I've been reading the articles about the Xbox One since the press release and lurking the forums during the shitstorm over the admittedly horrendous features that have been announced.
I want to point out a few in particular. EDIT: Not all of these are inherently bad; they all just serve to prove my point.
1. The Xbone won't be able to connect to SDTVs out-of-the-box, and possibly at all.
2. The Xbone won't be able to play used games without some of the most draconican terms I've ever seen. Seriously, this is worse than anything EA has ever done.
3. The Xbone won't allow Indie games to self-publish, and basically screws over Indie gaming in every concievable way.
4. The Xbone has no backwards compatability.
5. Xbox 360 controllers won't work with the Xbone.
6. The Xbone is pushing itself as a multimedia system instead of a gaming console.
7. Call of Duty: Another One is going to be on the Xbox, and EA is talking about how excited they are for the console, which means Madden Roster Update will be on it as well.
Overall, the Xbone looks to be, above all else, expensive as hell. I don't know or care how the specs or the actual power of the system stacks up to a PC, but it's obvious that it's not *weak*, so the console is probably going to be more expensive than the 360. You can't buy the games used, so that's 60 bucks for each game. You have to have a fancy new HDTV, and you have to have high-speed internet at least once every 24 hours.
Now, obviously, this is a betrayal of many of the core features gamers hold dear. But you know who won't give a single damn about these problems?
The target audience of Call of Duty. The entitled, preppy fratboys who only own an Xbox to play Madden and Call of Duty anyway. The ones who get whatever they want out of mommy and daddy's checkbook. They don't buy used games anyway, because they buy Call of Duty and Madden as soon as they come out. They cease playing old games when the new ones are released, so backwards compatability won't matter. They don't give a single shit about Indie games. And they'd prefer a multimedia machine instead of a gaming console, because they only play two games on it anyway.
And they're going to be the reason that Xbone succeeds this generation.
Despite every core gamer I've ever read agreeing that whether they like the game or not, Call of Duty is absolutely what is turning mainstream gaming into this androgynous blob of shooters, Call of Duty Black Ops 2 sold 7.4 million copies in the launch month, and Modern Warfare 3 sold 8.8 million in the launch month. Source: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/183066/Numbers_show_The_Call_of_Duty_decline_looks_real.php I can't find hard numbers for Madden from a decent source, but I guarantee that they're way higher than a "niche" game has any right to be.
This shows that Microsoft *is* developing the Xbox for the largest demographic of gamers. It's just that that demo is not "core gamers".
So, before you post another hate thread on the Xbone, remember. It's not meant for you. It's meant for the beer-swilling pigs that make up the largest part of game sales.
EDIT: The term "beer-swilling pigs" isn't meant to indite all drinkers of beer, but is instead meant to reflect the voracity with which these parasites consume beer.