Xbox One, the Future of Gaming or Just Another Console? (Part Three)

The Xbox One Reveal

This is the final installment of a three part series following Microsoft's transition from the original Xbox, to the 360 and now the Xbox One.  Knowing Microsoft's past, can we predict the future success or failure of the Xbox One?  And how will Microsoft's past experiences play a role in the business and technological decisions behind the Xbox One?  These are the questions that we seek to understand as we piece together Microsoft's past consoles with the first few weeks of news about the Xbox One.  **Station 1621... reporting in...** 

On May 21st, 2013, Microsoft took the first big step in showing the public the future of the Xbox brand.  Their new console, the Xbox One, was revealed to anxious consumers across the globe in an informational but lackluster live reveal.  Putting to rest the countless internet rumors, the name "Xbox One" was chosen to express the device's "all-in-one" home entertainment capability.  Marc Whitten, a Microsoft executive, stated that the latest installment of the Xbox will "change everything."  While we can safely say, as seen in parts one and two of Station 1621's review of Microsoft's past consoles, the Xbox and Xbox 360 effectively pushed the video game industry forward in many ways no one could expect.  From just the sampling of information we have from the Xbox One reveal, is this a valid claim for Microsoft to be making? Or is Microsoft's future within the console industry at jeopardy?  These are the questions we must excavate out of the information presented forward by Microsoft at this time.

As we here at Station 1621 have expressed multiple times, the confusion surrounding the Xbox One is vast.  The live reveal on May 21st focused mainly on the newest capabilities of the console and left many questions about always online requirements, developer programming, used games and the new games coming to the system unanswered.  The technical specifications match those of Xbox One's competition, the Playstation 4, and can be found in the Station 1621 archive here.  The Xbox One's ground breaking new entertainment advancements include:

• Blu-Ray Player (Finally!)
• HDMI-In Port - Enables users to integrate the Xbox One with their TV watching experience.  For example, a person could bring up their fantasy football team while watching the Bengals play the Steelers on live TV.
• New controller with over 40 new design innovations including "impulse triggers" which give vibrating feedback into your figure tips.
• A completely redesigned Kinect with infra-red technology that can sense players in the dark and even check their pulse.
• Cloud system to store games, videos, music, pictures and more.  This is very interesting as many games will in part run on the console and within the cloud.  This will free up space for you to be playing a game and surfing the internet at the same time.
• Updated UI, reminiscent of Windows 8.
• 300,000 dedicated servers for Xbox Live (that is a ton for those who don't know) 

Xbox One's integrated TV guide

While these new features seem very cool, the Xbox One reveal fell short when conveying the types of games that will be played on the new console.  Questions about whether used games will be playable and possible new gaming titles fell wayside to a conference strictly about new entertainment features.  The content of the Xbox One reveal contrasts greatly to the PS4 reveal which, as you could guess, focused strictly on new games and how they will look on the new console.  While many questions will be answered at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) on June 11th-13th, gamers are left to speculate at the vagueness of the Xbox One's gaming capabilities.  The online backlash of the Xbox One reveal was immediate with many hardcore gamers arguing that the Xbox One's focus on entertainment features reveals Microsoft's greater plan to no longer cater to the hardcore gamer.  Google any major gaming website's forums and you will see an unbelievable amount of vitriol spitted at Microsoft's new gaming console.  While some of the criticism is fair since Microsoft has been so confusing on many points about the Xbox One, much of the criticism stems directly from the fear that the dedicated console gamer is being forgotten in Microsoft's new system.

While many have tried to persuade me that this is the case, I tend to take a different approach when trying to uncover Microsoft's true intentions behind the Xbox One.  When comparing both the Xbox One reveal and the PS4 reveal, it is clear the Xbox is focusing on an all encompassing entertainment system while the PS4 focuses on a fully capably next-gen gaming console.  Please note the italics because its imperative that you understand the differences between these entities.  The Xbox One, from its first reveal, presents itself as a PC that you plug into your TV.  Running three different operating systems including an Xbox OS, a Windows 8 type OS and an OS that communicates between both, the Xbox One thinks and acts like a computer.  Like the original Xbox and the Xbox 360, the Xbox One was designed to allow developers to more easily cross-platform their games and apps from the PC to the Xbox.  In the past, this ease in development allowed the Xbox to separate itself from the Playstation 4; however, in the case of the Xbox One, I see this as a move to not only compete with Sony's PS4 but to take on both Apple and Google's stranglehold on the tablet and mobile markets.

The Xbox One and the Xbox brand, represent Microsoft's only product that is currently dominating a market share.  As Microsoft's tablets, app store and mobile phones flounder at the hands of Apple's iOS and Google's Android, Microsoft is coming to realize that they can't mirror the business moves made by Apple and Google and expect to obtain a share of the growing tablet/mobile market.  There are a myriad of reasons for why Windows based tablets and phones aren't taking off but it is clear that consumers require a thriving app market from their mobile devices.  While the Windows Store hit over 50,000 apps for tablets a couple of months ago, any realistic person knows that apps are first developed for Apple and Google products before Windows.  This fact alone places Windows at a disadvantage and makes it impossible for them to make up any ground within the tablet and phone world.  Without any of their other products catching on, the Xbox brand represents Microsoft's one shining accomplishment outside of the personal computer and operating system world.  Microsoft is using their latest console system to pave a path of potential growth into  a different market untouched (yet!!) by the likes of Apple and Google.

What does the iPod have to do with the Xbox One?

Let my try to explain this potential growth path by citing an example more familiar with consumers around the world: the iPod.  Released in 2001, the iPod marked Apple's first step into the downloadable music age that they dominate today.  Coming from a personal computer background, Apple took a huge risk in creating the iPod.  This risk lead the company to seize control of developing technology and utilize it to give people their music library in the palm of their hand (pretty crazy in 2001).  As the popularity of the iPod grew, so too did Apple's ambitions.  Apple stepped their foot into the mobile phone market with the iPhone and recreated a line of laptops with their newly designed Macbooks.  As more and more success came to Apple, they pushed the technological envelope and ultimately revolutionized the tablet market we know today.  The iPad would not have been possible without Apple taking a leap of faith with the iPod over twelve years ago.  The iPod paved a path for an unprecedented amount of growth for Apple and lead to many of the devices, both iOS products and others, we use today.

The Xbox is, or has to be, Microsoft's iPod.  Over the past ten years, Microsoft has controlled the console gaming industry while losing ground in other areas of entertainment.  While profitable, Microsoft must now take risks with their Xbox brand in order to seize any market shares in the mobile platform and home entertainment fields.  The Xbox One can help Microsoft better themselves in the tablet and phone market as it is has a large population using it each day.  Because of this (as they do now), game developers will create a flurry of new games and apps for the Xbox Live marketplace.  The Xbox One is set up so that these new games and apps will then be able to be cross-platformed into the Windows app store.  This will generate the much need app market support that defines whether or not an OS is successful in the tablets and phones people use every day.  With tablet integration a high priority for the Xbox One, this will hopefully at least spark people's interest in owning a Windows tablet or phone as the app store because more and more filled.   This of course all hinges on the fact of whether or not Microsoft can market this plan well enough.  If looking at the past history of the Xbox reveals anything, its that Microsoft isn't afraid to pour money into something that produces very little return.  The Xbox One being a viable means to help push Microsoft's tablet market is just one of the many markets it seeks to explore.

In addition to supporting Microsoft's tablet market, the Xbox One will place Microsoft in direct competition with TV devices such as Apple and Google TV.  These devices seek to enhance the home entertainment/television experience by coupling TV viewing with other Apple and Google devices.  These type of devices explain why the Xbox One reveal spent a ton of time explaining how the new Xbox can be connected to a cable or satellite box.  Microsoft is forging a new path into how TV and other entertainment is suppose to be viewed within the family living room.  The Xbox One's TV function is a statement, not just to gamers, but to the entire consumer electronic world that they are here to push the technological envelope themselves on a standard that hasn't been changed in some time.

The Xbox One isn't simply a gaming console but more of an entertainment system a person should compliment their TV and living room experience with.  This doesn't take away from the fact that the new Xbox will undoubtedly be amazing for playing games on.  It will mirror the experience players will have on the Playstation 4, if not surpass it, because of the possibilities presented by the new Kinect system and the added integration to all Windows based devices.  If Microsoft simply created a gaming console, they would be under utilizing many of the products they have already produced.  In fact, if they had created a system that only plays games, I do not believe the Xbox brand would survive.  The console video game business model, in its current state, is broken.  AAA games (big budget, big development team etc.) are becoming less and less frequent due to the little returns game studios are seeing from their products.  The most profitable realm of gaming right now is low budget games created for mobile devices.  Knowing this, why would any company base an entire console system on something that may or may not make money?  It's foolish.

The Xbox One is Microsoft's attempt to bridge the gap between a game console and a PC that you use with your TV.  With added functionality for cloud computing, tablets and more, the Xbox One presents Microsoft's best shot at bettering themselves within the other core electronic device areas.  While it is a giant risk to abandon a business model that works such as the Xbox 360, like Apple's iPod, it is a necessary decision in order to push the medium of console video gaming forward.  Within the next ten years, game consoles may even become obsolete as all of their functions will be stored within the cloud.  The Xbox One is the first step towards a future where the lines, once forged between your electronic devices, are blurred.  This console isn't just the future of gaming but represents the inevitable future for all electronic devices.

I know many of my friends are upset at all the added functions the Xbox One has presented.  They feel Microsoft has abandoned the console gamer and only cares about the pockets of those who have never even played a video game.  I understand, I do, but I take comfort in one fact: the Xbox One is Microsoft's only growth path available to them right now and they will pour a tremendous amount of resources into the system to make it work.  The company can't afford to neglect the strongest support base of their most popular device.  The Xbox One will be a great device to play games on and will serve as an entertainment hub for TV, music, online streaming and more.  As E3 approaches, we will get a better idea about how the games will look on the Xbox One and much of the information we don't know now should be filled in.  Keep checking back to Station 1621 as we will be reporting in all of the data relevant for you.

Station 1621's Mass Effect playthrough will continue this afternoon at 1 PM after a slight hiatus.  Check it out here.

As always, see you starside.

-1621

**Transmission terminated**