Xbox One: First look at the new features

Xbox One: First look at the new features

Last night, Microsoft announced the new Xbox One claiming it will become the "centre of the living room". The sleek new Xbox One is an "all-in-one system" for playing games, watching TV, viewing movies, browsing the web and listening to music. It puts Microsoft aback onto a collision course with rivals Sony, who have recently unveiled the PlayStation 4, and Apple, who are soon to announce their new iTV system.

The new console has features never seen before on such a system, including an exclusive TV series created by Steven Spielberg.. An improved Kinect system allows users to control the console with gestures and voice control. In fact the new Kinect is so powerful that it can detect whether the player is smiling or not (Ministry of Joy from Alton Towers' new ride The Smiler, anyone?)

A demo at Microsoft's US headquarters showed the console switching between live TV, movies and the web using voice commands, whilst a grabbing gesture was used to return the unit to the home screen.

The new controller has a slightly modified layout, as well as new A X Y and B buttons to make it easier for new gamers to read them. The Xbox One also includes the use of Skype and a Blu-ray player. The new console is likely to cost around £300 (USD$450 ish) when launched, setting up a three way Christmas showdown against fellow tech giants Apple and Sony.

Fifteen exclusive games, including eight totally new franchises, will be available within the first year of the Xbox One's life, including the new Call Of Duty: Ghosts game. The Spielberg TV series will be based around Microsoft's successful Halo series. The console will be as powerful as top PCs.

However, things aren't as rosy as they first appear. Firstly, £300 isn't exactly cheap, considering that the PlayStation 2 cost just under £100 when it first came out. Secondly, the Xbox One will not run Xbox 360 games! Thirdly, all games must first be installed onto the console (rather than just playing from the disks), so individual games will be tied to Xbox Live accounts, meaning that the software giant can detect whether a game has been sold to a retailer and repurchased, or handed from one friend to another. In such instances, the second user must pay a fee, which will destroy the pre-owned game market in the same way that the government car scrappage scheme has obliterated the UK's used car market

Feel free to comment on what you would like to have seen from Microsoft, and what may have been a mistake