Today, Microsoft, with much media hoopla, revealed then new Xbox, dubbed Xbox One. As with our coverage of Sony’s PlayStation 4 reveal earlier this year, here are the major takeaways from the event.
IT’S A CABLE BOX
Tellingly, Microsoft’s announcement didn’t lead with the games that would be available for the Xbox One. Rather, the company opened with the announcement that the console will function as a set top cable box enabling it to receive live TV. The console will be able to switch between games, television, streaming video, or any other online service on the fly, with the speed of changing a channel. Xbox One will also tell you what other Xbox Live users are watching, using applications such as trending topics on Twitter.
In other words, Microsoft sees games as one facet of what the Xbox One can do as an all-around media portal; one that keeps you using the company’s product and services for every type of home entertainment.
KINECT IS INCLUDED, AND YOU HAVE TO USE IT
In the soon-to-be-over Xbox 360 era, Microsoft’s voice and motion-sensing Kinect peripheral has been considered an interesting curiosity at best and a completely pointless waste of time and money at worst. With the Xbox One, however, Microsoft is integrating it tightly into the console. The demo today showed users activating the system’s many functions with voice commands and gestures, using the Kinect’s camera to make a Skype call on TV and somewhat creepily, being recognized by the camera on system startup to immediately load recent media activities and preferences. And the Kinect peripheral has to be connected for your Xbox to function.
YEP, IT RESTRICTS USED GAMES
It was rumored for some time that the new Xbox would include some mechanism that would prevent the resale of games, and that has indeed proved to be true. All Xbox One games will require an install to the system and will be tied to one particular user’s Xbox Live account.
Now, suppose you buy a game used or borrow a disc from a friend. In such a scenario, you will have to pay Microsoft a fee to attach an additional Xbox Live user to the game. How much that fee might be has yet to be revealed.
There’s no sugarcoating it: This sucks. Presumably game rental services like Gamefly (not to mention regular old users) will have something to say about it.
IT WON’T BE BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE WITH XBOX 360 GAMES
According to an interview at The Verge with Microsoft’s VP for Xbox Live, Marc Whitten, the Xbox One won’t be able to play your Xbox 360 games, owing to issues of different system architecture. That’s not great, but at least it’s no worse than the PS4, which won’t be backwards compatible either.
THERE WILL BE ACTUAL GAMES FOR IT, IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING
Another Call of Duty! Another NFL game! Forza Motorsport 5!
All snarking aside, it’s not remotely surprising that Microsoft chose to showcase some of the cash cow franchises of the gaming industry. What’s different is the relatively slim emphasis Microsoft gave to the forthcoming library of games for its new console. Of course there will be triple A releases for Xbox one. The new entry in the Assassin’s Creed series, as well as the extremely buzzworthy Watchdogs and Bungie’s Unity will be available on the console. Also released today is the video of Quantum Break, from the creators of Alan Wake and Max Payne, which sees you manipulating time to survive a game that “blurs the line between gameplay and television.”
From a marketing perspective, Microfsoft seems to believe that what will separate its product from the competition is what it can do besides play games. Time will tell if the company is right.
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