Today Microsoft will announce their most anticipated console yet with Xbox One, and we’re taking a look at the top 5 things we would like to see announced.
UPDATE: Learn everything you need to know about Xbox One!
Microsoft have a lot of pressure today with the successor of the mighty Xbox 360 which will be announced. The Xbox 360 has had a mammoth amount of success in the past decade when it launched back in November 2005, and has racked up a whopping 77.2 million sales since its debut. The console turned out to be one of Microsoft’s best ever products. After a difficult season with the rise of Apple in the PC division, and the release of the problematic Windows Vista, the Xbox 360 was the console that has rejuvenated Microsoft’s video games division, and has evolved continually through it’s 8 year history. We’ve seen the console evolve from a games console to a multi-media home entertainment system and we’re excited to see what Microsoft has in store for us today.
But, how can Microsoft make that stride forward once again, and really dominate the market? We take a look at the top 5 things we would like to see announced at today’s press conference.
Leave the controller alone
Possibly the most ergonomic, comfortable controller that has ever been made, there’s been a huge outcry to keep the new Xbox One controller the same. We completely agree. However, an improvement to the thumb-sticks and the D-pad, but not the positioning, would be high on the fans agenda. It’s the one area that the controller has lacked in quality, and it desperately needs improving. Aside from this, we think it’s a work of art.
But, to some extent, Xbox fans may be dissapointed by the news that we already know regarding the new controller. And yes, there’s going to be some changes.
Crucially, what do we know already regarding the new controller? We know that it will be a “natural progression” from the Xbox 360 controller and that Microsoft have indeed tampered with the controller. The new controller will have an “HD screen surrounded by the traditional 360 buttons and sticks” according to an article featured in Xbox World magazine. The article also said that the controller, “could be a remote control when you’re watching TV, a browser when you’re on the internet, extra buttons and information when you’re playing a game or a portable display when you want to take your game with you.” What do you think of the news regarding the controller?
It sounds almost Wii U-esque with that level of multi-functionality. We’re happy in the sense that the traditional 360 buttons and sticks will be familiar, but we’re desperate to find out if Microsoft have screwed up the feel of the controller. This could be a huge mistake.
Price, and due date
This is going to be one of the biggest areas for Microsoft to deal with. Microsoft will have to price watch the PS4, with the PS4 being sold at $429 and $529 in two different bundles, but this could change.
However, Microsoft has to be clever. A lot of people will be tuning in today to decide whether they want either the new Xbox or a PS4. Price will certainly come into factor, as it always does, but if Microsoft set the price bar beyond the PS4, they’ll certainly be facing an uphill battle trying to convince consumers to pick their product when the PS4 is looking mightily impressive.
It’s also worth noting that the release date will be critical to the success of the new Xbox One. Sony’s PS4 is looking at a Q4 release date if all goes to plan, and Microsoft have to either come in earlier, or join the Q4 party, with a new console snug under the Christmas tree.
If Microsoft can keep within the same boundaries of Sony, this could be the closest console war of all time. Price and due date are crucial to either company’s success.
Sleeker design, improved specs and Blu-Ray
If we take a look back on Microsoft joining the HD party, we could cite that the Xbox 360 didn’t live up to expectations, and that Microsoft didn’t act quickly enough. The Xbox 360 opted to go with a HD DVD external drive for all your high definition films, but as we now know, Blu-Ray is the universal format for HD films.
We’re sure however that Blu-Ray will be announced purely because of the new generation games that have already been announced for the forthcoming consoles. The amount of data that will need to be supplied onto the discs themselves will have to be burnt onto Blu-Rays, as DVD will not be able to handle it. And, just in case you want to see some footage for the next generation consoles, take a look down below.
We learned with both the PS4 and the Xbox 360 that the longer the consoles lived, the better developers were with extracting the best graphics and games through its SDK. Halo 4 was a fantastic example of what could be achieved with maxing out the Xbox 360’s potential. It was a gorgeous game.
And, with Blu-Ray almost set in stone, we’ve heard rumours of what to expect regarding the rest of the components under the hood for the next generation console.
An 8 core 1.6ghz CPU, 8GB of RAM and a GPU similar to an AMD HD 6670 were reported by Eurogamer back in February. There will also be the standard HDMI, USB 3.0 and a Kinect output, which have been consistent in reports of the past few months.
We’re excited to see a bump in performance as the new Xbox will be Microsoft’s baby for the next 7-10 years, much akin to the 360. We hope to see the 8-core CPU also be environmentally friendlier than what we’ve previously seen, as there shouldn’t be a need for running all 8 cores when simply watching Netflix. If Microsoft can develop a way whereby the console understands what it needs through given instances, this would be a great coup for the console.
And, we can’t forget about the outer design of the console either. The current Xbox 360 lineup is a little big, chunky and heavy. Not everyone has been a fan of the PS3 design, but it’s got a touch of class about it. Microsoft latest 360 design, the Xbox 360 S, has improved since the debut model in 2005, but hasn’t strayed that far away from the Xbox 360 Elite.
Something lighter, smaller and sleeker would be desirable from Microsoft, and stick with black.
“Backwards compatibility” and plenty of release titles
Back in 2005, the Xbox 360 launched with 18 titles, from the legendary Call of Duty 2 to Quake 4. Do you feel a little old now? But with 18 titles sounding fair, we think developers should be looking for around 30-40 titles. The new Xbox which has been codenamed from “Durango” to “Infinite” has been in the hands of developers for some time now, and with the size of some of the developers, we expect that the shift to focus on the next generation consoles happened some time ago. Titles such as Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, Destiny, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and Call of Duty: Ghosts, are all developer blockbusters waiting in the wings to be unleashed on the next generation consoles. Now that would be a set of launch titles to remember.
Certain aspects of the Xbox 360 need to be transferred into the next Xbox. Please keep our Gamertags, our Xbox Live accounts, our GamerScore, and all the other necessary features. And, to boot, there’s nothing worse when a new console is announced and your beloved “old” console is now obsolete. Everyone has their favourite games, and whether it may be Half-Life 2 or FIFA 13, when a new console comes out, the games are thread-bare. It begs the question as to why you would buy a new console on release date, and let’s hope that gamers will be able to still keep playing their catalogue of games on the new console. It’s just a no brainer, Microsoft, sometimes video games are sentimental in their own way.
Let us play our “old” games with the new Xbox One, and give developers enough time to push out more than 5 titles for the release date. Make this is as enjoyable for us from the first minute, and you’ll be off to a winner.
User Interface
Do you remember the original user interface? It was hideous. And in the past 8 years, the Xbox 360, despite its aging hardware, has managed to stamp an authority of the controversial Windows 8 platform feel. For phones, tablets and the Xbox 360, the UI Windows have adopted has been a success, but unfortunately not for it’s PC division.
The UI is simple, easy to navigate and great on the eye. We imagine that Microsoft will continue with this adoption of UI across all its devices, which is similar to both Sony and Apple. It’s definitely a trend, and familiarity is nothing but good for consumers.
However, with the UI we hope that Microsoft opens the door for more developers to add their own apps into the marketplace. It’s great we can get Netflix and others, but it still feels empty. We’d love to see more apps there, and this could really transform a living room. Apple make a killing off their App store, so why can’t Microsoft? They’d be silly not to.
Microsoft will announce their new Xbox One today at 10am PDT, and join us, as we’ll be live blogging it from 9:30 here on Hypable.