How the Xbox One changed over the past 2 years

Believe it or not, but the Xbox One is over 2 years old already, and just over 1 year old in South Africa. Things have changes quite substantially on the console over the past 24 months, and especially during 2015.

New hardware, new games, and a new operating system overhaul, has made the console a pretty great place to play.

Here are some of the biggest changes that the Xbox One has undergone over the past 2 years.

Goodbye Kinect

One of the biggest gripes that users had with the Xbox One was that its Kinect camera was mandatory at one stage of the console.

The Xbox One was bundled with the Kinect, and there was no getting away from its extra R2000 mark up on the console due to this.

Microsoft then decided to scrap the mandatory Kinect feature, and release console bundles with no Kinect camera.

Furthermore, the Kinect camera has since taken the back seat on the console, with the removal of hand gestures being the first step in showing that Microsoft just could not find any way to make their “most advanced camera” relevant on the console.

Since the new Xbox One Experience (NXOE), there has been very little attempt to make the camera a must buy, with no games taking advantage of the feature.

Even the annual Just Dance title by Ubisoft, made it an optional feature. So in a nutshell, in 2014 we might have seen the Xbox One lose Kinect as a mandatory feature, but in 2015, we saw it become redundant.

Hello Windows 10

The Xbox One’s ability to connect with Windows 10 by streaming games to you PC and playing games with PC gamers in some titles like Fable Legends, is a massive move for the company.

But this Windows 10 functionality came with a brand new Xbox One UI, which in some ways was inspired by Windows 10.

The new UI is much cleaner and up to 40% faster than before, but its main feature is its new menu layout which eliminates the layers which were present in the past OS.

To get somewhere, you would have to go from app to another app, to where you want to be. The new UI is all integrated in the start page.

There have been no games as of yet that have taken advantage of the cross platform ability, besides the beta of Fable Legends, which is kind of under an NDA at the moment.

Saying that, 2016 should see a few games like Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and more released on Windows 10 be playable on Xbox One with Windows 10 players.

Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility

One of the biggest new features on the Xbox One is its Xbox 360 backwards compatibility. This year Microsoft gave us what we have all been wanting this generation, a way to play our past generation titles, on our current consoles.

With Xbox 360 backwards compatibility, users can now re-download Xbox One versions of their Xbox 360 games, or just insert an Xbox 360 disc which will trigger the download.

There are over 160 games available on the program, with Microsoft releasing more and more as the months go by.

Xbox Gold Members now have a reason to keep their subscription intact as the Xbox 360 games that are released as part of the Games with Gold incentive, are always playable on Xbox One.

This means that users will get 4 full games every month, which is fine by me. This move was not only smart, but much needed on Microsoft’s part.

The Xbox 360 has some great titles and this means that we can experience them all over again, without the need to purchase them. If you are looking for an Xbox 360 game, chances are that it is going to be cheap anyway, so it is a win-win.

Elite Range

Microsoft finally dived into the pro controller market with the Xbox One Elite Controller. This premium controller was built from the ground up and has everything you could ever want from it.

Steel shafts on the analogues, four back triggers, and hair trigger switches. The controller is the first step in taking out the competition like Scuf, who sell similar products, but at higher prices, and with less features.

For Microsoft to take on the pro controller industry is a huge step for the company, as it could lead to more innovations in the simple way we play.

Do you own an Xbox One? How has your approach to the console changed over the past 2 years? Let us know in the comments and forum.

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