Microsoft announces Xbox One

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Be amazed.

Welcome to a new generation of games and entertainment. Where games push the boundaries of realism. And television obeys your every command. Where listening to music while playing a game is a snap. And you can jump from TV to movies to music to a game in an instant. Where your experience is custom tailored to you. And the entertainment you love is all in one place. Welcome to the all-in-one, Xbox One

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Simple. Instant. Complete.

Xbox One is a state-of-the art gaming console, a new
generation TV and movie system and a whole lot
more. Gone are the days of switching inputs on your
TV to play a game or watch a movie. With Xbox One,
you can quickly jump from TV to movies to music to
a game. Just with the sound of your voice.

Be immersed.

With Xbox One, games are so lifelike, you’ll swear
they’re real. Immerse yourself in cinematic worlds
with characters that are more human than ever.
And reach into television, sports, music, and even
the web in ways you never imagined possible.

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Be recognized.
Xbox One gets to know you. It learns what you like
and what you don’t. And brings it all together on
your own personal home screen. And because every
Xbox One comes with Kinect, it responds naturally to
your voice, movements, and gestures. Say goodbye
to the days of one-size-fits-all entertainment.

Be connected.

Xbox One brings you closer to the entertainment you
love and the people you care about. You can chat
with your friends on Skype while watching football
on TV. Or show off your best game highlights
instantly with Game DVR. And because Xbox One is
powered by the cloud, you won’t have to wait
around for game updates. It looks like the living room can finally start living up to its name.

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Don’t miss out...

On Tuesday Microsoft unveiled the next generation of its Xbox –the Xbox One. The One though isn't just a gaming system as the Xbox has long been – it's an "all-in-one" entertainment system.

The new console integrates with a cable box, will have streaming video capabilities, and also original Xbox video content, including a Halo TV series made by Steven Spielberg. It promises to loop your cable box into the interactive Xbox experience, allowing you to channel surf via voice control and video chat while watching TV and movies.

The Xbox One will face the gaming competition from the likes of Nintendo and Sony when it comes out at the end of the year, but many have also been pointing out another competitor that has long been rumored to focus on cracking the living room tech problem: Apple.

"Steve Jobs' Dream Device Has Arrived, and It's Made by Microsoft" aheadline on Slate reads. "Microsoft's new Xbox One is an Apple killer, the living room,"Quartz wrote. "Did Microsoft Just Kick Apple Out of the Living Room?"Mashable asked.

Apple now sells Apple TV, a box which hooks up to a TV and allows users to download movies and TV shows from iTunes as well as stream video through services like Netflix and Hulu Plus. However, Apple has long been rumored to be building a more advanced Apple TV product, one that might actually be HDTV. It's the long-rumored iTV, as some have called it.

The Specs

As we reported back in February, the new Xbox will have a 500GB harddrive, 8GB RAM, and a Blu-ray drive for both games and Blu-ray movies. Full specs below.

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Snap Mode:
Microsoft sees Xbox One not just as a video game console but as a bona fideentertainment system, and Snap Mode is one of the reasons: the new feature allows you to connect the Xbox to your television and use voice controls to interact with both interfaces. You can use Skype, for example, to chat with friends while watching TV, or you can say"Xbox, show fantasy"to see your fantasy basketball stats while watching LeBron James score.

There's also a feature called"Xbox Trending"that shows what television is currently popular on Xbox Live."This is the beginning of truly intelligent TV,"Microsoft says.

Intelligent TV:
And, yes, the Xbox One is all about TV. Yesterday, Microsoft announced a bigpartnership with the NFLthat will let Americans watch football on their console:

Fans will get new television viewing innovations, including the ability to watch games, Skype video chat with other fans, view statistics, access highlights in real time and gather fantasy information about players and teams — all on a single screen. For those who prefer multiple screens, fans can get an even deeper experience on mobile devices and tablets with SmartGlass technology. Microsoft also announced a new Halo TV series that will be produced by Steven Spielberg.

Used Games?

One thing Microsoft hasn't been clear about: used games. We know that every game will come with an activation code, and that you'll have to install a game to your system's harddrive before using it. You'll also have to register it online and connect it to your Xbox Live account. Your whole family will be able to play the same game on your Xbox One, but if you want to, say, bring a game to a friend's house and play on his machine, you'll have to use your account. If you give a game to a friend, and he wants to play it on his own account, he'll have to buy it.

Sounds like the concept of"used games"as we know it might be going away. But... Microsoft says there will be *some* way totrade Xbox One games online. They're being sketchy on the details, though.

Always-Online?
Microsoft is also being sketchy about whether or not the platform will be always-online, something that has been rumored for quite some time now. According to their press site:"No, it does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet."

Uh, what? We asked Phil Harrison for clarification, and he said that the console will need to connect to the Internetat least once a day. But Microsoft has walked that back, describing it as just a"potential scenario"for how Xbox One will function. In other words, they haven't decided what they're doing yet.
You will, however, need an Internet connection to play games that use Microsoft's Azure cloud capabilities, which they haven't detailed much yet. Developers could theoretically use cloud servers to offload some of the hardware work and make games look bigger and brighter. Those games would probably not be playable offline.

Xbox Live:
First and foremost, Microsoft is bumping up the Xbox Live friend cap to 1,000. There's also a brand new Reputation system that Microsoft hopes will facilitatea friendlier Xbox Live, with far less teabagging and racial slurs. No word yet on how much the new services will cost, or whether multiplayer will be free, or what sort of tiers will be available. (Right now, you have to pay for an Xbox Live gold membership in order to use most of the network's features.)

Backwards Compatibility:
This one is simple: Xbox One is not backwards compatible. Don't throw out your Xbox 360."If you’re backwards compatible, you’re really backwards,"Microsoft's Don Mattrick told theWall Street Journalfor some reason.

The Big Games:
Pickings were rather slim for software at Microsoft's event. We saw some EA sports games—FIFA, Madden, NBA Live—and we saw an interesting-looking new horror game from Remedy (the folks behindAlan Wake), calledQuantum Break. We also got to see the next Call of Duty. It has, uh,a dog. Stephen saw it, and he's got a full previewright here.

Ubisoft, Bungie, and Square Enix have all jumped out to confirm thatAssassin's Creed IV,Watch Dogs,Destiny, andThiefare all coming to Xbox One, although we didn't see any of those games at today's event.Battlefield 4is an Xbox One game too. We'll likely seeRespawn's new Xbox gameat E3, along with a ton of other big next-gen games.
And Microsoft has promised 15 exclusives. Whatever that means.

The Indies:
Xbox One does not seem very indie-friendly.Indies can't self-publishon the system. And prominent independent developers have not had great things to say:
one thing MSFT doesn't seem to understand is that indie developers are the regular developers of tomorrow.
— PHIL FISH (@PHIL_FISH)May 22, 2013

Compared to Sony and Nintendo, who seem to both be embracing the indie community, Microsoft has shown very little interest in independent developers, at least for now.

Region-Locking?
We asked Microsoft if Xbox One is region-locked. No comment.

Achievements:
For Xbox One, your gamerscore will carry over from Xbox 360, and there's a whole new achievement system"powered by the cloud"that will let you rack up points in new ways.
The details are vague so far, but it sounds interesting:

Nothing Is Finalized

Lots of decisions—especially the ones involving used games and always-online—are stillup in the air. And we don't know how much it'll cost, or what games will be available at launch. Expect to hear much more about Xbox One in the coming weeks and months, starting with Microsoft's E3 press conference on June 10