2. The Cloud and Always Online
It is funny. The stink that everyone had kicked up before the Xbox One reveal was centered on the consoles need to always be online. Now, after all has been said and done (until E3), it seems to be the least talked about thing. That is mostly because reports have come in that the console was confirmed as not always online. However, it does seem that it is indeed a better service if you do have access to the internet. The Cloud has been talked about for quite a while and it looks like this generation is set to really set to realise that promise. The Cloud is basically a massive server that exists on the internet where we receive and store content. Playstation are using it and the Xbox has followed suit. Xbox have told Wired:
Xbox One will give game developers the ability to create games that use Microsofts Azure cloud computing service, which means that they might be able to offload certain computing tasks to the cloud rather than process them on the Xbox One hardware itself.
That is actually mildly exciting. In theory this would allow the cloud, and all those servers that Microsoft were so chuffed about, to process some of the game's graphical needs instead of just relying on the hardware in the console. While it isn't 100% clear how this would work, Microsoft seemed to say after the event (via press on twitter) that the cloud in theory could be used as processing power. This would mean that the Xbox One wouldn't be tied down to it's launch hardware and could improve on its capabilities as the generation went on. That is exciting, and I would love to see more details about that. However, It still begs the question of, are we ready for always online, and will customers pay for a console that would be hampered by not being online all the time. That is something that only sales will tell.