Xbox One Announcement was it a flop?

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It’s been weeks now that I and many of you have been patently awaiting the big announcement Microsoft had planned for their next Gen console. It has been a few minutes since I watched the announcement of the Xbox One and quite frankly I can’t say that I am impressed.

I wish I could write about this system by itself without the need for comparison with it and the PS4 but I can’t. The conference was not for us gamers it was more for Average Joe that owns a tele and sits and watches Netflix all day (no offence average Joe we love you). It was said to have 8GB memory, an 8 core cpu, 500gb HDD, USB 3.0, a Blu-ray drive and WIFI direct. These specs were all speculated and before and so it did not come as a shock to me as a viewer watching the conference, in fact I was busy tweeting for most of it because there was not much to see/ hear in regards to gaming. The only games we saw were mainly trailers with no actual gameplay to speak of. How can you announce a next gen console and forget the games? The main people buying this thing won’t be Mom and dad to watch Netflix or ESPN, they already have a set top box for that. People think practical when buying new stuff these days and most people have become wiser consumers due to the failing economy that we live in today.

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Oh and here is some good news for those of us that own an Xbox 360 and have Xbox live. According to the guys over at engadget the Xbox One will not be backwards compatible with current Xbox 360 or Xbox live content. You may get to keep your Gamerscore but what does that matter if you can’t keep all that content you collected over the years. This lack of backwards compatibility is due to the fact the Next box (look Xbox one doesn’t flow off the tongue) is built with an x86 processor architecture, whereas the Xbox 360 ran on PowerPC. This fundamental difference in hardware architecture prevents the Xbox One from natively running Xbox 360 games, regardless of how powerful the thing may be. This could be fixed with some emulation software or a chip added to the system. Why Microsoft decided to go this route eludes me. Maybe it is to make sure they have a fall back in case this system fails or because it would be too expensive to develop, both options seem unconvincing.

The Next box did however get one thing right that Sony missed. They showed us the box that would fill a space of our living rooms or bedroom for years to come. From fist look it’s not the best looking thing I’ve ever seen. Boasting some bold sharp edges that reminded me of a 1990’s VHS, but as you all know looks are not everything. It’s what’s on the inside that matters (fortune cookie stuff). We won’t spend time watching it while we play so look at it once and move on.
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The controller looks a lot like the 360 controller but slightly bigger and with a new D-Pad to boot. The New control also has Dynamic input, but does not have a share button or any extra features like Sony’s PS4, and after all as gamers isn’t all that matters is the ability to play and control our games as best and most comfortably as possible. The Xbox 360 controller was the most comfortable controller of the current generation of consoles and this new controller is not straying too far off the path. Kinect 2.0 is also a part of the package with 1800p cams and better voice command (waiting to see how that really works for all users voices and skin colours). It will be shipped with every console which is going to add to the price and value of the system. Personally I don’t care about Kinect because I owned one and never even connected the thing to my Xbox once. I never saw the need to do so. I bought it for my sisters to play just dance but they already prefer the Wii and never really cared to look twice at the device. They should have shipped it with a bundled windows 8 Tab if you ask me.
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The Xbox One announcement was a flop to me as a gamer and I’m sure there are many that feel the same. Also with more news about the system coming out as I write this like the fact that all games will have to be installed and then if the owner wants to install the game to another system they would be required to pay a fee. After asking some of the Button Smashers Editors their thoughts on the system before announcement today I have to say they were not too far off;

·         Ryu: tough question. Since most of what I would want is already confirmed as not being in it lol. Probably a low price point, only way it’ll compete with the ps4 imo is on price. Probably going to be like ps4 I bet, some sort of streaming service rather than true backwards compatibility. Hate the name though, Xbox infinity is meh imo should have gone with 720 or something. Just reading a rumour site and apparently the Blu-ray drive on the new Xbox will be limited, as in you can’t watch Blu-ray discs on it that sucks big time if true. Wow and they reckon the cost of games is going to push £60, if true I won’t be buying either of the next gen consoles.

·         Rai: No new gen Xbox xD, o .o you think I’m playing bro? Also knowing I’m a PlayStation guy, I really don’t want anything from it.

I can’t say I was impressed or very much excited to the point where I’d go out and buy this system were it to come out next week. There were not enough games shown and the ones that were shown were trailers basically.

Microsoft has until June 11 to come up with a reason for GAMERS to buy this system over its competitors, because so far it’s just a set top box with the ability to play games. Until then Follow our posts here and look forward to the Next BSP as we will be talking about this announcement in great detail.  

Qudduws Campbell

That messy hair bloke: Romantic, Food lover, Gamer, Sports Fan, Manga Reader, Tech Head, Podcaster... Pretty much do a bit of everything.

10 Comments

  1. No backwards compatibility !
    Pay a fee if the owner wants to install the game to another system !
    Kinect 2 who wants that ?
    the design is personal but to me it looked like a old Betamax vcr !
    they didnt created a new console but just a mediacenter personal computer

    1. it is basically just that a media centre not a game console. maybe they should stop marketing it as a console and start marketing it as a media centre that happens to play games. I don’t see how it going to sell with what Microsoft have shown so far but there are the few who may have watched the same announcement and saw an amazing product.

  2. They’ve gone for a media hub sort of console which could have worked, if we hadn’t had the wii and wii u. Both of which are cheaper than the new box will be. As for the looks, the idea there is if they make a big ugly box at the start in a year or 2 they can release a slim version and milk the profits 😀 As for the name, damn i thought infinity would be bad, but XBox 1, come one man who ever thought of that name should be fired right away

    1. I don’t see the Wii or Wii U as media centres because both systems don’t have half the media compatibility as the other home consoles system on the market. The PS3 and 360 have more of a media heavy framework than those 2. Sadly the xbox one is a media centre disguised as a home console, and most gamers are already noticing that as i type this. the slim version is a fact of the video game business. they always make one version and then make a few updates and then resell the thing they should have sold you in the first place.
      the name sucks, the lack of games shown sucks, and the fact that it’s not backwards compatible or able to use used games with out a premium.

      1. The Wii U has plenty of media capabilities…TVii, which acts as a universal remote for all of your connections(Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Cable, and coming soon Tivo), and has all of those minus the cable separately along with YouTube and quite frankly the fastest internet browser I have ever used, hands down. It may not upload your stuff to facebook and twitter, but it has its own DEDICATED online gaming community in Miiverse, that is a sharing and twitter-like service for GAMERS. Not to mention backwards-compatible, used games without a fee, and a price which will likely be half of what this behemoth will be.

        1. It seems I was too harsh to say the Wii u doesn’t have much in the media centre department. Please accept my most humble retraction on that statement. I currently don’t own a Wii u and but actually own a Wii so I assumed the focus was no where near media streaming and watching.

  3. To be frank, I never really saw the point in these console wars. I just thought it was all about the game. But then again, everyone else sounds either really disappointed or really furious. I just hope a huge wave of controversy doesn’t hurt the gaming community gain. But what do I know? I’m just a guy standing around watching the world burn and there’s nothing I can do.

    1. It is all about the games but Microsoft’s focus was not that today they were all about media centre style stuff. the first part of their announcement was mainly about Kinect stuff and voice command. that is stuff we already knew about and dare i say did not care to hear more about. I like the option but that’s just it, an option. don’t make it the focus point. most Kinect owners i know still don’t really use the kinect for any practical use and i don’t see that happening with this new one. What i wanted was for them to just show as much games as they possibly could, not trailers and then Call of duty (shakes head). they could have shown a game from each genre to show all types of gamers will be supported, but no that was not the focus. NFL was and Tele. things that we can already watch by changing the channel. oh and the fantasy teams thing oh i have a tab and a phone for that. Does big M think that gamers are getting so lazy that they can’t change the channel or look at their phone? It’s not a console war Keith i just think Game consoles should have games that’s all.