Ever since rumours first started about the next gen Xbox console, people have been trying to guess it's name. There were countless suggestions, but the favourites were "720", "Durango", "Infinity" and "Fusion". In the end they were all wrong as Microsoft revealed Xbox One on Tuesday. If you don't care much for reading, you can check out the full video of the announcement at IGN.com.
Before I get into the details of the presentation, I just want to consider the name for a second. When I hear "Xbox One" I think of the original Xbox, just like PSone is the original Playstation. Xbox 360 is usually referred to as just "360", so what will people call Xbox One? The choice of name is certainly an interesting one.
so Xbox lost 359
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 21, 2013
But enough about the name, let's move on to more important things:
Xbox One will feature Snap Mode, a new interface that will allow users to run two apps simultaneously. You can for instance watch a movie and look up something on the internet at the same time. Everything is voice activated on Xbox One, which was demonstrated at the announcement. The Microsoft executive on stage said "Xbox on" and it recognised his voice and logged into his user profile. From there he talked the Xbox through watching TV, making a Skype call, buying movie tickets, looking up fantasy sports scores, etc. The switch between apps is instant and requires no load times.
One of the biggest questions before the reveal was not really answered; will Xbox One require a constant internet connection? Microsoft did not touch on this during the presentation and when asked about it afterwards, it seems they're either unsure themselves or they just don't want to give that away. Vice President Phil Harrison told Kotaku that Xbox One would require players to be online at least once every day. Later however, other Microsoft representatives told Polygon this was just one of many possible scenarios and they would not confirm any details on that topic yet.
Another point of confusion is with the games themselves: Will they require to be installed on the system? If so, will you need the disk to play? Another question is if you'll be able to resell your old games or if your copy is locked to your Xbox? I've heard a lot of different answers to these questions, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see. One thing we do know for sure is that Xbox One is not backwards compatible, so don't throw out your old consoles if you ever want to play your Xbox and 360 games.
Although most people were waiting excitedly for the game reveals and details, Microsoft focused mainly on how the Xbox will be the only entertainment device you'll need in your living room. With Xbox One you can stream live TV from a variety of channels. Finding out what's on is as simple as saying "Xbox, show the guide" and your very own Xbox TV guide pops up, letting you choose channels using voice activation and/or hand gestures.
One thing Microsoft forgot to mention was that people will need to buy a separate device in order to watch TV on the Xbox and it will only be available in the US at launch. It strikes me as strange that about 50% of a global announcement for a product focused on something that won't be available globally at the time of launch. Speaking to Kotaku, Microsoft revealed they have no fixed schedule for a Live TV roll out around the world.
After about 30 minutes EA Sports was the first developer on stage to talk about games on the Xbox One. Finally! FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA Live and UFC are all coming to the new Xbox and will use EA's new engine, Ignite. It "delivers 4x more decision-making calculations per second", which will make the AI think more like humans and act more like them as well. The games look amazing in this trailer, but we all know better than to trust pre-rendered CG cutscenes to be a true reflection of actual gameplay.
Next up was Forza Motorsport 5. Another great-looking cutscene, but what will the real gameplay look like?
One of the biggest questions before the reveal was not really answered; will Xbox One require a constant internet connection? Microsoft did not touch on this during the presentation and when asked about it afterwards, it seems they're either unsure themselves or they just don't want to give that away. Vice President Phil Harrison told Kotaku that Xbox One would require players to be online at least once every day. Later however, other Microsoft representatives told Polygon this was just one of many possible scenarios and they would not confirm any details on that topic yet.
Another point of confusion is with the games themselves: Will they require to be installed on the system? If so, will you need the disk to play? Another question is if you'll be able to resell your old games or if your copy is locked to your Xbox? I've heard a lot of different answers to these questions, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see. One thing we do know for sure is that Xbox One is not backwards compatible, so don't throw out your old consoles if you ever want to play your Xbox and 360 games.
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| Xbox One console, controller and Kinect |
One thing Microsoft forgot to mention was that people will need to buy a separate device in order to watch TV on the Xbox and it will only be available in the US at launch. It strikes me as strange that about 50% of a global announcement for a product focused on something that won't be available globally at the time of launch. Speaking to Kotaku, Microsoft revealed they have no fixed schedule for a Live TV roll out around the world.
After about 30 minutes EA Sports was the first developer on stage to talk about games on the Xbox One. Finally! FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA Live and UFC are all coming to the new Xbox and will use EA's new engine, Ignite. It "delivers 4x more decision-making calculations per second", which will make the AI think more like humans and act more like them as well. The games look amazing in this trailer, but we all know better than to trust pre-rendered CG cutscenes to be a true reflection of actual gameplay.
Next up was Forza Motorsport 5. Another great-looking cutscene, but what will the real gameplay look like?
Quantum Break is a new title from Remedy, the creators of Alan Wake. It will "combine immersive gaming with blockbuster television" and looks very interesting.
One of the most exciting news of the evening came when 343 Industries revealed they'll be making a Halo-inspired TV-series with Steven Spielberg. Unfortunately it was just more TV news, when everyone was wanting more games.
Microsoft Studios plans to release more than 15 exclusive games in the first year of Xbox One, eight of which are brand new franchises, but we'll have to wait until E3 and beyond to learn more about most of them.
Finally, it was left to Activision to wrap things up with a look at Call of Duty: Ghosts. I'm always careful not to get too excited about new COD games, but this looks pretty exciting. Among the new features are customising your character and also having your own dog with you on missions. I can't help but think that getting attached to a dog could only lead to it dying under tragic circumstances, but I try to stay positive. Along with the dog, Activision promised we'd feel more connected to the human characters in the game.
So what about the hardware? Xbox One will run an 8 Core CPU, it has 8 GB of Ram and a 500 GB Hard Drive. It comes with a Blu-ray Drive, wireless connectivity, HDMI In/Out and USB 3.0 ports. That all sounds like a pretty decent PC and it'll definitely get the job done.
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| Console specifications |
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| Controller specifications |
As for the release date, all we were given was a vague "around the world, later this year".
It's funny that after the PS4 announcement we were all complaining that we didn't get to see the console. In the Xbox One reveal, the console was the very first thing they showed, but the rest was a big disappointment. When the TV-part of Xbox One won't be available for the majority of the world until who-knows-when, it's hard to get excited about it. Take that out and the presentation was just five minutes of sports games and ten minutes of Call of Duty. E3 is coming up soon and Microsoft will have a chance to redeem itself, but seeing it's fiercest competitor Sony rise on the stock market during the Xbox reveal was not a good start.
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