XBOX One without gaming coming - Paul Thurrott


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What would happen if a person in the tv show/movie would start to demonstrate their similar device and your device in the room picked up his commands and pause/stop/change channels for you in the middle of what ever you were watching?

it knows its not you,so nothing will happen.

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mmmm, a cheap xbox media streamer.

 

Two things:

 

1.  When I suggested this on Neowin months ago, nobody thought it was a good idea

2.  Funny how when I sent an email in to MS also suggesting this when the Apple TV launched, MS replied back with 'use xbox360 and media center'

 

I knew it was a good idea lol  yay for me....yet again, delivering a ton of tech smackdown on neowin

 

This will sell well if they have a good media ecosystem.  They are getting there, just needs to be priced correctly

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Why not just drastically reduce the price of the 360 to be an entertainment device. It has all the same apps and services afterall.

Because 360 hardware SUCKS for running apps. Performance really sucks.

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Why not just drastically reduce the price of the 360 to be an entertainment device. It has all the same apps and services afterall.

I would imagine because they want to make more of Kinect and the HDMI pass through stuff for TV guides etc. For some we are looking forward to the TV integration as much as the gaming itself, if they can do this with the 360 then fine but I don't think they can do it as well as they plan to with the XB1 As well as the simple fact of that not every 360 out there has a Kinect and bundling Kinect will only raise the cost.

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What kind of apps do you need other than the media capabilities the console has and the apps already available on XBL?

 

Serious question, because I honestly don't see the need for apps on a Windows store for a device to play media. It's not a PC/tablet/laptop/phone. It sits in your media centre and plays movies/tv.

If everyone had that mindset then the app store boom would of never of started to begin with.

 

Using the store would mean anyone can deploy their software to that platform. Something I'm very interested in.

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Great idea but I would rather wait a year before buying an Xbox One and the price of the system drop by $100 to $150.

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Incredibly stupid plan if true, to be honest. The only thing the xbone offers that devices which already exist(and are cheaper) do not, is kinect. And that's hardly worth it. And to make matters worse for this idea, modern TV's themselves are able to do much of the same media stuff an xbox could. Further reducing the point of this second and gameless xbone.

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Incredibly stupid plan if true, to be honest. The only thing the xbone offers that devices which already exist(and are cheaper) do not, is kinect. And that's hardly worth it. And to make matters worse for this idea, modern TV's themselves are able to do much of the same media stuff an xbox could. Further reducing the point of this second and gameless xbone.

 

 

Do you enjoy using modern TV interfaces? :P

 

And games shouldn't be too hard to do - streaming from local XB1, cloud streaming and basic games (i.e. those that run on the XB1's Windows side) would provide everything needed. Of course, you need an XB1 to do local streaming of more power-hungry games but this wouldn't be any different to the new PSVita. 

 

Kinect + Good interface + media + streaming would make for an interesting, and probably viable competitor to the Apple TVs, Rokus and PSVitas of the world. 

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What kind of apps do you need other than the media capabilities the console has and the apps already available on XBL?

 

Serious question, because I honestly don't see the need for apps on a Windows store for a device to play media. It's not a PC/tablet/laptop/phone. It sits in your media centre and plays movies/tv.

 

Windows Media Center with PVR (not just an extender), also including the features of home server along with being able to use Windows 8 apps on your large screen with Kinect.

 

Personally my XBOX360's are currently just used as Media Center extenders/media players but my house is not a typical setup since most people don't have dedicated WMC PC's & Windows Home Server's so Microsoft coming up with a single box that has all the features of WMC & WHS for a decent price or a replacement cable or satellite box, I think would sell well

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XBox One Lite with Kinect could be a great platform for remote play (like the Vita TV), media box, and maybe Microsoft Store for some light gaming, Angry Bird/Asphalt type of game.

 

Would require a lesser CPU/GPU and 32/64Gb of flash memory.  Could run the same interface of the XBox One.

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Hello,

I imagine mods and tweaks allowing games to be played on it.

Doubt it. MS will problably replace hardware with for example a (exaggeration) single core processor with 1GB to avoid this and at the same time be able to release it for a cheaper price. The "no gaming" limitation wont be software based, it will be hardware based.
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This is in response to PS Vita TV... that whoever came with that idea it was pure genius...

it really isn't. paul reported about this box way before ps vita was even revealed. they just decided on holding off releasing it at the same time as xbox one.

 

XBox One Lite with Kinect could be a great platform for remote play (like the Vita TV), media box, and maybe Microsoft Store for some light gaming, Angry Bird/Asphalt type of game.

Would require a lesser CPU/GPU and 32/64Gb of flash memory. Could run the same interface of the XBox One.

that's what I imagine it will be exactly. xbox one ui,tv stuff,media and xbox/windows store gaming and apps.

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Why not just drastically reduce the price of the 360 to be an entertainment device. It has all the same apps and services afterall.

 

The price on the 360 can already be had for a few bucks more than an apple tv but the dashboard experience on 360 with the media apps isn't exactly a speed demon - if they can standardize on the xbox one ui / performance and maybe add  app support based on WinRT then that would be nice.

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Something like this would be the "killer app" if say for example you have an X1 and its downstairs and it could stream a game to your TV upstairs or something like that.  Would put a hurting on the steam box idea

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I don't think it will have media center in it, that's on the way out but saying that I wouldn't be surprised if they market it as the Xbox Media Center.   If it's about media first and some light gaming on the side then it's fine.   And they've been known to reuse names from time to time.   I also agree that this could very well signal the end of media apps behind Gold, which could also play into why it's been delayed as well.

 

We know they have plans to re-add features from their original XB1 idea but tweaked a bit, like family sharing and so on.   Once they can add these more gamer specific features to Gold then keeping media apps behind Gold isn't needed because they've had been replaced by something else.  The incentive to get Gold is still there, and maybe even better now with game specific things compared to media apps that more gamers should sign up for it compared to the 360.

 

As for the new model, if it's sold through the cable providers as a set-top box option it will be a success and it will introduce even more homes to Xbox and might get some to buy the full XB1 to get more gaming.

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Incredibly stupid plan if true, to be honest. The only thing the xbone offers that devices which already exist(and are cheaper) do not, is kinect. And that's hardly worth it. And to make matters worse for this idea, modern TV's themselves are able to do much of the same media stuff an xbox could. Further reducing the point of this second and gameless xbone.

 

who says its 100% game less?  It will probably gave "arcade" titles and if its based on ARM or low power X86, it could also have app store access as well.

 

Also, smart tv's suck unless you get one that you full well know the OS that's running on it and have user serviceable parts in the back (like the Intel TV's some places sell) - i at least know Microsoft has committed to keeping things updated.  How many Smart TV companies keep their software updated without forcing you to buy a whole freaking new tv?

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Cost to maintain the older parts?   It's much cheaper to just make a stripped down XB1 that uses, say, 80% of the same parts as the main XB1 than to keep the different production line for the 360 going.  

 

Anyways, with the ability to go digital for even AAA games, MS selling a XB1 "lite" as a pure media box but with the ability to allow people to download a AAA game if they wanted to sounds good to me.   It's working the market from the other way, actually from both directions at once.  You have the main XB1 that works from core gamers towards casual+media and you have a XB1 lite that works from media+casual towards core gaming for those who choose to give it a try.

 

Sounds like a win win to me, specially if these are at the price point where they can be a set-top box option through a cable service provider.

I don't think that will happen though.  Allowing people purchasing the "lite" version to download and play AAA titles would eliminate the market for the Full XBox One.  They would essentially be saying, here's the XBox One, it costs $ 500 and is what you need to play these amazing games, and here's the XBox One Lite, which costs (I dunno, half that maybe?  Less?) that can play all of these games...

 

In fact, I think they're more or less (Assuming this device is real) possitioning it as an entertainment device solely, with no games.  If it was going to be for gaming, Microsoft would not have gotten rid of the Arcade branding, as they would need something to differentiate games available on the Lite version and content available on the Full XBox One...

 

It just isn't adding up to gaming coming to this Lite device to me...

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I don't think that will happen though.  Allowing people purchasing the "lite" version to download and play AAA titles would eliminate the market for the Full XBox One.  They would essentially be saying, here's the XBox One, it costs $ 500 and is what you need to play these amazing games, and here's the XBox One Lite, which costs (I dunno, half that maybe?  Less?) that can play all of these games...

 

In fact, I think they're more or less (Assuming this device is real) possitioning it as an entertainment device solely, with no games.  If it was going to be for gaming, Microsoft would not have gotten rid of the Arcade branding, as they would need something to differentiate games available on the Lite version and content available on the Full XBox One...

 

It just isn't adding up to gaming coming to this Lite device to me...

 

I'm tossing out ideas really but I wouldn't be surprised if we do get arcade style, from the store, indie games and so on for it.  Then they can upsell people a full XB1 (by that time the price could be $399 even) to play the big AAA games.   If this is a $199 box it should have gaming, if it's less then I don't know, maybe not.

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