http://adage.com/article/special-report-ana-annual-meeting-2013/xbox-reshape-marketing/244605/ This article quotes Yusuf Mehdi, corporate VP-marketing and strategy for Microsoft basically stating that Microsoft will work closely with their commercial partners to "potentially" offer information they collect from people's living rooms and how people react to advertisements. Here is a particular extract form the article that is quite telling: Xbox One can essentially work like TV that watches you, bringing marketers a huge new trove of data about what's going on in living rooms, including, as one marketer put it after the speech, unprecedented information about how people engage with TV advertising. Microsoft, it seems, it is so confident that Xbox One buyers are so blind/stupid/complacent that they don't even bother to hide the fact that indeed the Kinect is there to make of Xbox One users a source for marketers to mine data from. It does seem rather abusive that Xbox users will nevertheless have to pay an annual fee to MS to play games online and enjoy other services despite the fact that MS will profit from collecting data the consumer is "giving away" for free.
This is the foremost reason I will not buy an Xbox One as long as it's inseparable from Kinect. The fact that I have very little interest in Kinect as a control scheme is already enough of a reason for me to not to pay $100 more to have it forced down my throat, but this creepy method of collecting marketing data from our living rooms that seems to be the primary purpose of the device is what makes it an absolute deal-breaker for me. Y'know, back in 2003, I remember seeing a guy purchasing an original Xbox at EB Games, and the salesperson asked him if he wanted to purchase an XBL Gold membership. His response was: "No, I don't think I want Bill Gates having an eye in my living room." I remember smirking to myself a little, thinking he was being just a little paranoid. Ten years later, it's becoming a reality with Xbox One.
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