User blog comment:Lancer1289/MICROSOFT PROVES IT LISTENS!!!!!/@comment-217683-20130623081712/@comment-6104626-20130623171416

Agree on the lack of much consumer need for a new XBox platform right now and the "meh" level of the alleged improvements. Indeed it's an accepted commonplace in the game industry right now that the upcoming generation will be the last generation for the forseable future based on market and consumer trends (e.g. the rise of mobile and tablet games).

BUT as a matter of business strategy Microsoft couldn't sit idly by while Sony made a PS4 without having something to show instead.

From the times I've done business with Microsoft and some of the individuals involved, I can't imagine the announcement of features and subsequent pullback was anything planned or cynical. In addition to that just not being how they think, it has clearly done damage to Microsoft's consumer perception, and would easily have been foreseen to have done so if one started with the assumption that no one would like the features.