New Console Announcement: Microsoft Xbox One

I had something once: A finite amount of time. A precious thing that once used can never be reclaimed. Time that can create memories of victory, joy, sadness and camaraderie or can simply melt away into nothingness.

And it doesn't matter how many times, how passionately or forcefully I demand it, I can never get that hour back I spent watching the reveal of the Xbox One.

You've probably already worked out my opinion of the new system from those opening two paragraphs, but back in the days of yore when I started college in 2002, I didn’t have a games console. After spending a night with my cousins playing four player Halo on an Xbox, I decided I’d finally take the plunge and get Microsoft’s big black box.

Jet Set Radio Future, Crimson Skies, Timesplitters 2, Halo: Combat Evolved, Mechassault, Mashed, Soul Calibur 2, Legacy of Kain: Defiance, Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive: Ultimate, Jade Dragon, Project Gotham Racing 2, so many great games that I’ve hardly scratched the surface.

Fast forward eleven years… wait, it’s been that long? Whoa… Anyway, after the promising showing of the Xbox 360 at stages of its life, it seems Microsoft has continued on its downward trend that encouraged it to focus on the Kinect and additional features besides the games themselves.

Or at least, that’s the impression given. The Xbox One, a name that will likely confuse a few people, is every bit as powerful and capable as Sony’s latest offering with fully integrated cloud support, a return to the built in hard drive and a blu-ray disc drive. Thankfully, the rumoured ‘always online requirement’ is very defiantly not true, but like Steam games will be effectively locked to an account and can only be used by another account if a fee is paid (infinitely better than the idea of locking a game permanently to your account, but likely to be hideously abused. Also explains why EA dropped the Online Pass).

Getting back on topic, it seems Microsoft is more interested in pushing the Xbox One as an entertainment centre rather than a games machine as Nintendo and Sony have. In theory fairly sound, but when it was revealed with a heavy emphasis on TV, and American TV at that, you have to wonder if Microsoft is aware of who they’re trying to sell the device to.

Don Mattrick wasted no time in revealing not only the rather strange Xbox One name which I wasn’t expecting (given the concept of all entertainment in one device, it makes sense though) and showing the system itself, along with an updated controller and Kinect, which will come with every console. The system looks pretty big with a lot of straight edges and pointy corners, as does the Kinect. The controller looks like a 3^rd party 360 controller with what appear to be slightly bigger buttons and, by the looks of things, no Xbox Guide button.

So far, the complete opposite of Sony who focused exclusively on the software. The main operating system which seems to be a vague combination of Windows 8 and the current Xbox 360 dashboard looks simply enough and was both fast and fluid when demoed with movement between TV, a clip from the 2009 Star Trek movie, some music and images from what appeared to be Forza 5, which was later confirmed as a launch title for the Xbox One. Certainly impress and all done using Kinect voice commands, as well as some gestures to snap an instance of Internet Explorer to the side of the screen which was fairly cool.

However, this idea of opening additional applications and then interacting with smart glass (ie a smart phone or tablet) seems pointless when you can instantly look at a smartphone or tablet instead without modifying the image at all.

After a spec talking and worrying amounts of talk about TV, a lot of which seem purely focused at American markets, there was talk of some games. With the obvious overarching theme of the show being a massive corporation with no real idea of its audience, it was of little surprise EA was the first to reveal games, which were all sports titles (NFL, FIFA, UFC and NBA).

With my interest waning fast, Phil Spensor took to the stage to discuss games developed by Microsoft’s own studios. While I was trying to find a reliable stream, Forza 5 was shown in a pre-rendered form along with Remedy’s next title, Quantum Break. Before leaving, he did announce there would be fifteen exclusive titles on the Xbox One within a year of launch, which is certainly impressive (and something Nintendo should aspire to).

Nancy Tellem took to the stage next followed by Bonnie Ross, both of whom I assume work for 343 Industries, to discuss the Halo universe. Sadly, the almost expected announcement of Halo 5 was replaced with the announcement of a Halo TV series, directed by Steven Spielberg.

This disappointment led into the downward slide that brought an announcement of some partnership with the NFL I didn't pay any notice of before Microsoft wheeled out Infinity Ward for their surprise reveal, which was about as surprising as a cannon shot at midday in Edinburgh.

Call of Duty: Ghosts was the big reveal, a new entry in the series being an almost terrible tradition of Microsoft shows. After the talk of more polygons making the game look better and include fish (looks like every other CoD game to me, but they've at least embraced the abbreviated name) and some writer working on the story, they revealed the biggest new feature is a Dog, of all thing. Going from their talk of how you’ll love and care for your dog, it’s almost like Peter Molyneux had been to visit them and give them a script.

Once the trailer for CoD: Ghosts ended, a timer popped up for the countdown to E3, where these fifteen games will likely get finally discussed. While it is nice to know there are defiantly going to be games on this TV box, it doesn't leave me with any confidence that Microsoft is going to provide to me as a gamer. They seem determined to appeal to an audience that’s already set up with all the TV they need and are throwing a few bones towards the people who are more likely to buy the thing at launch as if that will satisfy them.

In a game of announcements and showcases, Sony’s won this one hands down, though it’s impossible to ignore the fact both companies approached there reveals in very different ways. Microsoft have the system itself and features announced and out of the way, so they can fully focus on games in future. Sony still has to talk everyone through the PlayStation 4, not to mention actually show the thing, so for now the game’s still open.

For now though, I'm just waiting on Pikmin 3.