What To Expect When You’re Expecting: Gen 8 Hopes & Fears

In the seven years since the last generation of major console releases, I seem to have forgotten all of the feelings that go along with a new generation of gaming. First, there’s the excitement. May 21st was Microsoft’s baby shower for the Xbox One – embedded static RAM, integrated WiFi & Bluray, a 3840×2160 display output…and all in a sleek new package. Life was good. The comprehensive features of this new console would pay for itself and streamline my media consumption.
Then came the trepidation – for oh, how I had forgotten the bitterness of owning technology that was about to become obsolete. As is the new standard, it is not reverse compatible. The hefty price tag on the console coupled with the undoubtedly similarly well-endowed cost of the games will mean an awkward transition from newly outdated tech to a console with only a smattering of game offerings.

Not only that, but the installation locks on games seem unnecessarily restrictive. Now every disc is “registered”, much like a computer program, to an Xbox Live account. Sure, you can “unlock” the installation when you’re ready to get rid of the game, but this makes games unshareable. No longer can

you just grab a game off a shelf and bring it to a friend’s house to have a friendly game of “Is the sword or the rocket launcher better for PvP?” It’s difficult to understand the reasoning behind this, other than driving peripheral sales. Hopefully this will be another aspect of the release that is retracted before it launches.

Of course, all of these are most likely mere labor pains. When the Xbox One makes its way into this world it will no doubt be the spoiled baby of the Microsoft family, replete with tech upgrades. One can only hope that they will be enough to outweigh the complicated digital rights restrictions.