Last week we got you up to speed on the PlayStation 4. The battle is truly joined tonight with the midnight release of the Xbox One, Microsoft’s follow-up to the Xbox 360. Since videogame systems are no longer just videogame systems, the Xbox One arrives with even more of a focus on streaming media and cross-platform entertainment interactivity than the PS4. It also sports a beefed up Kinect, which will stare at you even more longingly than the original. You should know some basic facts about Microsoft’s new machine before you drop your money, though, so read, learn and take notes.
1. It costs $500.
And that’s real money, not Microsoft points. (Which, by the way, no longer exist.) It’s $100 more than the PlayStation 4, and a hefty sum for a videogame system. Of course, Microsoft has assiduously advertised the Xbox One as something much more than a videogame system, so perhaps half a grand is actually a grand bargain.
2. It plays games.
Wait, this sounds familiar. Beneath all the cross-media gimcracks and voice-activated gewgaws, the Xbox One is a device you will buy primarily to play games. It’s maybe not as clear cut as with the PlayStation 4—some of that weirdo TV functionality bunk sounds just nuts enough for the high-tech sojourners to poke into regardless of game biz—but it still says Xbox on the chassis and Xbox still means games. Attempts to rebrand as an all-purpose entertainment contraption are noble and understandable but it’s hard to envision a large market for the One that isn’t at least fleetingly interested in the finer points of interactive marksmanship.
3. It also plays almost everything else.
Microsoft is desperate for every other device in your center to supplicate itself to the Xbox One. You won’t be able to junk your cable just yet (unless you cut the cord and give yourself entirely to the stream) but you can plug that cable box directly into the Xbox One through an HDMI input. One possible advantage: You can tell your Kinect to change channels for you. That way you can replace your remote with your voice box and admit through words that you watch Double Divas. That HDMI input port is a weird thing—you can run other gaming consoles through it, if you want to play a laggy Nintendo Land inside a window inside your Xbox One interface. And of course the One comes with a variety of streaming services, including all the standards. HBO Go will once again be exclusive to the Xbox platform, although it won’t launch for the One until an undisclosed date in December. And, unlike the 360, the Xbox One will play Blu-rays, for those who still like to lay hands upon their movies.
4. You can talk to it and it will do things sometimes.
On the 360 the Kinect’s voice controls were almost an afterthought to the manic gesticulation necessary to impart even the slightest command to it. Microsoft’s worked all of the gunk out of the Kinect’s ears and now it will supposedly know what you say more of the time. If you watch TV (still through a primitive cable box in these last pre-Xbox One days) you have probably seen the ad where an intimidating European woman rudely changes the TV from her man friend’s football match to a videogame, solely through the clipped tones of her accented voice. That’s a thing you can do! Once you own an Xbox One. If ads are facts you will be able to swiftly switch between almost all features and applications of the Xbox One through words.
5. The Kinect knows your face.
When you walk into a room with an Xbox One and a Kinect in it you will be recognized by the videogame system and automatically signed into your Xbox account. This is not a dystopia—this is real life.