Microsoft has a lot to be proud of. As of February 2013, 46 million Xbox 360 owners are subscribers to their Xbox Live service, and have purchased 24 million Kinect Sensors as well as 76 million Xbox 360 consoles.
All subscribers have access to the dozens of media and social network services including YouTube, last.fm, Amazon Instant Video, Netflix and Skype. Online events like Play Xbox Live Arcade Mondays, GamerchiX Ladies Night and Xbox All-Nighter are held weekly to keep gamers engaged.
But with the PlayStation Meeting event last month in New York City, all eyes are on Sony and their now-unveiled PlayStation 4.
Sony was laser focused on showing gamers that the game console is a computing beast that is made for developers and players. The PS4 stirred a lot of excitement for its release this holiday season.
If Microsoft wants to keep all the gamers’ attention and stay ahead of this coming generation of home gaming consoles, their reveal of the next Xbox must be the showstopper the PS4 was.
Two huge bullet points for the announcement of the PS4 were the system being gamer-focused and the integration of sharing gameplay.
Under the gaming category on YouTube, game commentaries are popular. A good percentage of the videos uploaded daily were recorded on an Xbox 360 through external recording. If the next Xbox could have straight and fast edit and upload to YouTube built into the operating system, it could be monumental in the existing YouTube community.
Also, Xbox hasn’t had very many concurrent first party exclusive games throughout its life. There are the triple-A titles like Gears of War, Halo, Forza or Fable, but they are too few and far between.
Microsoft has, instead, been too focused on turning the Xbox 360 into an online multi-media hub and a box that controls your Kinect sensor. This is great for families and casual gamers but It’s hardly seen as a game machine now.
In order to be that true gamers’ console, Microsoft Games Studios needs to help developers produce new and exciting intellectual properties. And, like the PS4 game announcements, reiterate fan favorite IPs to appeal to old and new fans.
If you look at the previous rumored specifications, they look about the same if not weaker. If they reveal the same specifications, they need to highlight that the Xbox can do what the PS4 can’t. Seeing as Microsoft is a great software company, there’s no doubt that can be accomplished.
