The next generation of Xbox is here and its called Xbox One

For the last few years everyone has been speculating on when the next generation Xbox would be coming out from Microsoft. Well the wait is over the Xbox One has been revealed. Microsoft during their live steam of the reveal of the new Xbox One showed off new features and some specs of the hardware. Some of the specs we already knew before the event such as the AMD APU that will be powering this beast. What we did not know is voice commands, hand gestures, snapmode, and other things.

Microsoft wants the new Xbox One to be your all in one device. It showed off watching TV though Comcast  snapmode to multitask that lets you watch movies, surf the internet, play a game, chat on Skype  The voice commands gets rid of the need for a remote to control your Xbox One and immerses you in with everything you need or want from an all in one console. Also using in conjunction with voice commands is hand gestures so you can become the remote if you do not want to use voice commands. During the presentation Microsoft also said that when you create your profile you will tailor everything to you so it becomes more conversational than commands. You can use “Xbox go to TV” instead of just using “Open TV”.

Now for the hardware side of things. As we all know the Xbox will features 64 bit architecture and an 8 core AMD APU with 8 GB of ram. What we did not know if it will feature USB 3.0, Blu-ray player, 500GB hard drive. A really big thing also is cloud computing and the fact Microsoft is building new server farms for Xbox Live. Currently Xbox Live runs off of 15,000 servers. Microsoft plans to upgrade that to over 300,000 servers. Also an upgraded controller will be coming with the new Xbox One. The DPad and triggers have been reengineered and supposedly better ergonomics.

While the hardware is impressive it is the new Kinect that really impresses. According to the presentation the Kinect will be 1080p @ 30 FPS. The Xbox team has remade the Kinect almost to get more information about the user so that it can follow movement better, respond faster, and overall integrate the user into whatever activity they are doing.

Now lets talk about games. During the presentation EA was on stage and showed off the new EA Sports Ignite engine that will run all their sports franchise games to give the user more control over their players for more realism. Activision’s Infinity Ward also showed off the world premier of Call of Duty: Ghosts with comparisons from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Also stated was that within the first year after launch, which will be this year but no confirmed date, will be 15 exclusive titles and 8 of them being brand new franchises. Like when Halo launched the original Xbox this could do the same for the Xbox One.

Beyond this was more what will be launching with the Xbox One more than about the Xbox One. Microsoft said that alot more details and gameplay will be showcased at E3 that is coming up in the next month which hopefully we will get more details and a confirmed launch date. I have admit that I am impressed with all the new features the Xbox One will have but not to much the looks. I see what they did to conceal the Xbox One with other components which some people will love and other hate. The big thing now is seeing HD video of gameplay and getting all the nitty gritty details in the next month at E3.

 

Source

Pictures coutesy of Wired.com

 

Join the Forum discussion on this post