The Xbox One will be released by Microsoft on Nov. 22, but many of the features that Microsoft has planned for the console will not be initially available at launch. When interviewed by IGN at the Tokyo Game Show about the lack of promised features, such as some markets lacking voice recognition and and TV functionality, Albert Penello, Microsoft's Senior Director of Product Management and Planning, discussed the new challenges unique to the upcoming next generation of consoles.
"I think even in the U.S., there's going to be a lot of stuff that was on 360 that isn't going to be on Xbox One for a while. You know, it's an interesting dynamic that you find yourself in with console launches, but particularly when you're coming from a super mature platform... in the old days of console transitions, the expectation of what would be moving to the next console was basically isolated to games. And if you think about all the stuff we've done with Xbox 360 and how much it's different in the last 10 years, you basically have 10 years of innovation, 10 years of experiences, and then, trying to take that and build an entirely new platform, with new hardware and a new software architecture," said Penello.
Penello explained that the delay for the television functionality stems from the fact that each country and region has a different set up for television watching, which Microsoft has been forced to adjust to.
"The interesting thing about the challenge with television is that, when you launch a console, it's largely a global console. We've actually made Xbox more global by being region free. One console. All you need is a power supply. There's no standards or anything like that..." said Penello. "If you look at TV standards around the world - I'll just use the U.S. because I'm most familiar with it - you have set top boxes with HDMI, you have satellite, you've got over the air, then you have all the regional providers that have their own - some use cable cards, some don't, the cable cards are different, and then you start going into digital terrestrial broadcasts - what the U.K. does with their set top boxes. And so for us, like voice, TV is going to be one of those things that's like a tree - we've just got to chop it down."
Only time will tell if the Xbox One is able to overcome each region's hurdles, or if the console suffers due delaying these features.
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