Happy Birthday Xbox One

Well it’s November 22nd and that means Happy Birthday Xbox One. Yeah it has been a year already and has been a rough start for Microsoft’s new system but it hasn’t knocked them out.

Before you read on, make sure to turn your Xbox One on now and download the freebies that Microsoft is giving out in honor of Xbox One turning a year old. Which include free TV episodes, movie rentals, and a full length trial of Insomanic’s title Sunset Overdrive.

As stated before it has been really rough for Microsoft since the launch of the their new console (even before they released it they had to go through a plethora of changes). Well their down but not out, the console is now available in most parts of the world and fantastic prices with the Kinect (or without) and a variety of bundles from Call of Duty to Assassin’s Creed.

Since it has been a year lets see what the Xbox One has done and released since its’ launch.

1. THE GAMES
One of Microsoft’s strong suits has always been games from their fantastic Live service they have always provided games that play great and fun to play with others. At launch they released the zombie hack n slash title Dead Rising 3 and racing title Forza 5 and fighter Killer Instinct. All titles received great praise and they were all tons of fun to play.

Enter March when Xbox’s biggest shooter dropped, laddies and gentle prepare for Titanfall. Which was by far one of my favorite multiplayer games I have played in a very long time. (It definitely helps that the creators were from the original Modern Warfare). It didn’t fully deliver the promises of being the revolutionary shooter it was meant to be but it was tons of fun.

Also available:
Halo Master Chief Edition
Sunset Overdrive
Ryse Son of Rome
Project Spark
Forza Horizon 2

Coming Soon in the next year!
Halo 5: Guardians
Cuphead
Quantum Break
Inside
Fable Legends
Ori and the Blind Forest
Scalebound
Crackdown

2. Xbox Live
As the its’ predecessor Xbox has always had a strong Online service. Now they have included Games with Gold they are giving some great arcade titles to help boost up your gamerscore. Microsoft also partnered with EA to give players the choice to have EA access which gives players access to an EA library of great titles from Battlefield 4 to Peggle 2. The prices range from $30 for a year or $5 a month to give players a choice if they want to try it out. With EA Access players also get early access to EA titles like the sport games or Dragon Age and discount if they choose to purchase the title digitally.

3. The updates
With new consoles updates are becoming a necessity to help improve the potential of the console. Day 1 patches and controller updates help get the full use of the One’s capability. Xbox has now gotten into letting players customize the dashboard and adding pins of your favorites so you can access them faster. The Kinect helps make navigating through the menus a breeze and interacting with others is so much easier.

4. Them prices are too damn high!
Well one of the first issues with the Xbox one was that $499 price tag and YOU HAVE TO HAVE A KINECT. After some marketing ideas they listened and dropped it to $399 and now $349 for the holidays. Also their plenty of bundles from AC to Sunset Overdrive all with unique controllers. These bundles have some fantastic freebies inside. Microsoft took a risk with the price but listened to the people and changed. It is good that now they are evenly priced (well lower now with the holidays) and the  kinect is optional why not invest.

This could be the start of the Microsoft Era after a year of seeing what customers like and how to battle their competition. Only time will tell, till then Happy Birthday Xbox One and go play Sunset Overdrive.