2. Motion-Tracking Technology Nobody Wants
The Wii changed the gaming landscape, we all know this. Suddenly grandmothers and family members who had long-since lambasted the very existence of those video games were stepping up to the plate to play along, and having a damn good time too. The key? Motion controls, something that divided the hardcore gamers, yet effortlessly in tandem with Call of Duty on the big boy consoles, took gaming out of the basement and made it into a socially acceptable past-time. It proved too big an innovation to go ignored, and in the years that followed, Microsoft dove-in head, body and toes first, throwing out the body-sensing Kinect to an entire demographic who had already chosen their allegiance by sticking with them in the first place. Sony did the same with the Playstation Move, more directly aping the control methods of the now-household-named Wii, yet they both seemed to miss the point: people who wanted to play motion controlled games had already gone out and bought the much cheaper original, and were having a whale of a time thrashing granny at Wii Bowling. Now Sony seem to have gone their own way with getting you visually involved in their games, offering an optional camera that can make it look like all sorts of fantastical things are happening in your living room. The key is to make such a thing the consumers choice, a notion that is the exact opposite than what Microsoft have had, bundling the new version of the failed Kinect in with every Xbox One console to force their innovation on all of us. Coupled with the pricier tag of the two consoles and refusing to offer a version of the One sans the all-seeing eye thats rumoured to know if youre smiling at adverts or not, its only justification seeming to be voice-controlled channel-switching or getting involved in a newer version of Kinects fitness apps. Microsoft are all but pulling the coffin lid shut on their own burial at this rate.