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5 Reasons to Upgrade to the Xbox One Now

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In November 2013 it hardly seemed that last generation consoles like the Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3 had anything to fear from the Xbox One. Announced months earlier, Microsoft repeatedly found itself on the wrong end of public opinion leading up to the console’s launch. Gamers wanted more storage than the 500GB Microsoft included in the console. They wanted to always have their game saves in a safe place, but didn’t want an internet connection forced on them. Gamers hated having to walk up to their console and switch disks, but they weren’t too happy with Microsoft for forcing them to install their titles completely and possibly ruining used game sales.

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Read: Xbox One Review 2014 – My Experience Gaming A Year Later

The Xbox One’s life thus far has been exciting. By learning from mistakes and reaching out to users, Microsoft steadily improves the Xbox One’s sales and standing. That the console is finally the contender it should have always been is great news for Microsoft, because it’s time that users stopped buying the Xbox 360 and stopped investing it what’s clearly becoming an obsolete console.

5 Reasons to Upgrade to the Xbox One Now – The Xbox One Is Faster

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Often times, we get used to the things that we experience every day. At some point annoyances stop being bothersome and simply become part of your regular for teen. It’s safe to say that the Xbox 360’s speed is one of those things we’ve put up with way too long.

It sometimes takes the Xbox 360 nearly a minute to get set up. After it’s started up and connected to Xbox Live users have to wait even longer when they open an app or a game. Every single app on the console is a piece of managed code. Opening an app like Netflix means waiting for that app itself to get going. Navigating away from that app and the Xbox One closes It, sending users back to a loading screen if they dare leave their opened entertainment app.

The Xbox One has an Instant-On mode that allows it to boot pretty quickly. What’s more, switching between apps doesn’t mean you need to reload your games. Login information for apps is store on Microsoft’s servers too, meaning users aren’t stuck entering their Netflix passwords or other info on multiple consoles.

5 Reasons to Upgrade to the Xbox One Now – Xbox One Hardware Is Better

Hardware wise, it’s impossible to understate just how much better the Xbox One performs than the Xbox One.

Most Xbox Ones come with 500GB of storage, a lot more than most Xbox 360s. Microsoft allows users to purchase their games directly from the Xbox Store on release day digitally, hence the huge hard drive. Disc-based games need to be installed on the system, which is another reason that larger hard drive is useful. Adding more storage is as simple as plugging in an external USB hard drive.

Every Xbox One also comes with a Blu-ray player built in, meaning users can watch any Blu-ray movies they own. There are two USB ports for adding storage and another port for connecting the console directly to cable boxes for a live TV experience.

5 Reason to Upgrade to the Xbox One Now – Better Apps

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The Xbox 360 has a bigger selection of downloadable apps, but the apps that are on the Xbox One are reliable, perform better and offer Snap multitasking for doing more at the same time.

Apps like games, update in the background if you have the console’s Instant-On power mode enabled. They’re mostly nimble too, some launching in a far less time tan their counterparts on the Xbox 360. Most video apps have Kinect voice control even if they don’t support gestures. Apps can even be snapped to the side of user’s screens, something that isn’t possible on even Sony’s PS4.

5 Reasons to Upgrade to the Xbox One Now – Xbox Live Is Better

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Public opinion is mostly split on the Xbox One’s Dashboard software. It needs major work before it’s as intuitive and easy to use as the Xbox 360. That being said, the Xbox One’s version of Xbox Live isn’t just a multiplayer matchmaking service. It’s quickly becoming a full-fledged gaming social network on top of that.

On the Xbox 360, Xbox Live gets you access to online multiplayer and entertainment apps. Xbox Live on the Xbox lets you post status updates, share the videos and pictures you record and more.

The hub of the new Xbox Live is the Friends app. Friends are still in this version, but so are followers. Any two people who follow each other instantly become Friends, but you can follow thousands of other Xbox Live users. Following or Friending someone means you see what they are up to on Xbox Live. The console even gives you a long-running feed of everything your friends and those you follow have done in chronological order; it’s not too unlike what’s available on Facebook.

With the Xbox 360, you need to copies of a game to play online with someone in the same house. You also needed a subscription to Xbox Live Gold for both consoles. Xbox One’s Xbox Live lets you assign a console as your Home console and share your games and Xbox Live Gold subscription with the rest of the family. You can also play your games on other consoles while someone in your family is playing on your main console.

5 Reasons to Upgrade to the Xbox One Now – The Transition Has Begun

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The Xbox One launched in 2013 and already we’re seeing developers transition to it and the PS4 in droves. To be clear, it isn’t just Microsoft only making games for the now-current generation. Big name third-party studios are too.

Batman: Arkham Knight, Call of Duty: Back Ops 3, Halo 5: Guardians and Forza Motorsport 6 are all titles coming to the Xbox One and not the Xbox 360. Even games that are coming to both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One are getting new features not available on older hardware. For example, Madden NFL 15 includes an upgraded presentation and dynamic camera angles that aren’t available on the Xbox 360 but are available on the Xbox One.

Read: How to Buy Your Friend or Family Member an Xbox One or PS4

Only you can choose whether you upgrade your console. If you’re fine with the mix of games and features already available to you it’s ok to stick with what you know. That being said, you’ll find that as the Xbox 360 ages it simply won’t do what a modern console can.

7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. borek

    05/24/2015 at 7:33 am

    One reason NOT to update now – XBOX ONE SLIM is comming soon

  2. ckdu

    05/24/2015 at 1:43 pm

    Kidney patient reveals how to lower GFR and raise Kidney Function https://www.facebook.com/peter.fawler/posts/1634272283468938

  3. Gordon

    05/24/2015 at 4:36 pm

    Well this article is horribly written. 500GB hard drive is way to small for today’s standards. The Xbox one has 3 USB ports instead of two. The 360 also had family support thus if you downloaded the game on said Xbox 360, anyone could play it on that 360. This was a horribly rushed and inaccurate

  4. derty

    05/25/2015 at 10:13 am

    Windows 10 integration coming later this year is going to open up a whole load of new things for the Xbox One

  5. fred

    05/25/2015 at 11:17 am

    Worst reason why ever! Even for Famboy reporter.
    if anything u given 5 reaon to switch to ps4

  6. James

    05/25/2015 at 11:46 pm

    My Xbox One keeps crashing to dashboard. I’ve done everything short of a full factory reset. I just bought it a month ago, crashed to dashboard on the second day. I’m calling MS tomorrow, then I’m going PC because I’m sick of being ripped off. Seriously, next gen was suppose to be a step up, my PS3 doesn’t crash to dashboard, it doesn’t even freeze unless I play Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption and I’ve had it for 4 years, I’ve done plenty of marathon sessions on it and thought it would have kicked by now like my 360’s did. I say 360’s because I owned 3 that died, returned the 4th one when it wouldn’t even turn on day one, a special edition R2D2 one with a golden controller, DOA. It seems to me PC is the way to go, at least I can open it and fix it myself or get a new part rushed out without shipping my whole rig across the country. PC may get bad ports, I can deal with that, the community makes mods to fix bad ports.

  7. Thesquirrel

    05/27/2015 at 8:09 am

    The Xbox one Dashboard is ugly, slow and counter intuitive.

    If I want to simply invite someone to a party whilst playing a game I have to minimize the game, find the friend tab, invite to party. The party then snaps to the side and takes approximately 20-30 seconds to initialize, i then have to wait for the other person to successfully connect to the party before i can un-snap the window (or it drops the party).

    This process can take up to 45-60 seconds which doesn’t sound a lot but we’re in an online multiplayer world where there is no such thing as ‘Pause’ any more.In context if I try to do this even at half time during a game of Fifa the game will have restarted without me, GTA i’d have crashed a jet, Forza i’d have been lapped, Battlefield i’d be dead, Dead Rising i’d have been eaten.

    I would prefer to go back to the 360 dashboard rather than this snail paced, misplaced tripe.

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