Visions of the future

With the Microsoft press conference on the horizon I wanted to take a moment to express my thoughts on the current situation, so far all we have heard from Gaming press and people in the Industry is pretty much rumour and speculation, but rumours usually stem from some version of an initial truth, Chinese whispersso to speak. So if we take this into account all these negative things we are hearing such as always-on DRM, non-optional Kinect functionality, no second hand games and others like this then combined with Microsoft's own lack of information provided to negate these accusations, I'm worried about what exactly Microsoft are planning on announcing and what direction they are going in with their new system.

If they plan to take the family entertainment route then they will have engaged in a battle with Nintendo's Wii and Wii U, although looking at the Wii U's current state of affairs there isn't a interest in family friendly gaming any-more because they Wii satisfied the casual market, but the Wii U's failure to sell significant units could be simply due to its lack of killer titles, for example the only reason I haven't bought a Wii U yet is because their are not any games, if at launch I could get my hands on a new Zelda, Metroid, Bayonetta, Xenoblade or Smash Bros, any one of these titles would have had me sold, and this is the same with everyone I have spoke to about the Wii U, they all say "we are waiting for good games".

So if the Xbox does lauch with a good line-up for casual gamers it could steal the living room from Nintendo's grasp, but I highly doubt this will be the case. I really hope Microsoft go in the same direction as Sony, no gimmicks, no nonesense just hardware specifications and good games because if they don't they will drive away the hardcore gamers and they, like myself are the people who spend a lot of money on new games and hardware, also if they decide to go casual then Sony has the hardcore market locked down with the PS4 and this is bad because competition breeds innovation and advancements, I fear if one console has sole dominance the market will cease to evolve at any speed resulting stale, recycled content.

So here's hoping that Microsoft show us a load of really great looking Xbox exclusives and there's no mention of any off the nonsense being spread in the rumours  one can hope...