Mid-Week Poll: Have You Changed Your Mind About the Xbox One?

In the poll we ran a few weeks ago, many of our readers expressed skepticism about the upcoming Xbox One videogame console due to Microsoft’s announced policies requiring an internet connection and restricting sales of used games. After facing a tremendous backlash, the company has apparently backed down and offered concessions in these areas. Is this enough for you to change your mind? Will you buy an Xbox One now, or are you still opposed to it?

At this point, the new console really ought to be called the Xbox 180. According to recent reports issued since Microsoft’s disastrous E3 conference, the Xbox One will no longer require a daily internet “check-in” to authenticate game ownership, and (at least at first) gamers will be able to buy, sell or share used games with each other the same way they do on current consoles. This has been described as a humiliating about-face for the company.

What’s not clear right now is whether the used game policy will stay this way forever, or if the hardware will allow game developers to restrict playback of used titles at some future date.

Also working against the Xbox One are the $100 price difference with the rival Sony PS4, and the mandatory inclusion of Kinect, a feature that many gamers have no interest in.

Ultimately, I suspect that this console war will be won based on the same criteria that decided the last one: game title selection, not hardware superiority or even price. The Xbox 360 slaughtered the PS3 because it had a lot more games that people actually wanted to play. If that continues to be the case in the next generation, these other controversies may seem a lot less important this time next year than they do right now.

Have You Changed Your Mind About the Xbox One?

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30 comments

  1. William Henley

    I never was an XBox fan to begin with. I picked up a used 360 a couple of years back because of a few killer apps I wanted (Fable, Tales of Vesparia, Beautiful Katamari and Viva Pinata).

    At this time, I have no plans to pick up an Xbox 180. I am teetering on the PS4. It is pretty much going to come down to software selection, but based on the past two generations of both consoles, I will most likely go with the PS4 and pass on the XBox One at this time.

  2. Alex

    Gonna be on a PC for a while… will need some really great exclusives to justify getting in on this generation.

  3. I’ve got them both preordered, but xbox is still way behind the ps4.

    the price point is still off balance (i know ps4 doesn’t come with the $60 eye, and the xbox comes with move), if xbox drops the price by $50 it’d be more appetizing.

    also the idea of a day one patch to fix their big brother debacle seems quite shady, if they decide to not implement it and were just lying about the fix to sell units there’s nothing to stop them.

    I’ve been a ps nerd since the first one, and just got my first xbox last black friday, and for the first time ever i was considering the xbox1 over the ps4 but now ima just stick with play station (even though i despise the idea of a forced plus membership for full online features now)

  4. Pedram

    I wish there was an poll option to say that the price and mandatory kinect are still big factors in swaying my decision towards the PS4

  5. Ryan

    Always planned on owning both eventually. But I originally was going to wait for Halo to be out before getting the XboxOne….now I might get it launch day

  6. Alex Stewart

    Xbox One all the way. I still think it is the far superior console and it is possible I may not even get a PS4. Only reason I got the PS3 was it has good exclusives but now Xbox has far more exclusives.

    • How is the XBox One a far superior console? Most people will agree the PS4 is the better machine.

      And, the XBox One actually has LESS exclusives. There have been 20 console-exclusive titles reported for XBox One (3 planned for release this year- Dead Rising 3, Forza 5, and Ryse). PlayStation 4 has 34 (6 planned for release this year- DC Universe Online, Driveclub, Killzone, Knack, Planetside 2, and Super Stardust HD).

      Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty will not be coming to XBox One, but will be coming to PS4. It will be on Wii U, so I didn’t include that in the number of PS4 exclusive titles. I also am not including the Kickstarter project for the “spiritual SOCOM successor” H-Hour that has been confirmed will be developed for the PS4 before other considering other consoles. I also did not include Plants vs. Zombies as an XBox One exclusive since EA lists it is coming to other consoles on their website (albeit not PS4).

      Both systems have some big-time exclusives to be released at a later time, Titanfall for XBox One being the most critically-acclaimed, and at some point we expect them to also release the next chapter in their cornerstone franchise, Halo.
      Infamous: Second Son for PS4 snagged critics’ awards at E3, as well, but not as regarded as Titanfall. PS4’s strong to-be lineup was rounded out by some fantastic independent titles like Outlast, Octodad, and Transistor.
      One thing XBox One also has over the PS4 is some first releases. Among other things, XBox One players will be getting the first Battlefield 4 expansions.
      I think Titanfall looked fantastic, but at its core, it seemed like standard shooter fare.

  7. Mr Apollo

    I can’t stand that the xbox 1 comes with a kinect. It jacks up the price for no reason. I’ve been with xbox since day one and I’m worried about leaving them since I have invested so much into them. The controller for the ps4 bothers me. I’ve never liked any of the ps controllers. I like some of the exclusives but now almost any game us multi platform. Gears of War is the only immediate reason I’d stay seeing as I’m a gears freak (I actually hada Gears of War Marcus Fenix grooms cake!), but sadly even a new game hasn’t been announced. I’m just worried that I’ll make the wrong decision in the long run. I have both on launch day pre order but I can only afford one of them for this year. I’ll sell whichever one I decide not to keep.

  8. Preodered the PS4 and I have no plan to get a Xbox 180 until they make a version without Kinect. Don’t force me to pay $100 extra for something I don’t want. Also the fact Microsoft keep the Xbox tax to use Netflix and other streaming apps is ridiculous.

  9. Steven

    Where is the vote option that says, “I was always going to only buy XBox One, regardless of the reversal.”?

  10. The 360 didn’t slaughter the PS3. As of this year, the PS3 has surpassed the 360 in units shipped. They’re pretty much tied in actual sales. It’s also important to note that the PS3 was realeased a year after the 360…http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/10/report-ps3-surpasses-xbox-360s-worldwide-shipped-total

    I’m probably just going to stick with the PS3. I bought it back in 06′ mainly for the blu-ray player. I don’t play many games these days so I see no need to upgrade.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      What about game sales, as opposed to console sales? A lot of people bought the PS3 solely for its Blu-ray player, whereas the vast majority of Xbox 360 owners bought it primarily for games.

      • Pedram

        Latest numbers I could find from vgchartz was Xbox with 795M and PS3 with 711M. I’m not sure if a 12% increase, given the year advantage, would be considered by most as a slaughtering.

  11. Benny Ong

    I think the poll is rather biased.
    I’m not interested in bashing the Xbox One. With or without the DRM policies, I’m getting the PS4. For a few simple reasons.

    1. It’s $100 cheaper.
    2. PS4 has the games that I want. (Notice, I did not say better games. Just games that I want to play)
    3. Sony should have far better support for Blu-ray playback than Microsoft do. The PS3 outperformed in so many areas in terms of Blu-ray playback.

    Pretty much that’s about it. I don’t really want to have anything against Xbox One. The bashing is already all over the net and I find no benefit in doing so. I’m just going to invest my money on something which I find more entertainment and that’s it. No need to stress myself, no need to get Microsoft to do anything.

  12. My thoughts are they already got crap for the daily checkins and did a 180, how many other things are still in the system that we don’t know about?
    I have more than once had to do workarounds on my windows os due to some glitch and was surely related to their authentication process. Design all the protections you want but don’t let the legit user get locked out of something they paid for.

  13. Deaditelord

    The last 2 console cycles I’ve gone with the Xbox but this year I preordered a PS4. My two big issues with Xbox One was the $500 price tag and being forced to buy the Kinnect. Motion control is a poor substitute to using an actual controller and Microsoft should have made the Kinnect optional so that they could get the price to $400. If they do that before launch, I may cancel my PS4 preorder but otherwise I’ll pass on crappy motion controls in favor of pressing buttons.

  14. RollTide1017

    I have 2 PS4s on pre-order. MS will have to drop the Kinect requirement before I’ll ever consider buying the XB1. Kinect was the biggest waste of money I spent this generation, I hate the thing with a passion and I have no interest in ever owning one again.

    Plus, I’ve always like the PS3 exclusives more then Halo and Gears.

      • Barsoom Bob

        Way, way back (sic), at the dawn of the previous generation cycle (xbox vs playstaion2), Halo was a day one release with Microsoft’s first game machine and it brought alot to the table that hadn’t been seen before.

        The graphics were stunning and beautiful for the time, the world and underlying story were innovative and fun. It has been pretty much coasting on that intial release since then with some minor tweeks and additions.

        From memory, somethings I think it innovated.

        First time I had the sense of deep immersion in an ongoing story for a FPS.

        First time I remember feeling like I was working in conjunction with peripheral characters helping me out.

        Major Chief (or what ever his name is) was a real badass, man with no name character.

        Felt a real A.I. intelligence to the the enemies. I remember playing ring around the
        bolder with a chattering grunt that somehow was different from previous enemies. They had real personalities.

        The scale of some of the battles was totally epic AND required you to stop and develope a real strategy to win.

        Brought multi player LAN parties to the consoles for awesome, even more epic battles. Basically inventing console on line gaming.

        First time I remember the “rest and recharge” as opposed to finding “armor tokens” mechanics.

        Outside of Go Glo 13(?)it was a real nice implementation of sniper rifle shooting.

        There were much varied weaponery of both Earth type and Alien type that you could pick up and use.

        The vehicle with active A.I. partner working the machine gun.

        And just when you are up to your eyeballs in the game, they dropped in The Flood, for one of those rare, whoa, total surprise gaming moments.

        Really loved that first game and it is truely deserving of it’s place in video gaming history, all 32/64/128 bits of it.

        • William Henley

          The LAN feature was a huge selling poing. Suddenly having 16 players on a console title? That was huge! Kinda sad that the ability was removed in later Halo games in favor of online play. I miss LAN parties at least back then, playing games could still be a social event.

  15. Mr Apollo

    Ok, as far as specs go the ps4 has a better graphics processor and more dedicated ram towards actual gaming. 7 gigs to the xbox 1’s 5 gigs. Those 2 things alone will make the ps4 really stand out when it comes to computational graphical processing. That’s what’s really important to me as a hard core gamer.

    Now, Microsoft originally said that the cloud would be handling all of the extra work off of their cloud service, but now after the reversal, it seems that it might not be happening the way it was intended for or at all. They haven’t been clear on that.

    Here’s something to also know. The ps4 undercut Microsoft on purpose with the price point. It almost sounds like a soy movie: http://m.ign.com/articles/2013/06/26/sony-sacrificed-the-playstation-4-camera-to-beat-microsoft-on-price

    One last thing. Microsoft also said that it’d be willing to cut the price of the xbox 1 next year if they weren’t selling as well as they hoped it would. I really don’t think this is fair for us, the consumer, to pay full price now and then be undercut later on. I want some kind of benefit to owning it first. No kinect would have been the best thing for them to do. The ps3 got a price cut about half a year after it was released because it was too damn expensive! Just like the xbox 1.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      We know that Sony used the PS3 as a loss-leader in order to drive software sales, and lost money on every console unit sold for the first couple of years. I wonder how much profit they’re sacrificing on the PS4 in order to undercut Microsoft?

      • It was priced out to make a estimated slight profit for each consoled sold at that price. That’s why they didn’t include the Eye camera. Also that’s the main reason their using PC parts and not pricy inner developed chips like the PS3’s cell processor.

      • William Henley

        I’m willing to bet its not any where near what they lost on the PS3. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if Sony was actually making money on the PS4. Just about all the specs they are talking about, I could build in a PC for roughly the same price. The exception is the graphics card – but as Sony is mass buying, its possible they are cutting even or even proffiting.

  16. I was gonna get both. I have ~40 game consoles from the past few decades and usually get whatever comes out. Have the Wii U and the Ouya, and a PS4 pre-ordered. Totally would have gotten the Xbox if it wasn’t for them trying to bring my worst fears about the direction of gaming to life.