I know that a post about the Xbox One, Microsoft’s new console, is a little late, but I wanted to let the
announcement sort of sink in and let the additional information get processed
and sorted out. Unfortunately that took a while and there are still a number of
things about the new console that could use some more clarification. That being
said I really want to get my thoughts on the Xbox One announcement out.
It only makes sense to kick things
off with the press conference. I was excited from the moment they announced
that they would be holding the event, but I knew going into it that with E3 right around the corner the majority
of the games would be held back. In fact I had even considered the possibility
that we wouldn’t see any games because they would save it all for E3. Luckily that wasn’t quite the case.
The
Conference
The announcement started off strong with the
reveal of the new console’s name, a look at the console itself, the Kinect and the controller plus a
breakdown of the hardware in each. The Xbox
One, as it has now been called, is a name that I find to be pretty good.
Personally the name that would have made me happiest is Xbox 720, simply because that is what I have been referring to it
as for so long. I also feel it would have made it clearer to people who don’t
follow games that this is a brand new system and the next step in the Xbox line as opposed to having it be
mistaken for the original Xbox. The
name comes from the new Xbox being an
‘all in one’ device for your home entertainment and media, so I get where they
are coming from and don’t hate the name by any means. The console seems quite
large and has many vents on it, which is smart since they probably want to do
everything possible to avoid another Red
Ring of Death catastrophe. Another issue they have addressed is the
console’s noise level, as the Xbox One
is supposed to be virtually silent when running. The Xbox One will come with a 500GB hard drive and supports external
hard drives should you choose to purchase one for a reasonable price as opposed
to the hundred or so dollars that you had to pay for 20GBs on the 360. The Kinect has been improved with a 1080p camera, improved motion
tracking, facial recognition & voice commands. In addition to this the Kinect no longer needs at least 6 feet
to work as they have wisely lowered that to about 2 feet. The controller has
remained similar to the 360’s, which
I think is great as it is my favorite controller, but has undergone a few
changes. The START and BACK buttons have now been replaced with VIEW and MENU and
they have included feedback (rumble) into the triggers. While rumble in the
triggers my sound pointless I think it is really cool that they can now offer
feedback in different parts of the controller and I expect it to be really cool
when playing any sort of shooter and your trigger shakes upon firing your
weapon. Oh and obviously this time the system will play Blu-Ray disks.
A lot of attention at the
announcement was focused on the Xbox One’s
TV functionality. You can plug your cable or satellite box into your console
and use the Kinect, your controller
or even your smart phone or tablet, through the return of Smart Glass functionality, to control the guide and select
channels. Also when doing this Xbox One
seems to have its own unique channel guide. I always hate trying to find my
remotes, but not my controllers, so it would actually be kind of nice to use
that to navigate or my phone or just my voice if I don’t feel like picking
anything up. The system also has very impressive multitasking capabilities. Not
only can you switch between two games at once (the example given was that while
searching for a matchmaking lobby in one game you could play something else),
their new feature called Snapshot
allows you to pull up a sidebar and use the internet or some other application
while playing a game or watching a movie. In order to make this all run
smoothly the system has 3 operating systems. The Xbox operating system, a version of Windows 8 and a third that is built specifically to combine the two
seamlessly.
Some other cool features outlined in
the press conference include the heavy implementation of The Cloud to assist with downloads and processing. You will also
have your file and saves backed up on The
Cloud, so that you can access them from where ever you choose to log in to
your file. Xbox Live’s
infrastructure, which started out at 500 servers when the service launched on
the original Xbox, is being increased
to 300,000 servers for Xbox One. This
is said to enable bigger multiplayer matches with more players. Lastly the
console has a DVR feature, but only for games. At any time while playing you
can save and even edit footage of your game right on your console. Microsoft didn’t mention being able to
upload it to a social network or video site like Sony did, but I imagine there must be some sort of file upload or
sharing feature.
While the gaming aspect of the
conference was limited, due to Microsoft’s
decision to hold things back for E3,
there were some cool announcements. EA
came out about half way through the presentation to ‘kick-off’ or ‘ignite’ the
game discussion. EA talked about
their new engine called IGNITE and
announced that the next Madden, FIFA, NBA
Live and their first UFC game
will all be on Xbox One within the
next 12 months. There was a lot of talk and a CG trailer was shown, but no
gameplay footage was revealed. They did, however, make a fairly big
announcement that FIFA on the Xbox One will have an exclusive mode
called Ultimate Team. Getting an
exclusive mode for one of the best-selling games in any given year is a pretty
big win for Microsoft.
Forza 5 was
announced and confirmed as a launch title for Xbox One. Unfortunately we only got a short trailer that wasn’t of
actual gameplay, although it might have been in engine. Strangely all I could
think about during the video was how inappropriately excited the Drive Club guy must have been while
watching it.
Remedy’s new game
was revealed and to my initial disappointment it was not Alan Wake 2. That being said, Quantum
Break looks really interesting. The CG/live-action trailer seemed to imply
some sort of heist as well as the ability to bend time and introduce items from
another time into our present reality. It reminded me of Fringe a bit to be honest with you because of how that show
displayed the bending and crossing over of dimensions. There is speculation
that the live-action portion of the trailer hints at a TV show tie-in, but it
could also be showcasing videos you’ll see in the game that are live action
like in Max Payne or Alan Wake. Speaking of live-action TV a Halo TV Series was announced with Steven
Spielberg attached.
The final game shown was Call of Duty: Ghosts with its premiere gameplay footage. The game
is being developed by Infinity Ward
on a new engine and they have hired the writer of Academy Award winning film Traffic
to craft the game’s story. Infinity Ward’s
goal is to have you become invested in the characters around you, which is
something that hasn’t really happened much for me in previous instalments of
the franchise. The trailer seemed a little less explosion filled and seems to
be suggesting a better sense of pacing, but I could simply be getting my hopes
up for nothing. The game has introduced a cover system where you can lean in
and out of corners. You now get a dog that accompanies you on missions.
Multiplayer is introducing dynamic maps that change around you throughout the
match along with the ability to fully customize your character’s appearance. No
word yet on if this includes the ability to play as a woman, which would be a
first for the series. Just like back on Xbox
360 all DLC for Call of Duty: Ghosts will launch first
on Xbox One.
Microsoft
said that for the Xbox One they have
more titles in development than they ever have before. There will be 15 1st
party games released on Xbox One
within the first year, 8 of which are brand new Intellectual Properties. The Xbox One will launch later this year
worldwide.
Outside the
Conference
Some important details about the
console were not touched on during the conference, so Microsoft representatives spoke with a number of journalists and
sites in order to get the information out. Unfortunately, not everyone from Microsoft was on the same page as there
were conflicting reports about issues like how used games will be addressed. As
of now this is what I know about the console.
The Xbox One is not ‘always online’, but it does require you to hook up
your console to the internet once per day. This is something we will need to
wait and find out more about because I have no idea what happens if you don’t
hook it up every 24 hours. Does your console lock you out? Are certain features
limited? Also I’m unclear as to what exactly the console needs from the
internet every day. All games must be installed to your Xbox One, once that is done you will no longer need to insert the
disk in order to play. The Xbox One
does not support backwards compatibility of any kind including Xbox Live Arcade games. Your Xbox Live
Friend’s List has been expanded from a maximum of 100 friends to 1000
friends. The Xbox One only supports
HDMI cables, no component outs for standard definition TVs. It also can work
with 4K TVs, but Microsoft says
whether or not the games will be designed for that resolution is up to the
developers. The Xbox One is always
bundled with Kinect and will not work
unless Kinect is plugged in, but that
does not mean that the Kinect must
actually be used for everything. You can have it plugged in and simply choose
to do everything with your controller.
There was some miscommunication about fees
for used games that would cost as much as the game itself. I still think it
will need to be cleared up a bit, possibly at E3, but from what I gather you can play a game at a friend’s house
no problem by connecting to your file through The Cloud. The issue is what happens when you leave. I’m not sure
if you can leave the disk with them and go back to using your file at your
place. It may just say that whoever has the disk is the only one who can play
and so just like now a days if you lend a game you can’t play it, even though
here it would be installed on your hard drive. If your friend wants to keep
playing after he gives you back the game, since it is already installed on his
system he can just pay an activation fee (which is the full price of the game)
and own it. Used games at stores like GameStop
will still be a thing, with some sort of deal worked out between the stores and
Microsoft where the store pays for
activation codes (I’m guessing extremely discounted as they will be bought in
bulk and they still want the game to cost less than a new copy). The activation
fee goes towards paying Microsoft and
the developers behind the game. This way they can actually make some money off
of used game sales.
Edit:
I forgot to mention that the Xbox One controller has a new proprietary
headset jack, so none of your old headsets will work with the Xbox One. Now you can still use your Kinect as a mic, but if you want to be
able to hear your friends or enemies without their voices coming through your
TV you need a new headset. Turtle Beach
and Mad Catz have both already
confirmed that they will be making 3rd party headsets specifically for
the Xbox One.
My Thoughts
A lot of people are extremely down
on the Xbox One. I understand seeing
a company turn away from you and your tastes in order to appeal to a wider less
passionate crowd as a hurtful betrayal, which is how many have chosen to
interpret Microsoft’s action at their
press conference. To be honest though I feel that anyone who thinks this way about
Microsoft is incredibly shot sighted, naïve and incapable of thinking
critically. The press conference was a teaser for E3. They have the last word before E3 and the first one at E3.
They went big and broad with their most widely appealing capabilities, like TV,
apps, voice control and the like. This was to get the attention of as many
people as possible. When E3 arrives
in 9 days we will see the second part of their presentation. The part directed
at us, the gamers. It will be two hours where they don’t have to talk about any
hardware or application stuff. All they can do is talk about games the release
date and price. Some feel like by expanding into other sections of home
entertainment they are putting less effort into gaming and abandoning us
gamers. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Microsoft is one of the biggest and most successful corporations on
the planet, just because they have added in resources towards new pursuits does
not mean that they have taken away others from gaming. If you listened to the
press conference you would have heard that Microsoft
has more games in development right now than ever before in the history of Xbox. 15 1st party games in
the first year, 8 of which are new IPs! They have not only expanded into other
sections of entertainment, but they have also increased their dedication to
gamers. Personally I cannot afford both an Xbox
One and a PS4 at their launches.
I may actually wait a bit for holiday sales before picking one of them up. That
being said when I do pick one I feel 100% confidant in my statement (this is
coming from someone who owns a Xbox, PS2, Xbox
360 & PS3) that I will
happily pick the Xbox One because I believe
that Microsoft will do a better job
supporting the system with gaming content I care about.
One last
thing
A lot of people acted like Microsoft doing anything that isn’t
gaming related with their Xbox is
stuff that gamers don’t care about and that is complete crap. I don’t know
about you, but while videogames are my favorite medium of entertainment I still
love watching movies and TV. That’s like saying that no gamer went to see The Avengers or The Dark Knight Rises. We can all love many things and I’m not in
any way ashamed or embarrassed to say that the most exciting part of the press
conference for me was the announcement of a Halo
TV series because I will watch the crap out of that.
