Xbox One: give Microsoft the chance to show what they can do It needs to be. Make no mistake, the console industry is in a shaky transitional period. The ubiquity of smartphones and tablets means casual gamer's needs are being sated with cheap, instant entertainment. And the precarious financial situation the world over means that multiple expensive, shiny boxes are a luxury many people can ill-afford. So the Xbox One needs to compete, not just with the PlayStation 4 or even the Wii U, but with everything. Tablets, phones, Smart TVs. So if the Xbox One need to compete with everything, it needs to do everything. Hence Tuesday's presentation. There was a disappointing paucity of games on show, for sure, and as huge and undoubtedly fun as Ghosts will be, carving off such a large chunk for a new Call of Duty was a tired, predictable decision. But Microsoft always said this reveal was about hardware and services, and that E3 would be dedicated to new games. "Gaming, gaming, gaming" they have cried in the past few days following the conference. Fifteen first-party titles in the first year, and eight new IPs. That's a tantalising prospect in itself. So before we write off the Xbox One as a scourge on the industry, let's wait for E3 to paint a fuller picture of the machine as a gaming device. An hour is not long enough to get over what the Xbox One is about, and the instant, ferocious reaction is not enough of a gauge on its long-term appeal. However, while I do urge patience and remain excited about the potential of the Xbox One (particularly after reading up on developer sessions and previews from around the Redmond campus), do not mistake this for acquiescence. My issue with the Xbox One's reveal wasn't that it focussed on TV and other services, but rather what we saw of those services was... dull. There was a relentless focus on Xbox One connecting to live TV which, while a new and interesting feature, was an answer to a question few people are asking. The very concept of live TV is under threat, with the surge in popularity of Netflix and its ilk meaning people are now heading towards the idea of subscription-based on demand television. Live TV is a nice feature, sure, but the lack of detail on the Xbox One's on-demand services was odd. That's where television is going, and the One's backwards grab for Live TV probably shouldn't have been the focus. The avalanche of American sport TV services also presented itself as a very narrow vision of who they expect to buy this thing. Wealthy, middle-class American males, with living rooms big enough to handle the required Kinect camera who want nothing better than to watch the game and fiddle with their fantasy football team at the same time. No mistake, that's a great feature, and these guys deserve their slice of Xbox One's new functionality as much as any of us. But what about the rest of us, half-the-world deactivated their brains as sport services that will only be available in North America took up a large portion of the presentation. I understand Microsoft's need to anchor to their biggest market, but during a global reveal it was weird and exclusive. It wasn't all bad, I love the look and sound of the new controller, Remedy's Quantum Break --a rather apt blend of television show and video game-- piqued my interest and the promise of a Spielberg-fronted Halo TV series makes the sci-fi nerd in me giddy. Arguably the lowest part of this all was Microsoft's bungling PR mishaps in the wake of the reveal. The elephants in the room were "will it always be online?," "will Kinect camera need to connected at all times" and would Xbox One be able to play pre-owned games. With the issues ignored in the reveal, we've had muddled explanations which have amounted to "sort of," "yes" and "yes with fees." We've also had Xbox boss Don Mattrick calling backwards compatibility "really backward," and some other suit saying that independent developers will not be allowed to self-publish their games on Xbox Live. A startlingly daft decision, particularly following Sony's open courting of the burgeoning indie scene for PlayStation 4. So not the perfect start. But not the blood-vessel-bursting disaster that many would have you believe. I have no doubt that Microsoft's approach to multi-functionality is the right one and that in itself calls the whole idea of an hour long reveal of a complex piece of hardware as folly. Even PlayStation 4"s bladder-challenging, lengthy reveal failed to get across everything, and the reaction on social media was similarly critical, if not quite as vociferous, as the reaction to the Xbox One. As the dust settled around the PS4 reveal and more concise information started to emerge, people were ready to be excited. Chances are this will happen with the Xbox One after a shaky reveal. E3 is Microsoft's chance to turn around gamer opinion in an instant. Let's at least give them the chance.