Xbox One

[jman]

Microsoft announced today that it will officially reveal the nextbox on May 21st

So many rumours to quash/confirm..

Exciting!! 

[jman]

Early days I know.. but heres the link to watch the conference live - I think its 6pm UK time, definitely going to tune in myself.

[Late]

Aye, I'll definitely be watching it - just hope the steam holds up better than the Sony one did!

[jman]

Cant believe we havent had any leaks yet 

6 days to go!

[Late]

There was a leak a week or so back from an internal Microsoft email (to all ms staff) specifying that the console does NOT require "always on" connection to function. But as with all the other leaks in the last year or so, it's meaningless until the presser when they give us confirmed details.

[jman]

Yeah absolutely.. but even the PS4 had its leaks with its controller.. theres usually something that comes out a week or so before-hand that is so nailed on - its hard to ignore.. but theres nothing like that so far... nobody has a scooby what this thing will do or how it will function.. it makes me think we aren't going to see a lot next week to be honest.

[jman]

6pm tonight - I think you can watch the conference live through your xbox or via the link I posted above.. cant wait! 

[Late]

You have to download an app to watch it on your xbox, but it's a pretty short download - I got it last night.

[jman]

Well...... at least the new controller looks and sounds fantastic, lol

[harv]

Oops! Looks like there was some truth to that rumour that One games are 6 months behind schedule. They pretty much showed bugger all games there, and what they did show wasn't too impressive in terms of eye candy. Sony's reveal was much more impressive.

Glad that they've finally got rid of the lag from Kinect too, although I still think they should have done a Sony and cloned the remote and nunchuck. Using Kinect and the bog standard controller will be less immersive than using Kinect and remote and nunchuck type controls for FPS, TPS and any game involving the use of a sword.

And I missed the first 10 minutes...why the fuck are they calling their third console One..? A bit of a shite name imo.

[Late]

I was impressed, all in all. Not much shown on the games front, but it's fair enough to wait three weeks to e3.
I like the look of the console (very much a "Philips AV equipment" styling), the controller looks good (not much change from the current one), Kinect looks better (hopefully works in smaller rooms than the original version) and the interface looked very slick.

Don't think they mentioned the thorny issues of always on, or pre-owned games - but I did miss a few minutes here and there - and more info is being released to journalists/trade today.

[jman]

They said the games would be shown at E3... 15 exclusives in the first year with 8 new IPs is pretty impressive IMO...

The presentation was more about interactive tv.. which all looks great... but not that appealing to me, at least Kinect is lag-free... which you said couldnt be done harv... Im really not that excited over the Kinect stuff.. voice activated, gesture movements.. the snap mode looked pretty funky but other than that.. meh.. half the tv stuff wont be accessible outside the USA anyway.

The controller really looks the biz though.. force-feedback through the triggers is an awesome idea, and glad they have kept the same kinda model.

The console and kinect itself look a bit square, a bit plain and the console looks bulky if Im being honest.. it looks like something that you should have under your tv ... plain and boring... at the end of the day, I wouldnt be buying it for what it looks like - I bought an original xbox!!

The specs of the console look at least on-par with the PS4 specs, so ten times better than the Wii U in any case.

I quite like the Xbox One name personally.. its One console to rule them all kind of thing lol

More worringly though - is Microsoft pretty much confirming that everything is cloud based... games will be installed on the HDD... could this spell the end for used games... not enough information at present - thats my main issue with the thing.  I suspect Sony will be doing the same though...and this will spell even more worry for the Wii U - whats the incentive to develop on that platform.

Ultimately at the end of the day - its all about the games for me and how I can play those games.. and until E3 thats a decision I cant possibly make.

[jman]

[jman]

Well zavvi are already taking pre-orders..     £399 

[harv]

I didn't say that lag free Kinect couldn't be done. The original Kinect was lag free until Microsoft took the CPU out of it to keep the cost down. It should have shipped lag free to begin with.

What I did say was going to be difficult was to have Smartglass lag free without infringing on Nintendo's patent.