Whether it's the DRM, Kinect privacy concerns, or the tone-deaf response from Microsoft to consumer concerns about them, Microsoft dropped the ball. Indeed, they seemed to have admitted that they screwed up when they nearly completely reversed their policies on DRM and online connectivity requirements within the week after announcing them. The truth is, their biggest problem remains, and that's the ridiculous price point.
I'm not a hardware expert by any stretch of the imagination, but everything I've read indicates that the internals of the PS4 are superior to the X-Box One. They're pretty similar, but the Playstation is using faster RAM, though it doesn't seem like the architecture of the respective systems will allow for an appreciable difference in the performance. Still, if there's an edge to be given, that edge has to go to the PS4. So, why is it the X-Box priced so much higher? The answer is, of course, the Kinect.
Microsoft has a lot invested into the success of Kinect, and one can plausibly make the argument that part of the reason it wasn't utilized to its full potential on the X-Box 360 is that developers could not count on the player having one. So, Kinect was relagated to quirky gimicks. Microsoft is attempting to learn a lesson from the past generation when it comes to fragmenting the player base, a mistake they made both with the Kinect and with the presence of a hard drive in the system.
The problem is that players have no reason to trust them. I'm actually a huge believer in the potential of Kinect. I think that there are lots of ways it could be used in ways that would appeal to hardcore gamers, but everything that they've done so far argues to the contrary. In a way, the debacle of the X-Box one actually began with the poor implementation of the Kinect on the 360.
Microsoft is clearly excited about the Kinect and they want all of us to be to. Gamers, for the most part, are not. Gamers have no reason to trust that Microsoft will do anything worthwhile with the Kinect to the point where they're okay with being forced to shell out an extra $100 for the device. Microsoft understandably wants the Kinect in as many homes as possible. With the trust deficit they've created for themselves their path should be clear. Microsoft should be eating the cost of the Kinect, not forcing their customers to do so. Why should gamers pay for it? Gamers don't believe in it... Microsoft does.
Sony learned its lessons from the mistakes they made with the PS3. Clearly, Microsoft did not learn from Sony's mistakes. Sony's strong showing leaves gamers like me with a clear and preferable alternative. $400 isn't cheap, but it's a hell of a lot easier to swallow than $500, especially when at least $100 of that price is for something that has as much if not more of a chance of being a gimmick again than it does of being anything that adds to my gaming experience. As a result, it looks like when I can finally afford to make the jump to the next generation, it will be time to retire my Gamertag and trade it in for a PSN ID.
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