In a bid to dominate the console gaming market, Kudo Tsunoda, Microsoft's corporate vice president who took on an expanded role of leading a group of Xbox developers, said that his team is now "doing things that can't be done" to give Xbox One the coveted competitive edge, in an interview with Gamespot this week.
So what exactly are these near improbable things?
There is the concept of "cross-play" for one.
"For a long time we've had [Personal Computer] gamers and console gamers who weren't really able to play together," Tsunoda said in an interview with Game Industry International. This idea of cross-platform play is supposedly one of the features to be released soon.
"You should be able to play what you love, and play together, regardless of what device you're playing on. It's about connecting people," Tsunoda said. He claims that Microsoft's Xbox division is the only company that can realize this vision at the moment, citing not just technological capability but also "very gamer-focused values."
Xbox One has also addressed the issue of backward compatibility, something its rival Sony is not willing to accomodate. This distinguishes the Xbox gaming experience because users do not need to discard all of their older generation Xbox 360 games, as they will also be playable on Xbox One, according to Latin Post. This forms part of Microsoft's long-term goal of allowing gamers to play whenever they want regardless of the device they are using within an overall Xbox ecosystem. The company is betting big on "connection" where gamers in PC and console platforms can play together or against each other.
Finally, Tsunoda boasted that Xbox One players will see numerous and diverse upcoming exclusives this year, subtly poking at the motley offering at the Playstation camp. These include Halo 5: Guardians, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Fable Legends, and Forza Motorsport 6, in addition to highly anticipated new releases such as Quantum Break, Sea of Thieves, Recore, and Inside.
