Microsoft has been playing catch-up behind Sony for the past three years in the gaming department. The Xbox One, while a great machine, began life as too expensive than the PlayStation 4 and comes with a lot of baggage that didn't play nice with gamers.
It's almost 2017 now, and we can see what the hard work has done to get the Xbox One back in the game. The system has been outselling the PlayStation 4 since July in the United States, and it's the best-selling console in Australia and the UK since September. Because of this success, Harvey Eagle, UK Xbox boss, has come out saying the year 2016 will be viewed as the "tipping point" in Xbox history.
2016 As Tipping Point For Xbox One
"Momentum is really important in this business because it gives confidence to retailers, publishers, and to consumers," Eagle told GI.biz. "We are giving them confidence that they have made a right point. I think we'll look back on 2016 as a tipping point for Xbox One."
The launch of the Xbox One S has undoubtedly given Microsoft a lot of momentum going into 2017. The system has a great look and begins at the cool price of $299. Furthermore, it's capable of playing video games at 4K upscaled and supports UHD Blu-Ray.
One of the main plans right now for the Xbox team is to convince Xbox 360 owners to upgrade to Xbox One. Eagle says the company has done its own research, and according to the findings, a significant amount of Xbox 360 players has yet to upgrade, and these are the people Microsoft wants to impress right now.
Why Backward Compatibility Is Important
A key way of doing that is by bringing Xbox 360 games to the Xbox One via backward compatibility. When those folks upgrade, they should be able to play their favorite games without having to think twice. At the moment, there are over 280 games available, and the list continues to grow. Not to mention, over 210 million hours have been thrown into playing Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One, so clearly it's a favorite feature among fans.
As the momentum grows for the Xbox One, Microsoft is hoping it will continue into 2017 and right up to when it's ready to release Project Scorpio. The console is dubbed as the most powerful of its kind with six teraflops of GPU power and an eight-core processor.
Microsoft is pushing the device as the first real 4K console, but Sony's Mark Cerny seems to believe six teraflops is not enough to deliver gaming at native 4K.
