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Xbox One Called Xbone, Probably A Less Terrible Name

By Patrick Frye
Published on: 05:08 PST, May 22, 2013

The Xbox One is being called the Xbone already and personally I’m not surprised.

I was betting the Xbox One was to be called the Xbox Fusion with the assumption that the Xbox Mini / TV rumors were true. I understand how they’re trying to make the Xbox an all-in-one device, but seriously it sounds like Microsoft is trying to channel Neo if anything else.

Some users calling the Xbox One the Xbone are claiming Microsoft dropped the ball in other ways besides the name. The one tidbit getting Xbox gamers the most irritated is activating games tied to your Xbox One accounts. The Xbox One provides a market for used games, but Microsoft charges a fee for the install.

Now I can understand the Xbox One used games decision to a certain extent. Developing games since the Xbox 360 have been getting more and more expensive due to the increased detail levels demanded by gamers. The Xbox One and Playstation 4 will only raise the bar. Developers and publishers don’t profit from used games unless they have in-game purchases or alternative purchase models. Although, many gamers use the money from used games to buy new games, so it’s not a perfect excuse for the Xbox One used games business model. GameStop even claims used games sales generate $1.8 billion a year for the rest of the video game industry.

Still, the Xbox One can be called the Xbone for other reasons. The most obvious is the Xbox One’s backward compatibility with Xbox 360 games. Now there supposedly will be a second event for the Xbox One, so it’s possible there Xbox Mini will still be announced. Xbox One Mini rumors say this device provides a Xbox 360 SoC, hooks into the Xbox One, and provides backwards compatibility.

Microsoft isn’t allowing indie games to be self-published on Xbox One. All I can say is, I hear Wii U needs games. Dropping indies seemed needless. Although it’s possible their indie games section on Xbox Live haven’t been profitable. But I’d say that’s due to marketing since there’s many good indie games out there.

The Xbox One always online rumors are another deal breaker. Microsoft’s Phil Harrison said the Xbox One would need to connect online at least every 24 hours, or at least once every day. However, Microsoft spokespeople later 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.”

The short of it is that even if you own the physical disc for a game if the game purchase is not tied to your Xbox One account then you cannot play it. The Xbox One console needs an internet connection, but it doesn’t need to be connected all of the time to allow for internet interruptions. So if you take a game disc to a friend’s house they’ll need online access and you’ll have to log in using your own account.

Gamasutra was the first to start the Xbone trend on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/AlexaRayC/status/337208136345735168

So, considering Microsoft’s actions: Xbox One or Xbone?

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