- Former president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division, Robbie Bach, was asked by GeekWire about Xbone initials struggles under his successor Don Mattrick to which he responded:

"I have two thoughts. The first is, gosh, I think some of that was predictable and preventable. If I'm just honest I would say that."

"You would have liked to have seen them done more with the momentum we had,"

- He on the other hand had good things to say about the evolution of Xbox LIVE:

"On the other hand, look at what's going on with Xbox Live. Incredible momentum on Xbox Live."

- He also praised Micro's fight to turn things around after Xbone's initial struggle:

"They persevered through a rocky patch, and they're now on the path to making this a very competitive market."

"These console competitions last 5, 6, 7, 8 years. I think it shows in the marketplace today. I think Xbox One has put almost all of that [trouble] behind itself. They've got a great holiday lineup. They're gaining share and volume."

- On the state of the videogame market, he said:

"The amazing thing is the console market is bigger now than it's ever been before. Both companies are selling more units...The year before PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launched, everybody said the console market was dead, and they wondered why Sony and Microsoft was doing it."

- On a "no physical media" future for consoles, Bach appears to consider the possibility for next gen consoles:

"I think there will be another generation [of hardware]. What the console looks like is a very interesting question."

"Is it a game box or is it more? What's the balance between what an Apple TV is and what an Xbox or PlayStation 4 is? These are really interesting questions, and the teams [are] going to have to wrestle with those. The next generation will be a whole new game."

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-ones-problems-were-predictable-and-preventabl/1100-6430358/

"They're gaining share and volume." - Is this based on some kind of sales data that has not been shared with us? VG Charts consistently show greater than 2:1 ratios..

Just going to cut and paste what I wrote in the article comments:

Given if you sell 1 console per day you are increasing volume that's rather a [meaningless] claim. And I think it's more a case of Wii U losing share, because in terms of main competition PS4 is edging closer to 2:1 over Xb one, so Xb one isn't gaining share on a head to head basis. It is selling at a rate in the USA that will allow it to get through the generation. But that's about as good as it gets.

See how he completely disses Nintendo when claiming consoles are stronger than ever "...both companies are selling more units." Both? Are there only 2 consoles this generation? If that's his context for "increased share" then he's actually straight up lying.

If you actually also consider the 3rd console in the market this generation is in for a massive decline relative to the 7th generation. There are lots of reasons for that, but it doesn't change the most probable outcome. And if you consider all 5 consoles the decline is astronomical. The only console likely to come out unscathed, and potentially ahead of last gen, is PS4, everything else will be on a gradient of fail to epic fail. But even with PS4, it's only going to look good because PS3 was the fail generation for Playstation home consoles.

He thinks it is predictable 2 years after the fact, should start helping fight crimes with those kinds of psychic powers.

I'm not entirely sure of the WiiU losing market share argument as I firmly believe this generation of Nintendo's market share is probably not to dissimilar to that of the Gamecube/Xbox/PS2 era. We have to remember the Wii gained a whole heap of one time casual users and as such they came and went with the advent of tablets and smart phones. This caused a huge spike in Nintendo gaining market share (albeit temporary and for one generation). Therefore I would be suggesting that Nintendo did not actually lose a great deal of long term market share. I expect the WiiU to do probably nearly as well as the Gamecube.  Having said that, the market for traditional gaming (excluding casual gamers) may have rebounded this gen hence the growth in both PS and Xbox user base as compared to last gen in the same timeframe.  This is what the former E&D president may be alluding to?? 

ganoncrotch said: He thinks it is predictable 2 years after the fact, should start helping fight crimes with those kinds of psychic powers.

I mean, it's not like he was the guy in charge when the console was revealed. Also, the only people who thought the XBOne's original vision was a good idea were forum idiots and MS.

Everybody outside of that group saw that train wreck coming a mile away. It'd be different if this was Don Mattrick saying "yea, that was preventable", but the guy who had nothing to do with XBOne and wasn't anywhere near the company when it was revealed? I'd bet a good wager that he was in that 99.9% group that said "DRM, forced Kinect, no used games, etc. is bad"

ganoncrotch said: He thinks it is predictable 2 years after the fact, should start helping fight crimes with those kinds of psychic powers.

Well... IT WAS predictable (and preventable).

Apparently Don Matrick and a few folks at MS were the only ones that didnt see that coming.

BMaker11 said: ganoncrotch said: He thinks it is predictable 2 years after the fact, should start helping fight crimes with those kinds of psychic powers. I mean, it's not like he was the guy in charge when the console was revealed. Also, the only people who thought the XBOne's original vision was a good idea were forum idiots and MS. Everybody outside of that group saw that train wreck coming a mile away. It'd be different if this was Don Mattrick saying "yea, that was preventable", but the guy who had nothing to do with XBOne and wasn't anywhere near the company when it was revealed? I'd bet a good wager that he was in that 99.9% group that said "DRM, forced Kinect, no used games, etc. is bad"

I think EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Square Enix and a few other companies were keeping their fingers crossed that MS would get away with it. MS's DRM plan was never going to directly benefit MS all that much, it was primarily for the benefit of publishers, and some publishers seem to have been very  enthusiastic about it behind closed doors. The number of times game publisher execs tried to demonise the secondary market last gen shows exactly where the DRM motiviation came from. There were certainly some exclusivity deals signed on the assumption that Xb one would be a leading console for the generation, and I can't imagine those deals would have been signed without some knowledge of the shenannigans that MS was planning to pull. Of course that's talking about the DRM debacle.

Publishers were probably a lot less enthusiastic about a packed in Kinect. But even that could have worked if Sony had gone with a $499 launch price for PS4, which is probably what MS predicted. They probably thought "Ha! we'll both be launching at the same price, but we'll have the camera and PS4 won't. Win for us!" The it was..."Please get me my brown pants. On second thought, don't bother I'm off to work for Rovio."

https://www.vg247.com/2014/05/14/xbox-one-kinect-free-bundle-harmonix-reaction/

There were a few Devs who were delighted that every console would have a kinect attached tho, it meant they could create a game and know that at least 100% of the install base of the console would be potential customers, really burned Harmonix with the actually great music evolved title which was left out to dry as Ms rather publically distanced themselves from the Kinect before its launch.

edit - @italic'd I'm pretty sure you mean Zynga?

Yes. It was.

They needed to rush the launch due the surprise early reveal of PS4.
The hardware and OS were not finished yet (they have issues not fixed since launch).
Everything they did right on 360 they did wrong on Xbone (that is the true nature of 180).

And yes... it was predicable and preventable.

And Don Mattrick was not the responsible guy for that... the whole Xbox team were.