The Xbox One was Microsoft’s gaming powerhouse that fought alongside the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch for gaming supremacy in the previous generation of consoles. Confusing name aside, this console pleased many longtime Xbox fans with fantastic games, a friendly UI, and many options for streaming. The Xbox One was an all-around great machine for entertainment.
With the Xbox Series X finally hitting shelves (and not staying there for long this Christmas season), many fans are saying goodbye to the Xbox One and reflecting on the times they’ve had with it. As many things as there are to praise, there are certain aspects of the console that gamers are ready to see walk into the sunset.
10 Miss It: The Kinect (Certain Aspects)
Love it or hate it, the Kinect began its life in the days of the Xbox 360, and had many players shaking their heads wondering if this is what Microsoft thought was the future of gaming. When it worked, the Kinect was a true leap for motion gaming, due to its controller-less design, motion tracking technology, and audio command features. The Kinect was bundled with the Xbox One, and was slightly improved from the previous model. Many fans were hoping that the technology could be further improved in the future, and the concept itself was very novel. Playing a dancing game on the Kinect was a total joy back in the day.
9 Leave It: The Kinect (Most Aspects)
Despite the leaps that the Kinect took and the ground that it tried to break, the fact of the matter was that it barely functioned properly. The Xbox 360 nearly flopped in its final days because so much focus went into the Kinect, and the Xbox One only focused on it during its early days. As the Xbox brand moves forward, the Kinect should go back to the drawing board and come back once the technology is ready to truly leap forward with the generation.
8 Miss It: The Sleek, Classic Design
Sometimes, simplicity is key. A game console that is complex in outer design might look high-tech and next-gen, but sometimes that comes at a price of portability and practicality. The Xbox One knew that players wanted a console that wouldn’t be a hassle to place around their TVs, and they delivered in spades.
A classic-feeling black rectangular design may have given people a throwback to their classic VCR, but certain designs are classic for a reason. The Xbox Series X’s design is certainly unique, but that doesn’t necessarily make for the best choice in the long run.
7 Leave It: Limited Backwards Compatibility
Backwards compatibility was a feature that ran rampant on handheld consoles, and many disc based consoles would also offer this feature. Most notably, the Xbox 360 offered full backwards compatibility with the original Xbox. Unfortunately with the Xbox One, it began its life with no such feature. Thankfully, select titles were added as time went on, but the Xbox Series X (and this new generation of consoles in general it seems) is focused on providing more backwards compatibility so hopefully this is the new beginning of not leaving the previous console in the dust.
6 Miss It: The Controller
A console is nothing without a controller. The life and death of your console can come down to how comfortable and functional the controller is. Thankfully, the Xbox One controller was one of the most well received controllers in the Xbox brand of consoles. The button placement was perfect, the triggers were sizeable and responsive, and it fit in the hands in a very comfortable way. Thankfully the Xbox Series X controller is quite similar in its build, but fans are going to miss the controller that they’ve known so well over the last few years.
5 Leave It: Lackluster Exclusives
One of the biggest major selling points of a console are the exclusive games that are only available on that console and nowhere else. Gamers will flock to your console if they know that a huge developer/brand believes in that console so much that they stay exclusive to them. Even though the Xbox One has great exclusives, many gamers have stated that they don’t see far beyond Halo, Gears of War, and Forza Motorsport as instantly recognizable names. Especially with the PlayStation and Nintendo lineup of iconic exclusive titles, there is a lot of stiff competition. However, Microsoft recently purchased many game developers (most notably Bethesda), so the exclusive lineup might become brighter in the future.
4 Miss It: The User Interface
The best user interfaces are ones that you don’t need to think about. If a UI is well designed, players will get to their favorite games or streaming services before they even know it.
Thankfully the Xbox One fit the bill when it came to a sleek and functional UI. It’s always a jarring change to shift to a new console and see a completely new main menu, so hopefully the Xbox Series X’s UI is just as well received, because the Xbox One’s was a fine inclusion to Microsoft’s history of UI.
3 Leave It: Always Online
The online capabilities of a console have become a mainstay feature for more than a decade. Unfortunately, the Xbox One was requiring users to have some sort of connection at all times to use the console. The Xbox One was mind-bogglingly designed to need to update via the internet at least once a day, so if you don’t happen to have a constant internet connection, you’re almost totally out of luck. Hopefully this bizarre feature stays in the past and the Xbox Series X keeps their horizons open to players that aren’t always connected.
2 Miss It: The Great Games We Got
At the end of the day, a console has to deliver on amazing games, and the Xbox One ended up delivering on that front. Halo 5: Guardians, Sunset Overdrive , Sea of Thieves, Forza Motorsport 7, and Ori and the Will of the Wisps are just some of the fantastic games that the Xbox One got. Gamers can only hope the Xbox Series X can only further the output of great games, but hopefully all of the great titles on Xbox One will be able to be played on the Series X.
1 Leave It: The Indie Killer
One of the most criticized aspects about the Xbox One, and Microsoft in general, is that they do not allow indie developers to self publish their games. This essentially means that indie developers have to go through the channels of a pricey publisher in order to get on the Xbox Live Marketplace. This is the make or break for many indie game-makers that want an audience, who may not be able to take a chunk of their budget out to go through a publisher. Especially because of how popular indie developed games have been getting in the past years, this is a very unfortunate practice that should be left in the dirt as the Xbox Series X comes around.
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