Tonight the fight for gamers’ hearts, minds and wallets officially began. Microsoft has officially announced their next gen machine the Xbox One. Live from Xbox HQ in Redmond WA, the worlds media was treated to the systems world debut. Enter Don Mattrick who you may remember from such presentations as every Microsoft E3 conference since the launch of Xbox 360. Don began by announcing the Xbox One as “an all in one system,” that is “simple, instant and complete.” This then began an impressive tech demo which left those who crave power in gaming drooling. Rather than tease gameplay Microsoft chose to show off the hardware right from the get go.
The Xbox One is a chunky beast and conforms to the traditional box console design, it has to be said it’s not going to win any awards for looks. However the tech demo which followed the unveil could answer why the Xbox One is such a well built piece of kit. A built in upgraded Kinect comes paired with every console and runs off an 8 core GPU which makes multi tasking seamless. The phrase intelligent T.V was thrown around and during the demo of Kinect’s new power we could see why. An industry first Xbox One will break the parameters of device separation now gamers can control both the TV and console with their voice as well as multitasking with the one television screen through the Xbox Snap feature. Gamers can browse the web watch TV and even search for online games while playing another and will do so in the bat of an eyelid all at the one time. The speed in which this new machine operates is truly next gen. Coming packed with a 500 gb hard drive and 8 gb of RAM the Xbox One will remember what players last did on the system and makes jumping back into where you left off as simple as saying X-Box on. The independent console specifications can be viewed here.
Xbox Live will also be getting a revamp not only will MS points be disappearing but achievements will be returning and will be more descriptive than ever. Players who have built up an impressive gamer score need not worry either as current Live prescriptions will carry over on to the new system.
A new trending tile has been added to the Xbox Dashboard that will let gamers access the most popular content worldwide. This tagged with the Xbox Guide a fully cross device service which serves as a customisable TV guide makes the Xbox One impressive from an entertainment point of view. It was also announced that Xbox Live will now be running off 300,000 dedicated servers that’s double the current amount we currently have on 360. This only points to the emphasis cloud gaming is going to have on the industry in the next generation, this paired along with the promise of bigger game servers with more players than ever before is a mouth watering prospect.
EA where the first to take to the stage in terms of game footage. They announced a new Ignite gaming engine that all 4 of their next gen titles currently in development will run on. Fifa 14, Madden 25, NBA 2K14, and UFC will all include “True player motion, Human Intelligence and Living worlds.” The demo which followed showed some impressive footage from each of the titles along with some star studded commentary from the likes of Lionel Messi and Robert Griffin 3rd. Player movement looks more realistic than ever arenas and crowds are bigger fully 3d and more believable the very decisions NPC’s make are more accurate in game that is sure to please hardcore sports fans everywhere. The last announcement from EA was perhaps the most profound as Fifa ultimate team is now an Xbox exclusive one of 15 to come in the first year of the Xbox One’s release and no fewer than 8 of these titles are new IP’s.
Speaking of new IP’s we got a glimpse of Quantum Break although no game play footage the trailer consisted of some visually stunning cut scenes that hint at an all new action adventure. Forza in traditional fashion announced the 5th instalment in the franchise as Xbox’s answer to Gran Turismo and will be available at launch. The game looked to run smoother than ever and graphically the game could melt retina’s some of the tracks on show where as close to life like as I’ve seen.
When 343 Industries made an appearance on stage a lot of us held our breath. No it’s not Halo 5 at launch however the news they did bring was almost as good. A new live action series of Halo is being created by none other than the legend that is Steven Spielberg and will be available first on Xbox One. Although maybe not the announcement we wanted there is a clear intent of Microsoft’s to spend money on ensuring their community are given high end and constant content something that the next gen crowd can all benefit from.
Finally what gaming conference would be complete without gaming juggernaut Call of Duty making an announcement. Call of Duty Ghosts will have DLC exclusively available first on Xbox One. This shows a massive statement of intent from Microsoft to put a stranglehold on the online multiplayer market. Let’s face it that agreement didn’t come cheap but regardless of how you feel about the COD series it is nice to see a company spend big on its product to ensure their community the most elite content. The game itself was running in real time on The Xbox One system and boasted an all new plot that is being worked on by screen writer Steve Gaghan, whose most notable work is “Traffic.” Again an encouraging sign as maybe now COD developers have listened to the negative feedback regarding the dreaded six hour campaign.
All in all the Xbox One reveal was a little short on new game footage but did show the console running and a sample of the power the console will operate at. Microsoft took a different approach than Sony in their event as was expected but as what is almost certain with any of these events there is now more questions than answers. Released later this year t The Xbox One looks set to take on Sony’s PS4 on all fronts and as an undecided party I can’t wait for one of them to win me over.
