The Xbox One is all black and features a two-tone finish with both matte and gloss in equal measure; a slot-loading Blu-ray optical drive sits out front on the left face, while a power button with the traditional incomplete circle symbol is emblazoned on the right side (which looks to be touch-based). A new Kinect was also unveiled, and it powers the console — “Xbox On” is being trumpeted as the most important feature.
“Team Xbox is on a new mission,” Don Mattrick, president of the interactive entertainment business, said.”And that mission is focused on making this an entertainment console.
He said the goal is to build a system that lines up games, television and software and that the most important part is that it must be “simple, instant and complete.”
“It is time for technology to step behind the curtain and you and your entertainment to take the stage,” Mattrick said.
Yusuf Medhi, senior vice president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business, unveiled how voice input can be used to control Xbox One. It will also respond to gesture controls.
Gaming:

Call of Duty: Ghosts:Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision, talked a bit about Call of Duty: Ghosts, saying how the game introduces “emotional reality” to the world of gaming. For next-gen systems, Activision said the title is built on an all new engine, which allows for a more realistic and immersive experience.
In a promo video, the company talked about how it wants to create a more affecting story, not something that just takes players through the typical pray and spray scenarios. You can slide, and you get a dog, which is new for the franchise. Please don’t let that dog die.There’s also dynamic maps that’s changed by player actions, with events such as earthquakes and floods also playing a huge part—and, of course, there’s much deeper character customization. The title is set in the modern day, and pits players in more underdog scenarios where America is crippled.When the game launches, the game will run at 60 fps while remaining detailed and extremely slick. A video shown at the event looked great and smooth, though a bit unimpressive for being a next-gen title. The graphics aren’t necessarily the focus here, however, with smarter AI and the actual gameplay world playing a big part.Microsoft says downloadable content will come to the One before any other system, which is a huge win for the new Xbox.
EA announces Ignite engine:
EA Sports will bring FIFA 14, NBA Live, Madden 25, and UFC to the Xbox One within the next year.Over the years, sports games have become more and more realistic and EA is promising to take that realism to a whole new level in next-generation versions of many of its popular sports franchises. At Microsoft's unveiling of the Xbox One, Andrew Wilson, the head of EA Sports, announced the company's new Ignite Engine and said that FIFA 14, NBA Live, Madden 25, and UFC would be available for the Xbox One within the next 12 months.
Wilson said that with 4 times as much processing power to work with, games would feature, "10 times as much animation detail." He promised "true player motion," along with incredibility realistic stadiums that would include 3D crowds, dynamic sidelines, and true "living worlds."
Wilson showed off a short trailer that featured clips from the various titles and the graphics did indeed seem to be a big step up, though it's always hard to make a definitive judgment about a game based on a trailer.
Wilson didn't say whether these games would be Xbox One launch titles, but new versions of Madden 25 and FIFA 14 are scheduled to launch in the next few months (August/September) for current-gen consoles, so it wouldn't be surprising if Madden and FIFA arrived within the launch window for the Xbox One (and possibly Sony's PS4).
Exclusive NFL Content Available on Xbox One:
Microsoft and the NFL have joined forces to create an exclusive and more streamlined fantasy football experience available through the Xbox One.
Watching NFL games through the Xbox One will allow you to watch up-to-date stats and interact with your friends from the comfort of your living room
Remedy Quantum Break for Xbox One:
Microsoft is going to launch a new IP for Xbox One from Remedy entitled Quantum Break.
From the studio that brought you Alan Wake, Remedy is launching a new IP based around a young girl with some sort of mysterious powers. While not much was revealed of the story, it’s clear that the game will continue the recent trend of scary little girls. (i.e. Beyond Two Souls, The Last of Us)
Forza Motorsport 5 for Xbox One:
Once the Xbox One launches later this year, the console will get 15 exclusives during its first year on the market. Exclusive IP’s often drive sales of consoles—how often have you heard someone say they bought a system just for one game?—so this is a huge deal, especially early on in the One’s life. It’s unclear what titles are being developed at this point, but we’ll likely get more information come E3 in June.
Xbox One Will Get 15 Exclusives In First Twelve Months:
Microsoft plans eight new franchises for the Xbox One in the first year, a hopeful sign for a platform that’s become too sequel-dependent. Of course, Forza 5 was shown off, but a new game called Quantum Break from the developers of Alan Wake looks like the sort of game we’re more used to seeing from PlayStation: a big-studio design and cinematic feel.
Once the Xbox One launches later this year, the console will get 15 exclusives during its first year of life.
Specs:
Processor and graphics: as rumored, a heavily customized AMD chip that combines an eight-core CPU, a GPU tailored for DirectX 11.1 graphics and 32MB of high bandwidth embedded ESRAM memory. The 28nm chip will consume around 100 watts, which is slightly higher than current Xbox Slim and PS3, but Microsoft promises noise from the cooling fans will be "four times quieter."
System memory: a Sony-rivaling 8GB of RAM, although it'll be DDR3 instead of the PlayStation 4's GDDR5.
Audio and video: 1080p and 4K both supported; 7.1 surround sound.
Kinect: This will be bundled with the console and contain 250,000-pixel infrared depth sensor as well as a regular 720p web cam.
Storage and media: a 500GB hard drive of unknown speed plus a Blu-ray / DVD combo drive that will be used as little as possible. We're told disc-based games will be ripped to the HDD automatically.
Connectivity: HDMI 1.4 output and passthrough; a "few" USB 3.0 ports; gigabit Ethernet; plus, three separate 802.11n radios to allow the console to communicate with its controller (over a form of WiFi Direct) as well as other devices (such as perhaps other Windows-based phones and tablets) without losing its connection to the internet. At other times, two radios could be used to maintain a stronger WiFi signal.
If the spec you're looking for isn't on this list, that's likely because Microsoft hasn't revealed it yet.
Xbox ONE OS:
While the Microsoft Xbox One has just been announced, the next-generation Xbox will run three operating systems simultaneously. A new revision of the Microsoft Windows 8 /RT designed for tablets, has been re-engineered for the main UI of the Console. This version will be used to run apps like Skype and other non-game titles downloaded from the Xbox storefront. A new virtualization technology similar to Microsoft’s Hyper-V will be used to allocate the bulk of system resources to a second, dedicated “Xbox OS” when the user loads up a game. The Final OS is a sort of mediator between the two operating systems.
The triple OS technology will allow the console to have layers on the screen, allowing users to Skype , play games and watch TV simultaneously. These visual “panes,” which are full 1080p layers generated independently and displayed one on top of the other.
Whats more coders will be able to convert their apps to work on this Windows variant opening up a whole new marketplace (one of the biggest) for the developers.
Xbox ONE exclusive: Halo Series
Xbox Entertainment Studios, according to Microsoft’s Nancy Tellem, will present 100% personalized television. TV will become social and community driven.
Microsoft has clarified that Steven Spielberg will be the executive producer of the new Halo TV series. There's no other news on other creative contributors or when the show might airOne of their first major properties will be a Halo show. 343 Industries and Steven Spielberg will be creating a brand new, live-action Halo series.
Halo the Television Series will be on the Xbox One.
Xbox 360 : no backward compatibility
It's true: the Xbox One will not play your Xbox 360 game discs, nor will your Xbox Live Arcade games transfer (not to mention any other content that's dependent on the 360's hardware architecture, anyhow). That Gamerscore you've been earning, though? That's gonna transfer. As will your Xbox Live Gamertag.Sadly, due to the x86 architecture of the Xbox One, the PowerPC-based 360 titles simply won't run on the hardware. Microsoft's not super worried about consumer reaction, though, telling Engadget, "We care very much about the investment people have made in Xbox 360 and will continue to support it with a pipeline of new games and new apps well into the future," a Microsoft rep told us. That said, Xbox One is designed, "to play an entirely new generation of games -- games that are architected to take full advantage of state-of-the-art processors and the infinite power of the cloud."
But while Sony is promising that PlayStation 4 users will indeed be able to play PlayStation 3 games at some point, by streaming them from the cloud, Microsoft is not promising any such thing for Xbox One. When we specifically asked Whitten whether the company had any streaming option or download option for existing Xbox 360 games for the Xbox One, he confirmed that there was no such thing in the works at Microsoft.
Microsoft does, however, plan to keep selling the Xbox 360 alongside the new console for the foreseeable future. "This isn't about getting rid of the Xbox 360," Whitten said. Perhaps the lack of backwards compatibility will be good for business there.
Xbox Live:
The Xbox One was just announced, and with it, Microsoft unveiled a new Xbox Live. The service will include more capabilities, such as Skype and a dedicated game DVR for capturing in-game footage.
Xbox Live will feature native editing and sharing tools for editing players' game footage, letting them upload footage to the cloud, though the amount of storage space available has yet to be specified.
Marc Whitten, corporate vice president of Xbox Live, said achievements will become "dynamic and changing" and show others "how you play not just what you've done."
Whitten said that the number of Live servers will this year reach more than 300,000, up from the current 15,000. He said the computing power behind Live on the Xbox One will equal the amount of computing power available in the whole world in 1999.
Whitten said that game designers can take advantage of the enhanced power and provide bigger online games with more players.
SmartGlass :
The tablet-based SmartGlass experience will be around on Xbox One, and will work as before with a variety of phones and tablets. Baked-in Wi-Fi Direct on the Xbox One will allow Bluetooth-like direct communication between external devices, which could come in handy for other future peripherals, too. Second screens will be a major method of interacting with the Xbox One, but details were scarce at the Xbox event--how will it be better than, and more profound than, SmartGlass as it currently exists
TV on Xbox :
“Xbox is going to be the next water cooler.” That was said during the Xbox event to discuss the Xbox One's role as a social TV platform. To that end, it sounds like Microsoft is developing TV shows and original programming for the Xbox One, making a greater leap into Netflix-like original programming. Steven Spielberg announced a new Halo TV series, and the NFL demonstrated some level of interaction with fantasy stats and Skyping with NFL broadcasts.
Availability
The Xbox One will be available "later this year," so that means 2013 after all. Price and a specific date will have to wait...after all, E3 is just weeks away. After all, there are still several things about the Xbox One we don't know...and would like to.