The Xbox One is Revealed

As we barrel towards what promises to be a very interesting summer in the world of gaming, Microsoft gave us the first look at the Xbox One.  Thankfully Microsoft was a bit more forthcoming with information than the  Sony Playstation 4 announcement several weeks prior.  That wasn't terribly hard due to the fact that Sony couldn't even produce a system to show during their system announcement.

Microsoft has seemed to build a bit of a juggernaut as far as power is concerned.  With 8GB of RAM, a Blu-Ray drive, and the Kinect peripheral now standard the Xbox One will certainly provide a considerable performance from the 360.  While big numbers and fancy interfaces are great, I do have some concerns.

Before I go much further I must explain one thing.  I have owned every system made by both Sony and Microsoft.  Currently I have a working Playstation, PS2, and PS3 all hooked up to my television.  Only my PS2 is not the original system that I bought.  I purchased a slimline PS2 and bartered away my old original PS2.  To this day that system still is in good, working order.  My Xbox, and Xbox 360 are in pieces in a box in my attic due to system failures after a couple years of use.

The Xbox One

Outside of durability issues, I have always have taken exception to the Xbox Live subscription service.  I don't care how many people try to convince me how much better quality the Live service is compared to the Playstation Network, you can't beat free in my eyes.  Xbox Live's concept of paying for access to your own internet is almost criminal.  I liken it to being expected to pay your toilet manufacturer for the water you use in it.

While I am trying to ignore some of my preconceived notions about the next run of systems, I can't help but to notice a few more concerns.  My main concern about this system was that it wasn't promoted heavily as a gaming console, but rather a media hub.  While Sony failed to show a system, they did an ample job of reminding us that they were preparing to release a video game console.

Yusef Mehdi from Microsoft seems to have channeled is inner karate kid for the menu navigation demonstration

Nearly all of the actual system demonstration was featuring the home menu navigation.  Since the system promotes a one input system, now moving from games to television, to media control is nearly seamless.  Controlling your television will be as easy as barking orders and doing Mr. Miyagi impersonations with your arms.  Since the Kinect will actually come standard with the system they are finding ways to implement that into the experience.

I will say that I was impressed with the demo for the new 1080p wide angle camera the Xbox One version of the Kinect will have.  It showcased many of the different ways that the Kinect has been improved to capture very accurate motions.

Either way the new console wars have begun.  Within the next month we should be getting more information including the price points.  It will be also interesting to see some of the more concerning rumors addressed, including the rumor about programming in blocks to disallow games from being used in multiple Xbox systems without paying for the game again.  Until then I will keep my opinions on these rumors to myself.

Sony Playstation 4 Announced Today But That's About It

Yes, This is the actual view of the PS4 from the event thrown in New York City announcing the release

It's official, but that's about all we really learned in Sony's official announcement of the Playstation 4.  Many gamers have had today's date marked on the calendar as the date they would get to feast their eyes upon the future.  But as the image above indicates, this is what I feasted my eyes upon.

As the Retro Gaming Geek I love to look back at many of the games from the past and share my memories, but at the same time I have an interest in where I like seeing what those old games have spawned.  And frankly I am scared at what I saw tonight.  With projections of the recent Wii U and PS Vita systems taking a nose dive and market stability at its lowest point in years.  Add to that the fact that technology improvements aren't coming quite as rapidly, many people including myself are wondering if there is even a need for a new round of systems to appear in the same time frame as systems were released in the past.

Tonight was a huge opportunity for Sony to create some anticipation for their next generation but I fear the ball was majorly dropped.  For two hours developers were paraded out one after another to basically show tech demos and tell us all to wait for E3.  As far as tech demos go I didn't see a lot that looked much different than what my Playstation 3 is all ready capable of doing.  And while it is always neat to see new game concepts in motion, this was Sony's party after all so the big reveal had to be coming.  After seeing two hours of talk came... the end.

No price point, no specs, and no look at the system.  "Playstation wants to win the war against reality" said an early teaser, and nothing I saw there made me even believe that the Playstation 4 is an actual real thing.  In fact the whole charade looked more like Sony's effort to throw developers that may be behind schedule under the bus in front of a live audience, all the while not proving anything themselves.  Sony only really announced Holiday 2013 is the release date and that's about all they offered about the system itself.

Really the only real upgrade that I feel that Sony sounded proud about was the live streaming technology, so if you don't want to use your time to play games yourself you can watch other people play games.  To me that doesn't sound like something that screams improvement, it screams desperation to get a new system out.  I'm sorry Sony, I really wanted a reason to be excited about this thing, and so did a lot of other people you are counting on buying this system.  I guess I will have to wait until E3, until then I guess for me it's time to go back in time.