I have always been a PlayStation fan but I decided to watch
the new Xbox announcement as I was genuinely curious what Microsoft was
planning for their console. I had heard
plenty of rumors about the console, the most notable one being whether or not
the system would require a constant internet connection. It was a time of great anxiety for both
Microsoft and it's consumers. Regardless
of what all of us were thinking we all sat down whether it be at Microsoft's
event in Washington or in front of a live broadcast to see what Microsoft had
in store. I think it's fair to say that announcement
was underwhelming. To start off the name
of the new console was revealed to be Xbox One.
I'm not really a fan of the new name as I think it'll confuse many
people in the future as I think it can be easily confused for the original
Xbox. I know the reasoning for the name
for the console was because Microsoft wanted it to be the one stop for entertainment but I think some of
the rumored names like Xbox Fusion or Xbox Infinity were a little better and
could still be used to convey the console's potential. The actual look of the console is also a
little underwhelming. It seems a little
too large and blocky. I understand
there's a lot they have to store in there but I believe the Xbox 360 had a
certain elegance to its design. The
controller is pretty much the same so I didn't really have any complaints. Microsoft next touched on how the console
could connect with your TV and Cable Box.
They also demonstrated how you could seamlessly switch between games, TV
shows, movies, apps, etc. by using voice commands. While I thought this was all pretty
interesting I'm not sure if this was the right place to show off those
features. Another feature touted was the
ability so snap an application while watching a movie or playing a game. So hypothetically you could talk to your
friend over Skype while playing a game or look up showtimes for a movie on
Internet Explorer while watching TV.
Again this is all well and good but I feel that Microsoft should focus
more on the graphical and technical capabilities of the console. EA Sports took the stage to talk about some
of their plans and in all honesty I really wasn't enthralled. I may write a blog post in the future about
this but I'm not really a fan of sports games.
Another game shown off was Quantum Break. Not a lot of details were revealed but the
game is apparently going to combine both live action cutscenes and gameplay. Only a short clip was shown so I can't weigh
judgment yet. One of the more stranger
was a Halo TV series being made by Stephen Spielberg. While I don't mind the idea of a Halo TV
series I feel this was the wrong place to announce it. When you plan an event to talk about your
newest console you should do just that. I
feel a Halo TV series announcement would
be better placed at San Diego Comic Con.
The last thing shown off was the new Call of Duty games. Nothing really spectacular if you ask
me. It does look better than previous
gen games but I wouldn't really use Call of Duty as a benchmark for
graphics. And that was the end of the
conference. I know this was more of a
technical presentation but I think we expected Microsoft to show off more of
what it could do with games as opposed to how you can watch TV and use
apps. Also some of the news about the
console after the event have been very disheartening. While the Xbox One won't require a constant
internet connection a user will still be require to connect to the internet at
least once a day. Also while not
outright blocking used games if the console does detect that the game has
already been linked to an Xbox account it will block the player and require a
fee to be paid. All of this combined
with the lackluster showing is not putting Microsoft in a good position. I really think the Xbox One should have been
announced sooner like at the Consumers Electronics Show or Game Developers
console. Microsoft really needs to bring
a lot of AAA games to E3 in order to save face.
