We’ve heard a lot today about what Microsoft’s recently unveiled Xbox One can do, but it’s what it can’t do that is having gamers’ concerns run high.
For starters, engadget reports that the Xbox One’s hard drive cannot be removed and is not user-serviceable. Speaking to senior director of product planning at Microsoft Albert Panillo, they were able to confirm that though it has a storage space of 500GB, you will not be able to physically swap it out with another hard drive later in the console’s life cycle. The console does, however, sport three USB 3.0 ports that will allow for external storage.
It should also be noted that Wired has confirmed the Xbox One will require you to install games to the hard drive in order to play. “On the new Xbox, all game discs are installed to the HDD to play,” read a statement sent to the site.
On the topic of online connections, Kotaku reports that while the Xbox One doesn’t have to be online all the time, it does have to be online. A Q&A on Microsoft’s press site reads, “no, it does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet.” Speaking to corporate vice president of Microsoft Phil Harrison, Kotaku Edior-in-Chief Stephen Totilo learned that “for single-player games that don’t require connectivity to Xbox Live, you should be able to play those without interruption should your Internet connection go down,” said Harrison. “Blu-ray movies and other downloaded entertainment should be accessible when your Internet connection may be interrupted. But the device is fundamentally designed to be expanded and extended by the Internet as many devices are today.”
In an update, Polygon was said to have learned that “while Phil [Harrison] discussed many potential scenarios around games on Xbox One, today [Microsoft has] only confirmed that [they] designed Xbox One to enable [their] customers to trade in and resell games at retail.”
Related to the topic used games, Xbox Live’s Larry “Major Nelson” clarified further on his blog “while there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail.” He also clarified further on the subject of playing games at a friend’s house. He said, “another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend’s house – should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile.”
Update
Cnet also confirmes that the Xbox One will not be able to play Xbox 360 games since the system sports a different chip architecture – an advanced Micro Devices’ x86 instead of IBM’s PowerPC.
Microsoft issued the site this statement: “Xbox One hardware is not compatible with Xbox 360 games. We designed Xbox One to play an entirely new generation of games — games that are architected to take full advantage of state-of-the-art processors and the infinite power of the cloud. We care very much about the investment you have made in Xbox 360 and will continue to support it with a pipeline of new games and new apps well into the future.”
Does the fact that you won’t be able to remove or service the Xbox One’s hard drive, keep the console offline all the times, play games at a friend’s house without having to sign in to your profile, or play Xbox 36 games turn you off from Microsoft’s next-gen machine?
Let us know in the comments!