[mikestew]

I really don't understand how they have millions of users and so much basic shit Just Doesn't Work.

Because those millions of users use the box to play games, like I do. Oh, I've tried all the other stuff, and as you point out it's generally such a steaming pile of shit that I feel foolish for having even tried. (If the Kinect weren't in a box in the garage, I'd be staring in its direction right now.) Frankly, I'd be happy if they could just bring the Xbone back to the level of usability that the 360 had. To their credit, they're getting there little by little in many ways. To their discredit, they shouldn't have to do that in the first place. MSFT had a working platform, but I'm guessing some PMs needed to make their mark, so they "improved" things by breaking them.

So I just play games on it, and watch the occasional Blu-Ray. That keeps the "aggravation footprint" to a minimum. Anything else I want to do is on the Apple TV. And when the next-gen consoles roll out, I'm going to be taking a hard look at what Sony has to offer.

[mustacheemperor]

>I'd be happy if they could just bring the Xbone back to the level of usability that the 360 had

My housemates and I purchased an Xbone and realized before long we were using the 360 more because it was vastly preferable for netflix/youtube/etc. Have since switched to a chromecast for that stuff, but the Xbone is absolutely a massive step back in UX. Not to mention the ads on the dashboard. There is advertising on the dashboard of my $250 console, that requires a paid subscription for online play. Why is that acceptable?

[jkaunisv1]

Because for some reason you keep paying the subscription, buying the games and playing them?

[mustacheemperor]

Ha, fair enough. I don't actually have a Live subscription. The Xbox One is strictly a couch-coop device for me, which made the last Halo release even more appalling.

[Yhippa]

> but I'm guessing some PMs needed to make their mark, so they "improved" things by breaking them

I loathe this so much and you know this is _exactly_ what happened. This is a problem at a lot of big companies. At the end of the year you don't get reviewed on "improving existing customer experience" you get more money based on how many features you put into production.

[Balgair]

See Excel, Google Maps, Chrome, etc. Really anything by Google starts out amazing, and then ends up as either total crap or relegated into a black hole. MSFT has gotten a lot better, relative to before, but is still terrible in absolute numbers. I know why this is, managers gotta manage, mortgages gotta get paid, etc. but the real question is why do companies get into these traps, even though it happens so damn often? The only thing I have is the Gervais Principle, but even that is too simple an explanation.

[ballenf]

MS's original reveal event focused a great deal on making the Xbone the hub of the entertainment center. It's why I bought it over the PS4. Only to suffer all the same frustrations as the parent to your comment.

If they had sold this as a gaming console that also does a few entertainment center things, then fine. But they didn't, at least not originally.

And the (almost) worthless Kinect acts as the IR blaster for control of other devices. And mine shuts down intermittently since one of the updates a year ago. That's the only thing I use it for since they changed all the voice commands to 'cortana' from 'xbox'.

And those 30 minute updates to unbrick the device. Inability to update all apps/games at once. Inability to have automatic updates without keeping the thing in "jack up your power bill" mode and "keep the fan in turbo mode".

And the useless review system. Who buys games without reading reviews? Not on the xbone. You get star ratings and that's it. So instead of being a hub, you still need your laptop (or phone) on hand.

I dare anyone who's never tried to setup a child account using only the xbox controller. I'm pretty sure MS has never done any usability testing on that. It's nigh unto impossible.

[mistermann]

> Frankly, I'd be happy if they could just bring the Xbone back to the level of usability that the 360 had.

I only own a 360 and was reading the parent comment in context of that and nodding my head vigorously, you mean the UI on the xbone is even worse?

Microsoft is such a schizophrenic company.

[mikestew]

I'll give you an example: party chat. Works just great on the 360, right? Send a friend and invite, they accept, you talk. It's been working for ten years, why change it? Well, change it they did. I forget the details, because it was at launch and they've since fixed it, but party chat just didn't work the way it used to, and I'd argue it worked in a broken manner.

But, yeah, the Xbone is worse. Primarily, IMO, worse because you are no longer the customer, AFAICT. I wouldn't be surprised if suddenly a "whack the monkey for a FREE month of XBL!" banner showed up on the dashboard. But there are some serious usability issues in there, too.