One such publisher that has put a lot of stock in Microsoft’s court is Activision, whose recently announced title Destiny made a big splash at this past E3. Needless to say, if Activision wants to ensure Destiny is a success they will need gamers to invest in the Xbox One.
As Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg explains, getting gamers to invest starts with Microsoft proving that the Xbox One’s $100 premium is worth it. Making gamers understand that they are paying for a better console experience.
Part of that $100 premium, as we know, includes the cost of the new Kinect sensor, which is a requirement for Xbox One operation (games, movies, apps). Unfortunately, just saying that the price tag includes Kinect isn’t going cut it. Hirshberg believes that Microsoft needs to show that the inclusion of Kinect is warranted, and that the Xbox One console will leverage the peripheral in meaningful ways.
Obviously, all of Activision’s eggs are not in the Destiny basket — they still have Call of Duty — but they clearly want Xbox One to succeed just as much as any publisher. At the same time, gamers will need several reasons to pick up the console. Yes, Destiny does look great, but that game doesn’t release until some time next year. The real question is what will make gamers pick up the Xbox One now, and will they be happy about their decision?
At one point, the game sharing feature sounded like a good selling point for the Xbox One, but Microsoft’s poor communication and restrictive online requirements ended up killing that intriguing feature. Now some could argue that Microsoft has a console that is $100 more expensive and comes with a peripheral not a lot of gamers want.
How do you think Microsoft will convince gamers the Xbox One is worth the $500 price tag?
The Xbox One will hit store shelves this November.
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Source: GI.biz
