Microsoft Posts the First Xbox One Unboxing Video

For tech enthusiasts, nothing is more exciting than unboxing a brand new gadget for the first time, particularly if you happen to be one of the first people to get your hands on a highly anticipated product.

Few new tech products are likely to generate as much buzz this year as Microsoft's next-generation Xbox console and while the Xbox One isn't shipping in packages for gamers and reviewers to tear open just yet, the software giant did tease us with its own unboxing video this week.

Hosted by Microsoft's director of programming for Xbox Live Larry Hryb, a.k.a. Major Nelson, the video was revealed on the Xbox blog Thursday morning along with additional details about the gaming console. Among the items shown off in the video are a special "Day One" edition of the console, a controller, the next-generation Kinect motion sensor, an HDMI cable, and an Xbox One chat headset.

First unveiled to the public back in May, the Xbox One has had a somewhat rocky launch path, most notably due to the gaming community's reaction to the console's requirement that users connect to the Internet every 24 hours in order to play games, as well as limitations on sharing games.

In the wake of a good deal of grumbling from the gamer community about those restrictions, Microsoft reversed its decisions on both fronts. But adding to Microsoft's ongoing challenges ahead of the console's debut is the pending release of Sony's own next-gen game system, the PlayStation 4, which will be free of the initial Xbox One restrictions and priced at $100 less.

The upshot is that Microsoft has for the most part steered the Xbox One ship back on course from a PR standpoint, but the decision to post this very early unboxing could be seen as another attempt to rekindle some of the original excitement attached to the next iteration of the company's successful gaming platform.

:story: PC Magazine