Xbox ONE Reveal Summary by Matthew Kenealy

Here is my summary of Microsoft’s Xbox reveal:

So to start of with Microsoft waited a long time before revealing the next Xbox, they let Nintendo and Sony get in first and now PS4 looks like it has a fighting chance up against the Xbox. As a longtime fan of Microsoft and Xbox I was actually considering moving over to the PS4 or going back to PC gaming if it turned out that the next gen Xbox was always-online and blocked used games. Now I am not sure about used games but it looks like you will only need to be online when you first turn on your Xbox and then you can go offline and continue playing as you wish. But I know you didn’t come hear to read about that so without further ado let’s get right into it.

But Sony had a great plan to distract all the gamers with a teaser trailer for the PS4 where they showed you uh… they showed you, this… yeah. Just watch the video already.

After watching that I think it was a bit of a silly move that somehow paid off for Sony with the large amount of views it got. But a smarter move would have been show the console and move in the trailer and show off some more exclusive game content and demo streamed during the same time as the Xbox ONE reveal was going on.

The fist thing spoken of was innovation, that the original Xbox gave us innovative games like Halo and online multiplayer with the birth of Xbox Live. Then came the Xbox 360 which brought gaming into High Definition and with the addition of the Kinect, the 360 let you be the controller. And we currently know they will go into more detail about all these things at the Microsoft press conference at E3. He talked about how our living room has changed, that now we have a so many devices to distract us like mobile devices, tablets, laptops, TVs etc. but the Xbox is here to unite the living room which has been fragmented with the all-in-one entertainment system which will have built in social media and immersive games.

This marks the Xbox ONE. Which is designed to help make the TV more intelligent and entertainment will now be taking the stage. The Xbox ONE will have Ultimate Precision, with the instant response of the Kinect it has integration like has never been seen before(Kinect will come shipped with all Xbox ONE’s and is required to use the Xbox.) Now when you stand in front of the Kinect it will automatically sign you in and load up your save meaning that you no longer have to manually sign-in.

This all in one device can turn on your TV by just saying Xbox On. The Xbox remembers was you were previously doing, like if you were playing a game or watching a TV show. There is also a new section added to the Xbox Marketplace known as the trending section. Which will work similar to twitter in some regard, and can either show content that your friends are watching or the entire Xbox Live community. This feature was advertised to work with TV shows and Movies and Music but I assume that Games will also be included in the future. They have also added the ability for live TV broadcast including cable TV and streaming as well as being able to be used as a set top box. You can also switch between music, TV, movies, games and the internet instantly and in the demo it showed that the speed of switching is about the same time it takes to change channels. This multitasking feature also allows you to also have music playing in the background while playing games or you can watch movies and be playing a game or any combination like that. Including being able to surf the net while watching a movie or TV show.

The Kinect also now has some universal features similar to what the iPhone has with swipe. I can’t exactly remember them but one will take you back to the Xbox dashboard and the other will bring up the Xbox guide I think. Skype through Kinect in Widescreen Full HD on your TV and being able to Skype multiple people at once will be exclusive to the Xbox ONE. You can watch movies, play games or surf the net while chatting over Skype. Xbox also has a deal will ESPN to give sport alerts, show scores of teams you like and members of your dream team. I will also pop up with a notification and you can see the highlight of your team scoring and their highlight with the touch of a button or simple command. League standings, stats,  and best of will all be accessible. Xbox ONE Guide will also give a detailed overview of all the shows on TV and you can choose what to watch through manual control, voice command or by what is trending. It will show all local channels in your area, though Microsoft did not give any information away as to whether these features will be available outside the US. There will no longer be the need for remote controls and you can pin content to keep up with it like shows, movies or music.

This Xbox will also take advantage of the cloud, to what extent is still unclear but they promise it will help make more dynamic and immersive worlds. Hopefully we don’t get the same incident as we have seen on Sim City with Always-ON DRM and servers crashing constantly. It will be running 3 operating systems at once with the Xbox OS, Windows and a third one which allows to switch between the two.

New Kinect features include being able to track 30 FPS, 2 Gigabits of data, 1080p camera, Orientation of joints hands and fingers, Muscle and Impact, Depth and supposedly being able to read your heartbeat through the Hue in your face.

There was never a doubt that the Xbox 360 is the best controller ever made, even PS3 players made an adapter to use the 360 controller on the PS3 and Microsoft is proud of it. In fact the claim their controller is the best and now they are only making it better. It has over 40 innovations some of which are a longer battery life which will also fit better, Improved D-Pad for more precision, Direct feedback to triggers. I am not entirely convinced but they have also improved the thumb sticks and the other revisions look good however it looks to me like a bulkier version of the 360 controller and almost looks like a prettier version of the original controller. I am sure once I put it in my hands and test it out playing games I will know whether it really was an upgrade or downgrade.

Xbox Live will have both Gold and Silver Membership like previous generations but the number of servers have been vastly increased. From 500 servers when the original Xbox launched, to 5000 server servers when 360 launched, 15 000 currently, the Xbox ONE will launch with 300 000 servers.(Why not 360k to make a great reference to the previous console?) Anyway the new amount of servers will be used for the Intelligent TV, constantly recording and dedicated gamer DVR with all gameplay being recorded and sent through to video services like Twitch TV. Achievements will also be ported onto the next gen console and will now be more dynamic showing more about what you actually achieved and the ability to share them with friends. You will also now be able to search for the perfect match and while waiting for the matches to start you can easily switch to a movie or watch TV and listen to music. They have also promised bigger matches and larger player counts.

EA will now be partnering with Microsoft and for the next two years they will be releasing some of their games exclusively for the Xbox ONE. The new engine shown is the IGNITE engine which has more intelligent AI, blur the line between real and fake, dynamic environments, true player motion, dodging, improved physics, living worlds, curtains opens and stadium will erupt with 3D Crowds and interactive sidelines. There will be 4 times more calculations per second, 10 times more animation and daily stream of content that will impact the game. The Xbox ONE will have exclusive content for Fifa 14 Ultimate Team and graphics are life like with depth of field, reflections, sweat, lighting and even bending of the nets in soccer games.

More exclusives than ever before including all the favorite series like Forza Motorsport 5 and Quantum Break. Here is my assumption of the 15 new exclusives in the first year after launch, 8 being new. From what I can guess the exclusives will be 2 or 3 EA games(hopefully not sports), 5 Kinect only games (3 old, 2 new), Quantum Break, Forza Motorsport 5, a historic Rare game so either Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Banjoe Kazooie or Conker’s Bad Fur Day(very unlikely) and Gears of War 4, so that leaves 4 unknowns. I hope that they don’t bring Halo 5 out this soon, maybe a Halo ODST RPG would be cool and I have a feeling they are working on a few always-online cloud based MMOs and a few RTS’s or RPGs. I also assume that the game RYSE will also be released in the first year due to it’s emphasis on Kinect and next gen capabilities.

Games will now have cloud powered content, be multiplatform and include dynamic weather, wear and tear and time. Remedy will be creating a Cinematic action and scripted TV series called Quantum Break and the actions of the game will effect what happens in the TV show. The graphics are life-like with stunning visuals and set pieces. The tag line for the games is “Time is fire in which we burn.” I am not sure what this means but the game and TV show look like Microsoft’s version of Infamous.

The PlayStation 4 vs. Xbox One Comparison Chart provides an easy visual aid to compare hardware, user interface, media compatibility and other features on both systems.

PS4 vs. Xbox One Comparison Chart

Feature PlayStation 4 Xbox One

Optical Drive	Blu-Ray/DVD [1]	Blu-Ray/DVD [2]
Game DVR	Yes [3]	Yes [4]
RAM	8GB GDDR5 [5]	8GB DDR3 [6]
CPU	Single-chip x86 AMD “Jaguar” processor, 8 cores [7]	8 Core Microsoft custom CPU [8]
Storage	TBA	500 GB Hard Drive[9]
Second Screen	Vita [10]	SmartGlass [11]
Cloud Storage	Yes [12]	Yes [13]
Mandatory Game Installs	TBA	Yes [14]
Always Online Connection	No [15]	Maybe [16]
Used Game Fee	TBA	Maybe [17]
Backwards Compatibility	None [18]	None [19]
Skype	TBA	Yes [20]
Motion Control	DualShock 4, PlayStation Eye	Kinect 2
Voice Commands	TBA	Yes [21]
Subscription Fee	TBA	TBA
USB	USB 3.0 [22]	USB 3.0 [23]
Live Streaming	TBA	TBA
Reputation Preservation	Trophies will be ported	Achievements will be ported [24]
Web Connection	Ethernet, IEEE 802.11 b/g/n [25]	Ethernet, WiFi [26]
BlueTooth	Bluetooth 2.1 [27]	Bluetooth 2.1 (EDR)[28]
A/V Hookups	HDMI (4K Support[29]) , Analog (Component, RCA), Optical output[30]	HDMI input and output (4K support), Optical output [31]

The content above is directly from IGN’s Wiki and the link is here for more information: http://au.ign.com/wikis/xbox-one/PS4_vs._Xbox_One_Comparison_Chart

At least they showed us a good amount of variety and the consoles plus the controller and how the next Kinect may actually be a worthwhile addition. I do like the idea of telling my Tv when to turn on and being able to watch the RT gaming podcast while gaming. (If Youtube is built in.) I feel like MS held back cause E3 is so close but people should respect that they made it very clear they care about the gamer and are going to have 15 new exclusives in the first year after launch, 8 being new. From what I can guess the exclusives will be 2 or 3 EA games(hopefully not sports), 5 Kinect only games (3 old, 2 new), Quantum Entanglement, Forza Motorsport 5, a historic Rare game so either Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Banjoe Kazooie or Conker’s Bad Fur Day(very unlikely) and Gears of War 4, so that leaves 4 unknowns. I hope that they don’t bring Halo 5 out this soon, maybe a Halo ODST RPG would be cool and I have a feeling they are working on a few always-online cloud based MMOs and a few RTS’s or RPGs.

Microsoft also confirmed it will produce original Xbox TV programming, starting with a project based on the Halo franchise. The project is being handled by legendary film director Steven Spielberg. The effort to create a Halo TV or film adaptation first began in 2006 with Halo Chronicles, a “completely new and original chapter” in the Halo series from Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson that never saw the light of day. Last year Microsoft released the live-action series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn in preparation for the launch of Halo 4. In late 2012, Microsoft hired former CBS executive Nancy Tellem and began plans for original Xbox TV content. Earlier this year, the company detailed Microsoft’s LA-based studio for “pioneering the future of TV.” (Source: http://au.ign.com/articles/2013/05/21/halo-tv-project-revealed)

So they also covered an NFL partnership, Call of Duty: Gameplay and social TV but I though I would leave that stuff out as this is already a really long post. For more information go the Youtube to watch the full Xbox ONE reveal or read the articles over in IGN. Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below. Is it always online? At this point in time it seems even Microsoft isn’t sure whether it is saying it is sometime always online which makes about as much sense as he is only half dead. Anyway thanks for reading the post, I tried to cover everything I could and get it out as soon as possible

My thoughts on Nintendo's current status and some possible ways to get them out of their trouble.

I am sure I am not the only one who grew up with an Super Nintendo playing classic games like Super Mario, Mario Kart and Metroid. Nintendo used to be the gaming giant, they pretty much dominated the console scene especially up against the Sega Dreamcast, at least in my opinion. All of my friends had a SNES and we would often play split screen Mario Kart against each other. Then came the Nintendo 64, what could be argued to be one of the biggest leaps in gaming technology with the introduction of 3D games like Super Mario, Donkey Cong, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Star Fox, Super Smash to name a few of the great titles on the platform. This was around the time that the Play Station was introduced and when I look at them in comparison their lineup for N64 was much better than the PS1 and more reliable, even though the Playstation 1 saw the introduction of the disc. Then they made a slight misstep with the Game Cube, the discs were an awkward size which meant it couldn't play DVD's, games were still really great with Super Smash Bros Melee, Goldeneye Rogue Agent, Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart Double Dash, Star Wars, Star Fox Adventures, Metroid Prime and many others. This is when competition really ramped up for Nintendo with the introduction of the Xbox and PS2, both cam with very strong titles and had DVD players which games them an edge over the Game Cube, and they also allowed for online play and System Link. That was an area the Game Cube lost out with no online capability and also only the Japanese version of the console allowed for System link meaning that you were limited to 4 players in a game.

Next to come along was the Nintendo Wii(originally know as Revolution) and sold extremely well as they were first to release, had good graphics and has motion control like we hadn't seen before. Everyone was really excited to play games like Tennis on Wii Sports and Lego Star Wars where were would be able to aim the force and swing the lightsaber with our hands. Sadly enough though, coming out first had its problems in the longest running Console Cycle with still no DVD's being able to be watched on it, pressing buttons was easier than using the motion control and very unreliable online play. They still had some very strong IPs to come out on the Wii including Super Smash Bros Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Corruption, New Super Mario Brothers, Zelda: Twighlight Princess and Skyward Sword. But that wasn't where they lost out, Xbox 360 launched with HD graphics, Xbox Live, and games like Halo 3, Forza, Gears of War and Mass Effect to make a very strong list of exclusives to battle against the Wii and also Xbox Live Arcade which allowed for downloadable Indie games. PS3 came out a year after the Xbox 360 and has the selling point of having Blu Ray but had major problems including the excessive price, unreliable internet and one that most gamers know the Cell technology that was used to power the graphics and games which had major drawbacks due to the way it delegated power and many developers didn't quite understand how to make games for it. The Wii still survived pretty well as the Xbox 360 suffered from the Red Rings of Death and the PS3 was both excessive in price and had its own issues and did not have a great selection of launch titles. This was not were Nintendo found themselves in trouble, it is in fact now with their current status we see them suffering from multiple issues, some which are completely out of their control and some they need to fix or they will soon be in a very serious financial state and we may even lose them from the console space come the end of the next-generation.

This all sounds doom and gloom and like I am hating on Nintendo, but the reason for this article is due to my love for them and not wanting to see them go. Let's start with their first issue, Mobile gaming: Nintendo had been doing Mobile gaming since the beginning with the original Gameboy which had some great titles like Star Wars, Pokemon and many others. They continued to see success in their DS and DSL range but suffered with the Nintendo 3DS for a few reasons. Mobile gaming has changed a lot in the last five years and nobody could have imagined that the majority of mobile gaming, and gaming in general is now done on mobile phones like the Iphone and Samsung Galaxy. Why? Because it is convenient, cheap and there are so many million to choose from with a huge range of free games as well. This, along with the fact that the 3DS hurt many people's eye, didn't work for some people and it turned out that Nintendo stole the tech from somewhere else and were recently caught and had to pay up a considerable amount in legal fees because of it. Plus the Sony Playstation Portable became popular and the new Playstation Vita, while not entirely commercially successful has a great cross-play feature with the Playstation 3 which Nintendo should consider doing with their Wii U and 3DS in the future.





Now we have Nintendo's big problem: The Wii U, it isn't a bad console by any standards, in fact it is pretty darn good but there are many reasons why this console has had very poor sales and little interest from the console market. Nintendo has never named a console the same as a previous one, what do I mean by that? Well there was first the Super Nintendo, then the Nintendo 64. the Game Cube and the Wii, then suddenly this one is the Wii U. I feel they did it to try and get some traction from the success of the Wii, but it failed due to poor marketing with most people who aren't Hardcore Nintendo Fans or IGN/game article readers have been confused thinking the Wii U is just another controller and not a new console. Their ads don't show the console off properly and it is something that came to my attention when I first saw their ad and it was brought up in the IGN Game Scoop Podcast. Now the second reason it isn't doing well is that there isn't a high level of 3rd Party support with games already saying they won't be making Wii U versions and even some of the exclusives coming for the Wii U including Rayman Legends was delayed because Ubisoft did not think it would be commercially viable to make it an exclusive so they went back so that it can be released on Wii U, PS3, PC and Xbox 360 losing another lot of potential customers with a very solid exclusive. Which brings me to my next point, launch titles and exclusives, Nintendo had very poor planning with their release bringing out a console without a "New" Mario game and a few other exclusives that would have boosted sales. Instead, we have seen a Mario game, ZombieU which didn't review well and a few other titles. But nothing that really convinces me to go to the store and buy it. They are also not having an E3 conference and instead having closed doors announcements and small press releases with most of their new content being announced directly. Now I know that E3 has become less relevant now, but I will leave that to another post but I am not sure whether the fact that they will be having a smaller presence than Microsoft and Sony will damage them in the long run. But I guess we will have to wait and see how they deal with E3 when it comes.





Though it seems grim, there are some ways that Nintendo can almost instantaneously get sales back up on the Wii U and bring them back to the green:


1st: Bring out the exclusives, you buy a Nintendo Console for Nintendo games but so far there haven't been many to actually buy. Luckily for them they have backwards compatibility and aren't blocking used games but their library is still to small of next-gen titles. What would be good for Nintendo is to have the following games developed and released this year and next year:
A new 3D Super Mario game, I would be good with Super Mario Galaxy 3 but I feel they are going to try and utilize the gamepad so they will probably have a whole new system in place.
Metroid Prime, either release a new Metroid Prime game or reboot the franchise with more focus on story, combat and have more current gen mechanics like customization for suits, abilities, perks, wave based game, decent length campaign with a an open world, good puzzles, the ability to swap between 3rd and 1st person, and the ability to swap between Zero Suit Samus and with a Suit to allow for mechanics like the whip to be used like the grapple hook in Just Cause 2 and also allowing for more weapon variety. Plus different environments, snow, lava, forest, swamp, desert, and have different hazards that you need to use certain suits for like Radiation, Poison and no oxygen. Plus a multiplayer that takes into account all the greatness of Metroid Prime with inspiration from games like Halo, COD, Battlefield and have different classes depending on the suit you were with an infection mode were it is metroids infecting Human survivors.
Super Smash Bros, we know it is confirmed and more details will be released at E3 but I am hoping for big things from this game. Many people were very dissapointed by the last game, I really loved it and thought final smashes were a great addition to the game. But I hope they bring back some of the characters from Melee that were missing and get rid of duplicates for other people to join. Add in more 3rd party game characters like Banjo and Kazzoie, Johanna Dark, Commander Shepard, Captain Price, Team Fortress players, Angry Birds, The Dragonborn, Chell, Bayonetta, Sam Fisher, Mega Man. Prince of Persia, Hitman, Lollipop Chainsaw girl and the list goes on. For duplicate players, or ones from the same franchise like Mario and Luigi have them categorized under on thing and then choose the character to make the library less clutter when choosing characters. Plus bring back Subspace Emissary, it was a great addition that added a story line to Smash like we haven't seen before and gave us a great variety of characters to play with, it would be great to see this turned into a 4 player co-op mode and have some more customization in multiplayer including the ability to have more human and AI characters and a reliable online versus mode. Also more maps would be great, maybe even ones where you can interact with the environment and some destructible environment would be nice. They also need to fix the balance issues as some character had much more powerful attacks and Final Smashes than others.
Mario Kart, bring back some of the old tracks and have a much larger selection of tracks, bring back first shells and add more items. That, more characters and better balance between characters and cars and it will be a great game. Another addition to help it from feeling stale would be the addition of special abilities that only certain characters have like invisibility for a limited time, extra boost, reshuffle and item and maybe add a health system like Blur to the cars to make the bigger cars seem more useful.
A HD Zelda game, a new game using everything people have liked from the previous games but on a bigger scale. If they could develop it like a scaled-down version of Skyrim with more diverse gameplay it will soon become a fan favorite.
I am sure there are many more games I could list but they need to make sure they can get third party support and make sure it is on par with the other versions on the different consoles. Developers like EA, Gearbox, Activision, Bungie, Harmonix and the others need to get on board.


2nd: Add an open marketplace like Apple App Store where Indie Devs can submit their games to be made and then charge a small licensing fee and get more games onto the online marketplace. Bring the virtual console marketplace to a new level with the ability to buy games from all Nintendo generations spanning from SNES, N64, Game Cube, Wii and Wii U games to help them take advantage of the length of time they have been in the console space and give them a huge push with hardcore fans and maybe even do HD versions similar to Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition.


3rd: Invest into a bigger and better marketing strategy to ensure people know exactly what the product is by first explaining it on ads, billboards etc. then hit them with ads that demonstrates its capability and the games that will be on it.


4th: Take advantage of the gamepad, some uses for it that would have interesting points for gameplay include, using the power wheel and switching weapons for Mass Effect and other games, along with maps, codexs, choices on the gamepad, inventories, menus, skill trees, subtitles, used for the eagle vision in Assasin's Creed, to see through walls or like an X-Ray, augmented reality, touch games like cut the rope and angry birds among other can be brought to this console and map making to accurately place items, plus it could be a great screen capture tool where you could post screens to Miiverse, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram among other sc. Plus it can be used to watch game walkthroughs on Youtube when people get stuck or as a music player that you can change your music around with. Nintendo getting a deal with Apple to implement the App Store and Itunes into the Wii U would give them a great advantage. And maybe making a gamepad that can have a single game stored on it to play when you aren't at home or stream though your 3DS. If these functions utilised the gamepad has a big selling point and doesn't just seem like some Ipad Knock-off.


5th: An Ultra Version of Wii U needs to be released with a bigger hard drive, this will mean you can store more games, footage and other content like DLC considering it has become a much larger part of gaming these days. They should also consider adding cross-play functionality between the Wii U and the 3DS like Sony has done so successfully with the Playstation 3 and Vita and will continue doing with the 4.


So that is it from me, there is much more I can talk about but I will leave it at that as I don't want people going to sleep reading my post and I know this one was super long. If you made it this far congratulations and thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to read my thoughts on Nintendo's current status. If you aren't following me yet, feel free to and I am pretty sure future posts won't be quite as long as this one. Hopefully this is a good year for Nintendo and I look forward to seeing what they have to say both directly and at E3.

This could be the year that makes or breaks their future and with PC gaming never being more accessible with the Steam Box coming out, the PS4, Xbox Durango, PS Vita and all the smartphones including Iphone and Android it has never been a more intense climate and gamers have never before been given so much choice with what to buy. If each of these services has their own premium services on top of their console/games prices, Nintendo will have to put forward a pretty good argument for people to want to spend the next-gen with them.