Xbox One Announced

After months of speculation, Microsoft finally revealed its next-generation console today: the Xbox One.

Microsoft called the system an "all in one system" for games, entertainment, and television.
The system includes 8GB of RAM, an 8-Core CPU, a 500GB hard drive, a
Blu-ray drive, HDMI in and out ports, USB 3.0, 802.11n wireless, and
more. It also includes a new version of the Kinect sensor. The Xbox One will not require an always-on internet connection.

The news came during today’s much-hyped Xbox Reveal event and puts numerous rumors to rest including names like Fusion, Xbox 720, Xbox 8 and Loop. It also ends the need for the system’s long-running codename, Durango.



f you were hoping to play your
vast collection of Xbox 360 games on Microsoft's latest creation, we've
got a spot of bad news. Microsoft Xbox Live VP Marc Whitten confirmed to
The Verge that the new Xbox One console will have no backwards compatibility whatsoever.

"No, there's not," said
Whitten, when we posed the question. "The system is based on a different
core architecture, so back-compat doesn't really work from that
perspective."

That means that Xbox 360 discs
won't work, but also extends to Xbox Live Arcade downloadable titles.
Anything that was designed for the Xbox 360 will have to be rebuilt, and
it sounds like Microsoft doesn't plan to do so.
Technologically speaking, it's
not wholly a surprise that backwards compatibility is off the table.
Today, the company confirmed months of rumors that the new Xbox would
use an x86 CPU. Games designed for the Xbox 360's Xenon processor simply
won't run natively on the new hardware, since the Xenon used a PowerPC
architecture instead. Of course, Sony's PlayStation 4 has the same problem: Sony also chose to move to x86 from PowerPC, and the PS4 also won't directly support PS3 games.

But while Sony is promising that PlayStation 4 users will indeed be able to play PlayStation 3 games at some point, by streaming them from the cloud,
Microsoft is not promising any such thing for Xbox One. When we
specifically asked Whitten whether the company had any streaming option
or download option for existing Xbox 360 games for the Xbox One, he
confirmed that there was no such thing in the works at Microsoft.

Microsoft does, however, plan
to keep selling the Xbox 360 alongside the new console for the
foreseeable future. "This isn't about getting rid of the Xbox 360,"
Whitten said. Perhaps the lack of backwards compatibility will be good
for business there.

Update: Polygon reports that the new Xbox One won't be compatible with Xbox 360 controllers as well.