As the Xbox One gets closer to its November launch, many questions remain about how the console works and what it can do. So we reached out to Microsoft and asked them if they could definitively clarify some of these things. They obliged, and so we'll be bringing you a handful of Ask Microsoft Anything answers each Monday at 2pm PDT/5pm EDT. Bookmark this page, as we'll update this article so that all the answers live in one easy-to-find place.
Oh, and if you've got a question for Microsoft about the Xbox One, send it to our Podcast Unlocked team at unlocked@ign.com and we'll make sure Microsoft sees it!
NEW ANSWERS ADDED 9/2:
MARC WHITTEN, CHIEF XBOX ONE PLATFORM ARCHITECT: Not at launch, but you’ll see us do this and much more over the life of the program.
WHITTEN: Yes this works! You’ll be able to be signed on with the same gamertag on both an Xbox 360 and an Xbox One console at the same time. However, like today, you can only be signed into one Xbox 360 and one Xbox One at a time.
WHITTEN: We will not carry over any of the 360 reputation scores into the new Xbox One reputation system. The majority of members will start fresh at the “Good” player level.
We will be working with the Xbox Live enforcement team that has identified a small subset of members that have recently had enforcement actions taken against them and set those members reputation to an initial “Needs Works” level. This will give those members a chance to prove they can participate on Live fairly, and are not automatically placed in the “Avoid Me” classification where things like SmartMatch filtering will affect them.
WHITTEN: Xbox One isn’t a native Media Center Extender. We’ll continue to work to enable more ways for everyone to get the television they want over the life of the program.
WHITTEN: Not all games will have demos like Xbox Live arcade games have had on Xbox 360. That said, we are going to work on lots of ways to make it easy for you to find and try new games on the service.
PREVIOUS ANSWERS:
WHITTEN: There is a quick setup to get your system connected and up-to-date. After that, getting your profile is as simple as entering your account’s email address and password.
WHITTEN: Yes! You’ll see more details here in the future.
WHITTEN: It’s easy to use your current DVR with Xbox One. Our focus is on making the TV experience great – with favorite channels, voice control (including play, pause, fast forward and rewind with your DVR) and more. This is an area where you’ll see us drive more innovation over the years to come.
WHITTEN: We recommend locating Kinect in the middle of your television, either above or below the screen on a secure surface. We anticipate there will be some third party mounting offerings in the future.
WHITTEN: We are focused on ensuring that we have great voice support which includes understanding which person is speaking in the room. Additionally, for actions that are potentially destructive, we have a confirmation dialog which will be the case for “Xbox Off.”
WHITTEN: Game developers don’t have control over the party chat channel. However, they do know if a player is specifically in a party chat channel versus game chat.
WHITTEN: We are looking at higher limits on party size. It will be at least 8 people chatting at a time. We may either increase the number of people that can be chatting at once or potentially allow more people in the party channel if only a smaller number is chatting. Stay tuned!
WHITTEN: Just like regular games, Xbox One allows you to start playing while the game continues to download.
WHITTEN: Games are games are games! You’ll see digital content flowing into the system constantly. We will continue to run different programs – like Summer of Arcade on Xbox 360 for instance – as well.
WHITTEN: No, we are staying with our current naming scheme for Xbox LIVE gamertags.
WHITTEN: The Kinect cable is 3 meters long.
WHITTEN: You’ll see us add more in this area in the future. At launch, you’ll have your expanded list of friends and the ability to mark favorites so that it is fast and easy to play with the friends you care about most.
WHITTEN: For a variety of technical reasons – including the sound quality that I talk about below – we don’t support voice chat between the two systems. You will still be able to send and receive text messages to friends on both systems, however.
WHITTEN: Yes – you see your friends on both systems, including their rich presence. My friends that are still on Xbox 360, for example, might see that I’m on Xbox One, playing Ryse. Since I can have more than 100 friends on Xbox One, if I go back to Xbox 360 and I have more than 100 friends, it will only show me the subset of my friends who are friends with me on Xbox 360.
WHITTEN: Xbox One is designed to work with Kinect plugged in. It makes gaming better in many ways – from the ability to say “Xbox On” and get right to your personalized homescreen, to the ability to control your TV through voice, Smartglass and more. Kinect allows you to search for your content, instantly move between games and your personalized dash and more with just your voice. Kinect helps you pick up and play by automatically knowing which controller you have in your hands. No more need to interrupt your friends game or navigate through multiple UI screens to sign in and tell the system which controller you are holding. It will even bind the controller to the console if its currently unbound – no searching for special buttons! Of course – these are just a few of the system wide benefits of having Kinect. Games use Kinect in a variety of amazing ways from adding voice to control your squad mates to adding lean and other simple controls beyond the controller to full immersive gameplay. That said, like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn’t plugged in, although you won’t be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor.
WHITTEN: You have the ability to completely turn the sensor off in your settings. When in this mode, the sensor is not collecting any information. Any functionality that relies on voice, video, gesture or more won’t work. We still support using it for IR blasting in this mode. You can turn the sensor back on at any time through settings, and if you enter into a required Kinect experience (like Kinect Sports Rivals for instance), you’ll get a message asking if you want to turn the sensor back on in order to continue.
As you saw in Major Nelson’s unboxing video, the console comes with our mono audio headset. This is an area where we’ve worked hard to improve the audio quality – and it is night and day compared to chat on the Xbox 360. The Xbox One audio chat headset now streams 24 kHz at a 16-bit resolution uncompressed both downstream and upstream compared to the Xbox 360 headset that streamed 16 kHz downstream and 8 kHz upstream at a 14-bit resolution compressed. I think people are going to be very happy with the audio in game chat and parties.
PREVIOUS ANSWERS:
MARC WHITTEN, CHIEF XBOX ONE PLATFORM ARCHITECT: They are – your avatar will be on the system at launch and in fact, you’ll have some new options, including the ability to do full-body HD gamerpics. By the way, we should actually talk more about gamerpics too. We’ve moved from the 64x64 gamerpics on Xbox 360 to a full 1080p. They are beautiful, and you are going to see some really cool hero moments, like when you login to see personalized views of your games and other content.
WHITTEN: Sure – there is no difference between games in the store – games are games are games! You’ll find them in the same pivots (most popular, new, etc.) and we’ll be highlighting them in our dashboard experience. And of course – like all of your digital games content – you can play them on any Xbox One, and anyone can play them on your Xbox One.
WHITTEN: Game DVR captures beautiful clips at 720p 30fps. The first thing you’ll see with our game DVR is the integration of our Upload service on the console. This service allows you to manage, edit, and share your content. Your clips are stored in the cloud. Also, you’ll see games making “magic moment” videos of your gameplay based on the game DVR functionality – all seamlessly integrated. You’ll be able to see these clips in the Xbox One Guide, in your own game DVR collection, and when you are looking at gamercards on the system. You’ll also see games take advantage of this platform capability and do interesting things to integrate captured game footage into the game experience itself.
WHITTEN: Every game has its own set of achievements, so if you’re playing Call of Duty: Ghosts on Xbox 360 and on Xbox One, you can earn a separate set of Gamerscore in each game. But on the Xbox One version, you’re getting a much richer set of features, such as seeing your achievements progress on the Xbox One console, being able to unlock new achievements throughout the year, and earning real prizes inside and outside of the game. Xbox One also enables a new concept of challenges, where games will be offering special time-based opportunities to earn various goals and collect the rewards. More info on challenges can be found on Major Nelson's blog here.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/05/ask-microsoft-anything-about-xbox-one
