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With the whole microconsole craze going on, think MS will jump in?

There were rumours of that smaller, $99 (I think) mini Xbox or whatever it was called from Paul Thurrott last year.
 
I don't think they should take any chances with it. IIRC, the Xbox division isn't too great financially, so taking a risk like that and chasing the newest fad might be a bad idea.

Releasing an actual, budgeted release of a 360 without a disc drive, though? That could work. Possibly. It wouldn't be too much of a gamble and not very different from what they were planning with the Xbox One(albeit this would be on a smaller scale).
 
They were long rumored to be humoring this, but reported dumped it in favor of just releasing a new 360 model and trying to get the price down some more.
 
EBE said:
what?

i dont know. too many games arent available for download. the ones that are way over priced. i dont know whod see the benefit in such a console.
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the XBLA games alone would justify such a device, not to mention MS said better pricing for digital games is something they want to do(the sales have also been pretty decent lately). It would destroy and microconsole out imo.
 
9thwonder said:
the XBLA games alone would justify such a device, not to mention MS said better pricing for digital games is something they want to do(the sales have also been pretty decent lately). It would destroy and microconsole out imo.
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Yeah, if MS put out something like that that could play downloadable 360 games for $100, it would destroy the fireTV. Question is how much gaming matters to those buying these things, my guess is not much at all.
 
I think the idea of a microconsole that competes with the XB1 is a bad idea. It just eats the lunch of their main console.

Besides all the set top boxes/microconsoles suck. When they finally release a box that properly incorporates multiple services like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon I'll buy. Until then all the boxes are just the same thing none of them any better than the other. And the gaming ones like Ouya or Fire TV have such poor experiences that MS doesn't have to compete.
 
Exploratory said:
I think the idea of a microconsole that competes with the XB1 is a bad idea. It just eats the lunch of their main console.

Besides all the set top boxes/microconsoles suck. When they finally release a box that properly incorporates multiple services like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon I'll buy. Until then all the boxes are just the same thing none of them any better than the other. And the gaming ones like Ouya or Fire TV have such poor experiences that MS doesn't have to compete.
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Contrary to what people might believe, XB1 is not a compelling mltimediia device unless you are also really into games imo. 500$ for voice commands and NFL is just too much. It adds value if you are already looking to pick up TF, Forza and DR3 but buying just for media? Nah.
 
9thwonder said:
the XBLA games alone would justify such a device, not to mention MS said better pricing for digital games is something they want to do(the sales have also been pretty decent lately). It would destroy and microconsole out imo.
Click to expand...

maybe. but then i dont even know that fireTV will catch on for gaming.
also, i dont know too much about the tech side of things, but im guessing a 360 is still much more powerful than the ouya or fireTV or their like. arent there limits to how small you can go before heat issues pop up? and what kind of interal storage would you have?

ultimately i think it would just eat into their xbox one sales.
 
It's one of those things Microsoft can't really do.

Because if they did, it would not be Android because Microsoft reasons, meaning it would have extremely slim content supply and die like the Kin died. Well I guess there's those Windows Phone apps, all five of them.

Even worse if they went full-on proprietary platform, with no overlap to WP. They'd have literally nothing.

People ridicule the Vita, but there's years worth of PSX and PSP games and minis playable on that thing in addition to new, native games. Plus good momentum transfer from PS3 and PS4 (cross-buy games, PSN freebies, remote play). If the Vita TV can't sell -- pretty much cratered in Japan, west still to be seen -- a Microsoft microconsole won't sell either.
 
michaelius said:
They already did at $500 price point.
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I get it, because the Bone is weak like the Ouya
pfSWjBg.png
 
EBE said:
what?

i dont know. too many games arent available for download. the ones that are way over priced. i dont know whod see the benefit in such a console.
Click to expand...

Microsoft already has a product dedicated for tv streaming and media consumption with addition of playing games.

It just costs 500$ and is bit bigger.
 
I'm just waiting for the year when we can just link up our phones with the TV and then start treating it like a console. Phones already have all the hardware necessary to do that, but it hasn't been standardized to the point where it can be done conveniently. My phone already bears a better performing chipset than the FireTV.

So the answer is yes; MS will jump in and they will be late.
 
michaelius said:
Microsoft already has a product dedicated for tv streaming and media consumption with addition of playing games.

It just costs 500$ and is bit bigger.
Click to expand...

"A bit bigger"

Yeah, okay. I think OP is talking about something like the Vita TV. A home console that plays portable games (of which there are a lot on Windows Store right now btw), and can stream from a PC or Bone or internet services or all of the above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Vita_TV
 
Here is the dilemma:

If they release a micro set-top that can do 80% of what the Xbox One does (apps and games but no Kinect and no TV features) then there's a big danger that most casual players will buy it and never feel the need to upgrade to a $400-$500 Xbox One.

But if they don't release a micro set-top, there's a big danger that most casual players will buy the Kindle FireTV and never feel the need to upgrade to a $400-$500 Xbox One.

Apple CEO Tim Cook once had a great quote about this -- "Our basic belief is, if we don't cannibalize [ourselves], someone else will."

Last generation, I think a lot of wives, moms and girlfriends got talked into letting their husbands/boyfriends/children get an expensive videogame console because they could use it for Netflix and there weren't a lot of other decent boxes that could run a Netflix app. Now that Netflix is on cheapass $50 DVD players, I wonder how much that will hurt the console market?
 
border said:
Here is the dilemma:

If they release a micro set-top that can do 80% of what the Xbox One does (apps and games but no Kinect and no TV features) then there's a big danger that most casual players will buy it and never feel the need to upgrade to a $400-$500 Xbox One.

But if they don't release a micro set-top, there's a big danger that most casual players will buy the Kindle FireTV and never feel the need to upgrade to a $400-$500 Xbox One.

Apple CEO Tim Cook once had a great quote about this -- "Our basic belief is, if we don't cannibalize [ourselves], someone else will."
Click to expand...

Casuals never cared about a 500$ XB1 imo, they need to make games the focus of that console and with Spencer, I think it'll happen.
 
retard said:
"A bit bigger"

Yeah, okay. I think OP is talking about something like the Vita TV. A home console that plays portable games (of which there are a lot on Windows Store right now btw), and can stream from a PC or Bone or internet services or all of the above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Vita_TV
Click to expand...

I don't know if you've been following the news this week, but Microsoft announced a major new Xbone feature: the ability to play Windows Store portable games and stream from PCs and almost all major services.

The idea's a bit different from the Vita TV or Fire TV, in that it's a more expensive and beefier box with more unique functions, but it still seems to be where MS is going in terms of putting their app ecosystem on your TV. It also fits with the original Xbox goal of being the living room computer.
 
Microconsole craze?

Ouya and Vita TV flopped hard.
Fire/Android/Apple TV might not go over quite so badly, but they're not dedicated video game systems.
 
No one is going to buy a $99 Xbox microconsole if MS continues to paywall apps behind Gold. And if they don't paywall the apps on a microconsole it will just make the policy on Xbox 360 and Xbox One look punitive.
 
9thwonder said:
Casuals never cared about a 500$ XB1 imo, they need to make games the focus of that console and with Spencer, I think it'll happen.
Click to expand...

The point is that both Microsoft and Sony will see a lot of their userbase drop off if people start going to cheaper gaming platforms with media features. They need casual adoption to stay viable, but Microsoft doesn't have much of a plan there.

Sony has the VitaTV, which I think could turn out to be a great rival to the FireTV. Microsoft is in a worse position because they are still intent on keeping Netflix, Hulu, etc behind a paywall. Even if they did introduce an XboxTV or a VitaTV, they cannot continue to charge a subscription fee to access streaming services. I expect they will backtrack on their paywall at E3, though. They're getting assaulted from all angles now, and I don't think they can continue to afford that paywall luxury tax anymore.
 
Why would they have any reason to make a smaller console? There is no real market for it and the Xbox One is a fine size really. There is no actual purpose in making it significantly smaller. It would just be a risk and resource consuming on their end. Hence the "no one asked for this" response that would follow.
 
Brad Grenz said:
No one is going to buy a $99 Xbox microconsole if MS continues to paywall apps behind Gold. And if they don't paywall the apps on a microconsole it will just make the policy on Xbox 360 and Xbox One look punitive.
Click to expand...

border said:
The point is that both Microsoft and Sony will see a lot of their userbase drop off if people start going to cheaper gaming platforms with media features. They need casual adoption to stay viable, but Microsoft doesn't have much of a plan there.

Sony has the VitaTV, which I think could turn out to be a great rival to the FireHD. Microsoft is in a worse position because they are still intent on keeping Netflix, Hulu, etc behind a paywall. Even if they did introduce an XboxTV or a VitaTV, they cannot continue to charge a subscription fee to access streaming services.
Click to expand...

I could see that going away, I don't think the amount of people who buy a 360 and pay for gold and only use for multimedia are really significant/ You are going to at least play CoD and Madden online. It's going to make them look even more idiotic if they lock the W8 apps on XB1 behind a paywall.
 
corn_fest said:
Microconsole craze?

Ouya and Vita TV flopped hard.
Fire/Android/Apple TV might not go over quite so badly, but they're not dedicated video game systems.
Click to expand...

VitaTV flopped in Japan. ( No idea about sales in its limited SEA release)

In regards to the western markets however, where set-top boxes are more of a thing compared to Japan ( mobile is king, there's a reason phones have TV-tuners there ), we have no idea how the market opportunity will reflect the realities yet.
 
Unlikely for a year or two at least

I wouldn't be surprised if one of the reasons MS scrapped the idea was because windows phone marketplace isn't as compelling a environment as Android or iOS

It would've been similar specs to the FireTV at best otherwise they risk pricing themselves out of the market
 
9thwonder said:
I could see that going away, I don't think the amount of people who buy a 360 and pay for gold and only use for multimedia aren't really significant/ You are going to at least play CoD and Madden online. It's going to make them look even more idiotic if they lock the W8 apps on XB1 behind a paywall.
Click to expand...

I said they would roll back the paywall at E3, but I'm not entirely sure about that either.

The major dilemma is that they want to keep milking the shit out of the 40 million Live users on 360, but don't want to leave the Xbox One at a crippling disadvantage in terms of features.

It would make them look very petty and cheap, but I can almost imagine them lifting the paywall for Xbox One at E3, but keeping it in place on 360. At the same time they would introduce Games With Gold for Xbox One, so that they don't immediately lose Gold subscribers on that platform.
 
Why would Microsoft push two products that directly compete with each other? Microconsoles are vying for the same space as the X1 and PS4, regardless of price point.
 
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