When the original Xbox showed up almost a decade ago, there was a significant collective voice not just the gaming community, but popular culture watch intently as company that had spent years peddling Windows on PC computers attempt to convince us all that they could not just introduce a console, but have it flourish. As one of the early adopters, it is easy to remember the joy of arriving home from school to see a giant box from CompUSA containing an Xbox pre-order bundle, a belated birthday gift from my dad. Since that day, there have been a multitude of E3 press conferences, all of which Microsoft impressed upon everyone Xbox owner or not that they had something new and incredible coming to the table in the next year. This was the first year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in the last few that Microsoft, in my opinion, seemingly dropped the ball – happily filling the role Nintendo performed last year of showing off a load of stuff no one really cared to see. Microsoft failed to truly impress and that has created a happenchance circumstance that seems incredibly fortuitous for Sony and Nintendo.
5. Slim 360: Unveiling a new Xbox 360 was a step in the right direction for Microsoft – as there has been a call for it since last years E3. But at that time, Microsoft was more than enthusiastic to state publicly that they would never slim the 360. This seemed to be an honest and viable assessment given the original case already seemed like it was packed to the brim, which coincidentally caused all of those Red Ring of Death incidents. When some users would have to go through up to twelve consoles before finally either giving up or receiving one that would suffer from the dreaded failure rate, it was then Microsoft acknowledged a problem and created the 3-year from purchase warranty. Nevertheless, the inclusion of a 250gb hard drive, wireless N, Kinect-ready and making it whisper quiet is enough to continue setting the console apart from the Wii and PlayStation 3, but I can’t help but wonder if it is too little too late on the part of Microsoft – to remain the leader, you have to stay on the forefront, always taking risks to show off what your technology can do at its best in the hands of gamers. Taking a note from Apple and selling it day one was a great move – but giving one away to all the people in the audience a la Oprah was a bit unnecessary. What should have been done was give people the ability who had bought a 360 in the last month or so the ability to trade up for a new console. A marginal cost would have created a massive influx of the new system, arguably garnering a vacuum of excellent word of mouth as gamers stepped up to get their hands on the new system.
4. Kinect Possibly Pantomimed: There have been a few rumors flying out of E3, which should be expected, but they do bear repeating out of the general concern that can be divined from paging through the volumes of information available. Writers, be they attached to a major blog, news site or operate on a freelance basis, are never correct one-hundred percent of the time and make mistakes, but the troubling news that Microsoft’s E3 presentation of Kinect may have, at certain points, been pantomimed. Admittedly, it seems merely like an attempt to heap bad news on top of an already relatively disappointing experience, but the prospect has the potential to create a slew of problems. On the other hand, this could have simply been lag between the screen the console was connected to and the big screen showing off what was occurring. Until definitive data proves whether or not this is correct, we’ll all just have to wait in uncomfortable silence. The rumored priced of $150 for the camera attachment also scares me, hopefully that turns out to be just a rumor (nothing official as of this writing).
3. No Hulu Reveal: By any measurement, Hulu on the Xbox 360 would have given the console the ability to forever corner the media market. But oddly enough, it didn’t happen despite several rumors genuinely affirming it was supposed to. For those unaware, Hulu is an online site that is a joint venture between multiple television studios and the internet to offer their content to those who don’t wish to be slaves to their television. If you would rather be getting something done or out with friends when Family Guy, Burn Notice, etc comes on, you can since Hulu maintains the five most recent episodes of any program they carry. Combined with Netflix, there is little doubt that Microsoft and the Xbox 360 could have rendered the use of cable and satellite service nigh obsolete in favor of watching something whenever they want. While this may have infringed somewhat on the Zune Marketplace, it is easy to disagree as the content offered on either it or Hulu wouldn’t run perpendicular but absolutely parallel, which would have harbored a trifecta of available media that could have buried what Nintendo or Sony have. But sadly, it was mysteriously absent from E3. Just another rumor?
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This feature top 5 list concludes on the next page, please click below to see our other way Microsoft dropped the ball at E3 2010
