Xbox One Year Anniversary
On November 22nd it will have been one year since the Xbox One launched in its original 13 territories that includes: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand. The Xbox One has had a good first year overall. Before reaching launch day, there was a lot of criticism for the DRM and online policy regarding the Xbox One. Thankfully it was all changed due to the complaints, showing that Microsoft was willing to listen. However that meant that all Xbox Ones would require a system update upon activation in order to circumvent what was previously a standard feature. This didn’t stop the Xbox One from having a successful launch. Since in the first 24 hours of release, Microsoft had sold over one million Xbox Ones, and two million in the following 18 days. The Xbox One launched with a variety of games such as: Call of Duty Ghosts, Battlefield 4, Dead Rising 3, Ryse Son of Rome and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. However, a majority of those titles were also available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Since then notable exclusive titles have included: Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive and Halo The Master Chief Collection. As you can see the amount of exclusives is disappointing, but Halo continues to be a massive success in terms of sales, with every Halo title selling over 2 million copies and being a reason to purchase the new Microsoft console. The UI of the Xbox One has improved, with the console itself being more stable, and the snap and game pause features becoming the main differential between it and the PlayStation 4. Today, the Xbox One has shipped over 10 million consoles and looks to have a successful Black Friday due to tempting deals like the $320 Master Chief Collection bundle from Walmart, or the Call of Duty Advanced Warfare bundle.
Microsoft itself celebrated the one year anniversary with a post on the Xbox Wire. In it Major Nelson detailed a list of accomplishments made by the Xbox One community. Altogether, Xbox One users have earned over 11 billion gamerscore, have spent over 2 billion hours playing games on the console, and the most popular achievements are from launch title Forza 5 and the exclusive Titanfall. That’s not all though, Nelson also announces that users will receive a few rewards as well. Gamers who have purchased a console before November 11 will receive a special one year anniversary picture, a special background, free rental of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, and a free rental of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of the Gods.
Some special fans, who will be selected at random, will be given even better rewards such as Xbox One bundles, EA Access for one month, swag from Grand Theft Auto V and Forza, free Xbox Live for 12 months, and various goodies in games like Assassin’s Creed Unity and Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare.
The Xbox One recently launched in Japan with unimpressive sales, but remains committed to the region. The console also launched in China, moving about 100,000 consoles. The main problem in these areas is that gaming is generally free of charge and mobile-based, instead of the more expensive $60 per game model of consoles. In the United States the Xbox One continues to trail behind its most direct competitor, the PlayStation 4. However, despite being in 2nd place currently, the sales of the console far outpaces that of its predecessor, the Xbox 360. In 2015 the Xbox One will be receiving a myriad of exclusives, from Halo 5: Guardians to Rise of the Tomb Raider. With the release of more exclusives and an increasing library of applications, the Xbox One will soon be an essential console to have if you desire to experience everything this generation of consoles has to offer.