutting down the burgeoning indie gaming scene -- it has now walked back and announced that self-publishing is allowed after [...]