Last gen one of the reasons PS3 lost consumer interest was because sony went out and portrayed as in all in one media device, and it wasnt succesful. this gen microsoft built its machine to be the ultimate all in one device, and the result is well known by now. whats interesting is that when it comes to other consume products like a cellphone, laptop, tablet, an all in device is very much prefered. why isnt it the case with gaming consoles?

personally for me i want a machine built around gaming with some DLNA features, and i am all set. but this thread isnt about personal prefrences, its about the market in general not desiring an "all in one entertainment system"?

The ps3 and xbox one failed for different reasons than what you listed above. The ps2 was potrayed as an all in one system did it fail? The Xbox 360 was potrayed as an all in one system did it fail?

Because the focus stops being on games and more on the entertainment (if that makes sense, since games are entertainment. You know what I mean, though)

A gaming console is a dedicated platform. You buy a laptop to do photoshop, watch movies, word process, etc. You get a cell phone to make calls, send texts and emails, maybe play angry birds.

But you get a game console to game. "All-in-one" means that focus isn't primarily on games.

All-in-one implies that you have to replace ALL of the functions if a device breaks or is phased out.

Same reason I don't get a combined printer-scanner-copier, or a Mac.

People are tyring to make all in one entertainment system sicne 1980s. This guys made $5000 console which bombed. This console was basically the ancestor of kinect.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4HyBLgmRlw

Yeah, I can't believe MS blew it on reveal like they did. I mean, at their heart these are next gen gaming systems. The other stuff is awesome, but it should be seen as "comes with the territory." It should be expected and MS went overboard with focusing on it upon the reveal.

I will say, however, that the HDMI throughput is an incredible feature that I couldn't imagine going without moving forward, but it should have been talked about after the big reveal that focused on next gen gaming.

I have a PS4, and I think that saying that a console being an all in one entertainment system is *not desirable* is missing the point, the consoles should have some media playing capabilities, at the very least like the previous machines did, they should also offer apps, more mredia/whatever apps the better.

RIGHT NOW, this is true as long as it does not compromise the main feature of the machine and it does not make it more expensive, at least not significantly. Because you have cheap Roku boxes, people who watch TV a lot have their cable box too, many of the same features/apps are already on a lot of smart TVs as well... so it's not like the console brought something new and shiny in your life, even if the netflix app is smoother on it or browsing the dlna servers has better transitions than your previous solution.

It was very different when the PS2/3 and the 360 were released, for the PS2, DVD was a killer feature, they were not that common back in 2000! and the HD media playback, streaming capabilities of the ps360 were interesting for many people, the DB drive in the PS3 sold quite a few systems to non gamers, or light gamers that would have passed or gotten another system... Why was it different, back then the streaming features were not in most TVs and you could not buy a 35$ chromecast to stream your media, also, DVD players were quite expensive, so bundling it with the PS2 made it attractive and justified the purchase, same thing for the blue ray drive in the PS3....

The XB1 seems to have a better integration with Cable of all things, and there is some way to read your movies on it I think... however, this feature is expected now, it does not get people excited anymore... it's more like, people wonder why that was not in day one on these consoles, whoever did not think of at least providing a basic streaming app on both of them seem to have forgotten something basic... but hey, they don't read audio CDs either :-/

Just right click any media file on your laptop and send it to your Xbox One with the Playto feature.  Never been easier. 

>.>

The problem with the PS3 was the forced blu ray drive, which drove up the cost of the console. Still a good multi-media device, just expensive.

The Xbox One was in a similar boat with the forced Kinect, and focus on television. Which, was a baffling decision to me, since Television is slowly being replaced by online streaming (which MS helped make popular with Netflix on 360).

I think the problem with these multi-media devices are all the features that no one asked for. Blu ray in 2006 - 2008 was basically a waste. It was crazy expensive, and a ton of people didn't know what it was, or how it differed from dvd. Television on a games console just doesn't make that much sense and is kind of a novelty feature and not really practical. These are nice bonuses, just not selling point for most people.

They shouldn't be trying to portray a gaming console as an "all in one device". It should be a given at this day and age that your gaming console will also do other entertainment besides games. The PS4 doesn't need to tout the fact that it plays Blu-ray, goes on the internet, has Netflix as system selling features. They should be focusing on the gaming aspect of the console since that is the main feature people want out of them. The other things should be a given. If you focus too much on the other things then it looks like you're ignoring the most important aspect of the consoles-games.

For smartphones, it's trying to sell the ability to watch videos, play music and go on the internet as system selling features. It's just a given nowadays that you can do those besides making calls.