Could Now Be The Time To Buy An Xbox One?
When I first saw the post on Twitter this morning I could not believe Microsoft was going to be giving Forza 5 out for free the week of Titanfall. I thought this would be a great time to get an Xbox One Titanfall bundle. An Xbox One and two free games, what deal! Then two hour later Major Nelson replied to the question “Does this stack with the Titanfall bundle” simply with it does not. After reading this all I could think was that Microsoft miss a chance to entice more gamers to hop on the Xbox One bandwagon.
Is Forza a system seller by its self? I don’t think so. Is Titanfall? Maybe, that remains to be seen, but put the two together and it’s a knock punch and now there may be a few other reasons. One, for $500 you’re getting the Xbox One with the Kinect, I know I know people made a big deal about the camera coming with the system jacking the price. The PS4 doesn’t come with the camera but most retailers are having a hard time keeping them in stock. So much so that GameStop has started charging $70 for the camera, $10 over MSRP. Two, the new Twitch update coming next week is huge. People say they won’t use the feature but there has been 3.5 million live broadcasts and 56 mill spectate session over Ustream and Twitch since the PS4 launch. With the Xbox One app more feature rich than the PS4’s, namely the ability to archive your recordings and streaming at a higher resolution, more gamers who want this feature will pick XB1 over PS4.
These are just two examples but Microsoft wants to get hardware in households now, before the fall rush of games. Give people a great reason or a deal now. This equals more software sales this holiday. If people want an XB1 this Christmas they have to pay $500 for a system and that means less money they spend on software. Plus this is tax season and working gamers have that tax return check burning a hole in their pocket. I know there are a lot of gamers out there on the internet that are up in arms that Microsoft is giving away Forza, demanding that Microsoft give everyone who bought an XB1 day one the game as well. Now maybe they thought people could get Forza with the Titanfall bundle, but you know what? That is what happens when you buy day one consoles. Gamers by now should know that bundles are going to happen. One out of every three XB1 owner has bought Forza already so let it go.
As for me, Microsoft almost had me sold on an XB1 today. I didn't like the Titanfall beta enough to buy the game day one on PC, I liked it even less to buy the XB1 bundle but if they had thrown Forza on top? Maybe, just maybe I would have added an XB1 to my collection. Someday Microsoft, someday.