On Tuesday the 21st, Microsoft held a press conference to announce the successor to its extremely successful Xbox 360 console. This move was prompted by Sony’s recent reveal of the PS4, forcing the company to show its cards before the expected reveal date at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo). Cant decide if PS4 is better or Xbox One is the console for you? Well, this announcement may cause you to prefer the PlayStation over the Xbox after how disastrous it was… Unfortunately, the world’s first glimpse at Microsoft’s next-gen offering proved to be more than a little disappointing – the entire conference was a PR nightmare, not only failing to capture potential new target markets but alienating the fanbase that made the console so popular in the first place. Thank goodness the gaming chair shown at this website can be used no matter what console you use as a lot of Xbox users are looking to switch to PlayStation, or maybe you want to make the big jump from console to PC gaming – if so then you can expand and properly look to spec your own workstation – after all, you’ve probably seen many RGB LED-ridden setups that PC gamers have – why not join them?
The console itself, titled the Xbox One, was marketed to the public by Microsoft as an ultimate entertainment hub – an ‘all-in-one’ (hence the name) system which will take control of music, film, internet browsing and video games in the living room. Unfortunately, this approach is extremely flawed – with services like Netflix, Spotify and products like Smart TVs becoming more commonplace, the average consumer has no real need to purchase yet another system which will do the same things.
Kinect is now mandatory, and comes with the console – this move surprises little, considering the focus Microsoft have placed on the motion sensor device during conferences past. This will most likely increase the price of the console. Admittedly, the voice-controlled interaction showcased at the conference was impressive, if a little gimmicky – however, there is a chance that the demo was scripted. The demonstrations of the original Kinect were also impressive at previous conferences (not including the infamous ‘bottom of an avatar’s shoe’ incident), despite underperforming in practice. The voice commands can also create infuriating potential situations where a friend might run into your room shouting ‘Xbox off!’ causing you to lose your progress.
When it comes to the actual games, Microsoft did not show a whole lot. A brief trailer for the new Forza was shown, alongside a really bizarre live-action/in-game hybrid trailer called Quantum Break (from the creators of Alan Wake). Fans wanted to see games like Cyberpunk 2077 but were disappointed. In the meantime, fans may wish to check out this useful romance guide for the game.
Microsoft also announced an exclusivity deal with EA, meaning exclusive downloadable content for some sports titles, including FIFA. While this is mildly interesting in its own right, it’s not groundbreaking, considering all of those sports titles will be multiplatform (available on other consoles) anyway. The company announced that the console will have 15 exclusive titles within the first year, but did not show any of them. Microsoft should have taken this opportunity to show games and experiences that will not be available on other consoles – instead, they showed some multiplatform games which would have otherwise been back-end E3 announcements.
The Call of Duty announcement was incredibly out of touch. Anyone and everyone, regardless of their interest in video games, understands that the FPS franchise is successful because of its multiplayer function. Instead of showcasing the multiplayer of the new installment of the franchise, the developers decided to spend most of their time describing the story, throwing around buzzwords like ‘emotion’ and ‘characters’ in order to demonstrate that their narrative will be more mature this time around. While I’m all for Activision attempting to make their flagship franchise more intelligent, it was probably not a good move demonstrating this at the conference, where the target audience (and the investors) were expecting a more multiplayer-focused title.
Microsoft chose to completely ignore the issue of used-games and always-online functionality during their conference, despite it being one of the most hotly contested rumours about the new console. After the event, the company made muddled statements, showing that they were completely unprepared for this predictable line of questioning. The latest statement from Microsoft is that the console will need to be online once every 24 hours in order to work (even for single-player games) and that to play a used game, you will have to pay a fee. This means you can potentially no longer rent games, or borrow from friends.
Backwards compatibility is also not a feature, meaning you cannot play any of your old 360 games (or downloadable titles) on your new machine. It is of note, however, that this is the case for Sony’s PS4 as well, although that company is attempting to implement a cloud-based solution to tackle this problem. For those that care (and I do) achievements from the previous generation will carry over to the new one, meaning you can keep working on your Gamerscore on the Xbox One.
Our first glimpse at the Xbox One it seems like Microsoft is attempting to chase after Apple and Google while not offering anything new in their respective markets. In the process, they managed to abandon their extremely loyal hardcore gaming fan base by not showing any significant new titles. This reveal was, while not as bad as Sony’s PS3 announcement (‘599 US dollars!’), extremely poor.
In order to combat the terrible initial first impression, Microsoft needs to focus its energy on its upcoming E3 press conference. The first, and most obvious thing that is an absolute necessity, is video games. It’s all very well trying to expand the user base of the machine, but the games will still be the core component. It was, after all, the gamers that made the 360 such a financial success. It’s time to show some of those 15 exclusives that were mentioned so briefly on Tuesday, preferably something graphically impressive to show how the new machine differs from the old one.
Another key announcement to be made is a firm stance on used games on used games/always-online functionality. Regardless of the position, Microsoft has to say what it is and stick with it. Otherwise, the company looks like it’s trying to hide something.
Finally, the E3 announcement has to significantly reduce the amount of time spent talking about multimedia – the other regions know that these features will not be available to them until launch, alienating large potential markets.
With this train wreck of a presentation, Microsoft is starting the console wars in the bottom position. However, with a strong E3 conference and good list of exclusives, the Xbox One could potentially be a significant contender – Sony’s last generation comeback is a great example of this.
