Sign up to get Today’s Best Articles in your inbox
Join 350,000+ subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of
The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Xbox One: The only 4 sentences you need to read
The console goes on sale Friday, Nov. 22, for $500
Reviews for the Xbox One, Microsoft's hulking and powerful next-gen console, are flooding tech and video game publications. Like the PS4, they are all incisive and thoughtful deep-dives into the machine's many nuances and hiccups, and I encourage you to read a few yourself if you're considering purchasing one. Here, here, and here are good places to start.
Indeed, the technological advances make the One a fine piece of machinery worthy of the Xbox name. Its controller is superb — potentially best in class. Kinect's motion- and speech-sensing capabilities are more accurate: Barking, "Xbox, on!" beats reaching for the console. Games even resume instantly from the home screen.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
While the PS4 is focusing more on the hardest core of gamers, the Xbox One is keen on reaching a wider audience. Its goal is to become the all-in-one entertainment center of the future.
The question inevitably becomes: Should I purchase one right away? Of all the reviews I read, I found this four-sentence critique by Greg Kumparak at TechCrunch to be especially insightful:
If you already have a 360 and aren't absolutely dying for any of the launch titles, I would say hold off for now. Give developers a bit of time to figure out the console's inner workings. Let the must-have titles get made. If your 360 is on its last leg or you skipped the last generation, however, it's a solid buy as is. [TechCrunch]
Like the PS4, the Xbox One is a platform with huge potential. If money's tight and you can wait a few months (or, if you're like me, years), you're okay holding off for a bit.
Sign up to get Today’s Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the day’s biggest news and analysis – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chris Gayomali is the science and technology editor for TheWeek.com. Previously, he was a tech reporter at TIME. His work has also appeared in Men's Journal, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among other places. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
