I'm sure you all have seen the doom articles about Microsoft these past few days. I think they all reveal that there is a problem within Microsoft in the form of leadership and strategy. Let's look at Xbox. Microsoft has placed all its bets on Kinect on the back-half of this gen and it seems to have payed off(2011 was Xbox 360s peak year). But has Microsoft thought about the long-terms consequences about this decision? How do the core gamers feel when Microsofts new IPs are all for Kinect? I think I speak for most when I say that they are pissed off. Even the casual audience of Kinect doesn't care for these new IPs are shown by the sales figures. People are buying Kinect, they just aren't buying Kinect games.

This is where next-gen comes in. Rumors have shown that the Next Xbox has sacrificed a fair bit of power in favor of Kinect processing and multi-media focus. The success of Kinect on XBox 360 has gone to Microsofts head. It is widely rumored that Kinect 2.0 will be packed-in with every single next-gen Xbox, this drives up the cost of the machine and forced Microsoft to cut corners in order to sell at an acceptable price range. Here is where the mistake is made. How will consumers differentiate the Kinect from Kinect 2.0? Why would they buy another Kinect when the one they already have is sitting there collecting dust? Keep in mind that Kinect 2.0 is packed-in to the Next XBox so as a result Xbox 720 sales will suffer. People won't see the need to upgrade. Their current Xbox and Kinect already have all the important apps such as Netflix and Hulu Plus. Microsoft simply cannot market this machine as a multi-media center and expect people to flock to it.

Microsoft needs to focus on the games, especially new IPs for core gamers. They need to rely less on 3rd parties and Halo. Rumors point to Sony building the PS4 with a focus on games first and everything else second. This, combined with the same price point against the Xbox 720 will lead to Sony being the industry leader once again. Sony and Nintendo are a lot more powerful than Microsoft gives them credit for. Nintendo's focus is on family-friendly gaming and casuals while Sony's is on the core gamer. Microsoft needs to rethink their strategy or they could end up losing both.

Source: http://isitgaming.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-next-xbox-could-fail.html

I would say there is a 33% chance Microsoft will be 3rd next gen.

I think the Kinect 2.0 and the Windows TV/full Windows 8 stuff will help drive XBox sales, not hurt them.

These leaked specs are still a fairly large upgrade on the existing 360, 1.2 TFLOP GPU is more than 5x the 360 and add in that its a more modern architecture and likely is tweaked to be more efficient with DX11 effects, you're probably talking about something that's more like 7-8x jump with a massive amount of RAM.

It will still have all the Halos, Call of Dutys, Gears of Wars, Forzas, Madden NFLs, that core players want, but the added functionality will allow it to appeal to the iPhone/iPad audience too who want more than just a big fat box that plays video games.

The Vita is the handheld that "core players" would've designed, and look at how badly that's flopping. MS is right to hedge their bets more on getting a wider variety of consumer. MS can do this better than Nintendo can because they have more "street cred" with the hardcore crowd, so they can maintain that audience. 

I'm sure the 720 will have new IP too, MS has backed off from pushing too many 1st/2nd party IP on the 360 later on because they want third parties to have the lionshare of the software pie. 

If you ever want to know why I get aggravated with people on this site, this is why. There is hundreds of rumors flying around and we dont know if a single one is true. Half say the NeXbox is more powerful than ps4 and then the others say PS4 is. Most likely they will be similar but we dont know a single thing about either one so speculation should be left out until we see kinect 2.0 and the NeXbox. Same goes to PS4. I could make a thread saying why people may not want the PS4 off of things ive heard as well. Wait until we get official announcements before making these type of threads instead of picking one rumor out of the 100s that we see every day

Not gonna happen, Americans love the Xbox too much. They could care less about the Kinect as long as they have their shooters. They will be 2nd minimum, they won't be 3rd.

LOL.....no

It will be second behind the only other Next Gen console.

It's certainly possible. People who think it's a foregone conclusion that Microsoft will increase market share next gen are fooling themselves. We never know what the next generation will bring. The 360 had a head start of a full year but still finished with by far the lowest sales rate as well as the lowest installed base, so I see no reason to assume 720 domination.

If Kinect 2.0 really is included with the 720 then it sounds like something of a gamble. North America will eat it up, I'm sure, but it's hard to imagine such a system being a world-wide hit. The tech will be impressive, I have no doubt, but huge living rooms aren't the standard everywhere. Also, if Microsoft goes fully speed ahead on the casual front, there is the potential to alienate a part of the core market.

The Gold subscription model to access video features might need a revision, as well, if they really want the 720 to be a multi-media box that appeals to levels of consumers. If not, they could lose a lot of people, not just to Sony and Nintendo, but to Apple and Google.

It will be interesting to watch. Microsoft is no more a stranger to hardware flops than Sony or Nintendo.

Keep the good fight going Jay. I agree with you 100% on this. Random baseless speculation like this causes nothing but negative feelings and animosity. I hope other xbox/sony/nintendo reps on this site undertand that. 

I think they will get 2nd place.