Xbox One is a console with a lot of potential, but it’s also difficult to argue that more flaws exist in the launch hardware than PS4, and especially compared to the improvements made to Wii U after its added year on the market. This is still a worthy evolution of the Xbox brand, but it’s a little rough and unpolished in some places for now. It feels like the Xbox One hasn’t yet achieved its true potential, especially with the core Premium OneGuide features being unavailable to Canadians for launch.
What Xbox One does well, it does very well. The new Kinect is an exceptional piece of tech that effectively demolishes the more primitive Kinect model made for Xbox 360, and addictive gaming components like the time-sensitive bonus challenges and Game DVR/Upload Studio provide ways to keep enjoying your Xbox One games that aren’t offered on Xbox 360, or any other console for that matter! Even being able to multi-task with a Netflix movie, an online game match-up and a Skype call all at once is very cool, really showcasing how the Xbox One aims to take the gaming industry forward.
We suppose then that, even with the Xbox One presently being a more flawed machine than PS4 or Wii U, it’s the drive to innovate that ultimately sustains its appeal, even if it’s clearly a work-in-progress. Wii U has proven to be difficult to sell beyond open-minded gimmick geeks and die-hard Nintendo fans, and while PS4 has been far better-received by fans and the media, generating strong sales out of the gate, it’s ultimately treading water as a console, being a more refined version of the PS3 with a few upgrades, as opposed to a true next-gen experience. Yes, PS4 is a great machine, but as we said in our review of that console, its conservative design prevents it from feeling revolutionary at this point.
Xbox One at least dares to try and be revolutionary, fitting the definition of ‘next-gen’ a lot better than PS4 does, but, as they say, Rome was not built in a day. The console is feeling the sting of Microsoft having to throw out its initial business plan for Xbox One, resulting in a slightly messy dashboard interface, an annoying day-one update that renders your console useless if you can’t get through the over-crowded launch servers, and an aftertaste of feeling compromised as a device meant to take advantage of innovative technology that Microsoft had to mostly backpedal on.
Oh yes, the console is certainly better off without used game blocks, online check-ins and forced Kinect interaction, but Microsoft was clearly faced with a difficult decision leading up to the launch of Xbox One after having to backpedal on so many controversial policies. They could better ensure more intact features and a better interface for launch by delaying Xbox One into 2014, or launch the console for its originally planned November 2013 schedule, even if it means compromises and missing functionality, to avoid giving a key advantage to Sony, not to mention allowing Nintendo to line the Wii U catalogue with even more high-profile, high-quality exclusives leading into next year. Microsoft clearly had to pick the lesser of two evils here.
Thus, at launch, for the hefty price of $499.99, $100 more than PS4 and $200 more than Wii U, the Xbox One is difficult to recommend to the average consumer at this point, especially when one of its core selling points, the TV interaction, is pretty well completely absent if you don’t live in the U.S. Die-hard Xbox gamers will enjoy some of the better exclusive Xbox One launch games, such as Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3 and Killer Instinct, and perhaps that’s worth a launch purchase for Xbox platform support if nothing else. In Canada especially however, it’s difficult to recommend Xbox One in its current state over the more-polished PS4, and the much more robust catalogue of great games that currently exists on Wii U.
Give it another year, or perhaps even a few months, and Xbox One will likely start becoming something truly special, particularly with promising post-launch offerings like Titanfall on the horizon. We do indeed look forward to that evolution. At launch however, Xbox One is outdone by its competitors being built better, more functional, more practical, and, most importantly, cheaper.
No matter how you slice it for the launch window, both PS4 and Wii U stand as better console options for the new generation at this point, if you don’t own them already. There’s just no hurry on owning Xbox One as it stands. Unless it’s Xbox or bust for you, save your money and wait for the console to drop in price and achieve more of its potential. Until then, you’ll continue to derive much more enjoyment from the better-refined and still plenty reliable Xbox 360.