Xbox One

The newest member of the Microsoft gaming family was announced yesterday, and it has been dubbed Xbox One. The announcement was full of news and functionality presentations, such as Xbox Ones improved use of the cloud, its Skype functionality (presumably with its own app extension), the High definition video, and it's ability to multitask and behave as a media and entertainment center, rather than a simple console. They also highlighted Xbox Ones "advanced new look" (honestly it reminds me of the original Xbox) and it's compatibility for current gold members. The presentation glazed over a few points, however; stating that it will work with Xbox live gold along with the xbox 360, but leaving out that the Xbox One will not feature backwards compatibility, in other-words, the One will not play 360 or original xbox games, so hang on to your old consoles if you would like to continue playing them. The Xbox One also features the ability to play used games, as we have been told, BUT playing a used game will cost you an unlock fee, in addition to what you paid for the used game. Xbox One will have security features to back this up, by only allowing you to play games after they have been downloaded (either through the marketplace, or off the disk) to the Ones hard drive. Xbox One does require an internet connection, unlike its predecessor, even when not using online features, the console does not need a constant connection however, but it does need to "check-in" at least once a day. This means that someone without internet would not be able to play a single player game, or use offline functionalities of the console, without connecting to the internet daily.