One of the more controversial bits of news to come out of yesterday's Xbox One reveal was the discovery that the newly christened console would not be able to play Xbox 360 games.
About 25% of the Xbox One presentation, nearly a full fifteen minutes, was devoted to longtime Microsoft ally Activision, for a series that Xbox seems to wish was their exclusive, Call of Duty.
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If anything, Kinect is the one thing that Xbox has done better than PS3.
For a start, Kinect has been in development even longer than the Xbox One.
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Microsoft's introducing a new Kinect motion-sensing camera to go alongside its new Xbox One game console.
It didn't take long before one of the Xbox MVPs provided a little more insight.
The only people really excited about the Xbox One are people who want to play next-gen video games.
Microsoft's pre-owned game policy for their new Xbox One console has been a source of confusion and contention.
Certainly publishers will be drawn to the Xbox One platform thanks to the promise of monetized used game sales.
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Xbox One has the BluRay drive (at last) and at least the tantalizing prospect of being your cable box, too.
For Microsoft, the Kinect is what ties the Xbox One experience together.
Microsoft needs to focus more on the video games that will define their system, and they really need to announce some non-Kinect exclusives for the Xbox One at E3.
The Xbox One's architecture -- equipped with a new x86 CPU -- prevents it from being able to run games designed for the 360's eight year old Xenon processor.
None of that means anything to normal folks, of course, but what does matter is that the internals of the PS4 and Xbox One are likely to be substantially similar.
Aside from additional horsepower to make better looking games, Xbox One includes the ability to watch TV on one part of a screen while looking at other information, such as a fantasy football league scores or a Skype video chat, on another.
"We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One, but we have confirmed that we designed it to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail, " the company said, with no elaboration, in a statement to CNN.
Ninja Gaiden was one of my favorite Xbox titles when it came out way back in 2004.
However, it may struggle to muscle in on a market dominated by big players such as PlayStation and Xbox, one analyst predicted.
Microsoft announced on Monday that it has already sold one million Kinect for Xbox 360 units worldwide within the first 10 days since launch.
FORBES: Microsoft Sells 1 Million Kinect Units In The First 10 Days
The Kinect sensor now sits next to roughly one third of those Xbox 360 consoles as Microsoft has sold 24 million Kinect sensors since launch.
This time around, Dark Souls II will appear from day one on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, though according to From there are no plans to release the game on next-generation consoles.
Developers could feasibly develop one game across both Windows and Xbox platforms, and it could offer a tasty value proposition if consumers buy one release to play across multiple Microsoft-controlled platforms.
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Because of the relatively high cost of buying into Kinect if one is completely new to Xbox 360, I have doubts about whether it can.
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Taking the robot into battle requires two pilots armed with Xbox 360 controllers: one directing where it travels, and another aiming the turret and firing.
And the developers have a choice to make the games specifically for all or just one of the four platforms (xbox, pc, tablet and phone) if they wish to.
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Think about the XBox for a moment, one the great triumphs of Microsoft in the past decade.
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There's a reason why we recently recommended the Xbox 360 with Kinect as one of our top holiday gifts.
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