pk500 wrote:Leebo33 wrote:Xbox One is going to control my "living room" but in the day when I'm watching just as much entertainment on my Ipad or streaming in the Den on my PC while I'm working from home I'm just not sure how important that is going to be. I'm just rarely in one room for very long. But as an Xbone owner and a gamer I certainly want Microsoft to continue to try to be innovative...but the thought of the entire family being entertained in one room seems old fashioned to me.
This is a GREAT point that hasn't been made here. Is MS banking on a strategy that families still gather around their television like it's the pot-belly stove in the Wilder's cabin in "Little House in the Prairie?"
My kids only watch TV for live sports. They consume all other video content on their iPad, iPod or phone. I watch a lot of streaming and downloaded video on my laptop.
The days in which the TV is the epicenter of family entertainment are coming to a rapid end.
I think they know that. Seriously - have you seen most of their marketing for the XB1? The stuff I see is typically younger, single people using it as a convenient one stop shop for things like watching sports and Skyping, playing a game and then jumping quickly to Netflix, etc.
Even in my situation where we definitely don't have "family time" around the TV, the XB1 is a great and useful addition to my main setup. I have given many examples of how (up to this point at least) it's enhanced my experience. Even if you never plug a live TV into it, the integration of the apps and games and home screen with voice commands of Kinect and camera features for Skype are quite useful for a lot of people that use their console to consume different types of media.
I watch about 5 hours of live TV a week if that. But the convenience for me of playing a game and then just saying "Xbox go to NBC" to cheek in on the SNF game is awesome. Or watching a Netflix show with my wife and when she gets up to do whatever it is that wives do - I can say "Xbox Pause" without scrabbling for the remote, and then say "Go to Forza Motorsport 5" play a quick race, say "Xbox go to Netflix...play" and resume right where we left off is very neat as well. Or getting a Skype call when the TV is on and just saying "Xbox Answer".
Of course all these things can be done via a remote, but it's either the new car smell that has pulled me in or it's truly just easy and fast and neat. I think this stuff would appeal to a pretty large market. I am picturing a lot of successful research done around 25-35 year old males who have not settled down yet, no kids, apartment is becoming a bit more adult with a decent TV and an entertainment center, not caring about headphones or throwing the console in a bag to bring to grandmas house, Skype a lot with their GF or buddies who are now scattered throughout the country after getting jobs, use a lot of Hulu and Netflix, already have a decent crew of online gamers from their XB360 days, comfortable with and interested in emerging tech, etc, etc... This is on top of the 35-40 something married foggies like me who loved their 360 and are interested in the XB1's capabilities.
