Microsoft Corp.'s Don Mattrick unveils the next-generation Xbox entertainment and gaming console system, Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at an event in Redmond, Wash.I t's been eight years since the launch of the Xbox 360. The original Xbox debuted in 2001, and its high-definition successor premiered in 2005. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
With easy-to-use voice command system, new Xbox could finally bring about integration of television, Internet and gaming.
OTTAWA — After promising for more than a decade that its game console would revolutionize home entertainment, Microsoft Corp may have finally delivered.
In a glitzy announcement Tuesday from a giant tent on the company’s main campus in Seattle, Microsoft officially introduced the world to its new Xbox One. The console hit the world of consumer electronics like an atom bomb.
The Xbox can, of course, play games. But it can also allow people to interact with home entertainment systems by simply speaking in plain language or using natural gestures, Microsoft promises.
“Xbox One is designed to deliver a whole new generation of blockbuster games, television and entertainment in a powerful, all-in-one device,” said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.
Demonstrations of the device were impressive. Presenters were able to switch TV shows and channels simply by talking to the new console.
Microsoft didn’t say whether the Xbox must be paired with a cable or satellite set-top box or whether it will replace those devices entirely. The company said it is keeping many announcements about the Xbox One close to its chest until the console’s launch date sometime later this year.
To turn the unit on, users simply say “Xbox On.” The device will automatically power up and turn on the television. To watch TV, users simply say, “Xbox Watch TV” and to find a station, “Xbox show TSN” or “Xbox show CBC. Programs can be brought up with “find Game of Thrones” or “find hockey.” Similarly, the user can use voice commands to “play music” or “watch a movie,” instead of looking for a remote control, scrambling to find the right input and turning on all of the right devices.
The current generation of Xbox has limited voice commands that allow people to start a game or fast forward through a DVD. But the existing voice commands are easily eclipsed by what Microsoft was showing off Tuesday.
The feature would finally fix the technological problem plaguing many households, where simply putting on a movie or watching a TV show has become a major headache.
The Xbox has an upgraded Kinect sensor capable of monitoring more of a person’s body, and much better microphone sensitivity than earlier versions. It knows what you are watching, listening to or playing and can save that if the console is shut down, allowing you to pick up where you left off whenever you return.
Microsoft said the console also has a built-in digital video recorder (DVR) with 500 gigabytes of storage for recording video game play. While the company wouldn’t say as much, it’s highly likely the DVR functionality will be expanded to record TV, too.
Another innovative feature, called “Snap Mode,” allows for split-screen, multi-function display. Say “Xbox snap Internet Explorer” and the right side of the screen will suddenly display Internet Explorer while the left continues to display your TV show. Internet Explorer can be controlled either through voice commands or with a cellular phone.
The device will ship with a built in Blu-ray player.
While the way the Xbox One harmonizes living room technology took centre stage, Microsoft was quick to reassure its core gamer demographic that it hasn’t forgotten them. The company said 15 titles are in development exclusively for the Xbox One and will be released during the console’s first year.
The day’s announcement seemed to take aim at every one of Microsoft’s competitors. Apple Inc. has long been promising that it has a solution for TV technologies that have just become far too complex in recent years. Google Inc. has been trying to get traction for its Google TV software, in a bid to push its massively popular Internet search products into people’s living rooms, but has so far been unsuccessful.
One of the surprise points that Microsoft made is the creation of Microsoft Entertainment, which is an online service that will create exclusive new TV shows and content for Xbox owners around the world. Think of it like Netflix, but in its infancy. The first live-action TV show Microsoft will offer will be based on its massively popular Halo game series. The show will be produced by Steven Spielberg. The company already has an online service, Xbox Video, which competes with Apple’s iTunes and offers movies, music and TV shows.
Microsoft’s announcement helps to vault the company back to the top of the heap when it comes to game consoles. It was the last of the major game firms to announce plans for new hardware.
The Xbox One will have 500 gigabytes of internal memory and eight gigabytes of RAM and will ship with a blindingly fast eight-core central processing unit.
Nintendo’s Wii U has 32 gigabytes of storage, two gigabytes of RAM and a POWER 7 processor with three cores. Wii U also has an innovative touch screen controller that acts a second screen for gamers. Sony has not revealed the hardware that will make up its upcoming PS4 console.
New hardware doesn’t guarantee success. Sales of Nintendo Inc.’s new WiiU system have been stumbling.
And there are key questions about the console that Microsoft won’t answer. When will it be available? What will it cost?
The Xbox 360 retailed for between $400 and $500, there were two systems with different memory configurations initially released, when it first hit the market in 2005. The console sells for around $200 new now.
As well, photographs of the new console show that containing just one HDMI input. That suggests Microsoft has made room only for a TV set-top box to feed content into the Xbox One. Other game consoles, DVRs, DVD players and devices such as Apple TV must be hooked up to the television through more traditional, painstaking methods. In other words, with Blu-ray and DVD built in and the ability to access online content through Xbox Live, Microsoft wants the Xbox One to be the only device you use.
Finally, the company talked a lot about the benefit of storing content on Internet-based servers and how this would allow a player to access any of the game from any Xbox One that is signed into the player’s Xbox Live account. However, Microsoft wouldn’t say whether the new console required an Xbox Live subscription, which costs around $60 a year, to play games or access the Xbox One’s new TV features.
Microsoft has promised that Xbox One will bring radical change to the industry. Early indications suggest the company wasn’t kidding.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
0 Response to "OTTAWACITIZEN.COM: Xbox One to give Microsoft the keys to your living room — finally"
Posting Komentar