Xbox One is an eighth-generation home video game console developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is the third edition of the Xbox and was released in 2013 alongside the Sony PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Wii U. The Xbox One was marketed by Microsoft as an “all-in-one” home entertainment system, and the first 30 minutes of the reveal event focused on the console’s media capabilities. Microsoft stated that the Xbox One was the only system your home would ever need for entertainment. It can keep everyone from your grandma to your baby brother entertained. However, this approach massively failed as the Xbox has had a history of being a gaming console and not a home entertainment system. Later on, Microsoft clarified that they had no mood to transform the Xbox into a home entertainment system, and they regretted the decision of trying to convert the Xbox’s mentality.
Future hardware revisions were a strict departure from this approach, and the Xbox software was considerably modified to become more of a gaming system.
Hardware
Hardware for the Xbox One was designed by the American semiconductor manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The design was a strict departure from the PowerPC architecture of its predecessor, the Xbox 360. It brought back the x86-64 architecture of the original Xbox. Developers brought the architecture closer to the mainstream PC architecture, thereby making developing titles for the console a lot easier.
AMD designed an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) for the Xbox One. The APU packed two quad-core Jaguar processors, totaling an octa-core system clocked at 1.75GHz. The system packed 8 GB of DDR3 RAM. Subsequent hardware revisions, the Xbox One S and the Xbox One X came with newer GDDR5 RAM.
The Graphics Processing Unit was embedded on the APU and was based on its award-winning GCN architecture. The Radeon HD 7000 series of graphics cards were also based on the same architecture.
| Xbox One | Xbox One S | Xbox One S All-Digital Edition | Xbox One X | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Launch Date | November 22, 2013 | August 23, 2016 | May 7, 2019 | November 7, 2017 |
| Introductory Price | $499 | $299 | $249 | $499 |
| CPU | Architecture: AMD Jaguar Cores: 8 Clock Speed: 1.75 GHz Process: 28nm (TSMC) | Architecture: AMD Jaguar Cores: 8 Clock Speed: 1.75 GHz Process: 16nm FinFet (TSMC) | Architecture: AMD Jaguar Cores: 8 Clock Speed: 1.75 GHz Process: 16nm FinFet (TSMC) | Architecture: AMD Jaguar Evolved Cores: 8 Clock Speed: 2.3 GHz Process: 16nm FinFet (TSMC) |
| RAM | 8 GB DDR3 @2133MT/s + 32MB ESRAM | 8 GB DDR3 @2133MT/s + 32MB ESRAM | 8 GB DDR3 @2133MT/s + 32MB ESRAM | 12 GB GDDR5 |
| GPU | Architecture: AMD Sea Islands (GCN 2) ROPs: 16 TMUs: 48 Clock Speed: 853 MHz Performance: 1.3 TFlops | Architecture: AMD Sea Islands (GCN 2) ROPs: 16 TMUs: 48 Clock Speed: 914 MHz Performance: 1.4 TFlops | Architecture: AMD Sea Islands (GCN 2) ROPs: 16 TMUs: 48 Clock Speed: 914 MHz Performance: 1.4 TFlops | Architecture: AMD Polaris (GCN 4) ROPs: 32 TMUs: 160 Clock Speed: 1172 MHz Performance: 6 TFlops |
| Storage | 500 GB (Kinect) 500 GB, 1 TB (non-Kinect) | 500 GB ($299), 1 TB ($349), 2 TB ($399) | 1 TB | 1 TB |
Variants and Hardware Revisions
The Xbox One launched in a two-tone gloss black finish. A 500 GB variant was the only one that was available for $499.99 along with the improved Kinect 2.0, at the time of launch. However, in 2014, Microsoft launched a bundle pack that came with 1TB storage.
Later, in 2016, a big hardware revision of the Xbox One was launched. This was called the Xbox One S, and it was significantly lighter and slimmer as compared to the original Xbox One. The Xbox One S also packed significantly powerful hardware as compared to the original Xbox One, and it raised the gaming resolution from 1080p to up to 1440p. Three variants of the Xbox One S were made available. These included one with 500GB of storage which was priced at $299; one with 1TB of storage which was priced at $349; and another with 2TB of storage which was priced at $399.
A high-end version of the Xbox One was released in 2017. It was called the Xbox One X and could play games at up to 4K resolutions. The One X was slimmer but a lot heavier as compared to the original Xbox from 2013. It came with 12GB of GDDR5 RAM as compared to 8GB of DDR3 RAM in the Xbox 2013. The APU was revised and an octa-core variant of the Jaguar CPU clocked at 2.3GHz was introduced. It also included a Radeon GPU with 40 Compute Units (CUs) which was capable of up to 6 Tflops of graphical computing performance. A 1TB version was introduced in 2017 which came with a black matte finish. It was priced at $499.
Microsoft also launched an Xbox One S All-Digital Edition in 2019. This console was everything in the original Xbox One S, but without the disc drive. It was significantly cheaper at just $249.99. It was discontinued shortly after in 2020 after Microsoft suffered heavy losses from selling the console.
| Xbox One variant | Launch Date | Price | Support Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xbox One (along with Kinect) 500GB | November 22, 2013 | $499 | Discontinued in 2016 |
| Xbox One (without Kinect) 500GB | June 9, 2014 | $399 | Discontinued in 2016 |
| Xbox One (without Kinect) 1TB | June 6, 2015 | $399 | Discontinued in 2016 |
| Xbox One Elite (without Kinect) 1TB | August 31, 2015 | $499 | Discontinued in 2016 |
| Xbox One S 500GB | August 23, 2016 | $299 | Still in production |
| Xbox One S 1TB | August 23, 2016 | $349 | Still in production |
| Xbox One S 2TB | August 2, 2016 | $399 | Still in production |
| Xbox One S All-Digital Edition 1TB | May 7, 2019 | $249 | Discontinued in 2020 |
| Xbox One X 1TB | November 7, 2017 | $499 | Discontinued in 2020 |
Games
Backward Compatibility
When the Xbox One launched in 2013, it did not come with backward compatibility for either Xbox 360 or the original Xbox titles. However, in 2015, Microsoft promised to bring backward compatibility for select titles on the Xbox 360 and the original Xbox.
Exclusives
Several exclusives were launched on the Xbox One platform. A number of those titles also made it to Microsoft Windows. The titles exclusive to the Xbox and Windows platforms are:
- Forza Horizon 4 (also on PC): Forza Horizon 4 is an arcade-style racing simulator. It is set in the United Kingdom.
- Gears of War 5 (also on PC): A shooter based in the distant future, Gears of War 5 continues the story from Gears 4. It also focuses on the multiplayer experience, much like the Call of Duty series.
- Forza Mororsport 7 (also on PC): Forza Motorsport is a track racing simulator. It is described by Playground as the ultimate 4K racing experience.
- Halo 5: Guardians: Halo 5 is a direct sequel to Halo 4 (2012). It is a shooter in its blood, and both of the multiplayer and story experiences are awesome.
- Psychonauts 2 (also on PC): Psychonauts 2 is a platformer video game that launched in 2021. It was developed by Double Fine and is undoubtedly one of the best Xbox exclusives.
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps (also on PC): Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a 2D platformer game. It was also released on Nintendo Switch and is an awesome graphic Metroidvania action-adventure title.
- Sunset Overdrive (also on PC): Sunset Overdrive is an action-adventure shooter title developed by Insomniac Games before its Sony acquisition. The game is set in a fictional not-so-distant future.
- Halo: The Master Chief Collection (also on PC): Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a remaster of some Halo titles released on previous Xbox consoles. It includes Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo Reach, and Halo 4. This collection is a remastered version of these titles. It keeps the original feel of these games, while significantly improving visual fidelity.
- Quantum Break (also on PC): Quantum Break is a 2016 action-adventure third-person shooter video game. It is a work of fiction where a time travel experiment goes wrong.
- Sea of Thieves (also on PC): Sea of Thieves is a massively online multiplayer role-playing game (MMORPG). Rare developed this title and it has a massive player base of over 25 million players.
- State of Decay 2 (also on PC): State of Decay 2 is a survival horror video game developed by Undead Labs. It was released in 2018 and is undoubtedly a treat for zombie survival lovers.
- Titanfall (also on Xbox 360 and PC): Titanfall is a brilliant first-person shooter video game that originally debuted on Microsoft Windows and the Xbox. It rose to critical acclaim because of its out-of-the-box gameplay mechanics and story. With time, the series has expanded to other platforms as well.
- Gears: Tactics (also on PC): Gears: Tactics is a spin-off of the Gears series. It is a turn-based tactics video game.
Third-Party Titles
Several third-party studios have developed titles for the Xbox One during its lifespan. The major studios include Rockstar Games, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and CD Projekt Red among several others. The most significant games from third-party studios on the Xbox One are Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, Just Cause 4, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Life is Strange 2, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Control, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla among several others.
Controllers and Peripherals
Several first-party controllers and peripherals were released for the Xbox One. The most important among them are:
- Microsoft Xbox Wireless controller – The Xbox Wireless controller saw considerable redesign and modernization from the Xbox 360’s controller. It featured an updated D-pad and overall better build quality. The new wireless controller was critically acclaimed for being truly next-gen.
- Microsoft Xbox Elite Wireless controller – The Xbox Elite wireless controller was released in 2015. It featured an updated D-pad and customizable pedals to best suit the “elite” gamer’s use-case scenario. A revised and updated Series 2 was released in 2019 and is priced at $179.99.
- Microsoft Xbox Adaptive controller – Microsoft released the Xbox Adaptive controller in 2018. It is mainly targeted at differently-abled users.
- Microsoft Kinect 2.0 sensor – The Kinect 2.0 sensor is an advanced motion tracking and voice controller for the Xbox One. According to Microsoft, motion tracking was the future of gaming as it increased immersion. But, the idea terribly flopped and Microsoft stopped developing games to be played with the Kinect sensor.
Sales and Reception
The Xbox One rose to critical acclaim pre-release. However, it sold poorly upon launch. This was due to Microsoft’s poor marketing and trying to sell the console as an “all-in-one” entertainment system. Factors that also contributed to low sales include higher pricing. The Xbox One was much more expensive as compared to its competitors. It cost $499 while the PlayStation 4, its major competitor, cost just $399. Xbox also made the Kinect 2.0 sensor mandatory along with every purchase of the Xbox. This further worsened its sales because, contradictory to Microsoft’s belief, motion-controlled games were not the future.
Microsoft stopped giving sales figures for the Xbox One in November 2014. The company had sold about 10 million Xbox One systems by then. Analysts from around the globe have estimated that the console has sold over 54 million units to date. This is significantly less as compared to the PlayStation 4, which has sold over 116 million units to date. But, it significantly outsold the Nintendo Wii U, which just sold a paltry 13.5 million units in its lifetime.