Xbox One: The One Feature That Nobody Seems To Be Talking About

GamingBolt: "Following the reveal of the Xbox One in May and with a subsequent presentation at E3, the amount of attention the Xbox One has been receiving is truly worthy of a next-gen console."

[golding89]

Sounds good. "We’ve already seen this running with the Xbox One’s ability to switch between games and applications."

Though many people won't know what Vmware is lol.

[Neoninja]

"Though many people won't know what Vmaware is"

That was the case with me, but after doing a little research and talking with a few people on here I understand what it is and does.

Its a neat little feature and I'm surprised how easily something like this could be forgotten.

[BiggCMan]

I didn't know there was a name or that a specific software was needed for switching between apps/games/media etc..

So in other words, XBO will do just what smartphones and computers do nowadays. Easily switching between tasks without interrupting one of them. This is great for both XBO and PS4, as they both do the same now.

It's always frustrating, more so on PS3, how slow everything is to go from a game to Netflix, or the PS Store etc..

Xbox 360 certainly does it a bit faster, but you still need to exit from everything, so keeping tabs open for each program is a glorious thing for new consoles.

[redwin]

So we are beginning to understand that next gen us not just hardwear but also softwear. I don't care what anybody says, I trust MS over many other companies out there. But, it remains a business and we have to understand that.

[GameNameFame]

Its something both consoles can do.

Thats why it is getting less attention.

The differentiating factors are games, specs, TV.

[JokesOnYou]

I think the difference is you can't "snap" back and forth like the X1 can because of the hypervisor.

[mcgrottys]

@BiggCMan

consoles last gen had hyper visors as well but mostly for security reasons, the big thing about the xbox 1's hypervisor is that it will be using barely any overhead because it well be running directly off the hardware unlike most other applications where it is running on top of the OS. That causes performance issues because it is might be developed in a language such as C or C++. That means the code from the hyper visor still needs to be converted to machine/assembly code and then processed while the xb1 is most likely written in assembly already.

Also here is a link on the 360 hyper visor

http://www.joystiq.com/2005...

[GameNameFame]

@jokes on you

and PS4 has secondary processor....
Hypervisor is just software that leeches off of X1's already weaker spec.

PS4 has a dedicated processor to do this.

[slimpickens]

@Gamefamename

So what,good for them? I personally don't care what the PS4 can probably do. This is about XBO which ironically is all I care about and which is why I'm here. It's like here we are talking about something we like and some stranger comes in talking about something nobody is even thinking of. The XB0 has the games I like and is in no way inferior as of right now to PS4. Maybe 5 or 6 years down the road but for now why should I give a frack? If there is some huge difference years from now then yeah we can talk but other then that seriously it doesn't matter right now.

[nukeitall]

The PS4 OS is based on FreeBSD and is designed to run like a traditional OS. It won't be as robust as running a hypervisor and VMs like MS is doing. This really has to be designed with instant switching in mind from the start, otherwise it might not even be possible.

The 3 OS solution that MS is using is completely self contained, and if one crash it won't affect another. It is very robust and sound way of doing it.

[Christopher]

JokesOnYou is correct. You can't snap back exactly like XBOne because of the hypervisor. Which is a weak element on a PC since malware and the like can abuse the concept to access OS data and become nigh impossible to detect.

But, having said that, multiprocessing and enough RAM will allow someone to snap back and forth from movie, game, music, etc. reasonably fast without the need for hypervisor. Example: iPad 2+ app switching and PSVita multiprocessing.

Hypervisor is better, just not _that_ much better. But, still, better.

[JokesOnYou]

@Gamefamename, I'll tell you what when both consoles are out in the wild plenty of sites are going to do the inevitable UI comparisons then we will see how the weaker spec console compares to the superior spec console. Hopefully you will be around for comments then.

[BABYLEG]

I'm with jokes on this. Those OS comparisons are right around the corner

[boing1]

The latest firmware update for PS4 dev kit also has full multitasking.

[HystericalGamez]

You can't use Snap on AAA games. Meaning no Skype, or switching to apps, or picture in picture when you're playing COD, BF4, or any other AAA games

[Grown Folks Talk]

Incorrect. You can't have the AAA game as the small snapped item. You can snap on top of the game.

[mcstorm]

@golding89 The xbox one is not running on VMware its running on Hyper-V its the same thing kind of but it is made by Microsoft.

We use Hyper-V at work and it is a very stable and flexible bit of hardware that dose not need a big amount of resources. We even have a Quad core I5 pc at work with 32GB of ram running 9 server OS's and different bits of software on them and the way it manages to keep the servers running fast and without lag is impressive.

I am looking forward to getting the xbox one and I know this site is for some reason a hater of the One and the WiiU but I really like the look of them both well love the WiiU at the moment as I have one but I think all the console that are out and coming out are great and all have + and - sides to them as nothing will ever be perfect.

[Kleptic]

I'm with you on the Xbox One not being as 'bad' as everyone is making it out to be...but come on, man...a WiiU?...that thing is just a disaster on every level...

I have no preferences other than the products themselves...I love games, but have never been the type of person that HAS to play every decent game made...this hobby, for me, has always been laced with compromise...

with the 360 and Ps3...Gears looked awesome, and the PS3 had just launched an absolutely retarded price point...before GoW, there was absolutely nothing that interested me in a 360...My younger cousin had a 360 and bought GoW, we played the shat out of it...and his 360 popped twice in a 2 month time frame (the replacement from best buy died within a few hours)...and while gears of war was fun, there was no way i was spending money on the ghetto-ass device (at the time) needed to play it...and by the time they fixed the hardware, imo the 360 was quickly becoming 'mr. multiplat'...

so the decision was easy...i bought a ps3...which ended up dying itself a few years later...and i can't say overall i've been that thrilled with it as a console, regardless of that...the OS absolutely sucks, always has, and there are day 1 promised features sony talked about before release that STILL are not around...that is pretty much unacceptable to me...and gives me zero loyalty when moving forward...the only brand preference i have remotely is because of Sony's 1st party studios, and the ridiculous games they make regularly...

this time around...open eyes for the announcement of both the ps4 and Xbox One...MS made the decision very easy once again...only this time, seems like every other week something comes out that makes the system more attractive to me...drm gone, always connected bs gone, and even better...the hint of the xbox one becoming kinect-less...

I'm not buying either at launch...so far i'm looking more towards a Ps4, but if MS miraculously announces a console without kinect at a similar price...i have some serious considerations to make...

[mcstorm]

Lol So what you were trying to say was you don't know what to go for as they all have issues.

I have to disagree about the Wiiu though. I loved the SNES and N64 and gamecube but the wii was a bit of a loss for me. I liked the look of the Wiiu and yes it had not had many exclusics so far but after Playing MarioU, Pikmin 3, Lego City it has been a nice change from playing shooting games that I have spend playing for the last 7 years on my ps3 and 360.

As for the OS on the PS3 I agree it has really let the console down it is and always has been slow and lacks the slickness the 360 has had from the start. We have not seen to much of the PS4 os but quite a lot of the 360's and I have been impressed with it. As for Kinect 2 I am happy to use it with the new console as it looks a lot more like Project Natal than Kinect 1 was. Also I was happy with the DRM as I could see the + sides to it but im happy to not have it too as it also has + sides.

Ive decided not to go with the PS4 at the start of this gen as for me the One and the WiiU have more games im interested in at the start but like always im sure ill pickup the PS4 to complete my collection of consoles in the end.

Gaming is a hobby for me to but I tend to play games for 1 or 2 hours a night rather than watch crap on tv.

[Ksar]

Exciting feature indeed. Can't wait to have my Xbox One :)

[stage88]

Snapping apps is a nice feature but nothing that can't be made easier when I have my phone right next to me.

[Rhinoceros]

The kinect will be what you'll want to use in this situation. I just hope voice recognition is on POINT.

[HugoDrax]

Voice recognition isn't too bad on X360, I'd rate it a 4 out of 10 when navigating the UI, or watching Netflix. I've had the most luck when using voice commands to play Mass Effect 3, which sometimes improved the gameplay during intense battle situations lol. I found myself panicking and desperate for help, and began shouting out any command "Singularity! Lift! Push!" Hahaha! This will backfire on me when I get pissed off and scream at Dead Rising 3, as I'll have no where to hide. Safest bet will be to get to high ground when you want to rest, as no place will be safe from a horde...

[theWB27]

I remembered this. Too bad it hasn't been elaborated on and the reversals have received more press. I'm sure there'll be someone, or a quite a few, who'll dismiss this as a gimmick.

For titles like KI...I don't think you can snap a movie, but you can snap and search the internet. Smaller functions can be snapped with big titles.

[n4rc]

I think they explained that the game has to be on the main screen.. You can't snap a game

But you should be able to run KI and have a movie in the snapped screen..

But you can't have a movie on the main screen and snap a game in the corner.

That's how I understood its limitations

[theWB27]

Yea...that sounds about right. Nice clarification.

[Belking]

The features of the xbox-one easily kills the competition. Snap will indeed come in handy.

[Angeljuice]

Yes, I've often wanted to have the internet on screen, or talk to a friend on Skype, or even watch tv whilst I'm in a really intense moment of videogaming Belking, that feature just kills the competition./s

I don't have a problem with the feature itself, just Bellend saying the same crap about every single thing revealed.

AA batteries, that just murders Sony's efforts.
Day one Sticker, Sony fans are crying now.

Honestly Bellend, give it up, nobody is swayed either way by you constant moronic outbursts. All you do is turn every thread you enter into the same old playground argument, please let people discuss things without bringing it down to this nonsense every time.

[Gekko36]

chill out man. Dont be a nob. let him rant and just block him. Im going back to doctor who.

[Deadpoolio]

Well except for of course the FACT that MS doesn't have any features that the PS4 doesn't also have with the exception of watching Tv through your Xbox on your Tv instead of the more common sense watching Tv on your Tv and waiving your arms around talking to the kinect.....0 They both have the same features fanboy troll try harder next time

[H0RSE]

The HDMI input on the xbox one can be used with other devices than just a TV. For example, it was recently revealed that you can plug your 360 into it and play 360 games on your X1. It will be interesting to see what other devices can be used with the port and if any clever setups come out of it. PC's and home theater equipment will likely work as well.

The HDMI input is in fact a feature that PS4 does not have, regardless if you're interested in it or not. The custom/updated hypervisor software is another.

[josephayal]

I must say nice job Microsoft, but PLZ Give us back the Xbox One we were promised at E3

[denawayne]

Everything MS "reversed" is still there except 24 hr check in and family sharing. But even those things might still be implemented into digital only games. Let's hope. I was on board from the beginning.

[No_Limit]

"While Windows has access to roughly 2.5 GB (assuming the hypervisor requires 500 MB) and games are allowed 5 GB, the hypervisor could theoretically allocate memory from Windows for use in games. This technically means that if the Windows process is suspended and all resources are allocated for games that developers have up to 7.5 GB to use for game development."

Sounds good and I guess we will see more of that benefit in upcoming years when games require more ram usage.

[rainslacker]

In theory yes, however doing so means losing all those nice snap features that this article is talking about. Those suspended services are required to make snap work as quickly as they show. Services aren't something that can usually be turned on and off in a split second. When dealing with a running game, turning them on could cause memory conflicts casing the game, or the system, to crash.

If MS allows 2GB more to be allocated to the games, expect it to not allow snapping for those games...similar to the way Vita can't multi-task certain operations while a game is active. Vita does this which is why I use it as an example.

It's unlikely MS will allow that much more memory to be allocated to games for that reason, as invariably many developers would want to utilize it, which would just take away features from the system.

I could see them doing something like Sony is doing though, by having a memory allocation that is handled by the system OS available to games, which would not affect core features of the X1's interface.

I would imagine that the core OS footprint now will be slimmed down in the future. It's understandable why they would over allocate that OS reserve early in the life cycle to have flexibility in the future.

[kakashi81]

they said 6GB is more likely.

[Mirage749]

Doesn't the PS3 have a hypervisor as well?

[Belking]

Nope.

[Mirage749]

Are you sure? Than what is this about?

http://www.maxconsole.com/m...

[Funantic1]

The PS3 did have a type 2 hypervisor that controlled the security architecture. The X1 uses a totally different customed type 1 (bare metal) hypervisor.

[Mirage749]

Thank you. I knew I had seen that there was one in the PS3. I was unaware that there were different types. I appreciate the explanation. Much better than a simple "nope."

[MysticStrummer]

Yes it does, or at least it did at one time.

Google "PS3 hypervisor" and you'll get lots of references to PS3's hypervisor being hacked by GeoHot.

Would the hypervisor have been removed when Sony killed the Other OS option...?

[rainslacker]

Yep.

It had one for it's security and to prevent piracy. It's why Linux on the PS3 couldn't directly access the GPU because the hypervisor acted as a mediator between the OS and the hardware.

It also has one to operate the OS and allow access to the GPU. You'll see it in action when you press the PS button while playing a game.

[Erdrick]

won't apps running in the background slow the game and create lag in online play? better latency is always better, hopefully you can disable the feature or turn them off

[no_more_heroes]

From what I've read and can gather so far, nope. Which is probably why it has 3 OSs. One dedicated to games, one dedicated to apps and a third OS to "mediate" the first two (the Hypervisor). Each OS has its own dedicated set of resources. Problems with one doesn't affect the others. Running apps won't affect game performance.

[rainslacker]

Those apps would reside in the OS's memory allocation, and from what I understand, the X1 has a couple of it's CPU cores dedicated to running the OS(apps included). I take this to mean that those cores would not be used at all for games, meaning that apps may slow down if you have too many open, but the game would be unaffected.

Having too many apps open at once may slow down the apps themselves, and possibly the OS, but games will have their own resource allocation that is constant.

I'd imagine most apps are in a suspended state while playing a game anyways, unless they are actively displayed on the screen, or perform some background operation. Background operations tend not to be resource intensive.

The resources providing any kind of online is likely either controlled by the game itself, or has it's own resources that can't be touched and may get priority over other things.

[Funantic1]

There you have it. Developers could push up to 7.5gigs of RAM for games tho they likely won't at first. But in the later years when they start squeezing all the power from the X1 we'll see some gorgeous games. The X1 can use the CPU for texturing to free up memory on the GPU. Also with the X1 and Windows exclusive DirectX 11.2 only 16mb is needed to get a look that would normally take 3gigs of RAM. So with the architecture and technology of the X1 it's really more advanced than the competition. That's why a GDDR5 wasn't needed. It's ironic that I always end up liking the so called less powerful game console in each generation. I liked the PS2 over the slightly more powerful original Xbox, the 360 over the PS3, and now the X1 over the PS4.

[KillrateOmega]

Didn't the news about Hypervisor feature and snapping come out a while ago? Maybe it just got lost in the dust amidst all the Xbox One flip flops and associated articles...

[rainslacker]

It did. No one talks about the hypervisor freeing up that much RAM because the whole theory allowing 7.5GB is based on an article by a guy who makes a lot of assumptions and talks mostly theory. That's not really a bad thing, but a lot of people are taking it as fact that this will be the case.

It's really no different than the Xbox fan boys that accuse PS fan boys of jumping all over the 7GB thing that one developer mentioned a long while back, although at the time less was known about how the PS4 would operate, and it came from a reliable source.

I'm more dubious myself, because that memory management model tends to go directly against what MS is trying to do with the X1's multi-tasking functions.

Funatic above obviously believes it, and the rest of his statement is so full of wrong it's laughable. 16MB for 3GB of RAM actually made me lol.

Many people don't even really understand the principals involved, but it makes everything look better than the PS4, so they take theory as fact. All fan boys do this on all sides of the fence though.

Sony has at least come out and given more details on what memory is allocated where, and still most people don't care. Food for thought. MS could take an example from Sony on how quickly they got ahead of that rumor. It saved a lot of needless forum discussion and future FUD being spread.

Sometimes if people would try harder to understand this stuff, or wait for proof, much of the console war FUD could be avoided.

[theWB27]

Maybe you should do a little more research. Funatic was right. Maybe left out some key words. Direct X 11.2 is only available for the X1 and PC. This is what Funatic was speaking of..

"Tiled Resources" allows for significant enhancement of in-game textures by making it possible to simultaneously access GPU and traditional RAM memory and create a single large buffer where large textures can be stored. This technique was demonstrated with a model of Mars which displayed a 3 GB texture using just 16 MB of GPU memory and in Graphine’s Granite Flight Simulator that showed "a remarkably detailed island with gliders constructed out of 64 megapixels."

Here's the link- http://www.tomshardware.com...

Here's a link to the demonstration- http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Sony didn't get ahead of anything. When Cerny introduced the system he stated there was 8 gigs of ram. Nothing more.

When Microsoft introduced the X1 they announced the ram and how much would be used for games.

Sony didn't clarify until it got leaked that not all of its ram was used for games. They let everyone believe that was the case. Sony still hasn't clarified exactly what the ram usage is. They gave a statement, then said they would tell more later on.

Sony is coming with raw power. Microsoft is creating a machine that is just as powerful and with extra tricks up its sleeve. One of them being able to display 3gigs of texture using just 16mbs of GPU memory.

Sounds pretty significant to me. Maybe you should do a little more research.

[rainslacker]

Thanks for the links. I wasn't aware that he was talking about tiled resources, because he referenced the CPU freeing up GPU resources, which isn't what happens.

Anyhow, tiled textures aren't really anything new. They have been implemented in the Radeon 7xxx series of video cards. They've been in current gen game engines since around the beginning of this gen as far as I'm aware. It was all software though, and now cards are being made that support it in hardware.

MS just finally added support to Direct3D. That's a good thing of course.

Since he's obviously using this as a bad thing for Sony by stating that this is why GDDR5 wasn't needed, he should be aware that the PS4 can support this also. It's already supported by the graphics card, and it's also supported by several major game engines, and likely Sony's own API's. It's also worth mentioning that the higher bandwidth of GDDR5 would make this process better. Speculation of course, since I don't know how ESRAM would affect this, but generally faster RAM is better for swapping textures.

From March of 2012
http://renderingpipeline.co...

My reference to Sony getting ahead of a rumor was in regards to the 4.5GB rumor being spread last week. You remember that one I'm sure. You were all over it. Sony quickly came out and discounted the rumor, and explained how they are allocating memory. The 7GB PS4 rumor was based on a developer statement that the OS took up 1GB. And of course they let it ride. No one was really making a big deal about it. Not Sony fans, and certainly not MS fans. It was pretty much a non-issue. When it became an issue due to a unnamed source rumor, they got ahead of it, preventing needless discussion and FUD being spread.

I don't recall MS ever announcing how much memory was available for games. Perhaps you could link that. The only mention I've seen of it is that the X1 has 8GB of memory, and then the one article discussing hypervisor I mentioned above which gives a hypothetical that everyone latched on to. That article was nothing official, but of course you and others seem to want to use it as one. At least with the Sony one, it came from a reliable source, and not some guy making a random blog.

So thanks for the links. But before you suggest I do more research, perhaps you should do some yourself and stop taking everything that MS says at face value. I don't do that for Sony and research what they claim as a beneficial feature. I would ask the same of you with MS before you decide you're clever enough to talk down to me.

[theWB27]

Here's a link to when we knew about the X1 ram.
http://n4g.com/news/1262357...
X1 reveal was in May...we knew about the ram in May.

I realized what Sony did when it leaked. But they revealed the PS4 in February and left everyone thinking 8 gigs were to be used for games for 5 months. They only got on top of things when it was revealed that wasn't the case. I'm sure they heard people thinking that 8 gigs were for games, and did nothing to clarify that point. They rode the hype train of 8 gigs until it was proven otherwise.

To say it wasn't an issue when people thought there would be 7 gigs for games is bogus. That was a major trump card people liked to throw around. Not only did it have better ram, it had more dedicated to games is what everyone liked to spout in the Sony camp. Especially to make fun of the fact Microsoft was dedicating so much ram to non gaming activities. Only to find out Sony was doing the same.

The difference between what Sony offers and Microsoft is Sony is software based, Microsoft is applying this to the hardware.

In terms of the tiled resources..if I remember this correctly the X1 has 32MB of EsRam plus the 5 gigs. Since this is applied to the hardware...theoretically speaking the 32 MB can store 6 gigs worth of textures.

This link explains it better than me. http://www.giantbomb.com/fo...

[rainslacker]

Again, thanks for the link. Have to admit, during the reveal I must have missed that one, or maybe just forgot about it. Been so much news the last few months. Good to know though.

And yeah, they rode the hype train. Honestly I feel they probably just didn't feel the need to clarify it because no one asked them. However, I will concede that you could be right. I honestly haven't seen much from Sony outside of the things Cerny talks about, and he usually talks more hardware than software, and even then I skip about half the interviews he gives unless it's something particularly interesting to me.

I personally didn't see the 7GB thing being an issue. Again at the time so much other stuff was more important to me. The biggest thing I saw was the discussions between the GDDR5 and DDR3. Offered up some of my own opinions which I still stand by. Again though, me not seeing it doesn't mean it didn't happen.

"The difference between what Sony offers and Microsoft is Sony is software based, Microsoft is applying this to the hardware."

This is absolutely false. DirectX is a software based solution. Same with Sony's Graphics API. Same with current gen game engines that support this technique. The difference now is that BOTH X1 AND PS4 support resource tiling in the hardware itself, thus making it work better. This is definitely a good thing for everyone.

ESRAM is still the only unknown to me now. I know about it's existence, and what it is, and even how it works(it's just a really fast cache) but haven't researched the technical details to know how it will differentiate the hardware. I feel it would at most make things even though, as cache memory in general is usually used to store things that are required often and with blinding speed, particularly in games.

Which brings me to my point on tiled resources with the article you posted. In essence, given the numbers of 3GB to 16MB demo, yes, the ESRAM could store potentially up to 6GB worth of tenures. However, this isn't how tiled resources work. Your assuming that that 16MB of textures is equivalent to 3GB of textures. However the way tiled resources work is that large amounts of data are stored in system memory as opposed to graphics memory, and swapped when needed. There is really no reason to store these textures in ESRAM, and it actually goes against the principle of how the whole thing works.

It could pre-fetch graphics textures if it's known what is needed, but tiled resources is something used for large detailed worlds that may not know what will be coming next, rendering cache memory useless as the cache would still have to buffer the texture from regular memory. Since I have no doubt that the APU has direct memory access, it would just be quicker to get them directly from memory.

Either way, there is absolutely no way to physically store 3GB worth of textures in 16MB worth of memory outside of compression, and that would just be yucky at that ratio. The whole technique of tiled resources is based off resource storage and swapping, not compression.

On top of all this, there are things within a game which would use the ESRAM to much better effect than swapping of resources. Physics and AI routine storage is much more important to how a game plays than swapping a texture. Trust me, I doubt any developer is going to be using ESRAM to store textures. The size of the cache is just to small to make it do anything worthwhile in this regard.

[twdll]

Haven't heard if this is behind the pay wall yet? I'm curious?

[Virus201]

How can it be behind a paywall? Did you read the article? It's talking about the Operating Systems that are running in the Xbox One.

[twdll]

Jk it was a joke. Dont get your panties in a wad.

[joefrost00]

Its not the snapping of apps that make this a big feature
Both systems do that(face palm)
Its the distribution of ram is why its a big feature
And it's something that both systems can't do

[timl241]

And this is what I've been saying this whole time. Does the PS4 have the better hardware? No question, it does. However, hardware is not everything. Let's take a look back in the early 2000s. If hardware meant everything, the original Xbox would have won the 6th generation. If hardware meant everything, the PS3 would have won the 7th generation. If hardware meant everything, PC would have wiped gaming consoles off the map years ago and we wouldn't be having this discussion. Hardware specifications are not what to look for in a gaming console. You need to software to back it up. The PS4 may be the more powerful console, but the Xbox One will be the smoother console.

[Godmars290]

The 360 was suppose to be "the smoother console", easier to program for and by all rights should have clearly dominated. But instead of new IP, improved graphics, innovative games or game play, it largely saw PC ports. Is being neglected whereas the PS3 is getting games like the Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls.

While you're right in that hardware wont be a major factor in the next console cycle, by PC ports like Titan Fall and 360/Kinect ports like Ryse the XB1 hasn't given any indication that its going to be "smoother". Just that MS is willing to stuff it content rather than develop its hardware.

[timl241]

Well okay, the gameplay of Titanfall and Ryse hasn't show the console is going to be smoother. But to be clear I am not talking about smoother gameplay. I am talking about smoother everything else. If the Xbox One had GDDR5 RAM the whole experience would be a failure. It would be harder to multitask. That's why they elected the DDR3 RAM. And you say that MS is willing to stuff content in the Xbox One, well that's because they can with how to system is optimized. The reason the PS4 doesn't have as many features as the Xbox One is because the PS4 wouldn't be able to do everything simply because it would be a lag fest.

[strifeblade]

you forget that even if xbox have pc ports- the pc is a niche market compared to consoles. When a game like the witcher 2 is on xbox 360 and not on ps3- it does make a difference. It is called a console exclusive- you imply that it doesn't matter its like every playstation gamer have high end pc so console exclusives don't matter when that is not the case.

a game like titanfall on x1 will make a world of a difference and a game like that will sell xbox one like pancakes to the mass consumers. It one over 60 e3 awards- for those few of us that have pcs and do not plan on buying x1 great- but those of us that can't afford to spend atleast 800$ on a high end pc to build and prefer the convenience of consoles will look to buy x1

[Angeljuice]

@Timl241

I'm afraid your assumptions are wrong. The reason Microsoft went with DDR3 is purely a matter of cost and circumstance.

When both companies began designing the consoles, Microsoft's vision was for an all-in-one media device. They decided early on that it would need a lot of ram and came to the conclusion that 8gb would be sufficient. They then looked at what was available in the quantities and price range they required. At that time GDDR5 was far too expensive and only available in limited quantities, their only option was DDR3.
Sony decided early on to base the machine around GDDR5 memory. When they began designing the console, it only had 2gb of Gddr5 and that's what they planned to release. However they got lucky and the price of the RAM fell and more became available meaning that first they could afford to use 4 GB, and later that figure went up to the 8 GB we see now.

If Microsoft had been assured that come time of manufacturing, they could have relatively cheap gddr5 in sufficient quantities they would probably have based the xb1 around it.

Latency is not really an issue. There are two ways of looking at latency; latency per clock cycle and latency per second. Per clock cycle, there is a noticeable difference in the latencies of each systems memory, however the PS4 memory runs faster so there are far more clock cycles per second (giving the real world latency per second figure) and by this means of calculation, the difference between the two is negligible.

[vigilante_man]

Do not expect smooth transitions from game to TV to video to game to TV, etc. Not straight away. Remember how most smartphones have quad-core CPU and they still have slow-down when switching.

CPU's will always take the brunt. It is not running on magical ice or anything. It all sounds great but if most Ram is taken up then pagefile swapping will be used for switching between games and TV/Videos for larger games.

We all know how slow windows pagefiles are on hard disks. Let's see them in action and hope all new features are as good as they seem. Remember, this is all advertising at the moment from both MS & Sony!

[EazyDuz22]

No one talks about it because no one cares that much. When i play a game, i'm immersed in the game, i dont care about switching to Youtube, Facebook, Iplayer etc.

[Rhinoceros]

Not bad for walkthroughs though

[EazyDuz22]

I dont use them, only the weak need a guiding hand through a game

[kewlkat007]

Can't wait...

[buynit]

That was a good read...

I just hope ms doesnt take kinect out.. It needs to be with every console!

I do remember saying ms wanted to be first out and the cheapest though so who knows.

[tubers]

Hmm..

Kinda reminds me of the VITA's multi-tasking capabilities as a CONSOLE.

Too bad it's easily downplayed since ph/ablets already do it better.

[kingPoS]

The smart phone has spoiled us. Now many people expect consoles to be multitaskers as well.

I guess you need to be able to watch video or browse the web while playing a game nowadays.

It's 2013!!! Welcome to ADHD

[hazelamy]

of course if you just want to play games, it really won't do much for you.

[Wikkid666]

I still want more info on how One and the 360 will communicate together. And yes, there is definitely connection of some kind.

[Wikkid666]

sorry double

[urwifeminder]

Very cool stuff keep up the good work ms.