@S.T.A.G.E. In the convenience of your home, it's hard to resist the allure of on-demand content. Though one might abstain from purchasing expensive content, it sure doesn't frustrate them too much since it's there and their wallet is the only thing between them and the purchase. I'm also convinced that if the prices are not generating sales, that Microsoft will adjust the prices

The thing is the One is calling the wallets of family owners, not of gamers. While the Wii went for the expanded market, oftentimes the content purchased for the console were not for the family but for the kids. Here, I believe that Microsoft is appealing to the needs of the parents and the kids, in so doing making the console's value attractive at the likely price it will be marked at.

If something attracted you and your family, wouldn't you be more inclined to spend for it than if it mostly interested your kids?

90% of Wii advertisements focused on family. Families sat together, having fun. Wii Fit focused on the mothers and grandparents who wanted to keep fit but didnt want to go to the gym. The Wii was the personal trainer. The Wii has Netflix, and was at one point the top Netflix console.

The Wii was aimed at everyone, not just kids. A lot of Wii games had a childish focus, but a lot of Wii games also had a multiplayer and party focus. It was aimed at families. It was aimed at mums. It was aimed at grandparents. It was aimed at the everyday gamer.

The Wii broke records for a reason.

I know, but it wasn't aimed at dads. And dads generally are the money-makers of the family (in general). And a lot of what was aimed at families worked but subsequently a lot of the content was aimed at kids and that didn't follow the Wii's strategy. Most was 3rd party but that has an effect on the console's percepted value.

This box is different, it appeals to the whole family, not just moms, kids and grandparents, and appeals to more needs than the Wii did. Netflix is good, but we're talking about live TV and stuff. It's much more complete as a package.

The Father is indeed generally the money maker of the family. That very same Father usually has an evil, horrible, greedy, selfish, money hungry woman behind him. Thus - Wii.

In all seriousness though, I can watch Live TV on my Xbox 360. I can do it right now. Ive been able to do it for Years.

Is being able to watch Live TV the only advantage that Xbox One has over the Wii in regards to the mass market?

I'm not sure how seamless the U is, since I don't own one. I know the U can do fantasy leagues, I know it can do browsing, but how seamless is it? I mean you saw what the One can do, jump from one context to another almost like you were on a Windows platform (Ironically I believe it is windows powered). Is the U able to do it so organically?

Back when the iPod Touch was released, one of the big things it had going for it was in how organic it was for human usage. Swiping for going through pictures, icons for apps and touch capability, it was fast and responsive and intuitive. This is what I believe makes the One a viable business proposal to the Father (lol that was funny by the way). I think that's what it has above the U. Though the U was a good proposal, I'm not sure it can pull it off.

Some people don't read the OP, it happens. Even if they did, as hardcore gamers, they wouldn't care.

You're exaggerating, many people seemed quite disappointed by the PS4 reveal.

The whole "Snap!" thing with Xbox One is rumored to have been staged. Im not trusting it until I see a proper, live demo if it in action closer to release. I remember what they did with the original Kinect reveal, so Im not gonna be quick to jump on the hype train for this just yet.

If they pull it off, and it does indeed work like it did there, then kudos. It will be brilliant. Until then Im holding back my thoughts on it.

Also dont own a Wii U so cant comment on that I do know though... That you can do pretty much everything the Xbox One did on your phone. Granted, its not appearing on your TV, but the core idea is still available on a platform many of us already have in our pockets. Its not the "All in One" experience (and neither is the Xbox One), but it does the same thing other than change channels.

Dads will love the console. I mean. Look at what they showed - TV, NFL, TV, Halo TV, Racing game, Sports, NFL, Call of Duty. Its obviously aimed at the "Dad" and the "Dude! Bro!" audience, but like I said, the main problem in comparing it to Wii would be price.

Wii was cheap. Wii had games for everyone. Wii didnt have any anti-consumer bullshit going on in the background. Wii didnt have a subscription fee to use the key features.

If theyre going after the market that gobbled up Wii, I think they will have a tough time until the price comes down.

Hehe. Well, the price was your original argument, I argued that the dads are the gamechanger against the Wii (you asked me what the diff was), so as much as dads are willing to spend on TVs and video-players, it is my belief that they would be interested in spending on this product in a similar purchasing thought process, of course it's speculation though and will also depend on Microsoft's marketing, but we know their effectiveness with that so speculation is at a minimum when it comes to marketting.

If an early adoption video-playback device (like a laser-disc at the time and yesterday's blu-ray) or an iPad can sell at 450$, I believe an Xbox One can too for appealing to the same purchaser in a similar way.

My thoughts ;)

Retail promotes consoles that sell well. If anything, demostrating Xbox One and its Kinext and TV features will be virtually impossible.

Say a 12 year old gets to go with his parents for holiday shopping. Mommy and Daddy tell him to go try some games and pick a game conosole for Christmas. Bob tries out the PS4 and Xbox One. He plays different games but he doesn't really see a difference. The graphics are both amazing, the controllers are both comfortable and they both have Call of Duty. He asks a Walmart employee to help him make his choice. What makes them different beyond the name, he asks? The Walmart employee goes on to explain all the TV and Entertainment features of the Xbox and he goes on to explain what the PS4 can do. Bob sounds uninterests, he doesn't care about this stuff. What about online, he asks? Can both of them play Call of Duty online? Yes, the Walmart employee responds. The walmart employee then goes on to explain how PSN is free and Xbox Live isn't.  To Be Continued......

Theres been some pretty decent comments in the thread BenV. You always gonna get the rubbish comments that either miss the point of the thread or just repeat the anthem of their prefered side.

Anyways i think the big thing we need to address about the conferences is the two different strategies the companies have gone for and how well they implemented their new strategies for the gen. The reveal being the first major play in the next gen.

I see a lot of comments about how MS has appealed to the casual audience but to be honest i don't see any proof of that yet. Yes they have received mainstream media converage but so did Sony. These are next gen consoles they always get talked about in mainstream media when they announced. Both coverage was pretty positive in mainstream media as well. In mainstream media it's more about the reveal itself rather than going in detail about the new functionality.

I was pretty wowed with the first 15 minutes of the XO reveal..it was fast paced to the point and had some wow moments. Even as a gamer i was pretty excited about the functionality they were showing and i absolutely uderstood where they were going with it. But it was downhill from there. As a gamer they didnt show muchh that was obvious and yeah we can wait for E3 i suppose. But from a casual point of view i dont see the major selling point? As someone who usually gets excited for anything tech related whether thats kinect/wii/gamepad...im just not understanding what was special about this reveal that REALLY got the attention of casuals? Kinect when it was first revealed had this effect you are talking about. When literally anyone sees it they instantly say "WOW i wana try that NOW!". That just wasnt there. And this is where i felt the conference missed something. It didnt appeal to gamers thats confirmed at this point. Their has been unanimous negativity around XO on just about every gaming website.

This brings up another issue. Who is the core gamers? Who are the casuals? IMO there isnt just two clear cut categories. Yeah you get the core (us) but then you also get gamers who play and buy games but dont take it further than that ie websites, forums, youtube etc. Guys who buy Uncharted, Gears, COD, FIFA, Borderlands etc. all the popular/relatively popular titles. I wouldnt exactly label them as casuals...but they not watching reveal events either. Then you get the casual console gamers who JUST buy one game a year! I would argue there are also true casuals ie. everybody else on the planet.  Now look at the focus of MS with their conference pretty much on cable overlay functionality..who exactly were they targeting with this? Most people in general dont really get super excited about cable boxes as far as im aware. So im still not sure their plan to appeal to the mass market has actually worked.

And then by the end of the conference they have failed to really appeal to any target audience. This is obviously just my opinion but twitter news has mostly been negative, youtube was obviously negative as well...mainstream media articles were positive but didnt really dive down into detail more just excitement in general. If their is preorder data that you have that shows otherwise then thats a different case im obviouslt unaware of that :/

I actually think a focus on Kinect 2.0 which also looked amazing really would have done a better job. The press love to talk about mindboggling amazing things. A tv overlay is not that. Kinect 2.0 might be that. Just because someting is gaming centric doesnt mean it isolates people. I think the Wii is a damn good example of how to appeal to a mass market. Everybody wanted to try the Wii. And they did. And yet the Wii was still pretty gamer centric.

Sony on the other hand had a much simpler, less risky approach to next gen. "lets try and be the number 1 console for gamers this gen" pretty much directly targeting the 160million users who bought the 360 and PS3 (who personally,  i don't think has really reached out to true casuals like the Wii you might disagree here). Sony realises that it hasnt been that difficult to recover from the disastrous start of the ps3...sell at a decent entry price, follow up with a good software library and keep offering great deals with PS+. They seem to be content with this. And i think this is a much less risky approach to the next gen, even though it's much less ambitious. I think this has everything to do with Sony and the position they are currently in as a company. They REALLY can't afford another disaster. Anyways i dont think Sony blew away the core gamers or any gamers for that matter (see the comments in this thread) with their reveal but talk has generally been positve across the web.

Anyways thats my full 2 cents.