So yeah, Xbox One was just revealed. Simply put, a pretty sh*tty reveal and presentation, but I guess there is more to this that meets the eye!
In the first 10 minutes we saw the name reveal, Xbox One, then we saw the console, controller and Kinect 2.0. Xbox One, at first sounded silly, but thinking now, the name fits it perfectly. Xbox One is not a gaming console, it is an entertainment console. TV, music, video, internet search, Skype, ESPN, Netflix, NFL and lastly gaming. So the name fits it perfectly, all in one system. However Xbox Infinity would have been better and more badass for my opinion. The console to me looked like nothing special, it looked like an old Betamax VCR. A big bulky rectangular box, there nothing special about that.
The system includes 8GB of RAM, an 8-Core CPU, a 500GB hard drive, a Blu-ray drive, HDMI in and out ports, USB 3.0, 802.11n wireless, and more. It also includes a new version of the Kinect sensor.
The controller looked like the current Xbox 360 controller, only slimmer with a new D-pad and a slick back. The Start and Select are not present on the new controller as they are switched with what appears to be a Share button and a Menu button, but no details were given about that. They only said "40 new design tweaks and features", but they didn't specify anything.
Kinect 2.0 looked cool I guess, a very slick design and it's features, again, they said nothing about it. What they showed was a better voice control and a Minority Report feel that looked cool, but then again I can who cares? Where were the games?!
After these 10 first minutes, 25 minutes followed of a M$ rep showing off TV, TV, TV, TV then some Kinect 2.0. Where were the games? Sure we got to see the console, but we didn't really see it working. We saw the rep waving the hands, but can we be sure that it was running in real time? Why didn't they switched it on there on stage?
Then the head of Microsoft Studio jumped on stage and told that there will be 8 exclusives on Xbox One on launch day. Then he showed a video of Forza 5 and a video Remedy's new game, Quantum Break. Forza 5, we expected that, but Quantum Break came out of nowhere and it looked amazing. But again where were the live demos of Forza 5 and Quantum Break running in real time with someone playing it? I bet that every game developer/publisher can make a beautiful and stunning CGI pre-rendered trailer. Why weren't any real time demos? Isn't the console ready to go?
EA took the stage telling us that they are developing 4 games for Xbox One with exclusive content for it. Also they announced their new engine called "EA Sports Ignite" where the games will be alive with players who think, move, and behave like real athletes and dynamic living worlds, transforming the way people play and experience games on next gen consoles. Created with the EA SPORTS IGNITE engine, Madden NFL 25, FIFA 14, NBA LIVE 14, and EA SPORTS UFC, will each launch within the next 12 months. A trailer closed EA's part where they showed all of these games, but again it all seemed CGI pre-rendered not real time!
Then we were back at TV stuff again as the head of 343 studios jumped on stage and revealed a new Halo TV Show with Steven Spielberg behind. Epic, but again no trailer, no screenshots, nothing! After that, more TV stuff, NFL, ESPN etc. I live in Europe and here we don't have the cable services people in America have and I don't have any idea what Xbox One will provide for us on the TV part. They talked a little about Cloud Gaming and SmartGlass, but nothing worth mentioning. Nothing new on always-on DRM, so that is confirmed to not be true...phew!
They also told us that Xbox One would be available at retail later this year, but no official release date. Also they said nothing about the price and the models that would be available. But an online store, Zavvi, which is based on UK, posted a tweet which can be see down here. Now I don't know if this is true, but since they didn't announce it on the conference I think this is the real deal.
Closing and wrapping up the conference, was the fantastic Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activison Publishing where he presented and showed for the first time Call of Duty Ghosts which looked fantastic. If you missed it, shame on you. I think an article about Ghosts will be up later online, but till then know that it looked fantastic.
Our Impressions:
This was not the reveal I was expecting for the next-gen Xbox. I feel that this reveal, the way they did it, alienated many hardcore gaming fans. I was disappointed! No games, no live demos, nothing new apart from Quantum Break.
Why we are scared about Xbox One?
They told that there are three OSs running at the same time on the Xbox One? What does it mean for the RAM? Is 8GB enough to handle the dashboard, the game and all of the multitasking? Also what is the type of RAM that they are using? Is it GDDR5 like the PS4 is using? Why didn't they told this to us? How much RAM is left for game processing? They didn't tell us any of this.
The PVR/share function. What do they mean with in-system editing software? Why didn't they showed us this feature in action like Playstation did with Killzone Shadowfall? Does it really work? Also why didn't they show something regarding Cloud Gaming? Did they just came out to say they will have Cloud Gaming, so they wouldn't stay behind Sony? Also why didn't they say nothing about backward compatibility with old Xbox 360 games?
What TV features will be available for us European users? If I buy Xbox One, what TV services would I be able to use?
Why no real time demos? Where was Crytek's Ryse, Epic Games Fornite or The Samaritan or GearsIV, 343's Halo V?
400£ launch price is way too much!
Why are we excited about Xbox One?
No bulky power brick, YAY!
The new dashboard looks very slick and very minimalist. Maybe no more boring, annoying and screen filling ads. Very interesting to hear that this dashboard would understand you and would remember your activity and mix and match content to better suit you as a consumer.
The Skype integration was cool too, but the demo they did on stage wasn't what I was really expecting. What I was expecting them to show us was something of a Skype conversation while playing a game with your friends where little bubble heads would appear on screen and you could see your friends in real-time. Sounds cool, right? Well, it would be really cool and I think this is what they are going to demonstrate during E3.
What they said about reinventing the achievement system got me pretty excited. The achievements would not only show what I accomplished, but how I accomplished them and what is my game style. Super excited, super excited indeed. But they also got me pretty scared when they didn't said if the current gamerscore on Xbox 360 would carry over on Xbox One.
Forza 5 looked amazing and I know it is gonna be great and Quantum Break looked very interesting. The Kinect 2.0 features are very interesting, we maybe really close to Minority Report or even Tony Stark's house. The number of servers they have made available for Xbox One, being them 300K sounded amazing. This may mean no more lag in games, fantastic matchmaking and a overall better online experience. Call of Duty Ghosts looked fu*king epic and the EA stuff, the new Ignite engine, got me very excited as well.
Bottom Line:
Playstation came out on their Playstation Meeting 2013 saying that the PS4 would be all about gaming and they showed us that. Playstation Meeting 2013 was fantastic and I think #XboxReveal was nowhere near it. But here's the other part of it, this may have been a fantastic move from Xbox. I think they went down this, and I am sorry for bad language, shitty path now to shine later at E3. 19 days and we will see more from the exclusive games and more of the features of Xbox One, but then again we will see the same from Playstation! The great war for the next-gen has began!
So what did you guys think about the Xbox One reveal? What did you like/dislike? Share your thoughts with us!
