Why I Won't Be Getting The Xbox One

With the announcement of the Xbox One fresh in our minds, there have been a mixed bag of responses coming from all over the globe. This won’t be an opinion about what the Xbox One has to offer. If you want that, check out our news post about it.

No, this will be telling you why I won’t be getting the Xbox One.

Reason 1: I own a PC

This is my main reason for not wanting to get the XO - the new functionality that has been brought to the board by Microsoft includes Skype, snapping screens, an improved Internet Explorer and live fantasy football statistics.

My PC runs Skype, my PC runs Windows 8 which snaps screens, I have no interest in fantasy football statistics, but if I did, I could google it, and Internet Explorer? Who uses Internet Explorer? My PC runs Chrome and Firefox

Not only this but my PC is more powerful than the XO and has been for about a year. The specs that have been announced are: (Matched side-by-side with my PC specs)

• 8GB RAM DDR3 - 16GB RAM DDR3
• an 8-core CPU - Intel i5 2500k 3.3GHz Quad-core
• GPU on par with Radeon HD 7850 - GeForce GTX 670 FTW Edition
• 3 64-bit OS - 1 64-bit OS
• Blu-ray drive - Blu-ray Drive/Writer
• 500GB HDD - 256GB SSD / 2TB HDD + more

Reason 2: I don’t live in the US

Although this is subject to change and I am purely going on what has been announced, I don’t have a subscription to ESPN therefore a lot of the functionality that has been revealed is irrelevant to me. I can’t use the fantasy league feature because I can’t watch the real league that it would relate to. Not only that, but this leads me onto my next point.

Reason 3: I don’t like sports

Why would I purchase a device that allows me to connect with sports in such an interactive way when I don’t watch or play sports? I have no interest in how well Shaquille O'Neal is doing or who’s talking about Messi.

Reason 4: It’s not backward compatible

I have a ton of Xbox 360 games that I currently don’t play. If I was to upgrade to the next-gen, I would like to be able to get rid of my old console and replace it rather than just adding to the clutter that is my living space.

For some reason, the XO can play DVDs on its Blu-ray player but won’t read Xbox 360 discs, why not? It just means another device has to sit there gathering dust until you want to play it.

Reason 5: The Kinect is always on

Microsoft have since announced that the kinect will always be on but will be heavily protected. It’s on so that it can always respond to your voice when you want to turn the Xbox on. Now, I’m not a paranoid person but even I don’t like my normal, not-always-connected webcam pointing at me half the time. I really don’t want an always-on, always-connected to the internet (you know, that infinitely large place full of individuals ready to mock people, and is often vulnerable) Kinect just so it can respond to some voice commands!

Reason 6: I have a PC

I feel the need to stress this point slightly more. My computer is more than capable of doing more or less everything that the XO is capable of doing, even if it’s slightly less “shiny”. You may see this as a PC gamer rage, piping about how we are the superior race of gamers and that’s your prerogative, but it’s not the case.

For anybody that uses their Xbox 360 or PS3 as their main gaming platform and media device, there is every reason for you to upgrade to the Xbox One. However, for anybody that has a mid-to-high range PC, all you have to do is plug your PC into your TV and you have all the new functions available to you, right there, at your fingertips.

These are the reasons that I will currently not be getting the Xbox One but this is early days, E3 is just around the corner and who knows, they could ‘wow’ us there, but as it stands, I won’t be touching the XO.

This is just my opinion, what do you think? Will you be getting one and why?