BLINDSIDED: Why the XBONE will win next gen.

[fighter]

To be honest the strategy behind X1 is very elaborate.

I used to work in the advertising field here in Belgium were TV audience measurement is among the most precise, if not the most precise, in the world.

A sample of households is being offered gifts in exchange for hosting a "media-measurement-box" which allows to know who is in the living room when the TV is on, and what channel is on.

It is very expensive to maintain a sufficient sample and the revenue gained from the collected data is invaluable.

Xbox One has the bias of doing a similar measurement on a biased sample : mainly gamers. But once the data is combined and extrapolated with other collected data and general knowledge about the audience it can be far more accurate than any TV data.

Google does such data-crossing and was the most successful in estimating electoral votes in the last US presidential campaign, way ahead of any traditional agency, despite also having a huge sample bias : people who have internet.

So believe me or not, Xbox One will have more than enough revenue from advertisement to eventually re-inject into market penetration. If MS feels that a certain country requires further sampling it will have more than enough means and motivation to subsidize SKUs, supply-side software, or simply advertise and position itself beautifully.

And Xbox One is only the first step of a very long term winning strategy.

As gamers, should we only care about games ? Of course not. Our privacy is very important and tbh even if I love my Xbox 360 I am very glad the "fans" reacted the way they did earlier this year.

It sends a proper message to Microsoft not to be too ambitious either. At least to stay less intrusive than smartphone suppliers and internet navigators. Games being mainly for kids it needs to remain somewhat sanctified.