Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the Xbox One to the world at their Xbox campus in Redmond, with not the smoothest of conferences. The Xbox 360 has been heralded as one of Microsoft’s finest products, with its simple ease of use functionality combined with a great multi-media device, Microsoft managed to put over 78 million Xbox 360’s in living rooms across the world.
The tough question for Xbox 360 owners is why should I upgrade to the new Xbox One? This will be a really strong convincing angle that Microsoft need some time to work on. It’s hard to differentiate what the Xbox One can do better than the Xbox 360, aside from component upgrades. The Xbox 360 can watch TV and Kinect, which are the major selling points for the Xbox One.
However, it’s a massive upgrade in both components and potential. The Xbox One will carry on the console throughout the next 7-10 years, depending on the console cycle Microsoft will stick to, but the announcement is impressive none the less. More will be unveiled at E3 2013, with gaming to be the primary talking point, much akin to the E3 expo itself.
Here’s a trailer Microsoft has delivered unveiling the Xbox One.
However, Microsoft have had a massive eight years worth of planning and evolving the 360 to this point, to now announce its successor, the Microsoft Xbox One.
In light of the announcement of the Xbox One, gamers have been put through some torture due to Microsoft’s awful in-house cooperation, with what appears to be senior employees not quite on the same wavelength. Larry Hryb has gone back on his comments that there would be a fee for playing second-hand games for the Xbox One, but the news spread like wild fire causing mass annoyance and frustration to loyal Xbox fans.
Microsoft Xbox One: Can Microsoft remain dominant?
There was an air of arrogance at the Xbox Campus in Redmond when the Microsoft Xbox team walked out on stage. They’ve even go as far as saying that the Xbox One is “unrivalled” in an interview with Don Mattrick, President of Interactive Entertainment at Microsoft.
It’s interesting that Microsoft feels that they can be so confident ahead of the console war and so dismissive of Sony. However, one of the sub plots to Microsoft’s campaign isn’t Sony who they are afraid of, we think it’s Apple.
Beating Apple in the race of the home entertainment world seems to be high on their agenda with Microsoft’s Xbox One bridging the gap between gaming and television. Microsoft has been mocked for their televisual direction with gamers frustrated at not being handed a stronger hand on the capabilities of the Xbox One in its gaming prowess, but this will all be unleashed at E3 2013, at least, so we hope.
Microsoft will be confident of handling Sony, as they have done since the launch of the Xbox 360, but the wandering eye across the nation to another American based company in Apple is the dark horse.
Microsoft Xbox One: What we already know
And, here, is Microsoft’s next step into the home entertainment world with the Xbox One.
Microsoft Xbox One: The controller
The one area we daren’t Microsoft touch was the new controller announced for the Xbox One, and to our delight they’ve tweaked and not tampered with the new controller. The Xbox 360’s controller was possibly the best of all time and was one of the major selling points for the console. Microsoft really got it right with that controller, but it wasn’t perfect.
The D-pad and the analogue sticks were not the highest of quality. Xbox fans would find themselves frustrated with a clumsy D-Pad as the worst area of the controller, and a minor complaint with the grooves of the analogue stick wearing thin after only a couple months of use.
Otherwise, Microsoft did a fantastic job on the 360 controller, but what have they changed for the new, Microsoft Xbox One controller?
The new controller has had slight design tweaks, with the D-Pad having a significant upgrade, as well as higher quality components all around the controller. The new controller looks a little chunkier, but in a league of its own compared to its old counterpart.
Microsoft have added magnetic sensors to the controller for its rumbling functionality and moved away from the old mechanical sensors. The contrast between the old and new will be targeted for in game feedback, whether it be the shooting of a rifle, or the gear changing of a highly tuned gearbox, you will feel the difference.
The controller also has an IR sensor to work with Kinect 2.0. This allows Kinect 2.0 to understand your feel and knows it is you when you pick up the controller, thus making pick and play faster and simplified.
Our only disappointment is the reliance on batteries once again. It’s great for third party companies and Microsoft developing their own charging docks and batteries, but it’s just always bad news for the consumer. It’s another item to clutter your living room and your reliance on them is just a bad sign altogether. Come on, Microsoft, it’s 2013 now. Surely, you could have added something better.
In respect to the battery compartment though, Microsoft have altered the positioning of the battery, though. The battery will still remain on the back of the controller, but have slotted it horizontally instead of vertically, allowing for more comfort when gripping the controller.
Microsoft claim there has been 40 design innovation changes to the new controller, but we expect to know more in the coming months. They’ve claimed it’s the best controller they’ve ever made, and we have to agree. It’s definitely a logical step in design and feature performance.
Microsoft Xbox One: Specs, features and what’s coming
Confirmed Hardware:
- The new controller will have force feedback triggers.
- 8 core x86 processor
- Native 64 bit architecture
- 8GB of RAM
- 500GB of hard drive space
- Wi-Fi Direct
- 1080p HD RGB camera
- USB 3.0
- Time of Flight (TOF) Technology
- Microphone Arrays
- Blu-ray Drive
- Kinect 2.0
- Interactive TV
Features
- The Xbox One will have two different Operating Systems with the gaming OS will fusing together with a custom build Windows OS to allow you to switch between tasks with no performance loss.
- Skype integrated with the console
- Drop in and drop play will allow you pause the game, and continue it at the exact moment at any given time. (even if you’re accessing it on another console)
- Your games stay in sync with the world. (Ex: Your character stats in Sports games will automatically be updated in conjunction with what happens in the real world)
- You can start playing immediately as games install, and updates install seamlessly in the background.
- Advanced artificial intelligence will be able to learn how you play, and let your friends play against your AI when you’re not around.
- You will be able to switch between Music, Videos, Apps, OS, and Games near instantaneously.
- 300,000 + servers with Cloud Storage as a main focus.
- HDMI Pass-Thru technology will allow you to watch TV straight through your Xbox.
- Achievements are carried over.
- Exclusive Partnership with EA.
- Partnership with the NFL.
- Partnership with Activision for exclusive early DLC for Call of Duty.
- Your Xbox will be able to find you personalised matches while you’re doing other things on your console.
- They will be updating your friends list from 100 to 1000.
Hardware and features: Our thoughts
All the features are looking really impressive from Microsoft. We’re really excited to see more of the app switching feature which was lightly touched on during the announcement. Is it really that instant at switching even when your Xbox One begins reaching its maximum capacity? The hardware components suggest that it will all find this easy, but managing two operating systems at once could hinder the machine.
It’s also really interesting to note the exclusives the Xbox One has with EA, NFL and Activision. Microsoft has cleverly negotiated terms with some of the most popular companies that work within the home entertainment industry, with EA Sports releasing a plethora of games every year, the Call of Duty series being the most popular FPS, and NFL being America’s national sport, this is a real big pull for gamers to purchase the console. In this division, Microsoft are dominating Sony. But will E3 2013 have a say in this regarding Sony’s corner? We’ll have to wait and see.
However, the inclusion of Skype within the Xbox One could go either way. We’re not too sure whether gamers would use the 1080p camera to chat face-to-face to each other when VoIP across Xbox Live has been perfect for many years. The idea of Skype mixing in with gaming is a little blurry, but as an app on its own, between watching television and playing games could work exceptionally well.
What do you think about the features announced so far for the Xbox One?
Microsoft Xbox One: Gameplay and Graphics
Microsoft has made major upgrades from its predecessor in terms of both graphics, gameplay and performance as noted throughout the article. Whether they’re on par with Sony is another matter after seeing a report saying that Sony’s raw graphics power is a whopping 50% better than the Xbox One.
Richard Leadbetter of Digital Foundry commented, “The rumours are certainly plausible, but we’re essentially looking at singular components in isolation and not in context of the system as a whole. The PlayStation 3 has a graphics core that is basically an entire generation behind that in the Xbox 360, yet no one can deny that it’s Sony’s first party games that have led the way in the visual arts.”
But, we have to remember that consoles last for years, and developers oozing the console for a long time only gets better with age. But less talking and more watching. Let’s see what the Xbox One has in store in the graphics and gameplay aspect. Here are some of the games announced for Microsoft Xbox One.
‘Forza 5’ announced for Microsoft Xbox One
‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’ gameplay on Microsoft Xbox One
‘Battlefield 4’ also confirmed for Microsoft Xbox One
EA Sports Ignite engine trailer
These are just some of the many games that will debut on the predicted launch of November 30, with a price tag of $399/£399. Tell us what you think regarding the gaming and graphics? Are you impressed? Or did you expect more from the Xbox One?
PS4 vs. Xbox One: E3 2013
It’s evident that E3 2013 will be one of the final showdowns between Sony and Microsoft regarding their respective new consoles. We imagine that much will be announced for both consoles to convince consumers to buy into their new experiences, but who is going to come out on top coming the end of the year when all that matters is sales?
It’s going to be a real close race, and we assume that loyalty between the divided gaming community will stay the same. The market that both Sony and Microsoft are after are those who want to join in, and offer so much more than just a “gaming” console. Microsoft is on the right path regarding that notion, but have they lost focus slightly because of this? What happens if the Xbox One can’t deliver on its promised pledge of being an “unrivalled” device?
Sony on the other hand are sticking to their guns as they always have done, and focus on nothing other than gaming. And surely, if that focus is the spearhead of your gaming console, you’d make the better console? We’re not so sure. Microsoft are offering a much more rounded machine, specifically in entertainment.
There’s more of a logical choice to put the Xbox One in your living room with all of its features, packing in more televisual features than ever before, as well as upgrading to a Blu-Ray drive, you could replace several hardware devices in your living to just one device in the Xbox One.
Where’s Sony regarding the TV market? Will they show this off at E3 2013?
And, the dark horse in Apple, what about that? We’re certain they won’t enter the gaming market, but there has been massive amounts of coverage regarding Apple’s entrance into the living room in the TV and home entertainment market, but nothing has come of it just yet.
But for the immediate future, we expect more announcements coming soon at what is set to be the best E3 expo in recent memory. Larry Hryb has commented that it’s going to be all about games for Microsoft, whereas more excitement is yet to unfold with Sony, with the unveil of the actual PS4 set to excite PlayStation fans across the globe.
A tight race at the minute, with Sony having the upper hand component wise, but Microsoft winning the entertainment card.
If you had to pick which console what would you pick? The gaming beast of the Sony PlayStation 4, or the all-round entertainment hero in the form of the Xbox One? Or, are these neither of what you wanted and you’re going to stick with your beloved console? Tell us what you think!
Sony’s PlayStation 4 is set for a Q4 2013 release date, with Microsoft’s Xbox One rumoured for November 30 with a price tag of $399/£399.
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