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11 Design Mistakes of the Xbox 360
An anonymous reader writes "FiringSquad.com has posted an article discussing 11 design flaws of the Xbox 360, ranging from gaming to Xbox Live Marketplace issues." From the article: "Mistake #2: No MSN Music - I'm as much of a fan of DRM as everyone else (which is to say I don't like it), but with Microsoft already charging gamers for Xbox Live Gold support, it would have been possible for Microsoft to offer discount service "bundles" allowing you to buy unlimited subscriptions to the MSN Music library at rates less than you would have to pay for Napster or Rhapsody. Gamers would have had an opportunity to get music cheaper and add one extra weapon in the console battle against Sony." I'm not so sure some of these are that big a deal. I'm more than a little glad the 360 has no web browser.
The biggest thing to me is how much potential Microsoft has each time with its consoles and how they manage to not even come close to fulfilling any of it. They have hands-down the best online system, they have the raw power, they have the money, they have the marketing, they have the glitz and glamour... yet they fall flat on their face and have a pitiful pricing structure for the marketplace, poor launch lineup (with Kameo way too overhyped), design issues/flaws, no titles supporting the multiple threads (not even 1st party title or even just ONE game), barely shipping any units, hassling customers about defective units (and now not giving shipping dates even), basically lying about shipping every week up to Christmas, Lying about the power supply issues, the preposterous claims about the "best launch lineup ever," the unknown number of complaints AFTER Christmas once they are all opened, the confusion that will be had over two different versions of the 360, the piss-poor backwards compatability issues, and on and on...
11 flaws is being kind, no matter what your stance on the 360 is.
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I've had a force-feedback joystick on my PC for years and years (fighting weapon recoil pushing the stick up is much more fun than a playing with a directionless rumble pack), and you can buy PC controllers with rumble if you want them.
Still, more software support would be nice, and a USB rumble peripheral - wristband maybe - would be cool. Apart from the endless sex-toy jokes.
Some of the author's expectations would cost too much to add into the system at this time. Perhaps if MS waited longer the price would drop on adding them, but not right now. Cases in point:
Other items would have added to the development time of the product. If you work in software development you should be familiar with the concept of having to cut features in order to release in time. I think these items are of this category:
Then there's just design decisions that the author disliked:
Then the one that are probably licensing related (if not it probably belongs with "No WMV-HD DVD Playback" above):
That leaves us with a real flaw:
With regards to MSN music, this isn't a design flaw of MS, its a design flaw of the RIAA.
ANY new music distribution system, even that mirroring avialable Internet services, must be approved by the RIAA. Even though the Xbox Live service uses the Internet as a backbone, the RIAA considers it a different medium for music distribution, and so must agonize over whether the Xbox360 has appropriate DRM protection and cannot be used as a platform to pirate music. The bottom line is, there is probably some pending approval for the idea of selling/subscribing to music on the Xbox360 stuck on some RIAA desk.
Like the PSP and its obvious lack of online music integration, to believe that it is simple to establish a new market for online music sales suggests a total lack of understanding of the process of getting approval by the RIAA. Is MS had to wait for RIAA approval before integrating online music sales in the Xbox360, then we may have seen Windows Vista 2 long before the Xbox360.
Apple fought tooth and nail to get their iTMS established, and in other markets around the world, the process for getting approval by the appropriate local music cartel is slow, painful, and full of ignorance it isn't even funny. Even with the well established and successful iTMS in the US, it took Canada 2 years to get into the game, and some places like Australia and Japan are still pending or have just been approved. Every other legit online music service has had to jump through hoops to prove that their service will not be used as a sorce of piracy.
I doubt MS ignored the potential for the Xbox360 to be used as a retail marketplace for music and video, they did bank on the Live to have improved services for game sales. If it was entirely up to MS, they would have integrated MSN Music directly in the XBox360 at launch. Just as I would assume that Sony would have integrated a Sony based music store for their PSP product.
This is yet another example of how far behind the times the music industry is, how anal and overprotective they are of their copyrights and the fact they are stagnating the music industry by stonewalling any new innovative services or markets for online music sales.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
I agree with you on pressure sensitive face buttons, there's just no point. I've played one game so far that even used them, Star Ocean 3, and that used them in a way that was absolutely annoying (you had to press the button in four different ways to solve some puzzles, each wrong press would mean a battle). The only acceptable analog buttons are shoulder buttons with at least half a centimetre of travel distance (e.g. GC L/R buttons) and even those are used almost never.
Though I think some XBox games used analog face buttons (DOA Volleyball, for example) and that would cause trouble with the backwards compatibility.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.