Microsoft Unveils Xbox One, Arriving Later This Year

As expected, Microsoft today unveiled its next-generation gaming console, the Xbox One.

The updated gaming and entertainment device will debut "later this year," Xbox chief Don Mattrick said during a launch event at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters. Pricing was not discussed.

The Xbox One will come with a revamped controller and Kinect sensor, which Microsoft said "is now an essential and integrated part of the platform."

Unlike its rival, Sony, Microsoft actually showed off the new Xbox One at its press event. Some joked on Twitter that it looks like a VCR.

Mattrick talked up the Xbox One as not just a game console, but an "all-in-one entertainment system." To that end, he brought out Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, to demo some of the new features coming to the non-gaming Xbox experience.

Using your voice, for example, the Xbox One will let you switch between games, live TV, and music as fast as you might switch the channels on the TV. With Snap Mode for Xbox One, you can also multi-task and do two things at once, like watch Star Trek on one side of the screen and surf the Web on another.

:story: PC Magazine