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Comment by sigzero | Hacker News Reader

I don't want "All-in-One". I want a GAMING console. Ugh.

You're getting a gaming console, with the addition of a host of other features that ensure the console platform can reach market stability through sales and continue to provide content - including the games you want to play - over the multi-year span that a major investment in hardware requires of a company.

On the other hand - what's preventing you from GAMING on your PC?

>On the other hand - what's preventing you from GAMING on your PC?

Exclusives.

I'd posit that the very existence of exclusives is one of the things that defines this as a gaming console through and through, if no longer first and foremost.

I may be the minority, but it's nice that all the exclusives I'm waiting for are PC exclusives.

... Then don't buy it? Nobody's putting a gun to your head and forcing you to buy it. Look at your options when everything comes out and then choose whatever meets your needs.

I think the GP is expressing concern that the unification strategy may detract from the set of options he would otherwise have were it a dedicated gaming system.

And I get that, but at the same time, he isn't forced to buy the console. If the PS4 proves to be more "gaming console-ish" then the Xbox One, then he can get that instead. Or a Gaming PC.

You seem to be of the view that competitive forces in a perfect market remove the justifications of consumers to complain about their available choices. Since there are only three console makers and studios hold monopoly rights on their IP, it's not anything like a perfectly efficient market.

The console exists to play the games. Not every game is available on every console and the technology of the console also drives features and quality in the games.

So if you want to play a game that requires a certain console, yes, you are forced to buy that console. Likewise, if you want to play a game with your friends on a certain gaming network (PSN, XBL, Steam, etc) you are also forced to buy a certain console.

You're not forced to do anything. It's still your choice in the end whether you want to purchase a console or not. You have to weigh the pros and cons of each offering, and then decide if the positives outweigh the negatives.

And a console used to exist to play games. Clearly, the market is moving away from this. Just because that's what it used to do doesn't mean that what it's moving towards doing. Technology is ever-changing and hanging on to outdated beliefs will only result in disappointment.

> You're not forced to do anything. It's still your choice in the end whether you want to purchase a console or not.

In my family's neighborhood, if you are a certain age and want to play with the other boys for many hours out of the day, you must have an Xbox Live, Minecraft, and Modern Warfare 3. In an odd way it does, in fact, involve them putting guns to each others' heads.

The OP said "I want a GAMING console."

> a console used to exist to play games. Clearly, the market is moving away from this.

And the OP gets to express his disappointment in the direction of the market. It doesn't make him wrong.

But the OP isn't complaining about the market. He's complaining about the Xbox One not being a gaming-focused device. And that's not fair if the entire market is moving away from gaming-only devices.

Well this an interesting discussion: is "the entire market moving away from gaming-only devices"?

Personally, I think it's a mistake to simplify the market like that.

Yes, our family uses our Xbox 360 to watch many hours of Netflix. But that's just because it happens to be plugged in to the shared TV. The Playstation or any number of other devices in our house (even weensy little tablet CPUs) can also play Netflix just fine. If we played PS3 games more, we'd go back to watching Netflix and DVDs there.

It's not because we "want our Xbox to be a more general entertainment device", it's simply a technically incidental task that's barely worth plugging in an additional device for.

Many consoles can play DVDs as well as games, but should DVD playback drive the evolution of consoles?

What, uh, is missing from the One that you would expect out of a gaming console?

I used to think like that but now I am finding myself increasingly relying on Xbox as an entertainment system and that despite having built a dedicated XBMC pc. Maybe its the general availability of Apps (Amazon Video, Xfinity, Netflix) or just pure laziness to switch between two systems.

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