ArnoldRimmer said:
What exactly would those "exciting technological breakthroughs" be?
Kinect 2 is hardly more than a resolution-improved Kinect 1. This improved resolution etc. will improve accuracy etc., but it won't allow for exciting new features that wouldn't have been possible before. So if someone wasn't convinced by Kinect 1, it's unlikely Kinect 2 will make him very excited
What remains? The new TV-centric features are the only new hardware features coming to my mind. And I just don't see those making too many people excited. First of all, "Live TV" appears to require a seperate TV decoder/receiver device connected to the X1's "HDMI IN" port. I've read that such receivers are indeed quite common in the USA, but not in Europe for example, where almost all recent TVs already have them included. The other problem of course being that at least initially it's just a feature available in the USA. So in the end, these TV-centric features may indeed lead to the Xbox One being very successful in the USA. But since "X1 will beat PS4" can only mean winning worldwide console sales, a feature that's great but only usable for customers in one country is unlikely to make it the most popular console worldwide.
But even among Xbox fans from the US, there just doesn't seem to be that much excitement for these features, at least so far. I've looked at all threads in the "Microsoft discussion" forum that have been created since the Xbox One reveal, and I couldn't find a single, positive thread dedicated to the new TV integration features. Even the Xbox fans from the USA hardly seem to care about that feature. Multiple threads were created where the original poster pointed out various disadvantages of the TV integration features, but that was about it.
There was one "positive" thread about X1 having Blu-Ray, but on the one hand that has not so much to do with TV integration, and on the other hand, that's of course not a real selling point for the X1, as this already was a last-gen feature on the PS.
Another "positive", multimedia-related thread was about X1 being capable of 3D and 4K. That's nice, but again, not an advantage of the rival, the PS4. 3D was once again already used in the last-gen PS3, and 4K is something the PS4 is capable of, too. And apart from the fact that 4K will remain a niche feature for at least a couple of years, neither console will make much use of it anyway.
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There are features that I'm excited for, but I'm waiting for them to be talked about in depth from Microsoft. No desire to put the cart before the horse, if you get my drift.
It is entirely possible that the Xbox One could work with TVs that have built in receivers. Since the Xbox One uses the HDMI to communicate with the cable/satellite receiver. I think the difficulty with over-the-air receivers (which are also available in the US and built into US Tvs as well, is you don't know what is available to that consumer.
For example, on Comcast in the Chicago market, I know what is exactly going to be on channel 291. And in Detroit, on Verizon's FIOS service, I know what will be there as well. Despite the different services having different broadcast networks, even different local broadcast stations (in the US every market has it's own unique TV stations - 6,034 total independent/affliate broadcasters across the US alone). So, doing this with cable and satellite providers in the US alone is difficult, but over-the-air is next to impossible. Because regardless of the roughly 500 cable/satellite channels in the US alone, there are 6,034 broadcast stations you also have to include and account for in those various markets and over-the-air, you can't assume that every person is capable of receiving every station. So despite WOOD-TV 8 being an NBC affliate for Ludington, Michigan that's approximately 60 miles away, the hills in Oceana County ensure that it'll never happen. Likewise, despite the distance between Michigan and Wisconsin 120 miles, you can receive TV stations from across Wisconsin, even those in Green Bay and the Fox Valley.
You don't have that in the UK, or Germany, or France, or Spain, or Italy. You might get bleed over of one or two stations, but they speak a language you may not even understand so you're not going to watch them anyway! They may not even support the frequency range or digital encryption your over-the-air TV receives.
So if Microsoft can do it in the US, and they can do it well in the US, then it'll happen in the rest of the world. Because compared to the US, the rest of the world is a piece of cake. Honestly, it is.
(Former) Lead Moderator
