After 8 long years, Microsoft finally launched the successor to its Xbox 360 game console, the Xbox One. The first version of the gaming device was launched in 2001 to compete against Sony's PS2. Both the companies introduced newer versions of their respective gaming consoles with online connectivity in 2005. With the Sony PlayStation 4 slated for release later this year, Microsoft has gone ahead and unveiled their next.

Hardware

The Xbox has undergone architectural changes with the processor going from the custom Intel Pentium III, to PowerPC's tri-core Xenon, and now to AMD's 8-core APU. Likewise, the graphics chipset changed from NVIDIA to AMD. The Xbox One will be powered by a CPU with the x86-64 instruction codes. This should make life easier for game developers to make game versions for the PC and the Xbox One with neither one looking like a makeshift port with bad graphics. The good thing is that Xbox One will support 4K resolution and 7.1 surround sound. This will finally bring console gaming on par with PC gaming as far as the complexity and details of the graphics are concerned. Storage has been upgraded to 500 GB, which should be sufficient for most purposes.

The Xbox One will have a slot-loading Blu-ray drive. Yes, Microsoft has finally embraced Blu-ray after shying away from the high definition optical drive format for five years since the demise of the HDDVD format, which it had coveted for years.

OS

The OS on the Xbox One looks eerily similar to Windows 8 with the tile-based UI. The console will run three operating interfaces: Xbox OS (for gaming), a Windows kernel-based OS that is similar to Windows 8, and a third interface that will facilitate communication between the other two. While it will not be compatible with Windows 8 as such, which means that you may not be able to run apps for the OS on the console, it should not be a problem to port them to the console with slight modifications due to the similar architectures.

There are a few new things that will set it apart from its competitors.

Voice Commands

The Xbox One understands voice commands to make your life easier. For example, you can just say "Xbox On" to launch your personalised Xbox One Home screen and issue other commands to do other tasks. The company boasts that the console can recognise voice commands even in a crowded noisy environment by isolating the user's voice, thanks to the better microphone in the new Kinect.

Better Online Connectivity And Presence

Better Skype experience is being touted by Microsoft with the Xbox One. The new Kinect will come with a 1080p camera, which will allow for better video chat. Also, there is a Snap feature that is basically a picture-in-picture feature using which you can video chat on Skype while playing a game, with the Skype video window sitting in one corner of the screen with the game or a TV show running on the rest of the screen. Apps such as Netflix are there to watch online movies and more apps should be available by the time the console becomes available. The popular Internet Explorer browser is there for other online activities.

TV

It is mentioned that the Xbox One will be able to work with set-top boxes (initially only in the US), to watch live TV. The console will be able to control the STB via HDMI cable that connects the two. Of course, this means that the STB has to support this control method. While this functionality will be limited to the US on immediate release of the console, the company does have plans to bring it to all markets where Xbox One will be available.

DVR

It is for the first time that a gaming console will now be able to record games as they are being played and you can show them off to your friends for bragging rights. Of course, this is possible with the powerful processor and the ample storage space that comes with the Xbox One. The Xbox One will feature an HDMI-In in addition to a standard HDMI-Out, which will let it connect to STBs as mentioned earlier. While the company hasn't mentioned it explicitly, this setup should be able to serve as your personal DVR and make sure that you will not miss any show even when you may not be present in front of the TV when it airs live.

Upcoming Games

Microsoft has made sure that a lot of big titles will be available when the Xbox One becomes available by the end of this year. Of these, Remedy Entertainment's Quantum Break is touted to be a promising game that blends a TV show with gaming. Remedy puts it as "how you play the game impacts the show, and the show informs how you play the game". Additionally, there will be the highly anticipated Call Of Duty: Ghosts, Forza Motorsport 5, FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, NBA LIVE 14, and Quantum Break, with more titles expected to be announced at E3 2013.

Comparison With The PS4

The Xbox One and the PS4 will both be available by the end of this year. While the PS4 was announced earlier this year in February, we are yet to get a glimpse of how it looks, let alone its detailed specifications. We at least know how the Xbox One looks like. Both the consoles will be powered by 8-core processors with X86-64 instruction sets and feature 8 GB of RAM. Blu-ray, USB 3.0, Wi-Fi, and HDMI-Out are also common features. Just like the PS3, the PS4 is also likely to support stereoscopic 3D, while there is no mention of such a feature in the Xbox One as of now. The Xbox One has a storage capacity of 500 GB, while that of the PS4 is unknown as of now. Social gaming is being promoted by both companies on their respective consoles. Also, the Xbox One supports HDMI-In, which the PS4 lacks, and also touts controlling the STB to watch live TV in addition to having the capability of recording games, none of which is known to exist on the PS4.

In Conclusion

The Xbox One is still a long way off till it is launched, so we do not know of its performance and even its specifications are not known in details. However, we do know just enough to present our views about the upcoming console. If you think of it, there is not much that puts the Xbox One too much ahead of the PS4 as of now as we only know brief specifications of both the consoles and nothing about the performance. However, it is the availability and quality of game titles that will be the deciding factor.

There are a few things that may not go down well with gamers. The Xbox One is not compatible with game titles for previous versions of the console. Also, games can be installed from a Blu-ray to the hard drive only once and you will not be able to install it on another console, unless you pay additional fee. This is because the game gets linked to the Xbox account associated with the console on which it is installed first. While this may be disliked by gamers, it is not really wrong from a legal point of view. Also, there is no mention of support for stereoscopic 3D, which is surprising in this age.

Microsoft has aimed to portray the Xbox One as a convergent device with games, TV, movies, music, and apps along with internet and cloud storage all in a single device. Microsoft has been trying to converge desktop PCs, tablets, and mobile phones with its Windows 8, Windows RT, and Windows Phone 8 operating systems and the Xbox One will be a new addition there. The "convergent device" approach to portray it as a complete entertainment device with online connectivity will surely pay dividends in the months after its launch. How much of those dividends it earns will depend on how well Microsoft braces to face its competitor, the Sony PS4 in India, and the Nintendo Wii U abroad. Of course, this is manageable with a constant replenishment of games, apps, and online services, provided, Microsoft doesn't lose steam by the time the Xbox One is launched after several months from now.
 

Tags : Gaming, Xbox