Shotgun shell, meet foot.

So, the new Xbox, XBOX One was revealed a couple of days ago. And, it needs to be said, the Playstation 4 is looking better by the minute... Quick disclaimer, harsh language and/or venom will leak out at places.

So apart from the new XBOX looking like an oversized domino piece (or the design successor to PS2, as I personally saw it at first glance), what does it offer? Surprisingly little for gamers which, call me crazy, make up for the crushing majority of the current 360's owners.

So, quick rundown of the features in the order they pissed people off:


i) The XBOX One is larger and box-ier. 

Personally, I don't mind much, though as far as aesthetics go, it's not even close to being as eye-pleasing as the 360 slim or even the PS3 slim (still no word on the looks of PS4).

ii) The new controller

While not particularly annoying, the new controller is just a redesign of the old one. Fair enough, you'll say, so was the PS2 one, and the PS3 one, and the PS4 one. Well, no. While PS controllers kept the same design, the tech changes significantly. In this case, details on the design change, but the features remain the same. And how much do you want to bet the previous controllers will not be compatible, even though they are mostly the same thing?

iii) Straight out-of-the-box Kinect.

The new, bulkier and more box-y Kinect 2.0 is supposedly an integral part of the new XBOX One. This of course makes me wonder why the fuck it's not an actual part of the console and is instead a separate device included in the bundle. And, call me crazy again, has the Kinect actually proved itself yet for the actual gamers? Family-oriented stuff, such as dance games and the likes, sure, but anything deeper than that and the Kinect still misbehaves to the point games can be frustrating at best. Does this mean XBOX One is being aimed to the family market instead of gamers? Read on.

iv) Always online?


You might remember how Adam Orth lost his job over glossing over the possibility of the new Xbox requiring a constant internet connection. I can't help at marvel at how Microsoft's PR department managed to mostly deflect this PR nightmare, only to sneak it in less than two months later. While the XBOX One does not require a constant internet connection, according to Microsoft game developers are encouraged to make use of always-on features, supposedly for cloud computing that will free resources within the console itself. There's several issues with that, the main one being that developers will be encouraged to make the lives of not-well-connected gamers miserable, shifting blame from Microsoft's -let's just say it- shitty system to the developers themselves. This is a feature that will tilt a large chunk of gamers to other options besides the XBOX One. And it's not even the real shit-flavoured icing on the turd cake. Not even close.

v) No backwards compatibility.

That sizeable library of 360 games you own? Gone. The switch from the Intel chipset to an AMD chipset of an x86 architecture means that 360 games are not compatible with the new hardware. I don't claim to speak tech all that well, in fact I barely get by, but I can't help but wonder: is this just a fucking lame excuse they're expecting people to just buy without question? If my current computer can play games designed for an 8088, so should One plays games designed for 360, just like 360 did for most games on the original X-box, just like Sony did so far and -allegedly- will do for PS4. It just sounds like smurf logic, not to be questioned because if it does, it doesn't make any fucking sense whatsoever. You could have gotten away with that, Microsoft, if you'd said that it's a long, arduous process of creating software to emulate the 360, or even if you'd said you want to focus on the new generation. It's not like older games won't appear on the XBL Marketplace eventually. Especially considering the architecture resembles a PC more and more with every iteration, hardware/software incompatibility sounds more and more like a piss-poor attempt for Microsoft not to appear as money-grabbing cunts. So piss-poor, in fact, that they are now being called lying money-grabbing cunts. Well done.

vi) Games will install to the internal 500GB HDD and will not require a disc to play.

Double-edged sword right here. It's nice to not have to swap discs all the time, and it minimizes wear and tear on your copies of games, but on the other hand, a 500GB will not be enough for any gamer's collection from a point upwards. Having to install/uninstall/reinstall games ruins the one solid advantage of a console over a PC: the simplicity of chucking a disc in and playing. And it goes hand in hand with...

vii) Games will be tied to your XBL account.

Since games won't be running from a disc anymore, attempts to install and play your games on a different console/account will prompt you to pay a fee (which I speculate is full price, perhaps varying depending on local or XBL Marketplace offers/bargains) to buy it. Gone are the days where you could resell a game, rent it from a rental boutique or, simpler still, lend a game to a friend. Because that friend would have to buy the game to even try it.


All of these features, coupled with the fact there's the whole mess of franchise exclusivity (notably EA claiming the new graphics engine powering their new FIFA will be on the XBOX One and PS4 versions but not the PC one) and both consoles seemingly turning their backs to their core buyers while simultaneously aiming for the family market where Nintendo is heavily entrenched (and, moreover, Microsoft is also giving their core gamers the finger as well)...and, lest we forget, current PCs are more powerful than the next generation of consoles and as it looks, cheaper and less annoying, mean that consoles and particularly the XBOX One as it is now will need all the artificial boosting it can get. 

My final verdict? As someone who loves videogames in every shape, way and form? 

Buy a PC instead.