The One?

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the long waited day. It finally happened; Microsoft hit the stage an revealed to the world their submission into the next generation of gaming aptly titled the XBOX One. Now I know I have never been much of an advocate for XBOX related gaming since i'm a PlayStation fan-boy at heart but I figured since I did a post on the PS4 release it is only fair that I do one for this as well in the interest of video game journalism. So with that being said lets take a look at the press conference unveiling for the Xbox One.

You can skip to the 1:27:30 to watch the actual start of the press conference if you don't feel like sitting through the entire color commentary of IGN covering the event. If you haven't watched it and don't want spoilers go back up and finish. ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** don't say I didn't warn you; so without a doubt comparisons have been long awaited to be cast between the PS4 reveal press conference and this and I must say Microsoft did play for play pretty much exactly as I would have expected from them with their current marketing scheme. Minimal actual gaming with a hard focus on the interoperability of the dashboard and Kinect with a hint of sporting appeal for the mass market. One thing I will say though; they definitely got the upper hand on Sony's press conference by actually showing the console in its entirety so now the pressure seems to be on Sony to put all their cards on the table come E3. As far as an overall showing comparison wise between the two press conferences I would say Microsoft had the most to offer as far as showing what their next console actually is and what its main focus will be.

The Xbox One will feature a wide variety of features aimed at capitalizing on its name as the One piece of technology you will need to have a complete at home entertainment setup. It will be your computer to surf the internet, the console to play your games on, your cable provider to deliver you all your favorite shows and sporting events, and so much more. Hopefully you watched the video and have a firm grasp on the capabilities of this new next gen console so I wont have to go into details but here are the top 5 noteworthy points:

1. Vibration motors ("impulse triggers") in the triggers
2. The d-pad on the controller has been redefined to be much better and precise.
3. The Xbox One has a disc loader like the PS3 instead of its traditional disc tray.
4. The Xbox One has both HDMI in and out ports.
5. Xbox One utilizes blue ray technology finally so say bye bye to DVD's.

Here you see the final specs that will be available for retail in the Xbox One

Now lets take a look at the top 5 things that were not shown or not answered in this press conference:

1. Will the console be required to always be online?
2. Will gamertags and gamerscores be transferable?
3. Will the Kinect no longer be pushed as an addition to the potential gaming library or will it just be used for apps?
4. Price of the console and an actual sales date. 
5. Live Video Game Demos!!!

Numbers 1,4, and 5 are the most pertinent and pressing that have the social media world a blaze with rumors and speculation and anger. Many denizens of the online world especially took to Twitter and Tumblr and voiced their concerns as such. I'm not exactly sure if maybe people realized or knew that Microsoft had already planned on having the press conference in two parts. Part one being the unveiling primarily of the console and its hardware and part 2 being most likely about the gaming and software side of the console. So for those hungry to see that side of things you will just have to wait until E3 in 19 days. So for those that are up in arms about what they didn't see or don't like about the presentation just chill and wait for part two at E3 cause you just gotta...

With all that said and done the most important thing to take away from all of this is the final comparison that can now be made between both the latest next generation consoles. Cause we all know that the console wars are never ending so who do you think will come out on top with this upcoming generation of gaming consoles? Leave a comment with where your money will be going and why...