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Xbox One

Xbox One Will Change the Gaming Landscape

Improved online gameplay, advanced voice recognition and a whole new generation of games.

With 80 million units sold globally, and over 48 million registered Xbox Live (online) members, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has proven itself to be the preeminent machine of console gaming’s seventh generation. And with the new Xbox One, Microsoft is set to further its incredible success in the next generation, by both building on established strengths and exploring new gaming possibilities.

As the life cycle of the 360 has progressed, so the console has proven so much more than a simple platform for amazing video games – it’s now installed as a multimedia presence beneath millions of television screens. And Microsoft has acknowledged this evolution of its system and designed the Xbox One to fully complement the needs of its diverse audience.

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Central to the Xbox One’s new feature set is its Instant Switching functionality. Working in conjunction with the console’s new and improved Kinect sensor – packing a 1080p camera, which can detect the player’s heart rate, and advanced voice recognition – this allows users to literally switch between running programmes on command.

Tell the Xbox One to switch to Internet Explorer and it will, immediately; request that it plays a favourite movie while you’re browsing the net, and again, no problem. Want to Skype a friend to boast about your latest high score while still playing the game in question? Xbox One has you covered. Acclaimed TV shows, the latest films and hottest hit singles – this single box provides all of the entertainment juice a person could possibly wish to drink in, and you can be sure that it’ll always have a little extra for top-ups.

The Snap function during gameplay, used to bring up the music menu.

Look under the proverbial hood and the hardware is fearsome. The 360 is no slouch when it comes to generating gob-dropping visuals, but the Xbox One steps up to the challenge of going better by smashing expectations into a few million pixels. Look at the way the sunlight dances across the paintwork of your supercar in launch title Forza Motorsport 5, as it runs at a smooth 60 frames per second. Turn an eye to the epic battles of (another launch title) Ryse: Son Of Rome and taste the blood and sweat on your tongue.

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But the visual fidelity comes at no cost to the speed the Xbox One is running at – and with time it will only get better as some of this liquid-like slickness will be delivered courtesy of cloud processing. By being able to connect to the cloud – it’s up to the user to what extent, and there’s no requirement to maintain an internet connection at all times – the Xbox One can offload a lot of computing power. Not that its internal CPU, an AMD 8-core APU, isn’t keeping itself busy – with its clock speed cranked to 853MHz, the beating heart of the Xbox One is a force to be reckoned with.

This high-tech spec is already powering award winners. At 2013’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), no game came away with a greater collection of industry gongs than Xbox exclusive Titanfall (due 2014). Indeed, the future-set first-person shooter, developed by the creators of Call Of Duty, is the highest-awarded game in the history of E3. Precedent, stamped.

And the improvements extend beyond the console and its high-definition Kinect sensor – the new Xbox One controller takes the 360’s ergonomically savvy pad and ups the quality, adding independent rumble motors to the left and right triggers, providing awesome feedback to the fingertips whether you’re launching grenades at hostiles or hitting the brakes to drift around a bend. The feeling of the new pad is both familiar and a distinct advancement, comfortable in the hands while providing a greater connection between senses and the screen.

Microsoft understands the culture of online gaming. With so many Xbox Live users, it’s natural that the Xbox One will see its online multi- and mingle-player games supported by dedicated servers. This means unparalleled reliability when embroiled in a Call Of Duty: Ghosts free-for-all, even when many hundreds of players are simultaneously gunning for victory while bragging about their headshot count. It means that Titanfall will offer a dynamic, seamless experience, the like of which could not be achieved by conventional multiplayer titles.

With an out-of-the-box feature set that impresses, and commitment from Microsoft to push the console’s capabilities to the limits, the Xbox One isn’t merely a next-generation contender. It’s the one machine for every possible scenario, the one to take the Xbox name into an immeasurable possibility space – where indie developers and huge studios share equal footing on a platform that provides not just incredible games, but delivers any home’s entertainment needs at the utterance of a Kinect voice command.

Find out everything else you might want to know about Xbox One on the official website, Facebook and Twitter.