2. The Name
As Nintendo can attest, picking a name for your game console is very important. Nothing killed my interest in last generations Nintendo machine faster than the name change from Revolution to Wii. Microsofts name strategy for the 360, while nowhere near as logical as Sonys, at least gave the sense that the new console was an improvement over the old. This generation though, Microsoft has made the biggest console naming blunder since the Wii U. The most obvious problem with naming the console Xbox One is that people automatically think of the first Xbox. And so they should everything in our culture has primed us to think that something called one is probably the first thing made. The only exception is ranking things, where one means its first among whatever criteria is being ranked. While its easy to see why this console is called Xbox One, since its an all-in-one media platform, its confusing to people barely familiar with gaming and a prime target for mockery from gamers. Its also a very dull, anti-hype inducing name. You dont feel excited saying it or thinking about it which spells problems for Microsoft.