Microsoft has revealed their new console today at a conference held for journalists and live-streamed across the internet. Don Mattrick announced the console would be called Xbox One, a strange name choice considering this is the third installment in the Xbox series, though it might be down to the fact the console has been described as an entertainment console, rather than a games console. This is perhaps concerning news for fans of the 360, as it appears the next gen device wont measure up to its competition. While Sony focused on the Share function of its own console, the quality of which is still up for debate, Microsoft have adapted the Xbox One to have a focus on voice commands and to be responsive to physical gestures, meaning Kinect is now compulsory and fully integrated into the device. Hopefully this means its ability to understand commands has been vastly improved from the current generation, considering voice and motion control are both extremely hit-and-miss at the moment (with some Kinect games barely working at all). Marc Whitten did describe the voice recognition technology as rocket science-level stuff" though, so hopefully Microsoft will be true to their word and the thing will actually work this time around. Aside from this, the reveal also focused on the user's ability to listen to music and watch films seamlessly in comparison to the current generation, which was a large issue with the PS3 in particular. Watching Skype and streaming TV were two features shown before anything else, raising issues about why anyone would pay for the console when all its major selling points seem to be things most televisions and every computer can do already. In light of this it does make sense that its being described as an entertainment console, but using the Xbox to stream TV rather than just using the TV doesnt seem to be a concept thats likely to take off. In terms of the games releases, Microsoft had EA talk about Fifa and Madden, two game franchises available on every consoles and thus not really supporting the reveal at all, a trend that continued by their closing with a Call of Duty: Ghosts trailer. Again, this isnt a good sign. They did give a brief speech about Halo though, so they did get an exclusive game in there, but that quickly moved on to the news that Halo will be getting a television show (directed by Spielberg, no less). Released at the end of this year, its difficult to say how well this console is going to go down. Microsoft managed the conference pretty badly, relying on games available on every console to support them on the basis that theyre popular rather than showing exclusives like Sony did, yet that isnt a tactic likely to sway anyone into buying the console who doesnt already have that intent. On the bright side at least theyve shown the console, so thats one thing theyve got over Sony. More news will be uploaded as it comes through. What are your thoughts on the reveal? Share in the comments.