Xbox 360 in 2012: What About the Games? - smithafteld43

Microsoft sure reaped the rewards of the Xbox 360 and Kinect's winner over the ultimo year, and they're exhibit it off in a big way at CES 2012. However, very little of the Xbox buzz coming from Microsoft has to do with games. 2012 might precise well be the Year of the Xbox 360, simply not for many of the gamers that brought it so far.

Xbox 360: Your New Cyclosis Media Set-Top Boxful

Cyclosis media isn't anything new for the Xbox, naturally–it was unrivalled of the first ways to swarm Netflix Instant onto a TV without victimization a PC. However, Microsoft is double down on cyclosis media this year, aiming to have 100 streaming apps by the end of 2012. That's not 100 little Android apps, either–each app requires Microsoft to partner with the subject matter supplier to draw sure that Xbox users are acquiring the best experience conceivable.

It hasn't gotten off to a great set off. The highly hyped Microsoft/Crowning Belligerent Backup partnership, for instance, started with a whimper when Microsoft promised free UFC streams via the new UFC Xbox Live app for the December 30th Overeem vs. Lesnar fight bill of fare, and failed to deliver minutes subsequently the fights had already started. But Microsoft is learning from this see, and I have to be sure that any streaming services they do add over the next twelvemonth will be every bit as solid as its Netflix moving presently is.

But what gives the Xbox 360 the edge finished, say, the Roku, Beaver State a solid Google Boob tube device? To start, you're more likely to already possess the Xbox 360 than another set-top box OR Internet-affiliated Blu-ray player, and the comparatively massive installed base of Xbox 360s undoubtedly makes Microsoft a prime partner for the various streaming media providers out there.

More importantly, however, the combination of Bing and Kinect give the Xbox 360 the exact Smart TV experience that Samsung and LG are shooting for in their novel 2012 TVs. By now, everyone knows that the classic TV remote just doesn't cut it in an Internet TV world. Why pay $2000 for a high-end Samsung Smart TV when you can get a good media excerpt and voice/motion controls with a game console and an additive peripheral you probably already have? Considering Microsoft designed the Kinect engineering that everyone at CES is trying to imitate, it's hard to bet against them in this one.

So what does this mean for gamers? Microsoft reported a 140% class-over-year increase in cyclosis media consumption along the Xbox 360 between 2010 and 2011, so there's no doubt that the present owners are enjoying it. But it certainly doesn't seem like Microsoft is qualification any efforts to labour the development of Kinect-only titles that speak to their kernel gaming user base.

Kinect for Windows: Not for Consumers

When Steve Ballmer announced that Microsoft will sell Kinect for Windows for $250, IT caused quite a stir–why charge an extra $100 for what is au fond the same product?

As information technology turns out, there's a bad good reason for that–the Kinect for Windows isn't really meant for consumers in the first place. After altogether, thither's not really a whole lot you could economic consumption it with in Windows, anyway.

As an alternative, it's for the companies out there who want to use the Kinect to develop their personal applications–for business, medicine, didactics, etc.–without having to wade through the community-made, unstoppered source SDK which doesn't fully support all of the Kinect's functions. The $250 price go after essentially covers the cost of the whole itself, plus more detailed technical school hold up meant for enterprise purposes, and the official Microsoft SDK. This is good for making the world more like Minority Report, but IT's non so great for qualification a Kinect gage that doesn't involve Benny Street or dancing.

Don't Expect a New Xbox Any Time Before long

Thither's no dubiousness that the existing generation of game consoles are starting to lag behind the PC. Blockbuster titles like Skyrim or Battlefield 3 only don't looking at Eastern Samoa good Beaver State play as well on an Xbox 360 as they can on even a lower-oddment gaming Personal computer–and when you consider the high-end corner gamer who wants to mod their games, crank the settings, or even live-teem their sessions via Twitch.TV or other video streaming sites, there's simply no contest.

However, that doesn't block off Skyrim or any other triple-A rubric from selling like mad–which means that Microsoft has zero incentive to fall out with a next-generation console some time soon. And piece PC gaming seems to be making a comeback, in that location's no question that many gamers out there are happy with what their Xbox does.

That's non rough to understand. Research and development on a new console is expensive, and when you'ray able to extend the viable life-time of your console aside turning information technology into a media-streaming set-top box with a cool user port without charging your users extra for the privilege, it seems like a win-win scenario.

The dedicated gamers out in that location, then again, may observance that their Xbox just gathers dust spell they stick to their PC for the a la mode and greatest–except for when they want to watch Hulu on their HDTV.

For more blogs, stories, photos, and video from the nation's largest consumer electronics read, sound out PCWorld's complete insurance coverage of CES 2012.

Saint Patrick Henry Valentine Miller covers games, how-tos, and the occasional HDTV for PCWorld. Follow him on Facebook Beaver State Twitter.