The more I hear about Xbox One..

The less I like it.

Apparently, the big deal about the online connection is because Microsoft wants to offload as much of the computing power off the Xbox One as possible, and do it in the "cloud".

Fine, in theory.

Crappy in practice.

Here's a choice section from the New York Times article on the differences between how the PS4 and Xbox One function (I think I'm going to start referring to the Xbox One to as the X1, just as a shorthand.)

[b]So what does that mean? Imagine a typical game: there are characters in the foreground that interact with the player, and a background landscape with trees, hills or an ocean. Don Mattrick, Microsoft's head of interactive entertainment business said Microsoft’s new servers, which the company increased to 300,000 from 15,000 currently used by the Xbox 360, will be able to do some of the work creating images for that background landscape and then stream them back to the console and TV, while the Xbox One focuses on making the characters look as impressive as possible.[/b]

So, if you have a crappy internet connection, (or worse yet, no internet connection at all), your game will not look as shiny as others. That's.. not really a positive in my book, especially in an age where ISP's are always threatening data caps, and in households that might see multiple devices running full speed on an internet connection.

As for Backwards Compatibility.. and why not including it isn't a big deal?

[b]Microsoft’s Mattrick says he doesn’t think compatibility is really a problem. He said only 5% of customers play older games on a new videogame system anyway, so spending time and money to develop technology to allow them to play older games isn’t worth it.

“If you’re backwards compatible, you’re really backwards,” he said.[/b]

Yup, we're backwards for wanting to be able to play a software library we spent a thousand or more on (that sounds like a lot, but that's only 20 games at $50 each, which is less than what most games go for.

You know what the real driver is, at least what I think the real driver is? Microsoft's afraid that with all the restrictions on Xbox One content (no trading games, need a solid internet connection to get the best out of it), folks will play their old games on it.. and that earns Microsoft no money.

Well, that won't likely be a problem for me, as I won't make the step up, unless there's some real killer games..