This is a spectacular move by Microsoft because it takes the main feature from Nintendo's upcoming WiiU: a touch-screen for games.<p>Nintendo has released an entirely new system, while Microsoft has kept up with Nintendo's innovation by using devices you already own.
I'm not much of a console gamer, but I do play more than my share of PC games, and I have to ask... is anyone else really unimpressed by this touchscreen-peripheral concept, in any of its incarnations?<p>When I'm playing a video game, I want to be immersed in it. It's a very clever illusion, though one I doubt anyone ever consciously invented, that since your field of view is always in the same place in retina-space[0], a static screen can trick you into thinking you're looking or moving around by displaying moving images.<p>I feel like having a second screen, especially one I have to hold in my hands, could only distract me from this effect and remind me that I'm actually sitting on a couch, staring at a big lighted box... which doesn't really sound like fun to me.<p>[0] Seriously, think about this. It blew my mind.
I really don't think this is direct response to Wii U tablet controller, and if it is - it's not a very good one.<p>Wii U tablet has buttons <i>and</i> screen in one device you hold in your hands - I can't imagine constantly switching between 'traditional' Xbox controller and Android/iOS/Windows 8 tablet, whereas switching from pressing buttons to using touchscreen on Wii U is infinitely easier.
Being that Smartglass is a precise clone of Apple Airplay, I think it needs to be interpreted as a response to Apple capabilities in cross-device media sharing.<p>Airplay is exceedingly simple. There is no prior setup, no sync, no user-visible state transfer, no unnecessary session management, it handles multiple users properly, it backgrounds well on iOS, and authentication is "free" since all that's handled at the Wifi layer.<p>When you see people in wizzy concept videos flicking content from one device to another, this is what they're doing. The only thing they get wrong in these futuristic videos is that this stuff has been shipping for the last two years on a major platform.<p>Microsoft was correct to clone this.
I think this is just as much a response to the wii u as an all out assault on roku, google tv, apple tv and of course cable companies. They kind of waved their hands at it but they plan on offering the ability to start a video on any device and finish it on the xbox. The number of partnerships announced along with ability to use IE on the xbox and your tablet as a remote for the browser (along with your voice which is still the killer feature of kinect) they have developed a tv box that makes competitors step up their game not just playing catch up to others.
IE on the Xbox? I wonder if that means I can request one for my desk at work for browser testing.<p>Article is kind of light on details though. Does that mean the presentation was light on details? I'm guessing this is only for Windows8 devices.
I think arguments over whether this will be better than the Wii U completely miss the real issue: direction. Where things are going. Companion devices through smart phones and tablets will commoditize the proprietary Wii U hardware very quickly.<p>Nintendo will be pushed out of the hardware business with this generation and will pull a Sega and become a software only company. They don't have pockets deep enough to afford even a single big hardware miss, and the Wii U will be a miss.<p>Even stronger companies like Sony are finding it dangerous to stay in the gaming hardware business. If the PS4 doesn't sell well enough, it's questionable whether there will be a PS5 given the horrible condition Sony is in (for reference, their stock is roughly, inflation adjusted, where it was 25 to 28 years ago).<p>Just my opinion, but I believe Sony and Nintendo will fade in the hardware business, and Valve will replace one of them. The winners will have very large online communities, neither Sony nor Nintendo have that going for them, whereas Valve and Microsoft do.