The Onion is ready for the next generation of video game consoles. Here's their report on Xbox One. It's surprisingly accurate.

Xbox One Capable Of Controlling Users With Simple Voice Commands

I have a confession to make: I hate JRPGs. I also love them. Then I hate them. And I love them. And so on and so forth for 40 hours or so.

I've been thinking a lot, over the past week, about the ambivalent relationship we have with video games. This was triggered by Star Ocean: The Last Hope, a game in which you travel between planets and kill aliens with swords. The Last Hope is the fourth game in the Star Ocean series, which is known both for intimate character relationships and ridiculous plot twists involving aliens and optical illusions. It's basically the Japanese version of Mass Effect.

I started playing The Last Hope for the first time last weekend, and I found myself simultaneously captivated and disgusted with the fact that I was captivated.

I get that a lot. It's tough to reconcile. But I think it's normal.

Here's my theory: a good video game—especially a good JRPG—is a rollercoaster. It has setup and payoff. It has peaks and valleys. You wade through moments of bullshit because the adventure is fulfilling—and because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

So I'm playing the latest Star Ocean. I'm wandering through the alien-infested ship that serves as one of the game's earliest dungeons. I see a random enemy on the map. I try to get away. He chases me down. He's faster than I am. He catches up, the screen dissolves, and suddenly I'm in a random battle.

During that moment, I feel a little burst of annoyance, because I have to waste the next 30 seconds of my life taking this guy down. Instead of doing something *fun*, like setting plasma bombs to open up doors and hunt for treasure, or taking down some big boss thanks to careful strategy and skill, I am spamming the A-button and checking my email.

Yet...

That burst of annoyance is met by an equally tangible burst of pleasure when the victory music starts to play and I watch my characters gain experience. Sometimes they level up. Sometimes I get a cool item. And the endorphins rush in.

Can't have the highs without the lows, right? Without those moments of annoyance, what would be the point? How could we enjoy the victory without fighting to get there in the first place?

There's a quote that's always stuck with me, from Edge's Jason Killingsworth, perhaps because it so brilliantly illustrates how I always—always!—feel about the video games I enjoy.

Over the course of a review, the critic needs to be able to say: I love this game, then I hate this game, then I love this game, and so on.

People always ask me why I dislike Final Fantasy XIII. It's so pretty, after all, and the combat system sure is unique. But it's sterile. It's one long ride through mediocrity, a plateau of lame dialogue ("Bring the L'Cie to the Fal'Cie!") and decision-free adventuring. I didn't have a love-hate relationship with that game. I didn't have a relationship with it at all.

So even as I groan at much of Star Ocean's voice acting (why do all modern console JRPGs always have a child party member?) and wince at the random encounters, I'm gonna keep playing. Because the best games aren't the ones you love, or the ones you hate. The best games—like the best relationships—are the ones that simultaneously do both. Those are the ones we remember.

Random Encounters is a weekly column dedicated to all things JRPG. It runs every Friday at 3pm ET. You can reach the author at jason@kotaku.com or follow him on Twitter at @jasonschreier.

To celebrate the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, Nintendo spent a lovely spring afternoon scaring the crap out of children.

The video (above) is quite fun. The game is good, too: Donkey Kong Country Returns was one of my favorite games for the Wii, and the 3DS version is even better, mostly because it doesn't require you to waggle any controllers. And it's portable!

There's been a lot of chatter this week about used games, mostly spurred by the news that Xbox One games will come with one-time registration codes, meaning you can't just swap them with your friends or trade them at a GameStop.

Microsoft has promised some sort of ecosystem for used games, but the Xbox manufacturer has been sketchy about the details, probably because they're not finalized yet. Still, by the time we get our hands on the Xbox One, the concept of a "used game" as we know it may no longer exist.

Some think this is a horrendous, consumer-unfriendly move. Others argue that it could help the video game industry stay alive. Today, Ben Kuchera wrote an interesting article over at the Penny Arcade Report, concluding that the death of used games could lead to a healthier video game industry:

Without the used market sucking up all those sales and all that consumer money, it's very possible we'll see Steam-style sales on older or bundled games on the Xbox One. It's not a sure thing, but killing used games is going to free up a ton of money for companies to try new ideas in terms of sales and pricing. The people who get innovative and take advantage of this structure will thrive. The rest are likely to slowly choke on the new economics of game development.

It needs to be made clear, if all the studio closings and constant lay-offs haven't made this explicit: The current economics of game development and sales are unsustainable. Games cost more to make, piracy is an issue, used-games are pushed over new, and players say the $60 cost is too high. Microsoft's initiatives with the Xbox One may solve many of these issues, even if we grumble about it. These changes ultimately make the industry healthier.

I don't disagree with many of Kuchera's points—in fact, I've made some similar arguments about how a world without used games might not be so bad—and he's totally right that the current state of the video game industry is unsustainable. If Microsoft could facilitate a digital network as affordable and convenient as Steam, it will hurt far less when they rip away our right to borrow video games. And, hell, maybe that will happen.

But I can't help but feel as though used games, like piracy, have become the scapegoat of an industry desperate to explain away its dire financial straits. Big publishers like EA and Square Enix are not consistently struggling because customers go to GameStop for cheaper games. Activision is not closing down studios because we sell their products on eBay. THQ went bankrupt because they doubled down on uDraw and busted, not because people traded in too many copies of Homefront.

The video game industry is running headfirst into a wall and blaming the wind.

There's a post on NeoGAF, brought to my attention by Wired's Chris Kohler, that really stood out to me today. (Warning: it's a bit lewd.) Here's a relevant excerpt, in which GAFfer Burai sarcastically lists a number of missteps that used games are almost certainly not responsible for:

But no, it's all used games that did this. Used games made Capcom make some horrible design decisions on DmC and piss off the entire fanbase. Used games made Activision and EA flood the market with guitar games and accessories long after people stopped caring. Used games made Microsoft make a fourth Gears of War game that nobody asked for from a developer nobody cares about. Used games made Sony pump out another God of War game after they spent the past few years flooding the market with HD remasters. Used games made Sony make a Smash Bros clone with no appealing characters to help sell it. Used games made Bizarre Creations make James Bond and racing games no-one wanted. Used games make publishers shutter studios the moment the game they were working on goes gold, before they've even had a chance to sell a single new copy, let alone a used one.

I could go on. And on. And on. You could write a book about every single executive level screw-up this gen and yet these same people with their million dollar salaries and their shill puppets still try to insult our intelligence and blame used games and awful, entitled consumers for companies shutting and talented people losing their jobs.

We are watching an industry full of exceptionally smart people continue to make exceptionally stupid decisions. Job insecurity and volatile working conditions have become the norm. Video games are getting more and more expensive, and expectations are becoming less and less realistic. Games like Tomb Raider and Hitman Absolution sell millions of copies, yet Square Enix sees them as failures, because the world has gone insane.

Maybe it's inertia. No matter how many times we point out some of the biggest issues in gaming—bloated budgets, poor executive decisions, toxic reliance on Metacritic—nothing changes. Publishers blame used games and piracy, and they have convinced Microsoft (and perhaps Sony) to create a console that fights both used games and piracy, at the expense of our rights as customers. Yet publishers can't seem to take a step back and wonder whether they're even addressing the right problem. They're trying to fix a gunshot with a band-aid.

Let's say used games go away forever. Will studios really stop shutting down? Will publishers' profit margins really start going up? Or will the video game industry just find something else to blame?

We don't know what Square Enix is showing at E3 this year, but you'll be able to get the same view as Kotaku: the Final Fantasy makers are planning to run a livestream from their booth.

Crushing disappointment: now in real-time.

Or, hey, maybe we'll all be pleasantly surprised! Maybe we'll see Final Fantasy XV and Dragon Quest XI and Kingdom Hearts III and all sorts of amazing new JRPGs that everyone wants. Fingers crossed.

You might have noticed that this week's Xbox One event was very... Western. Microsoft's snazzy entertainment functions are all designed for American televisions. The games—FIFA, Call of Duty, Quantum Break—were all made by Western developers. Other than a two-second appearance by Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, there wasn't much for fans of Japanese games to get excited about.

Microsoft has traditionally failed to sell Xboxes in Japan, so it could be safe to conclude that the publisher isn't all that interested in Eastern products. So we asked Microsoft vice president Phil Harrison: where are the Japanese games? He wasn't super-specific, but we can infer from his answer that we'll see more at E3.

Here's the full transcript:

Stephen Totilo: I know this was not a gaming-centric event, but it did feel very America-centric. While I saw Hideo Kojima in the beginning, there really was no presence from Japanese publishers or developers. You guys have said the system is coming out worldwide at the same time. Can you say anything about global support, or at least Japanese game development for this?

Harrison: If that was your take-out, that was not intentional. You will see at E3 games from four continents—three, well, yeah, three and a big continent. You will see, throughout the rest of the year, between now and launch, a number of occasions where we will tell a more local story that is customized and more regionalized, but this, by necessity, had to be a more global message. Since we were doing it here in America, a lot of the TV was Americanized.

We also asked a Microsoft representative if the console will be region-locked—that is, if each system will only play games compatible with its specific region. Today's consoles are almost all region-locked.

Their answer: no comment.

Here's hoping we'll see something compelling at Microsoft's press conference in a couple of weeks. Lost Odyssey 2 would be lovely.

Meteorologists across the country are truly upset that the Xbox One isn't backwards-compatible.

This weatherman, who looks, sounds, and acts a bit like Brick from Anchorman, is not too pleased about having to "buy a whole collection of other games for 90 bucks each." Poor guy. I bet Don Mattrick thinks he's really backwards.

The head of Square Enix's American branch has left his post, just two months after the resignation of CEO Yoichi Wada.

Square Enix America boss Mike Fischer left the company this month on good terms, Polygon reports. Fischer, who had been head of the game publisher's American division for the past three years, is now a vice president at Amazon.

Square Enix has been facing financial trouble for quite some time now; earlier this year, the company announced that it had missed its (unrealistic) expectations on most of its big games, like Tomb Raider and Sleeping Dogs.

I enjoyed this short clip from last night's Jimmy Fallon. Parental Disappointment Mode! Finally.

The next Xbox is called Xbox One. It'll be out later this year. It won't be always-online, but it will restrict used games. Oh, and the next Call of Duty has a dog.

That's just a smidgeon of the news we got at Microsoft's big event in Redmond on Tuesday, which touted the new Xbox and all of its features and capabilities. We didn't get to see a lot of games during the live reveal, but we did hear about how Microsoft hopes to take over our living rooms, and how the next Xbox will let you have a "relationship" with your television.

And in the hours after the big reveal, as reporters pressed Microsoft for answers, we got some clear (and some not-so-clear) details about how Xbox One will function. Let's break everything down.

The Box

Xbox One looks like this:

The controller looks like this:

The new Kinect looks like this:

For a closer look, check out our video coverage from Redmond.

Kinect 2.0

The new Kinect is more powerful, more functional, and totally mandatory, so get used to it. Microsoft says the system will not work without a Kinect plugged in. It's also going to stay on constantly. Watching you. Silently judging when you spend your Friday nights crying into a tub of Häagen-Dazs.

Because the Kinect is always watching, you can shout "Xbox, on" to boot up the machine anytime. Kinect can do some other neat things, too: for one, Microsoft says Kinect 2.0 will work in smaller rooms. It can recognize your skeletal movements, your facial features, and even your heartbeat. And it'll finally work in smaller rooms, so fellow NYC residents (hopefully) won't have to worry about the new Kinect malfunctioning in their apartments.

The Specs

As we reported back in February, the new Xbox will have a 500GB harddrive, 8GB RAM, and a Blu-ray drive for both games and Blu-ray movies. Full specs below.

Snap Mode

Microsoft sees Xbox One not just as a video game console but as a bona fide entertainment system, and Snap Mode is one of the reasons: the new feature allows you to connect the Xbox to your television and use voice controls to interact with both interfaces. You can use Skype, for example, to chat with friends while watching TV, or you can say "Xbox, show fantasy" to see your fantasy basketball stats while watching LeBron James score.

There's also a feature called "Xbox Trending" that shows what television is currently popular on Xbox Live. "This is the beginning of truly intelligent TV," Microsoft says.

Intelligent TV

And, yes, the Xbox One is all about TV. Yesterday, Microsoft announced a big partnership with the NFL that will let Americans watch football on their console:

Fans will get new television viewing innovations, including the ability to watch games, Skype video chat with other fans, view statistics, access highlights in real time and gather fantasy information about players and teams — all on a single screen. For those who prefer multiple screens, fans can get an even deeper experience on mobile devices and tablets with SmartGlass technology.

Microsoft also announced a new Halo TV series that will be produced by Steven Spielberg.

Used Games?

One thing Microsoft hasn't been clear about: used games. We know that every game will come with an activation code, and that you'll have to install a game to your system's harddrive before using it. You'll also have to register it online and connect it to your Xbox Live account. Your whole family will be able to play the same game on your Xbox One, but if you want to, say, bring a game to a friend's house and play on his machine, you'll have to use your account. If you give a game to a friend, and he wants to play it on his own account, he'll have to buy it.

Sounds like the concept of "used games" as we know it might be going away. But... Microsoft says there will be *some* way to trade Xbox One games online. They're being sketchy on the details, though.

Always-Online?

Microsoft is also being sketchy about whether or not the platform will be always-online, something that has been rumored for quite some time now. According to their press site: "No, it does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet."

Uh, what? We asked Phil Harrison for clarification, and he said that the console will need to connect to the Internet at least once a day. But Microsoft has walked that back, describing it as just a "potential scenario" for how Xbox One will function. In other words, they haven't decided what they're doing yet.

You will, however, need an Internet connection to play games that use Microsoft's Azure cloud capabilities, which they haven't detailed much yet. Developers could theoretically use cloud servers to offload some of the hardware work and make games look bigger and brighter. Those games would probably not be playable offline.

Xbox Live

First and foremost, Microsoft is bumping up the Xbox Live friend cap to 1,000. There's also a brand new Reputation system that Microsoft hopes will facilitate a friendlier Xbox Live, with far less teabagging and racial slurs. No word yet on how much the new services will cost, or whether multiplayer will be free, or what sort of tiers will be available. (Right now, you have to pay for an Xbox Live gold membership in order to use most of the network's features.)

Backwards Compatibility

This one is simple: Xbox One is not backwards compatible. Don't throw out your Xbox 360. "If you’re backwards compatible, you’re really backwards," Microsoft's Don Mattrick told the Wall Street Journal for some reason.

The Big Games

Pickings were rather slim for software at Microsoft's event. We saw some EA sports games—FIFA, Madden, NBA Live—and we saw an interesting-looking new horror game from Remedy (the folks behind Alan Wake), called Quantum Break.

We also got to see the next Call of Duty. It has, uh, a dog. Stephen saw it, and he's got a full preview right here.

Ubisoft, Bungie, and Square Enix have all jumped out to confirm that Assassin's Creed IV, Watch Dogs, Destiny, and Thief are all coming to Xbox One, although we didn't see any of those games at today's event. Battlefield 4 is an Xbox One game too. We'll likely see Respawn's new Xbox game at E3, along with a ton of other big next-gen games.

And Microsoft has promised 15 exclusives. Whatever that means.

The Indies

Xbox One does not seem very indie-friendly. Indies can't self-publish on the system. And prominent independent developers have not had great things to say:

one thing MSFT doesn't seem to understand is that indie developers are the regular developers of tomorrow.

— PHIL FISH (@PHIL_FISH) May 22, 2013

Compared to Sony and Nintendo, who seem to both be embracing the indie community, Microsoft has shown very little interest in independent developers, at least for now.

Region-Locking?

We asked Microsoft if Xbox One is region-locked. No comment.

Achievements

For Xbox One, your gamerscore will carry over from Xbox 360, and there's a whole new achievement system "powered by the cloud" that will let you rack up points in new ways.

The details are vague so far, but it sounds interesting:

Nothing Is Finalized

Lots of decisions—especially the ones involving used games and always-online—are still up in the air. And we don't know how much it'll cost, or what games will be available at launch. Expect to hear much more about Xbox One in the coming weeks and months, starting with Microsoft's E3 press conference on June 10.

Yesterday, when Microsoft finally announced the successor to their Xbox 360, Don Mattrick took the stage with a giddy grin.

"Today, we're thrilled to unveil the ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system," the Microsoft executive said. "The one with the power to create experiences that look and feel like nothing else. The one that makes your TV more intelligent. The one system for a new generation. Ladies and gentlemen: introducing Xbox One."

One. One. One. The rhetoric has a nice rhythm, doesn't it? And indeed, when I first heard the name, I thought it was kind of neat. Xbox One: the one device you need in your living room. The Power of One.

Then I started talking to friends about it. Not hardcore gamer friends—the friends who play Call of Duty and Madden and occasionally Skyrim, and who don't read websites like Kotaku unless one of our articles happens to pop up on their Facebook feeds. Here's an example of what these conversations have looked like:

Jason: "So have you heard anything about Xbox One?"

Friend: "Nope. What's that?"

Jason: "The new Xbox. It was just announced yesterday."

Friend: "Oh. Wasn't Xbox One the first Xbox?"

Now I'm worried. I'm worried because Microsoft's press conference yesterday was not designed for the hardcore gamer, yet the hardcore gamer is the person who needs to explain to his or her friends just what an Xbox One is. I suspect that a lot of us will be calling it "the new Xbox," which strikes me as a recipe for disaster. Just ask the Wii U.

Granted, the Wii U was its own kind of disaster: I'll always remember sitting in the audience and watching the looks of confusion during Nintendo's E3 press conference in 2011, when the Mario makers announced a new console that looked and sounded like a Wii accessory. The name "Wii U" still confuses people today, to the point where Nintendo needed to write up special marketing materials just to explain that it's a new machine. (Seriously, why couldn't they just go with "Wii 2"?)

But the situation might be similar. This is the year of the prequel, and the name "Xbox One" sounds like it will fit nicely alongside Batman: Arkham Origins and Assassin's Creed IV. When your average video game fan hears the name "Xbox One," he or she will not think, "Oh, that's the one device I need in my living room." He/she will think, "Why did they go back 359?"

Average people might not see Xbox One as an accessory, but they sure could think it's a remake of the first Xbox. Or a lesser version of the Xbox 360. And while this sort of brand confusion may not destroy Microsoft's new console, it could very well hurt Xbox One in the single market Microsoft is pursuing hardest: casual TV watchers and video game fans.

CNET asked Microsoft program manager Jeff Henshaw about this confusion, and his answer was not comforting:

I think after today, there's just no question about it. I think there was a few minutes of "hmm" but then as soon as people realize what it's all about and understand the experience, the One brand immediately gets applied to this new generation of experience.

The thing you have to bear in mind, is that if you look at the original Xbox, the experiences have grown to become so dramatically rich and different. There's no resemblance anymore between the two. You can't confuse them in any way. So when people say "Xbox One," it's going to be reflective of this new generation of experiences. I really don't think there's going to be any confusion.

Hubris! There might not be much of a resemblance between the old Xbox and the Xbox One, but can "Xbox One" really dig its claws into pop culture the way "Xbox 360" did? Or will we all just casually refer to it as "the new Xbox" when talking to our friends and family members, for fear of confusing the heck out of people who don't religiously keep up on gaming news?

As Microsoft touts the futuristic new features that really could be game-changers, like cloud computing and an overhauled version of the Kinect body sensor, they have saddled their system with a name that evokes the past. "Xbox One" does not say next-gen; it says "we're starting over." And I think it will confuse more than it clarifies.

The Xbox One doesn't have to be online all the time, but it does have to be online. Not just once in a while—once a day, according to Microsoft vice president Phil Harrison.

In a Q&A on their press site for the new Xbox, Microsoft tackles the always-on question with a strangely-worded answer: "No, it does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet."

At the event in Redmond today, Kotaku boss Stephen Totilo asked Phil Harrison for clarification on this. And what Harrison told us might not please people who enjoy playing Xbox on military bases or other locations without Internet.

"There are many devices in your life that require the Internet to function," he said. "Xbox One is no different in that it requires, at some point in the beginning and at various times through its on state, to connect to our cloud and to our Internet. That is to deliver Xbox Live functionality, that is to deliver download content to you, that is to deliver some of the innovations around TV and entertainment that we showed today. But it doesn’t require it to be online all the time."

So how often does it check your connection? "Depends on the experience," Harrison said.

"For single-player games that don’t require connectivity to Xbox Live, you should be able to play those without interruption should your Internet connection go down. Blu-ray movies and other downloaded entertainment should be accessible when your Internet connection may be interrupted. But the device is fundamentally designed to be expanded and extended by the Internet as many devices are today."

And here's the bombshell:

Kotaku: If I’m playing a single player game, do I have to be online at least once per hour or something like that? Or can I go weeks and weeks?

Harrison: I believe it’s 24 hours.

Kotaku: I’d have to connect online once every day.

Harrison: Correct.

So the system is built to work even if your Internet connection goes down, but you still have to be connected at least once a day to use it, according to Harrison. We're not sure exactly what would happen if you don't connect once per day—and that timeframe could change—but this doesn't sound good for anyone who was hoping to use Xbox One without an Internet connection.

Update: Sounds like things are a mess over at Microsoft. Now they're telling Polygon that Harrison's comments illustrate a "potential scenario."

"While Phil [Harrison] discussed many potential scenarios around games on Xbox One, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail," a Microsoft rep said. "There have been reports of a specific time period — those were discussions of potential scenarios, but we have not confirmed any details today, nor will we be."

Xbox One games will require a one-time activation code to use, but you'll still be able to trade and sell them online, Microsoft tells Kotaku—although we're not 100% clear on the details.

Speaking to us at the big event in Redmond today, Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Harrison clarified a couple of details about the system's used game policy and explained that there will be a solution for people who want to trade games with their friends.

Here's how the system works: when you buy an Xbox One game, you'll get a unique code that you enter when you install that game. You'll have to connect to the Internet in order to authorize that code, and the code can only be used once. Once you use it, that game will then be linked to your Xbox Live account. "It sits on your harddrive and you have permission to play that game as long as you’d like," Harrison said.

Other users on the console will be able to play that game as well, Harrison said. So you don't need to buy multiple games per family. "With the built-in parental controls of the system it is shared amog the users of the device," he said.

But what if you want to bring a game disc to a friend's house and play there? You'll have to pay a fee—and not just some sort of activation fee, but the actual price of that game—in order to use a game's code on a friend's account. Think of it like a new game, Harrison said.

"The bits that are on that disc, you can give it to your friend and they can install it on an Xbox One," he said. "They would then have to purchase the right to play that game through Xbox Live."

"They would be paying the same price we paid, or less?" we asked.

"Let’s assume it’s a new game, so the answer is yes, it will be the same price," Harrison said.

But that doesn't mean used games are dead. In fact, Harrison told us, you'll be able to sell your Xbox One games online.

"We will have a solution—we’re not talking about it today—for you to be able to trade your previously-played games online," Harrison said.

The Xbox exec wouldn't give further details on how this system will work, but we're assuming that once you're done with a game, you can trade the code online and it will be erased from your machine. But what will you get? Other games? Microsoft Points?

No matter how the final system works, it is not likely to please GameStop, the world's biggest buyer and seller of used video games, but it could be a tantalizing way to share games with your friends in the virtual space.

Update - Microsoft's Larry Hryb has issued the following clarification:

Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend’s house – should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile.

What this means is that if you take a game to a friend's house and try to play the game on their system using their account, you'll need to pay. If you take it to their house and try to play it on their system using your account, you won't need to pay.

In other words: playing while you're there is free. If you want to lend it to them for a few days/weeks? They'll have to pay.

Your Kinect will need to be connected in order for the Xbox One to function, Microsoft announced at an event today in London.

"Kinect does require to be connected to Xbox One in all cases, yes," Microsoft's Harvey Eagle told press (as reported by IGN).

This may sound familiar. That's because Kotaku reported it back in February, along with the system's specs and the fact that Xbox One will require game installations.

So clear out your shelf. You'll need extra space for Microsoft's motion-controlled accessory, which seems to be an integral part of Xbox One and will ship with every unit.

Microsoft also noted today that the new Kinect will work in smaller rooms than the old one did. To quote their fact sheet:

Redesigned Kinect. It includes a 1080p, HD camera that captures video at 30 frames per second. All new, active-infrared capabilities increase precision, allowing it to work in nearly any lighting condition and expanding field of view to accommodate a greater variety of room sizes. Microsoft proprietary Time-of-Flight technology measures the time it takes individual photons to rebound off you to create unprecedented accuracy and precision. The new noise-isolating multimicrophone array filters ambient sounds to recognize natural speaking voices even in crowded rooms.

The next Xbox won't require an Internet connection to function, but could very well block used games, unless you feel like paying Microsoft some extra cash.

UPDATE: Microsoft says in an official Q&A: "We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games. We’ll have more details to share later."

Original post follows:

Wired got a look at Xbox One before today's big reveal, and they say that games will require installation to use. “On the new Xbox, all game discs are installed to the HDD to play,” Microsoft told them.

But games will be tied to an Xbox Live account, Wired reveals—or else you'd just be able to pass games around to everyone you know. And if you want to link a game to a second account, you'll have to pay a fee:

What follows naturally from this is that each disc would have to be tied to a unique Xbox Live account, else you could take a single disc and pass it between everyone you know and copy the game over and over. Since this is clearly not going to happen, each disc must then only install for a single owner.

Microsoft did say that if a disc was used with a second account, that owner would be given the option to pay a fee and install the game from the disc, which would then mean that the new account would also own the game and could play it without the disc.

But what if a second person simply wanted to put the disc in and play the game without installing – and without paying extra? In other words, what happens to our traditional concept of a “used game”? This is a question for which Microsoft did not yet have an answer, and is surely something that game buyers (as well as renters and lenders) will want to know.

Wired also asked what we've all been wondering: will the console be online-only? The answer: it depends.

And what of the persistent rumors that Xbox One games will be “always online” – that is, that single-player games would require a constant online connection to function? As it turns out, those rumors were not unfounded, but the reality is not so draconian. Xbox One will give game developers the ability to create games that use Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service, which means that they might be able to offload certain computing tasks to the cloud rather than process them on the Xbox One hardware itself. This would necessitate the game requiring a connection.

Are developers forced to create games that have these online features, and are thus not playable offline? They are not, Xbox exec Whitten said to Wired — but “I hope they do.” So the always-online future may come in incremental steps.

So it's up to the developer. Some games may require an Internet connection; some may not. The future of always-online remains hazy.