Microsoft mulling Apple TV competitor in slimmed-down Xbox One, report says

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV
Rumors of a "lightweight" Xbox One are gaining steam as 2016 approaches, with a report on Wednesday claiming Microsoft is experimenting with a gaming console hybrid device that could take on Apple TV.




Citing sources familiar with Microsoft's plans, Petri IT Knowledge Base reports the company is again planning a slimmed down set-top box with capabilities falling somewhere between a content streamer and a full-fledged gaming console. Similar rumors cropped up when the
Xbox One launched in 2013, the report says.

According to sources, the alleged device would be a low power version of its bigger Xbox One brother, and could be limited to lightweight apps and casual Windows Store games sold over the Internet. Current Xbox One owners are able to purchase and download multi-gigabyte titles from the Xbox online store for storage and recall on their console.

A scaled down Xbox One is unlikely to launch until the second half of 2016, if at all, and will come with a "much lower" price tag than its full-size stablemate.

Other companies vying for the living room have taken a similar approach to tailored content delivery including Microsoft's gaming industry competitor Sony, which earlier this year launched a nearly identical piece of kit in PlayStation TV. Debuted in Japan as PS Vita TV in 2013, the small set-top device supports PS Vita, PSP and PlayStation One classic games, as well as streaming PlayStation 3 titles via the PlayStation Now beta service.

Apple set the bar for set-top streamers when it launched the fourth-generation Apple TV with tvOS. Along with raw processing power, the new Apple TV grants users access to a dedicated App Store where developers can sell ported iOS games and original creations, narrowing the gap between portable and big-screen gaming.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 55
    DelsurDelsur Posts: 1member
    Apple setting the bar with the new atv is laughable. The bar was already set by roku and others and atv is still below them. I have one, will be getting rid of it or giving it to the kids and staying with roku. This one sounds interesting though.
    edited December 2015 cnocbuilord amhranacgmph
  • Reply 2 of 55
    metrixmetrix Posts: 256member
    Not that I care but it will be the large volume of games that will drive kids and parents to Apple TV. It's cheaper than full consoles. 
    SEngineerjbdragonapplepieguy
  • Reply 3 of 55
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    metrix said:
    Not that I care but it will be the large volume of games that will drive kids and parents to Apple TV. It's cheaper than full consoles. 
    Not so much. The gaming experience on the Apple TV is laughable. Meanwhile the market for traditional game consoles is hotter than ever. 
    cnocbuilord amhrandasanman69
  • Reply 4 of 55
    antoniosfonsecaantoniosfonseca Posts: 2member
    Good luck with that, especially because there is no synergy between applications and developers around the App Store from Microsoft.
    cornchipapplepieguy
  • Reply 5 of 55
    trumptmantrumptman Posts: 16,464member
    Actually I had the thought this week of selling my Apple TV. It is third generation and the least used streaming box in the entire house. The two Fire TV sticks and the older Roku box all get significantly more use. No Amazon app really makes it useless for me.
  • Reply 6 of 55
    19831983 Posts: 1,225member
    I'm sorry but TV4 is a dud! A badly conceived underpowered and over priced product that should not have been released. They should of waited at least another year to get the user experience, firmware and hardware spec right. Or have released it a year or two ago with the user experience sorted...then it would of made an impact...now its just a bad deal compared to the competition.
    edited December 2015 acgmphSpamSandwich
  • Reply 7 of 55
    cash907censoredcash907censored Posts: 83member
    Sorry but the ATV4 absolutely did not set the bar for streaming and games. That was done by the Amazon Fire TV a year ago, of which the ATV4 is just a non-4K capable "look me too" clone. It's not a bad product, it's just not the ground breaking high water mark that sentence implies it to be. 

    As for a slimmer Xbox One, I can see MS releasing a slimmed down disc-free version with a 1TB hard drive that is meant solely for digital downloads and content streaming without the built in cable box pass thru and control functionality of the current model, but there's no reason for them to launch a gimped version that can't handle full games. The PlayStation Now/PS Vita TV project has been a colossal dud for Sony, and not something anyone, especially MS, would be inclined to copycat. 
    lord amhranacgmph
  • Reply 8 of 55
    nasseraenasserae Posts: 3,167member
    Given MS history with products it will be (least expensive to most expensive):

    Xbox Home
    Xbox Pro
    Xbox Enterprise
    almondroca
  • Reply 9 of 55
    metrixmetrix Posts: 256member
    thewhitefalcon said:
    metrix said:
    Not that I care but it will be the large volume of games that will drive kids and parents to Apple TV. It's cheaper than full consoles. 
    Not so much. The gaming experience on the Apple TV is laughable. Meanwhile the market for traditional game consoles is hotter than ever. 
    Yes serious gamers but not all parents are buying 5-8yr olds consoles, but they can buy a dozen educational games for next to nothing. 
    macky the mackyjbdragonapplepieguy
  • Reply 10 of 55
    koopkoop Posts: 337member
    Sounds like a terrible idea. Microsoft would be better off slimming down the machine with the same specs and lowering the price. No point in watering down the Xbox brand even more. The last thing we need is yet another tiny streamer running a phone processor and missing one or two key services.  

    The Nvidia Shield already fills that weird streamer/gamer roll that I don't even think exists. 

    I just don't understand this market that these guys are aiming for. the hardcore "put my phone on the TV with a controller" market.

    On a side note: I feel so bad for kids who are now growing up thinking that iPads or Amazon Fire TV's are where you go for gaming experiences. It's so freaking gross. Buy your kid a Wii U. Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Pikmin, Zelda. Let them actually explore worlds. Not play these hollywood slot machine games with microtransactions. Mobile games a fun additive distraction, but you're never going to open their imaginations like a dedicated system can.
  • Reply 11 of 55
    SEngineerSEngineer Posts: 16member
    Beging of the end for others sorry... This is no good, apple is destroying too many companies. game over
  • Reply 12 of 55
    macky the mackymacky the macky Posts: 4,801member
    nasserae said:
    Given MS history with products it will be (least expensive to most expensive):

    Xbox Home
    Xbox Pro
    Xbox Enterprise
    Xbox Home <-- Gimped shit
    Xbox Pro     <-- The shit
    Xbox Enterprise  <-- Shit included even Bill Gates can't figure out

    nolamacguycornchip
  • Reply 13 of 55
    monstrositymonstrosity Posts: 2,234member
    I have to agree with the sentiment towards ATV. I like it, but I don't love it. The UX is pretty crap, particularly in the area of text input. I much prefer the pointer style remote which comes with my LG TV.
  • Reply 14 of 55
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    metrix said:
    thewhitefalcon said:
    Not so much. The gaming experience on the Apple TV is laughable. Meanwhile the market for traditional game consoles is hotter than ever. 
    Yes serious gamers but not all parents are buying 5-8yr olds consoles, but they can buy a dozen educational games for next to nothing. 
    It's funny how life doesn't always work the way you expect it might.

    I bought my son an xbox 360 when he was about 8. It sparked in him an interest in games and an ambition to actually make them himself, which lead to him teaching himself Python and how to model to very high level of skill in Blender.

    If MS do as proposed in the article they are foolish and it will be a flop. What they actually should do is make a slimmed down fully capable Xbone. The existing one is embarrassingly large in comparison to the PS4, which is far slimmer, more aesthetically pleasing to look at and doesn't have an enormous great hulking brick of an external power supply with it's own fan. And while they are at it they should upgrade the GPU as the existing one is pathetic for a 3rd gen console, given a lot of laptops have better ones.
    edited December 2015
  • Reply 15 of 55
    minimountminimount Posts: 2member
    Microsoft has never been able to innovate ANYTHING; so what makes anybody think they can do it now? It took Microsoft 11 years to get Win 95 onto the street in a big way after ripping off the Mac interface. Even DOS was written by Bill Gate's college roommate. Now Win 10, to compete with OS X? For those of you on drugs the X is a roman numeral. Oh, and Microsoft Stores, and an App store? How many ways can Microsoft copy-cat Apple? Tablets, phones... etc etc. Microsoft has lost it's 'own' identity. So the choices are: 'ReStart' or 'ShutDown'. Me? for Microsoft? I'd choose shutdown.
    williamlondon
  • Reply 16 of 55
    williamlondonwilliamlondon Posts: 1,415member
    Microsoft thought originally that the way into the home was through a gaming device. While that was a novel idea, it never worked, people don't want to buy a *gaming* device to stream videos and do other things. It seems, unless you're a gamer, like a waste of money to pay so much for a device that focuses more on gaming than the main reason you want or use it. It appealed to gamers only, and if it carries the XB moniker, it'll again only appeal to gamers and most likely be seen as a gaming device that does other things (which are ignored by non-gamers). Can't tell you how many times gamers suggest games consoles for streaming devices which always falls on deaf ears for non-gamers who just want a video streaming device.

    Apple did it right by not focusing on games for this device, and while others say the gaming experience is not very good, I'd disagree, it's great, it's just the quantity of available games on the platform that sucks right now.
    nolamacguycornchip
  • Reply 17 of 55
    techprod1gytechprod1gy Posts: 838member
    I am not sure Microsoft has the right formula for success. Most console gamers are not going to be satisfied with games on this type of device. Microsoft would be limited to current Xbox owners and maybe Enterprise. What makes the current Apple TV attractive is it ties to the entire Apple ecosystem. I am not sure there is a draw for someone who has not committed to iTunes and the rest of the ecosystem. To say it is a dud is just wrong. It is a good device for what it offers. Can others do similar things? Yes. Can others tie to someone's already existing Apple Ecosystem? Not really.
    cornchip
  • Reply 18 of 55
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    cnocbui said:
    metrix said:
    Yes serious gamers but not all parents are buying 5-8yr olds consoles, but they can buy a dozen educational games for next to nothing. 
    It's funny how life doesn't always work the way you expect it might.

    I bought my son an xbox 360 when he was about 8. It sparked in him an interest in games and an ambition to actually make them himself, which lead to him teaching himself Python and how to model to very high level of skill in Blender.

    If MS do as proposed in the article they are foolish and it will be a flop. What they actually should do is make a slimmed down fully capable Xbone. The existing one is embarrassingly large in comparison to the PS4, which is far slimmer, more aesthetically pleasing to look at and doesn't have an enormous great hulking brick of an external power supply with it's own fan. And while they are at it they should upgrade the GPU as the existing one is pathetic for a 3rd gen console, given a lot of laptops have better ones.
    It's actually not that big. It just looks big because it's squared off. I set an original design 360 on top of it and they're nearly identical in size. And that larger size and external brick means it runs a lot cooler than the PS4. 

    And they can't upgrade the GPU, that would cause compatibility issues. The power gap between the two is not as serious as devs make it out to be. Expect a lot of that gap to diminish as devs use DirectX 12 in upcoming games. 
  • Reply 19 of 55
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member

    minimount said:
    Microsoft has never been able to innovate ANYTHING; so what makes anybody think they can do it now? It took Microsoft 11 years to get Win 95 onto the street in a big way after ripping off the Mac interface. Even DOS was written by Bill Gate's college roommate. Now Win 10, to compete with OS X? For those of you on drugs the X is a roman numeral. Oh, and Microsoft Stores, and an App store? How many ways can Microsoft copy-cat Apple? Tablets, phones... etc etc. Microsoft has lost it's 'own' identity. So the choices are: 'ReStart' or 'ShutDown'. Me? for Microsoft? I'd choose shutdown.
    The thing is, Win 95 (and the DirectX APIs) were lightyears ahead of the Classic MacOS at the time; why do you think Apple was working on multiple new OS projects and eventually bought NeXT? It wasn't because they were bored. 

    DOS was called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) and Gates purchased it. 
  • Reply 20 of 55
    subbiessubbies Posts: 71member
    It will be a failure 
    williamlondonSEngineermacky the macky
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