The Xbox One that you can purchase in Wal-Mart, GameStop or Best Buy isn’t that Xbox One that Microsoft started out with. Early on, the company had grand dreams of creating an all-in-one entertainment platform to take on Sony’s PS4. Video games were to feature heavily in this vision, but live television, music and streaming video were to have similar roles. Instead of waiting to appeal to the masses that play games and do other things late in the console’s lifecycle, Microsoft bet that it could get away with that vision from the outset.
The company was absolutely wrong in that regard. Besides a slew of PR missteps, Microsoft failed to consider that the people spending $499 on a home console were more likely to be die-hard gaming fans than casual gamers and TV lovers. Those fans weren’t thrilled with the Kinect’s inclusion in the box and weren’t too keen on Microsoft putting video games and other types of media on the same field.
A little more than two years have passed since the launch of the Xbox One. Yes, Microsoft’s vision of an all-in-one entertainment system for the family seems dead, but that’s fine, depending on who you ask.
Early 2016 Xbox One Review: Hardware
From the outset, it’s worth noting that the Xbox One on store shelves is identical in most respects to the console Microsoft first brought to market. Some things have changed, but the basics remain the same from 2014. The base Xbox One comes with a single wireless controller and 500GBs of storage for $349. There’s a newer 1TB version of the console that also has a wireless controller for $399.
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