Microsoft: Screwing Up and Punching Consumers in the Face

*KA-CHING*

Hear that? That was the sound of Sony and Nintendo's stocks going up again! See, whenever more news comes out about Microsoft's Xbox One and it turns out being well below satisfactory, their rival's stocks see a rise.

By now, I'm sure everyone that holds a controller in their hands on a regular basis is well aware of the latest on the Xbox One. It turns out that all of our fears that were created by rumors are pretty much valid. Microsoft has shot themselves in the foot twice in a very short amount of time.

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Always Online. The Xbox One demands it.. A 24 hour net connection is required or that stack of games you got can't be played. I've said it before but important things need to be repeated. Anyone's net connection can go out, no matter how stable. This week alone I've ran into a few hiccups on my connection that cut into blog posts I was making and YouTube videos I was watching. The outages lasted for several minutes, too. If I had been playing a game and that required a constant net connection and my service went out, I would have been quite annoyed. Having a constant connection for a basic, age old console function, the primary function of any game machine, playing games is ludicrous. Then there's the fact that not everyone has a next connection. Oh! But you can watch TV, Blu-Ray, and DVD movies! Whoopdy-freaking-do. I can do all of that crap without the Xbox One, thank you.

Kinnect? Always has to be on so it can watch you, get dressed, shower, pee, all that good stuff. Yeah, Microsoft says they care about your privacy and you control what it sees. If that's the case, why does the blasted thing have to be on all the time? It's an extreme method of trying to prevent privacy and is an insanely big pile of horse manure.

The used game market is dead and burred on the Xbox One. This works out great for the publishers that have had it out for used game sales, which is quiet a few of them because they just have to see back every single nickle dime from a game, even though selling things used is perfectly legit and has been for eons. We should be able to do whatever we want with the game after paying for it like loan it to a friend, trade it in or watch the thing get run over by a train. Microsoft wants you to think they haven't killed the used game market on their system by letting publishers choose from select retailers for game trading. How many of them do you think will actually use this feature when they can now cut out the middle man all together? But you can gift games to friends that are on your friends list. You know, so long as they've been your friend for at least 30 days and each game can only be gifted once. Friends and family get unlimited access to your game library so long as they meet the aforementioned requirement. If there's supposed to be a bright spot somewhere in there, somebody please tell me, because I'm not seeing it.

Another major concern is that we couldn't be able to play our Xbox One game son another Xbox One console. Well you can play you games on another Xbox One system. But if it isn't your home console, you only have an hour's worth of game time. I'm not sure what geniuses thought that was a good idea but I've got some bricks I would like to deliver to their faces because no one person could have conjured up anything that dumb. Wonder Twins powers in the form of stupid were clearly activated and at work there.

What about the games that Microsoft and third parties have lined up for Xbox One? I. Don't. CARE. Weeks ago I said I'd give Microsoft a chance to get my attention at this year's E3. With he revelations from this announcement, they blew that chance. In one fell swoop Microsoft has managed to kill the common practices of game trading and game loaning and on top of that, anyone that buys the Xbox One gets a machine that is constantly watching them via Kinnect. "We care about your privacy," my anus, you do. I'm all for a competitive industry but it's looking like things just got a lot less competitive for this console generation. Nintendo may be down but at least the Wii U doesn't have the type of fatal hang-ups the the Xbox One has. Sony, Nintendo, the balls in your court because Microsoft practically handed it to you.