REDMOND, Washington -- Yesterday, Microsoft held an event at its campus to unveil the Xbox One.
If you've never been to Microsoft, it's an experience that's difficult to fully express. The atmosphere of high performance and big money feels different than it does just a few feet off of the campus. On this particular morning there was another element in the air: an element of tense anticipation.
After making my way to the waiting area before the presentation began on Tuesday morning, it was impossible not to notice the number of suits milling around, gathering in brief clusters, and then disbanding to reconfigure in different circles. Everyone was putting on a cheery face and plenty of back-slapping was going around, but there was no mistaking the feeling that the company was about to take a big gamble.
This uncertainty was reflected in the press who came from around the world to take in the event. Before we knew what the facts were, the common consensus in the press corps was that we should be excited because An Exciting Thing was about to happen. However, when I asked other attendees about what they expected and wanted from Microsoft's next-generation, the answer was almost always the same: "I'm not sure."
During the actual reveal, a wave of joy erupted from the crowd when they saw the actual box, controller and Kinect attachment right off the bat. The energy was almost palpable.
It didn't last long, though. Almost immediately afterward, the presentation's focus on just about anything except games generated intense whispering and negative tweets. The fact that almost half an hour passed before games were brought up in any significant way was not missed.
Journalists from other countries were dismayed at how America-centric the features seemed. I was asked several times what "fantasy football" was.
Making the situation worse were conflicting stories trickling out about Microsoft's new stance on gaming after the first round of interviews with executives. Would every member of a family really need to pay full price in order to play the same single copy of a game? Did the Xbox One really perform a quasi-DRM check once a day and shut down any player who wasn't connected to the Internet? Microsoft didn't do itself any favors by avoiding the questions it knew everyone was going to ask, and even at the end of the day, there was very little hard information to be had on games.
On the other hand, Microsoft reps were very forthcoming about the technology itself, going so far as to give tours through the working areas where the Xbox One had been designed, mocked up, prototyped and stress-tested. This quick peek at the Willy Wonka-esque inner workings of the labs where creation happens was quite illuminating, and provided an interesting context before we dove into the improvements of the Xbox One controller and the new Kinect.
Hands-On With Xbox One
Nearly every rep was keen to say that the controller had received 40 individual improvements, although no one took the time to outline each one.
Instead, attendees were treated to a high-level rundown of things like an improved grip surface on the thumb sticks, the battery pack being rotated and incorporated into the center of the controller to remove the bulky "box" that protrudes from all Xbox 360 game pads, assembly seams reoriented to areas less likely to come into contact with fingers, and generally improved input performance reported to be between 15 to 20 percent faster than the current standard.
Rumble and vibration were also areas that received a lot of attention. Currently the plan is for four separate motors to be included in every controller: one in each "arm" that rests in the palm of a hand, and one for each trigger underneath respective index fingers.
A brief tech demo was on display to give an example of how this new feedback would be implemented. In one instance, the larger motors rumbled to simulate a sports car's acceleration, while the trigger motors gave a different, clacking sensation to represent the brakes stuttering to a stop. In another instance, the lub-dub of a human heartbeat was interpreted by having each half of the rhythm mapped to a separate trigger.
Even more impressive were improvements made to the Kinect. A brief demo of the unit taking place in a testing room revealed a brand-new infrared vision ability. Even with all lights turned completely off, the camera had no problem detecting both the participants and furniture before it.
A new ‘Time of Flight’ function measures the speed at which photons are emitted and then return to the Kinect. With this addition, the unit is able to render participants in a shocking level of detail, including minor wrinkles in their clothing and the thickness of the buttons on their shirts. Factor the infrared back in, and it's possible for the Xbox One to monitor a person's heart rate and emotional response level based on how much blood flow is occurring under the skin of their face. It's even able to measure force output and muscle exertion. While exercise games may be the obvious implementation here, such an advance could be a real revolution in the Survival Horror genre -- just imagine how a person's actual fear level could factor into game play.
Based on what was revealed today, there's no question that the Xbox One is an impressive piece of hardware that leaps far ahead of the 360. However, with far too many unanswered questions and vague details left hanging in the air, the waiting and wondering for eager gamers isn't over quite yet.
