The Future of Microsoft and Xbox One

Microsoft earlier today has just reveal their next generation console in their event, "Xbox One". The name alone is interesting. It sounds like this new Xbox is the ONE. It's the ultimate console. But will it able to surpass the PS4.

The event itself only lasted for about an hour, on the web. (I watched it through IGN). Really short compared to the PS4, but a good explanation is that we are also close to E3, and didn't want to reveal everything yet.

For those who haven't seen it yet, the event is broken down in the following order...

1. After the pre-show stuff, Don Mattrick delivers a speech to the fans.
2. Afterwards, the announcement of the new name for the Xbox.
3. They talk about the new redesign of the Kinect, and explain the improved functionality.
4. After that, they demonstrated the voice command and showed the public live TV and discussed Skype conversation.
5. Then they discussed the system specs of the Xbox.
6. Then they briefly talked about the redesign of the controller and the d-pad.
7. Finally the new Xbox Live has been discussed, allowing the use of cloud storage, along with the built in DVR for game sharing.
8. After all is said and done, new games have been announced for the upcoming console, which includes the premier trailer of Call of Duty Ghosts.

I got to say, Microsoft has put a lot for a short reveal. I do have to admit, they actually did a better job of revealing the console and Kinect than Sony. But that could be because of the timing. It seems that Microsoft is taking a page from Sony and trying to make the Xbox One more social to the gaming community. But also Microsoft has taken the feedback of gamers from the Xbox 360, and used that to make the Xbox One to function better. And that seems to be the goal of Microsoft, allowing more functionality and more usability.

The are some downsides to the new Xbox. From articles, some of the earlier rumors are true. While the Xbox doesn't need to have a constant internet connection, the Xbox One is not backwards compatible with 360 games, and it does require the connection of the Kinect in order to make the console work. When it comes to the games, I'm not saying that the games are bad, but there wasn't many games that they revealed during the event. The only good one was the last one, Call of Duty Ghosts.

Update: It has been confirmed that the Xbox One can play used games, but requires the user to pay a small fee. When playing a new game the game data will be installed onto the console that corresponds to the account. If you try to play the game on another account, the game will be blocked unless the new user pays a fee. This really will put a damper on the gaming community and places that allow trading and selling of games.

The event in many ways was like the Sony conference, they tell but didn't show. While they shared a lot, there are still questions I'm sure everyone is wondering. I guess to the see and hear everything that both Sony and Microsoft has to offer, we have to wait another 3 weeks for E3.