Xbone up
Microsoft’s new console, the Xbox One, comes out in North American on November 22. That’s soon! It will cost $500. That’s fair chunk of money! I think it’s time we Xbone up on the Xbox One with everything we know about it thus far.
Here’s your first factoid. Not everyone at Microsoft appreciates the nickname “Xbone,” but Microsoft’s Phil Spencer hasadmitted, “I think it’s going to stick.” In a move Microsoft likely appreciates even less, parents will hopefully still just call it “a Nintendo.”
The Xbox One will launch June 20, 2025 in 13 world markets:Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom, and USA.It will retail for $499 in North America, £429 in the U.K. and €499 in Europe.
Markets that werepreviously slatedto see the console launch on the same date —Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland — can expect it in 2014. So too can Japan, though an exact date and pricingare not available. The Xbox One is North America and Europe-centric.
Well,this Xbox One unboxing videowill show you exactly what! I’m still going to tell you, though.
The Xbox One comes with a 500gb hard drive (and 8gb flash memory), which you’ll need. Games likeBattlefield 4andCall of Duty: Ghostsare about 40gb and 50gb in size, respectively, and the Xbox One requires you to install games to the hard drive — even if you have the game on disc. Note that the Xbox One hard drive is not easily replaceable and currently the console does not support external hard drives for storing data.
Xbox One discs are able to hold that much data, versus the Xbox 360, which sometimes required games to span multiple discs, because the Xbox One has a blu-ray drive. You will be able to watch blu-ray disc films on the console.
The console is riddled with ports, too, including HDMI in/out ports, S/PDIF, a new Kinect sensor port, three USB 3.0 ports, and both Wired and Wireless (A/B/G/N dual-band 2.4 and 5ghz frequencies) networking. The latter means that, unlike with the 360, the Xbox One can pick up wifi without a separate, pricey wireless adapter.
Want harder details? The One has 8gb of DDR3 RAM (3gb reserved for the operating system) and 32mb of embedded eSRAM. It sports an 8-Core x86 AMD CPU.
One of Microsoft’s strong selling points with the Xbox One is anupgraded version of the Kinect, which originally was an Xbox 360 add-on that allowed for motion-based gaming without a controller. This enhanced Kinect works at an improved minimum distance of4.5 feet(rather than requiring you to be 6 to 8 feet away) and has a 1080p, HD camera in addition to its four microphones, allowing for high quality video calling via Skype.
you may have Skype running in the background no matter what you’re doing, be it playing a game or watching a movie.
Beyond games that use the Kinect in certain ways, likeDance Central, the camera has a number of different features. you’re able to use it to turn the Xbox One on with just your voice and it can translate speech to text. It can distinguish between different voices in a room and has facial recognition abilities; for example, some games will be able to assess your facial expressions to infer emotion.
Of course, this has opened upprivacy concerns, which Microsoft has addressed in the Kinect portion of itsprivacy policy.
Thankfully, the Kinectno longer has to be onfor the Xbox One to function (though it has to be on for any Kinect functionality). The Kinect can also be used as a microphone to chat with friends online if you would rather use it over the packed in headset.
A mono headset is packed in with all Xbox One consoles. It can be used to chat with friends online in lieu of the Kinect. Should you want another, it is on theMicrosoft Store(and elsewhere) for $25.
The console willnot support third party headsets(or any Xbox 360 headsets) until 2014 and even then it will require an adapter built by Microsoft. Hopefully it will allow your current headsets to work with the Xbox One as well as any newly produced third-party headsets.
Voice chat on the Xbox Onesounds much betterthan it did on the 360, too.
The Xbox One controller is generally great, at least in my first-hand experience (it no longer has the world’s worst d-pad, as the 360 controller did). There are a few things to beaware of, of course.
Like the 360 controller, the Xbox One controller runs on AA batteries. you’re able to buy arechargeable battery packfrom Microsoft (or elsewhere, like Amazon) for $25 or you can buy one bundled with a controller for $75. The controller is $60 on its own, so you would be saving $10 on the battery pack.
You can also wire the controller to the console with the packed in USB cord and use it without batteries. Wiring will also reduce input delay for those who need the extra responsiveness.
Up toeight controllerscan be paired to the Xbox One, though few developers make games that support more than four players.
Unfortunately, the controllerwill not work with PCsuntil some time in 2014, so don’t throw out your Xbox 360 controllers yet.
The following games (some are physical, retail releases; some are downloadable only) will be available for Xbox Oneat launch, November 22. If you own certain games on Xbox 360,you’re able to “upgrade”to the Xbox One versions for an extra $10.
Exclusive to the Xbox One:
The rest:
There’s alsothis big list of gamesthat will be coming to Xbox One after the launch titles. Notable titles includeBelow(timed exclusive),D4(exclusive),Dragon Age: Inquisition,Destiny,Final Fantasy XV,Metal Gear Solid V,Quantum Break(exclusive),The Witcher 3, and more.
A paid “Xbox Live Gold” subscription ($60/year) is necessary for access to most of the Xbox One’s additional features, including online play, streaming via Netflix, web browsing, Skype, NFL on Xbox, Game DVR, and so on.
Games that employ free-to-play pricing models on Xbox One generally still require a paid Gold subscription, too. One notable omission is Microsoft’sProject Spark, which is said to be truly free-to-play.
Only one Xbox Live account holder needs to pay for a Gold subscription per system for all accounts signed into that system to have access to all the things locked behind Gold’s pay wall.
The system willrequire a day-one updatethrough the internet, though the console no longer has the “always online” requirement introduced at launch.
You canplay games as they download.This is the case for disc and digital titles. No word if this works withForza 5, which needs an update to finish the game at launch.
The Xbox One Game DVR is always recording your last 5 minutes of gameplay (at 720p and 30 fps) in case you do something neat and want to share the footage.
The console also records allAchievement unlocks, which could help Achievement video guides.
you’re able to alsobroadcastyour gameplay to Twitch.TV or watch other live streams.
Thisis the Xbox One at start up and transitioning seamlessly to thenew dashboard interface.
Microsoft features extensive Skype support, as mentioned, because Microsoft owns Skype. Other third-party applications will likely be available, too. It’s believed the Xbox One willsupport Windows 8 apps.
Xbox One games will not beregion-locked.
The newFriends Listis feed-based, like social media sites such as Twitter, and allows for a “following” function in addition to the ability to add friends.
Sometime next year, you will be able to use your real name instead of a “gamertag” to identify yourself on the console.
All mulitplayer games on Xbox One usededicated serversfor a smoother experience.
The Xbox Entertainment Studios will provide programming such as a live-actionHaloseries and thissoccer reality show.
