Today Microsoft, hereby known as M$, had a press conference where they introduced the world to the new Xbox, the Xbox One. Like a sandwich from a vending machine, it might look good but after a few bites you get a bad taste in your mouth, and a few hours later you are on the toilet with a bad case of the trots.
I was at work during the press conference watching some feeds but not able to see the event. When it was over I checked out some news articles and read some of the specs: it looked like a good machine with a better version of Kinect bundled with it and a decent looking controller. It also worked as a cable box and dvr, something I like because Comcast sucks.
Then I read a bit more, and when I got home I watched some videos.
M$ had said that they were not going to do the "always online" thing, then they said they would leave it up to the individual publishers to decide what they wanted for each game, but now they said that you need to be online only not all the time, just like once a day to check in. I don't mind this really, but I still find it to be a bad decision.
Rumors had been floating around about the lack of used game playing on the new system and they weren't far from the truth. Though they are not releasing many details yet, M$ has announced that there will be a fee associated with playing used games, though they also mentioned something about trading games online. They are essentially making it so we can't buy a game from Gamestop and play it without some sort of extra charge, nor will we be able to swap games with our friends without paying for them. It seems this has to do with the mandatory install of all games you play and the fact that you can play them without the disc once installed.
Oh, yeah, you have to install all the games you want to play. I don't mind this much either, and being able to play games without the disc is actually a grand idea, but there is a problem: you can't upgrade the 500 gigabyte hard drive. 500 gigs? Really? That's maybe 20 bluray discs. So, depending on the size of the OS, I can install maybe 20 games before I have to delete something to free up space. I have 200 Xbox 360 games (not including another 200+ XBLA games)! If I had to install them all I would need over a terabyte of hard drive space (with all the DLC and crap with them).
At least the Xbox One will have a bluray drive. Wait, I already have a bluray player, it's called a PS3. Larger discs for larger games is fine though, I like it. It means we can get more on-disc DLC to pay for. I'm looking at you EA!
Well, as long as I can play my 360 games on it, I will buy one.
Wait...
I can't play my 360 games on it? Not even my XBLA games? WTF! Even Nintendo lets me play the last systems games on the current console! PS3 let me play PS2 games in it (for a little while until they decided it was better to make us all buy them all again digitally) and my Xbox 360 still plays some (most) original Xbox games.
*Deep Breath*
I like the whole "One stop shop for your multimedia needs" thing. Being able to watch and record TV (Comcast still sucks), getting live updates to fantasy football teams (I don't partake but it's a neat idea), multi-tasking, talking to it and having it do things (still waiting for "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot" but Nasa is getting there), and playing video games... it's a great bundle. With powerful hardware and wicked awesome software, it will go far, I just don't want the bad stuff to go with it.
Speaking Writing of software, there was a neat looking game announced amongst the sports and racing games they showed: Quantum Break.
It might be garbage but it might be good. I like the mix of live action and cgi. I guess M$ said they have 15 exclusive games in development now with 8 being new IPs. That is something to look forward too.
It's a shame I may just miss out on them. I won't pass judgement just yet, we don't have the whole story and until the system is released we won't really know what it can and can't do. No one wanted the Wii until it came out, then you couldn't find it in stores for 2 years.
If things go they way it looks, I may just skip this upcoming generation of gaming systems and stick to my Wii U and PCs. I hope it ends up being better than it looks, though.