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IGN News I'm sure many remember Microsoft's less-than-flawless reveal of their new console, the Xbox One, a couple months ago, and again at E3. It's apparent lack of core gaming features and iteration of many TV/DVR integration features gave the impression that the X1 was no more of a gaming console than a DVR. Sony fans laughed. Xbox fans cried. And Nintendo fans did whatever Nintendo fans do. The new Xbox was fell drastically in popularity, being outsold in preorders to Sony's PS4 10:1 or more. The main problems included the requirement of daily internet access for the console to keep games up to date and deter hacking. It was announced not backwards compatible with Xbox and Xbox 360 games. The hard drive was internal and rather small in capacity, considering games require installation on the X1, so many complained that running out of storage without means of upgrading the hard drive may be impossible. Microsoft allowed developers to integrate single-use game codes (kind of like the Cerberus service for Mass Effect 2 or Multiplayer for BFBC2) so games could not be resold. And most importantly (to me, anyway) was that the internal hardware was notably inferior to Sony's PS4, and yet cost $100 more. Yes, the Xbox One was falling way short of expectation in more ways than I can remember, and Microsoft's Xbox division took a hit when it's president, Don Mattrick, resigned and was replaced by a person with no gaming background. Personally, I thought this to be the fall of Xbox. But three months later, it may have risen again. A couple days after confirming mandatory internet access intervals, Microsoft rejected their new DRM policy and fell back on one resembling the Xbox 360, which worked fine anyway. Personally, this was a selling point for me because I do not get internet service for about 4 months per year. It was also at this point that Xbox One sales finally started competing with Playstation 4. I figured that Microsoft would stop there, at least until after release, to see consumer response of their still rather lacking console. But (thankfully) they didn't. Not too much later did they announce that the Kinect sensor no longer needed to be active or even plugged in to play. I also noticed that the hard drive could now be accessed externally, which makes me believe, though not confirmed, that the hard drive may be replaceable. Microsoft developers will no longer use single-use codes, so games can be resold, and cool extra features such as in-game DVR recording, cloud-based processing (for those lucky enough to have great internet service), reputation preservation (to save and tranfer each player's hard-earned gamerscore), Second screen integration via Xbox Smartglass application for most mobile devices and Windows 8 OS, Blu-Ray disc drive, and many entertainment center integration features have shined light on the potential of the Xbox One, which began outselling PS4 at most main retailers. As of late, Microsoft has, yet again, updated the hardware of their new console by slightly overclocking the consoles 8 core AMD CPU, improving the base clock speed from 8.00MHz to 8.53MHz. They also upgraded the GPU to accomodate. Unfortunately, the Xbox One is still not backwards compatible, but that is not really Microsoft's fault because they had to change to a core architecture that offers best performance and simplest coding for developers, and Xbox and Xbox 360 games are not compatible with this architecture (they made the right choice changing to an architecture the best suits their future than degrading quality to hold on to the past). The console still requires game installation for reasons unbeknownst to me. Xbox Live is still not free, but I do not think Microsoft is raising the price for the service. The console does need to access the internet at least once before use, probably to register the console and update, etc. The console is also still slightly inferior to PS4 in clock speed and in RAM (Playstation 4's 8GB of DDR5 will offer better loading times and reduced graphical latency than the X1's conventional 8GB DDR3) and is still more expensive, but those who know how business works know that Microsoft follows a 'Closed Console' business model when selling consoles, meaning they actually lose a little money by producing consoles (because there is more than $500 of third-party computer equipment in the Xbox One) and try to make up losses in game sales, which is why games are so expensive, why console exclusives exist, and why used game sales hurt console manufacturers. Considering that Microsoft is also trying to appeal to non-gamers as well with TV integration features, Microsoft has to make up for those few who buy the console without games. Add in the rather advanced Kinect sensor, and $500 does not sound too appalling. Moral of the story: for the best gaming experience, Sony's Playstation 4 is technically the superior console. However, if you like Xbox and are not ready to give up on Xbox exclusives we've grown to love to avoid a poor gaming experience, the new Xbox One, in my opinion, is now a console worth buying. Thanks for putting up with my novel-esque post! P.S.: Excited about Halo 5? Liked the E3 teaser but hate watching it in poor, E3 recording quality? TRY THIS!
