In Microsoft’s eyes, this move is incredibly beneficial. After all, if every person has a Kinect with their One, then the Kinect will become the center of attention again, just as the original Wii was when it first launched. Whereas the original Kinect got off to a great start, selling 10 million units in its first year, those sales quickly plateaued and stagnated. Microsoft doesn’t want the same thing to happen with Kinect 2.0. Microsoft wants Kinect games, and they want the casual buying Kinect games. They don’t want the console completely under the dust.

Although this may seem ideal for casual gamers, it is not ideal for those of us who are hardcore gamers. This Kinect emphasized strategy alienates those of us who were on the Xbox bandwagon in the first place, the hardcore early adopters.

Simply by packaging and requiring Kinect, the One is already fighting a losing battle to the PS4. Kinect 2.0 cannot be cheap to manufacture, and the peripheral couldn’t add less than $50 to the console’s price. Considering that the One and the PS4 are nearly identical in terms of hardware, we can assume that both would launch at about $400 alone. But, with Kinect, that price may be pushed up another $50-$100. For those that are planning on only buying one console come this fall, the casual approach and heightened price may be a huge turn off.

Another problem with placing such a huge emphasis on Kinect is resource management. Considering that Microsoft is putting Kinect at the center of their console strategy, they must be allocating quite a large chunk of resources for the development of Kinect-enabled games. Yesterday, Microsoft announced that there are 15 exclusives coming to the One in its first year. But, how many of those games are Kinect games? You have to assume that Dance Central 3, Kinect Sports Season 3, and Your Shape Fitness Evolved are among the 15. If I had to guess, I would assume that 10 out of the 15 games are Kinect games. The money spent on developing these games could have been spent on producing hardcore titles. Instead, Microsoft ditched the dedicated gamers, and went for a mainstream approach.

Lastly, gamers like choices. Hell, all people like choices. I’m forced to buy Kinect with the One, but not forced to use anything with the PS4. I have a choice, and people value choices. I don’t like being forced to buy something that I’m never going to use. I never bought the original Kinect, never had the intention of buying it, and now Microsoft is forcing itself into my living room. I don’t need this, and fortunately, I can wait a few years to buy the One. Maybe eventually Microsoft will patch in non-Kinect functionality; but now, like many others, I’m left alienated, and wondering why Microsoft has left my bedside.

First thing’s first Yusuf turned on the console by simply commanding “Xbox, on.” The console immediately displayed its logo followed by a message featuring Yusuf’s profile picture and a short message: “Welcome back, Yusuf!” Holy mess, did that thing just recognize his voice? Yes it did, the Xbox appeared to recognize Yusuf based on his vocal tone instead of his name. That’s pretty impressive. After this it promptly escorted him to a very familiar looking Xbox dashboard.

Xbox One will feature this newly designed Kinect

Yusuf navigated through the dash with a simple swiping motion all while highlighting the new dashboard’s Trending section–which serves to show you all the most popular apps and games on the Xbox. After showing the usual Games, TV & Movies, Music and Apps areas, he issued another demand: “Xbox, go home.” After this, the Xbox immediately pushed over to the Home section of the dashboard. Pretty cool stuff, but nothing too crazy to see here.

Tired of switching inputs if you want to watch TV and play Xbox at the same time? Well that is now a thing of the past. With this simple statement, “Xbox, watch TV” you can instantly watch TV directly on your Xbox! What’s better is that you don’t even need a remote to switch the channels either. You may simply state “Watch MTV” and your TV will quickly change the channel for you. You can also see a highly interactive TV guide by telling your Xbox, “show guide.”

Sports fans, you will no longer need to have your computer or smartphone open to keep up with your fantasy stats. You can watch the game and say “Xbox, show fantasy” and you will immediately see all of your fantasy players and their stats updated in real time while you watch the game! You can also watch your league standings from the fantasy tab as well.

Xbox One’s new motion and voice features promise to better integrate themselves into Xbox than they were during the 360 era. With this new system relying heavily on these aspects, the new Kinect experience promises to be a mainstay in the new Xbox’s repertoire.  Microsoft has made groundbreaking improvements on its quest to assemble an all in one entertainment console, but will it perform as well as they promise? If it does, then this console could revolutionize home entertainment as we know it. We will keep you updated as Microsoft attempts to take over the entertainment world, while Sony prepares a counter attack to the onslaught that is Xbox One.

The teaser trailer above features a live action segment featuring a woman and young girl named Payton (Peyton?). It’s followed by a pre-rendered scene of a giant ship crashing through a bridge, as well as some short clips that could be considered gameplay. The trailer does not offer much information, but it does leave viewers pondering about this little girl’s abilities.

However, even more interesting is Remedy Games bold claim that Quantum Break will attempt to merge gaming and television together to create a “revolutionary entertainment experience.” According to Remedy, “how you play the game impacts the show, and the show informs how you play the game.”

These statements seem vaguely reminiscent of Trion Worlds and Syfy’s collaboration with Defiance which garnered mixed reviews; but we will have to wait and see how Remedy Games hopes to pull this off.

The next gen engines polished up quite nicely and the story is remaining consistent so you can become attached to your character and fully immerse yourself in the game.

Infinity Ward and Activision have also hired Academy Award winning director Stephen Gaghan, who wrote and directed Syriana and Traffic, to write out the story for the title.

The attention to detail is what impressed the most. They showed a side by side comparison between Ghosts and Modern Warfare 3 and the differences are astonishing. They even have a dog!

Ok so the dog thing isn’t quite that new..but it looks pretty though right?! We’ll post videos up as we wait for E3 rather impatiently.

This should be a great relief for all who feared this dark rumor leading up to Xbox One’s reveal. While this is great news, though, it makes me wonder why they wouldn’t make this announcement during the actual press conference?

Always online connection was a great concern to many prospective buyers, and it’s surprising they chose not quell this rumor during the console’s reveal. It would have received great amounts of praise had they done so; but instead they held off until after the conference. Does this mean anything? Probably not, but I believe it does warrant some thought.

Forza is the longest running racing franchise for Microsoft, and it is no surprise that a new Forza title will be coming to the new Xbox One. They showed a trailer for the new game. They did not talk much about the game, but they did acknowledge that it will be a launch game. For more info about the Xbox One, stay tuned to Gamedwellers.com.

This is a developing story…

What are you expecting to see today? Will Microsoft step it up from Sony’s presentation of the PlayStation 4 and actually show us the new console? Or will we get more of the same and only get the hardware specifications and name? Join Peter, Bryan, John, Jimmy, and myself (yes, there will be a lot of us covering this event) as we all find out together!

The liveblog can be viewed below the break, or right here:

At Dallas Comic-Con, Conroy stated he has been working on the game for the past ten months yet never specified what role he’d be portraying. Plus, it has already been confirmed that Roger Craig Smith will be voicing the Bat (along with Troy Baker as the Joker).

What could this mean? What character will Kevin Conroy be lending his voice talent to?

As for my personal prediction, I think this game will feature a heavy narrative focus with Conroy voicing an older Batman/Bruce Wayne recounting previous adventures which is where Smith’s voice talent will come into play; but, of course, we will just have to wait and see.

The executive admits that this move comes due to the fact that online passes simply aren’t very effective. “Initially launched as an effort to package a full menu of online content and services, many players didn’t respond to the format. We’ve listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward.” It’s good to hear that EA is taking in player feedback for once.

Many publishers, including Ubisoft and Sony, currently use online passes, but maybe they’ll continue in EA’s footsteps. GameDwellers will keep you updated.