The Hardware – show me the good stuff

Diving headfirst into what was pegged as a ‘hardware focused reveal’ Microsoft wasted little time in sharing the new consoles specifications, along with the official name (In case you haven’t heard it’s Xbox One, not to be confused with the original Xbox or ‘Xbox 1’... that’s going to be confusing for a while.) Cut to a few seconds later we are hit with a stylized camera swoop around the console itself, showing off what Microsoft’s next entry will look like along with the kinect sensor and the new controller pictured below.

Now what kind of tech lies inside this new console you ask? Let me pop the hood and show you, in the form of a handy list:

• 8 Core CPU
• 8GB ‘System Memory’ (So, RAM then...) DDR3
• 500GB Internal (Non-removable) internal HDD
• Blu-Ray Drive
• 802.11n Wireless with Wi-Fi Direct
• HDMI 1.4 in/out allows for 1080p and future 4K support
• 2x USB 3.0 ports
• 7.1 surround sound
• Gigabit Ethernet

It’s unclear at this moment in time if the Xbox will ship with a default 500GB as standard or if they will run with a price tier equivalent offering lower prices for less storage. Microsoft has confirmed the ability to hook up external HDD’s with the console to add more storage, however it’s unclear if this will be an all-round support for all HDD’s or Microsoft brand ones.

The controller has seen a technical and aesthetic facelift too. A slight re-arrangement of buttons now sees the Xbox ‘guide’ button rest at the top of the pad and the two start/select controls now placed in the middle. The D-Pad has received more definition to the directions compared to the old Xbox 360 radial style face and thumb-sticks are still placed in a similar fashion with a fairly comparative indented nub style that the 360 has, but with a ridged grip surrounding the edge to allow better grasping for each stick. What’s interesting here is the inclusion of ‘impulse triggers’, a new feature added which provides feedback to the user through the two back facing triggers, providing a more impactful rumble effect through the gamepad to relate to actions in a game, like shooting a gun or punching that bad guy in the jaw.

Kinecting with you?

Microsoft quickly finished up their hardware spec reveal and moved straight on into using the Xbox One’s new & improved Kinect 2.0, which comes as standard with the console now. Boasting a whole new range of accessibility features and improvements, the kinect is now packing a 1080p camera with a whopping 250,000 pixel infrared depth sensor, allowing the kinect to function more accurately to such a high degree that it can register your heart rate just by looking at your face – horror game developers just cackled somewhere across the world. Processing up to 2 gigabits of data a second, the kinect can now track 6 skeletons simultaneously allowing for more multiplayer fun – provided they all survive what I can imagine would quickly descend into a bloody brawl of close proximity limb flailing in the living room.

To promote these new features, the Xbox One will feature a host of additional controls to run alongside the Kinect, including the ability to command your console to turn itself on, the ability to swap between applications and games on the fly using hand motions and a voice command allowing you to return to the home page which serves as the old dashboard. One worry floating around is trolling with these features, with the command used being “Xbox go home!” I can foresee a lot of fellow gamers out there standing with a blank expression on their face as the enemy swaggers over and buries his knife in your back whilst you flail your arms around in an attempt to swap back from watching Arrested Development on Netflix.

All for one and ONE for all

Keeping in line with Microsoft’s emphasis on social aspects, integration and using your console as an all inclusive media hub, the presentation was filled with quite a few features that progressed towards this goal. Straight out of the gates, Microsoft was quick to reveal how easy it was to swap between gaming and applications, swapping freely mid-session between live TV, a music player, movies and an all new ‘Trending’ page which shows a list of popular items on Xbox Live.

Let’s talk about TV first, as this is probably their most pushed feature of the group and yet also the most misunderstood. It’s now known that in order to watch live TV through your Xbox, you will need a separate peripheral device to allow this to happen, and there is yet to be any details as to how this will be obtained or at what cost. It’s also interesting to note that this was heavily aimed at the US, with no clear indication of what support other countries will be getting for this feature. Although 3^rd party support from each countries respective provider is likely, whether it will be available from day one is another matter entirely.

Integration was heavily pushed during the demo, and with Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Skype, it was almost assured that there was going to be something included. Users will be able to make skype calls - via the Kinect – taking full advantage of a 720p webcam to make video calls to one another. It’s uncertain if this will be a fully compatible version of Skype, or if it will only allow Xbox to Xbox communication. Users can make calls whilst doing other things on the Xbox, allowing a picture in picture style use of both media and Skype which lets you watch a movie together or get that awkward weekly call to your parents out of the way whilst you slay aliens on a distant planet.

Isn’t this a gaming console? Bring on the monsters!

By now, you’ve seen enough ‘Magic and Science’ (Direct quote.....no I’m not kidding) and heard all about how you can have your Xbox collate you taxes whilst doing your ironing and playing Iron Man at the same time, but you can’t have a games console without games, right? Well we didn’t get much in the way of games for this release as Microsoft wanted to push out more details on the auxiliary features of the console, possibly saving gaming info for E3 which is lurking around the corner. We did get some footage though, with EA piggy-backing on top of Microsoft to reveal their new ‘Ignite’ engine alongside 4 new EA sports titles and a trickle of teasers from Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts and Remedy games new IP ‘Quantum Break’.

Xbox live will also get a facelift, in the form of 300,000 servers supporting cloud services for game saves, movies and music. This is a huge leap from the current 15,000 servers currently in operation for the Xbox 360’s infrastructure. It’s also been confirmed that current gold subscribers will have their paid time carried over with their accounts working on both consoles.

There’s two elephants sitting in this room, the first being used games. This was a sore subject in the months leading up to the reveal, and now that we are through the looking glass there’s even more controversy. The basic premise is such:

When you insert a game disc into your console, it will ‘save’ it to your account and that console. Everyone on that console can play the game, and your account can play the game everywhere. However, once assigned to an account, the game disc will not be functional on another account unless an unspecified fee is paid.

This is MY INTERPRETATION of what information has been given out, and there has been a fair bit, each conflicting with the next. I’m not going to list off each citation here, because there isn’t a need for the world’s longest list ever, but what I will say is what implications this will have on the gaming world and most importantly what implications it will have on you, the consumer.

The obvious target for this prevention is the used games market, which has boomed over this current gen age of consoles and allowed retails to setup an economic community that surrounds the trading of games of newer versions and so forth. As of writing this article, GameStop has dropped by 5% in its shares. Being a big advocate of trading in old games, this has certainly and will continue to have an impact of them, as well as many other retailers that provide this service across the world. I think it’s fair to say doing this was a strike against trading retailers, but I can’t help but wonder what other effects will be felt as an echo to this reaction. Returning games comes to mind, with games being saved to your account, how will retails and consumers go about returning games within their allotted time of an agreed ‘refund grace period’? Will this result in excluding Xbox One titles from this clause? Surely that will have an impact on consumers buying decision.

Next on the hit list is rental companies like Gamefly and Lovefilm. The restrictions in place will surely put an end to this practise of trying a game before you buy, of which there are many people out there who stick by this ethos. If I am going to drop 50 bucks on a game, I want to make sure it’s worth it, and renting accommodates this. I can understand that publishers see this as an impact against their sales and that they want to earn as much profit as possible, but shouldn’t there be at least some focus on the consumer’s satisfaction? Will doing this damage the relationship between both consumers and third party companies like Gamefly with the new console?

Let’s not forget how the game developers and independent publishers will take this. Sure they want to sell their multiplatform game on as many consoles to reach a larger audience (And earn more money) but if the Xbox One makes itself out to be a Pariah of the gaming world with its exclusive features like this, will developers chose alternatives over this new Microsoft console?

And finally, the guy at the bottom of it all, the gamer. How does this affect you? Information is still sketchy at the time of writing this, but as a vague overview of this feature, let me describe a scenario to you. If your friend wants to borrow a copy of Metal Gears of War 5:The Prequel, and you have already played this game on your own console in your own house, they will need to acquire the physical disc from you, install it to their HDD and then proceed to pay a fee across XBL in order to grant access to the game CD on their own account. All the while the original owner still remains unable to access to content because they don’t have the disc, essentially paying for the game twice. What is the point of even lending the game to your friend then? They might as well go out and buy it themselves.

The second elephant eating from its peanut bag in the corner is a required online connection. This too was speculated and criticised before the reveal, with many gamers taking up arms to complain about various obstacles that would prevent them from adhering to an always online state for them to fully enjoy their console. Although Microsoft didn’t touch on this subject during the reveal event, speaking with Kotaku during a Q&A press conference, Xbox entertainment Vice President Phil Harrison revealed that the console doesn’t require a 24 hour online connection. However, it is necessary for the console to connect to the internet at least once every 24 hours. What happens if you don’t connect in that time frame? That’s anyone’s guess, but this is yet another restriction that adds to Microsoft’s already controversial approach to their next-gen console.

Adding to all of this console drama, it now seems there’s even more confliction in what everyone is being told, with Microsoft now telling Polygon that used game fees and always online requirements are ‘Potential scenarios’. At this moment in time, I think it’s fair to say you could better guess what the truth is by sacrificing a chicken to the elder gods and chanting “It’s-a-me Mario” 3 times.

/end rant

But in all seriousness, in an attempt to reclaim the market from the traders and trying to ‘provide a constant entertainment experience’ for the consumer, I fear Microsoft has alienated more of its users and unless they tread carefully with this plans in the coming months leading up to the release, this could have a big impact on everyone’s console choice.

That about wraps things up for the Xbox reveal, and now you may walk around with certainty that you know what Microsoft may or may not be bringing to the table in the next-gen console war.