It’s been a long and interesting road since the original announcement of the Xbox One, to its release, and now its first year anniversary. We’ve seen some tremendous change big and small within the console with a hope that the future holds something quite bright for the sophomore year. Of course the question begs to be asked, is the Xbox One worth being bought today? The only way to answer that question is to really break down what about this console has changed for better or worse, and what this means for you the consumer in the future.
First off let’s kick things off with a little trip down memory lane. When first introduced to the Xbox One, we were met with a piece of hardware that was basically made useless without any online connectivity, disc based games were a one-time use piece of plastic, and the Kinect was something not only required to play the console, but hardwired in as well. This concept had many in a rage for many reasons, but also had so much potential to be something ahead of its time. The idea we could have 10 people of our choosing to be considered family to share games with was fantastic, along with the possibility to see creative uses out of the mandatory Kinect sensor. So what has changed about the One from then to now? Since its release, Microsoft saw it fit to update the One every month with a multitude of changes making the console from launch almost something completely different.
In those updates we saw over the past year we’ve gotten plenty of additions that brought us up to speed with its predecessor, the Xbox 360. A lot of these additions actually improved greatly, as we should’ve expected, over the 360 that has made for a much smoother experience. The Kinect was unfortunately a peripheral that never quite met its potential, and probably never will, but it’s not completely useless. If you’re an avid user of Upload Studio or Twitch, then you’ll easily find yourself in constant use of the Kinect, but with the easier access of Smartglass and controller support you’ll find it hard to justify keeping the Kinect for those reasons alone. The various snap improvements have really come into their own showing that they can be sleeker, faster, and more efficient than the guide was on 360. Despite the fact that it took almost half the year to get our UI to a point where it was on par with last generation, a lot of those updates really have taken off to be much better than before. Messages now thread in conversation, the party system is now fast and fluid, achievements now have the option to prioritize which are at the top of the list, and your friends list is now snap-able. The home page has become more inviting with a separate section for friends accompanied by a Gamerscore leaderboard, and an easier-to-understand store tab. Finally, the ecosystem has really started show a new side with the activity feed. Comments, likes, and sharing statuses do make it more relatable to social media standards, but a playground for gamers to show their favorite moments and achievements.
Smartglass is something I feel needs to be addressed in its own. As the updates have been rolling in for the console, Smartglass has been getting its own upgrade in parallel becoming more and more like the companion it should be. With the option to comment, like, and share within the app, it becomes a pseudo social media app for gamers. You also have the options to buy games from the storefront in-app, update and change your bio, re-arrange your pin, use it as a remote, reply to messages, view game clips, and so much more. My biggest issue now, is that all the second screen ideas for game to Smartglass compatibility has pretty much been tossed aside. We saw some uses of Dead Rising 3 and a few other games using some minor second screen options, but nothing more ever came from this. I actually had some high hopes that a second screen experience could become something more, or even something new and creative seen in indie games, but Smartglass seems to have taken a back seat alongside the Kinect.
This is still a gaming console right? The Xbox One doesn’t have the largest portfolio of exclusive titles to offer for thefirst year, but the ones they do have to offer are some of the better games out there. Of course they can’t all be winners, but games like Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, and Sunset Overdrive really showed that the Xbox One is a far more capable machine than it lets on. Yes, on the multiplatform side we still deal with the constant struggle of resolution and framerate not matching those of its competitor, but a lot of this tends to be overblown problems that aren’t as bad as they sound. Ryse, for instance, is running at 900p but is still one of the most gorgeous games on the market. Meanwhile, Sunset Overdrive shows that it’s possible to have much more on screen without dropping a beat. Games with Gold stands to be the only real disappointment with the game side of Xbox. I can’t argue that free games are a great thing and the assortment is slowly getting better, but with games like Crimson Dragon staying free for 3 months don’t exactly help its reputation. I do feel like they’re slowly getting better with the assortment of indie titles that are being pushed through the program, but I don’t feel like it’s really enough to make Games with Gold stand out like Playstation Plus does today. With Phil Spencer taking the helm of our Xbox branding, we can expect to see quite the change of pace in what the Xbox One has to offer in the near future.
In the end, we’ve seen this console come into its own in terms of games and functionality. It still has a long ways to go, but seeing such an excellent progression from its launch to its one year anniversary is an excellent sign of things to come. The Xbox One might just be the first console to break the 3rd console curse.
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