Remember that episode of Futurama in which an embarrassed Professor Farnsworth, determined not to be outdone by the competition, quickly sketches out the Smell-a-scope on a used napkin? Because that’s kind of how the Xbox One reveal felt to me – a little desperate. Following on the heels of Sony’s announcements made back in February  Microsoft had some nasty rumors to quell regarding the console formerly known as the Nextbox, and former Microsoft creative director Adam Orth’s suggestion that gamers ‘Deal with’ the possibility of an always-online console didn’t help matters, to say the least. Well, it’s done. The Xbox One is now official, with an EU release slated for November 30th, according to online retailer Zavvi, at a £399.99 price point.

The recently streamed reveal show was underwhelming, and a little worrying, at least from a gaming perspective. With seemingly much higher focus on the Xbox One‘s potential as an all-around entertainment device than as a games console, what was shown felt much more like a series of gimmicks than any real information about how the console will change the way we play, although the claim that the updated Xbox Live will be backed by 300,000 servers is an exciting one, if it turns out to be the truth.

I might be alone in this, but a new EA sports roster and another addition to the Call of Duty franchise aren’t enough for me to get excited about. If I played sports, I wouldn’t need console games to make me feel better about my terrible lung capacity and lack of agility. And if I played sports games, then I’d ask myself why I wasn’t just out playing sports instead. As an aside, I’m also a little worried about more of a partnership between Microsoft and EA, since we all know how consumer friendly both companies have shown themselves to be in the past. The fact that there was no mention of XBLA or indie games, and an entire ten minutes devoted to the financial powerhouse that is Call of Duty just confirms the suspicion that the reveal was for Microsoft’s shareholders, and not for the gamers that keep them in business.

0

0