Am I the only one who buys a gaming console to, you know... game? Why the hell would I want to compromise that in the name of apps when I've got three other devices that are much better for apps and the like? This may be a great thing for some, but I'd rather see all that extra effort put into the gaming side. It just lends more credibility to the horsetrading stories that come out of MS over what the Xbox is supposed to be.
It's not a zero sum equation. Focus on apps won't compromise the playing of games. That effort isn't effort being taken away from making the Xbox One a great games machine.
Look, ultimately, a game console is really just a computer that connects to your television and interfaces through a certain kind of game pad. The only two real differences between a game console and a PC are that 1) A console is a closed box, and 2) People only choose to develop games for it.
If someone had chosen to develop spreadsheet software for the Super NES, that wouldn't compromise the system's ability to play games. By the same token, allowing Windows 8 apps to run on Xbox One, thus allowing developers to make all sorts of apps for the console, isn't gonna all of a sudden affect the people developing games. When you think about it the ecosystem of a game console right now isn't that different from iOS: iOS operates on a closed box where people develop and sell software the revenue from which the hardware manufacturer get's a cut. That software just happens to encompass a range of categories instead of just games.
Xbox One, if it does in fact run Windows 8 apps, can pretty much just be the same thing, just connected to a television with a controller as the user input. I think if this does happen, the Xbox One could end up becoming the most popular Windows 8 device. The biggest thing is that it would essentially increase the number of Xbox One developers and free up the process of making software -- all kinds of software, which would eventually give the Xbox One potentially much better media and entertainment support than the PS4.
Really people are complaining about this?? Imagine having a decent mkv player or having a nes emulator etc.
Shit like this is what I'm talking about. I don't know if Microsoft would allow an NES emulator, but for a lot of people an MKV player would be a game changer. Imagine if a bittorrent app existed for Windows 8 (if one doesn't already).
This is basically what I was hoping would happen to the next-gen consoles: for them to become more open app boxes with robust development communities instead of just handpicking a few apps.