Xbox One Reveal: 5 Years Later

What an interesting reveal event, it's certainly always going to be remembered and not really for being something that was entirely successful. The event, not the console in case that isn't clear. It was a rather painful event for Microsoft and the Xbox One reveal came with a lot of backlash. This was of course for a number of features and to some degree the lack of games. It made sense however, save the games for E3 so I was fine with that aspect. Anyways, I remember the excitement of what came next after the Xbox 360 and then the reveal came around to a very negative community reaction.

There were some neat aspects and other portions that did not sit well with gamers in general. A large part of this was the always online aspect, which sort of happened anyways. Personally I'm used to online functionality, but the way they delivered it in concept at the start wasn't the best way to do so. I say online is fine, because there's not really anything you can do without it these days. There was also my favorite aspect, the combination of sports and TV which were put together to hilarious results in a summarization video afterwards. It was funny, I actually watched that prior to writing this and it's a good laugh. Again, I get what Xbox was going for with that entertainment aspect though with other problems this stacked onto that as something else people could complain about.

With the Xbox One reveal they were really aiming to be a media center, the Xbox 360 was essentially one and they wanted to evolve that. The focus on sports action, TV viewing and entertainment were essential to that. It's just that a vocal selection of gamers do not care for it, and that's fine. It was just sad to see some of the great features I supported taken away. The snap feature in concept was fantastic, the combination of games with media was great and their own special content was a good idea. I had high hopes for that entertainment division, but it was removed quickly. It would have been an interesting Netflix type setup perhaps at this point.

A next great layer was the Kinect, a device I've supported since it launched on the previous generation. It's fun, active and was a great addition for controlling my console through voice. That being said, they bet on it too much to be a system seller. The market wasn't the same when the device first launched and this paired with other issues snowballed hate onto it. I know many that wouldn't even touch it when they unpacked their Xbox One because they felt it would spy on them. That's not a good public look, personally I loved mine until they made the cord impossible to get. The Kinect's reputation was damaged beyond repair at launch and then a quiet death. I also know many dislike the Kinect because it's not traditional, but it's a great social device and something casual gamers can enjoy. I like to be active, why not have games that support health. I also seriously miss the voice commands.

There were also issues with the box, I thought it looked fine but was way too large. It was so weird seeing that as being the next step. I guess that was so there would be zero heat issues, but in comparison the Playstation 4 was so tiny. Not an issue with the Xbox One X however, but that was many years later. You also can't forget the Call of Duty: Ghosts reveal with the special fish and the dog. I don't recall this part being hated too much (at that point folks, before you comment your thoughts on the game having played it months later).

I believe I covered most of the key points, trying to balance a fairness for what did happen and not mixing up too many things after that fact. There were some neat ideas, and I think communication was a problem following it. This was of course just to be a tech reveal and most were expecting more game wise as I mentioned earlier. Whatever the case, things are solid now in terms of hardware with the Xbox One X. The Kinect is sadly dead, the Xbox Entertainment division vanished before it really started and I'm still waiting for even the slightest of news on that Halo TV series. One final thought, I believe the controller was fine for most as I can't recall any problems from people online about it. Just a slight having to get used to the new start/back button names/symbols.

Read our Xbox Backwards Compatibility: Two Years Later
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