The Xbox One has come under a lot of flack for costing $100 more than Sony's competing PS4 console.
Microsoft justifies the price difference by pointing out that the Xbox One comes bundled with the Kinect 2.0, its all-purpose video camera/microphone/motion sensor/Orwellian spy, but many gamers haven't been convinced. The Kinect is widely seems as lacking a "killer app", something more than the various motion-controlled party games which filled the shelves of the last generation.
But that's surely bound to change, because that must-have feature has been found: the latest version of 2K Sports' flagship basketball series, NBA 2K14, penalises gamers for swearing. In real life.
Yes, if the Xbox One hears you swearing, the in-game referee will penalise your team for a technical foul.
The PS4 version of the game has the same feature, but requires the Playstation Camera, sold separately, to make it work. That's frankly not good enough: I want this on in every game, by default.
In fact, developers should go further. I want Lara Croft delivering withering put-downs to men who comment on her looks; Cooking Mama telling off players who are rude to their real-life mothers; and the Prince from Katamari Damacy asking people to occasionally recite the alphabet backwards while standing on one foot, just to ensure that they aren't playing with any "performance enhancers".
