Microsoft took the wraps off the next generation gaming console Xbox One last week but the whole event was pretty much confusing as a lot of information wasn’t divulged. Not only has it irked a lot of die-hard gamers across the globe but the most predominant effect which can be felt is that it’s already losing steam within a couple of days since it was announced. Microsoft is expected to treat the Xbox fans with some cheerful news and give more information on the console by midway next month, but until then we tried finding all the key facts and features of the Xbox One.



10. Content transferable from 360 – Microsoft still believes that it’ll be able to sell Xbox 360 for another couple of years and still about 5 years of life is left in it. And as Xbox is not backward compatible so 360 shouldn’t become obsolete anytime soon, but the contents that can be transferred include Xbox Live Gamertags and Gamerscores. And also the music and video purchased from the Xbox Live Marketplace will make the jump, but everything else will be stuck where it is.

9. Will it be always online? Pre-launch rumour suggested that Xbox One will need to stay online all the time to work. But post launch all we know is it does not need to stay online all the time. There’s a catch to it, the console will need to be online atleast every 24 hours to verify the games and connect to the Live account and for the cloud features, but it’ll keep functioning even when it loses connectivity while playing a game.

8. Backward compatibility and old used games – The new Xbox One is not backward compatible as the architecture of the console is completely different than Xbox 360. The Xbox One is compatible with the x86-64 instruction set. So don’t throw away your old 360 just yet. But old used games can be used, but it will need mandatory installation in the 500GB hard disk and Microsoft will charge a fee for registering it to the Live account.

7. 4k resolution ready – We already broke this news before and this one particular reason has kept us happy. With the advent of 4K TVs why should gamers miss out on high resolution hyper real action. But it’s still unsure when and which gaming company will launch an actual 4K game, till then keep drooling!

6. Controller will last at least 10 years – Microsoft a few days back confirmed that after extensive testing it found that the controller will at least 10 years even after heavy usage which might actually by more than the life of the console itself.

5. Independent developers – There were a few reports and news doing rounds that Microsoft will not support inde-developers and won’t allow them to self-publish on the Xbox One, but Xbox’s chief refuted it by saying Xbox One will have some sort of indie-friendly program. Without inde-developer support Xbox can actually miss out on a lot.

4. Kinect – Kinect 2.0 has been the star of the show and has already got thumbs up from many quarters. Not only can it record 1080p full HD videos but the sensors are ultra sensitive. The depth of field and vision has been increased by 60% and can easily track up to 7 people. It can track the smallest of the movements and even trace the users’ heartbeat. But a lot of people fear that the kinect will eat into the privacy of the household as it needs to be connected to the Xbox for it to function, to which Microsoft said it will provide privacy settings to it.

3. Cloud integration – The Xbox One is already hugely more powerful than Xbox 360 in terms of the specifications but the cloud integration will make it even more powerful. The next gen console will easily tap into the clouds resources to provide more power than what the internal hardware will provide.

2. Region locked – Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox One will be region locked. “Similar to the movie and music industry, games must meet country-specific regulatory guidelines before they are cleared for sale. We will continue to work with our partners to follow these guidelines with Xbox One,” Microsoft confirmed in one of it interviews.

1. Non-swappable and non-removable internal hard disk – The huge 500 GB internal hard disk drive is sadly non-removable and is permanent to the console, but even if one runs out of space there is a solution, Xbox One will support external storage via its USB 3.0 ports.