Xbox 1 at E3: Microsoft Has Some Explaining to Do

Impact

The world's largest video game convention is in viewing distance, and the folks at Microsoft are looking to put the negative image of Xbox One in the rearview.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, is the annual industry-wide show for the upcoming year’s video game offerings. Developers and console makers large and small will do their damndest to bring their A promotional game to Los Angeles to compete for attention and hype. The pressure is on Xbox One after the new console’s poor reception at its debut.

The Xbox One hatred already bouncing around the internet is best summed up by this epic .GIF, which makes use of the climactic scene from the Se7en. What’s in the box?! Disappointment. Disappointment at the big-brother-is-watching-you style specifications, an obligatory camera, an unimpressive graphics card, and streaming capabilities that will be duplicitous in your average American household, will be in the box. 

Americans are Xbox One’s primary buyers, and hardcore American gamers are their core demo. E3 is the bazaar for their interest, so it posses a chance for a comeback in race for gamers’ hearts. Nintendo is forgoing their usual press conference at E3 in favor of closed door, private affairs, which leaves space for Microsoft to compete with Sony for nexgen console pomp and circumstance.

Xbox really does have a chance, still. MSFT stock took a hit in the market after the Xbox One debut but they were flying relatively high before that, which is an indication that they are not as desperate as Fanboy schadenfreude wants them to be. Besides Nintendo and Sony are no strangers to commercial failures for their hardware. The PSP Vita, Sony’s mobile console, is currently struggling to sell its way out of paper bag, and Nintendo has flops in bulk, from the 64DD, to the powerglove, to the brand new Wii U tablet. They bounced back, and so can Microsoft, remember Zune?