Here’s what the XBox One will feature:
8 Cores
An 8-core x86 processor lets you instantly switch between a game and your entertainment apps with ease.
Take those eight cores as well as 8GBs of memory and a 500 GB hard drive – Wow! That’s some seriously major league horsepower there kids especially those 8 gigs of Ram! The x86 cores might not be as eye opening to folks who aren’t overly familiar with or a lot of PC experience but if the architecture is solidly configured this should be cranking out more performance than many higher end desktops in the average home. Granted these are still x86 cores though. I think this could even create a trickle down effect of lowering the prices of PC based desktops…
HDMI Pass-Thru
Connect your cable or satellite box to your Xbox One and prepare for lift off. HDMI pass-thru enables you to watch TV through your Xbox, which makes switching inputs seem almost pre-historic.
I’m not sure if just the HDMI pass-thru is something which would be a huge game changer simply because this seems to be more a nice added feature as opposed to a critical selling point. What seems more important than the fact you won’t have to change inputs is the question of how XBox One will integrate with your current cable or satellite provider (More on that in a moment.)
Blu-ray
Watch movies and play games in stunning HD with a Blu-ray player.
I have to say this was probably the main reason I chose a PS3 as opposed to the XBox 360 when I purchased my go to console last time around. Microsoft is a little late to the game as far as including a Blu-ray player but everyone knew there would be no way this wouldn’t be part of this next gen.
Early indications lead us to believe Microsoft is looking to bring a whole new level of interactivity with your console apps by including Skype video calling and the ability to watch streaming media while also staying in touch with friends and family by snapping windows into place across your television screen. This is surely a move in order to appeal to potential buyers, who aren’t big gamers, by providing a seamless multimedia experience which allows them to surf the net, watch TV, stay plugged in to all their social media sites, and share each excruciating opinion or detail on life in general. Microsoft took a hit previously with the 360 because non-gamers looked at the platform as simply dedicated to gaming.
As with most console launches there’s plenty of promises but it remains to be seen how polished and shiny many of the features of the One will turn out right off the bat. I’ll opine Microsoft is moving in an interesting direction as the 360 was a solid choice of die hard video gamers while playing the redheaded step child to the PS3 (or even WII) when it came to the more casual crowd. Add in the fact 2012 was a disastrous year for video gaming, with a double digit drop in title sales, and it’s apparent the One is going to have to appeal to more than just twitch junkies. And I use the term “twitch junkies” in a very nice way people so don’t get up in arms.
While the One sounds pretty phenomenal in theory – I’m not saying Microsoft won’t pull this off because I’m certainly not a hater – there are still many unanswered questions about this next gen…
What’s the Initial Cost?
No word initially about the price point we can expect to see at the retail level although somewhere in the realm of $400 – $500 or more seems very likely. Also there’s no indication of different configurations to be available as far as boosting (or depleting) hard drive space so are we to understand the One, at least at the start, will only be available as a 500gb model. That would be surprising seeing how easily a terabyte sized drive should easily become a benchmark if the trend to delivering games and more other than physical disks continues to accelerate – more on this below.
What are the Follow Up Costs?
I Love TV! Who’s In and Who’s Out?
Demos of the One have featured Comcast (and Xfinity) so we know they’re on board. Other providers already have X-Box Live features currently so I’ll take a stab they should be included in the mix too. Yet, what about buyers who only have a single choice of pay TV providers which doesn’t have any affiliation with Microsoft? Will those users find their One experience extremely stunted due to no fault of their own? Reading between the lines of what the gameplan may be for the One leads me to believe the console is being designed as a replacement in some ways to the cable box in your entertainment center. What does this mean to the established pricing system of building the cost of your initial cable or satellite box into your billing? What? You thought you were getting that first box for free? Hahahahaha! Could this mean eventually seeing the One configured for specific end users based on their provider since no two companies provide a signal in the same exact way? I’ll guess this is more likely to be addressed by firmware updates depending on who you use. I’m curious if the One is going to replace your “TV box” will there be the opportunity to stream television to other screens throughout the house ala a media server? Personally, I find this one of the more interesting aspects of the aim to make the One all things to all users.
