Xbox One is dead — but its spirit lives on in Xbox Series X

Xbox 1 is dead — simply its spirit lives on in Xbox Series X

Xbox Cloud Gaming is on its way to Xbox One

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The Xbox 1 is expressionless! Long live the Xbox I! Microsoft has officially confirmed that Xbox One has been discontinued and that its production came to an finish in 2022.

This makes sense: while Sony plans to produce a one thousand thousand more PS4s before the end of 2022 as securing PS5 restocks remains a serious struggle, Microsoft seems to have the Xbox Series S more than readily available than its flagship panel. And the less powerful car is still better than the last-gen consoles.

As such, the official stop of the Xbox One has finally come and that has me reflecting on the lifetime of the console that spanned some seven years. It may not have hit the exciting 85.8 million units sold like the Xbox 360, but 48.6 million consoles sold is nothing to exist sniffed at. And the Xbox One has left a legacy.

Xbox One missed the spot (at first)

An image of the original Xbox One — (Image credit: Microsodt )

Things weren't so rosy when the Xbox One was first revealed in May 2022. After the stellar success of the Xbox 360, the hype was high for the Xbox 1. Simply when Microsoft took the covers off, fans were greeted by a chunky unit that looked more like a VCR box than a new games console for a immature decade.

But beauty is in the heart of the beholder, then Microsoft could have glossed over the original Xbox One design and wow with next-gen games; that didn't happen. Rather than testify off a new Halo or Fable, Microsoft spoke well-nigh the Skype integration in the Xbox Ane, its entertainment features and a baroque HDMI-in port that could even allow you to connect a PlayStation to information technology.

The reveal was baroque, seeming to target habitation amusement setups rather than games. Things got worse when Microsoft noted that the Xbox One will constantly demand an internet connection so game ownership could be monitored, effectively adding global DRM to Xbox games.

And and then there was the toll: $499 for a console — in 2022 that was a lot. Sure, Microsoft would bundle in a Kinect, which was absurd for tech fans but a flake of an oddity for everyday gamers. And not being able to just buy the panel rubbed people up the incorrect fashion.

Comparatively, the PS4 was all about being a games panel with a suite of exclusives, a $399 launch price, and sharing games was as easy as passing your pal a game disc. Unsurprisingly, when both consoles launched in Nov 2022, the PS4 came out on summit and remained the tiptop domestic dog, having sold 116.six meg consoles thus far.

Microsoft backtracked a lot of these decisions, though the messaging was sloppy for a while. The Kinect, which has at present gone the style of the Dodo, was likewise de-bundled from the Xbox One, reducing the toll of the console. That was a smart motility, but information technology must have stung early adopters.

The Kinect also left a spectre in the form of graphical power existence allocated to powering the movement-tracking camera. Removing the Kinect did seemingly give developers more than GPU ability to play with, but the Xbox 1 tended to render games at 900p when the PS4 striking 1080p — the native resolution for Full Hard disk drive TV at the time. Safe to say the beginning of the Xbox One was bumpy.

Far from One and done

Just Microsoft doesn't tend to stand nevertheless. So just less than iii years later in August 2022, the Xbox One S was released. This took the original Xbox One and reworked it into a smaller box with an integrated power brick, likewise as access to a 4K Blu-ray player and HDR back up; storage for it likewise went from 500GB to a healthy 2TB.

The Xbox One S was a far meliorate prospect for Xbox fans, not least because it started at a much more appealing $299. As such, it wholly replaced the original Xbox One.

Backward compatibility was also brought in and expanded upon. When the Xbox One launched there was no native backward compatibility, meaning if people wanted to play old Xbox games on their Xbox Ane they needed to attach an Xbox 360 via the HDMI-In port.

But in 2022, Microsoft started working on backwards compatibility for the Xbox One. And it'southward grown always since, offering access to games that go as far dorsum every bit the original Xbox; this culminated in Microsoft adding a farther 76 backward compatible games to the Xbox 1. This arroyo is still seen today with the Xbox Series Ten and Series S' comprehensive backward compatibility with features to brand games run improve like FPS Boost.

Xbox One X vs PS 4 Pro — (Epitome credit: Tom'due south Guide / Sony / Microsoft)

From there the Xbox One grew into a family unit of consoles. In 2022 the Xbox One X arrived, flipping things around and making an Xbox the near powerful console in the world.

While the PS4 Pro could occasionally return games in 4K, it tended to utilize a process chosen chequerboard rendering to upward mix lower-res images into pseudo 4K. Simply the Xbox One 10 by and large targeted native 4K and tended to outperform its PlayStation rival.

It was the 1 X that had motivated me to finally get a modern Xbox; I bought it mostly to get the best Red Dead Redemption 2 feel I could in 2022. And I wasn't disappointed as that game in native 4K looks utterly fantastic.

Finally, in 2022 an all-digital version of the Xbox One S was released. What would have been bizarre back at the launch of the original Xbox One now made sense, every bit Xbox Game Laissez passer had really started to take off.

Xbox Game Pass prowess

An image of an Xbox controller and Xbox Game Pass — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Commencement launched in 2022, Game Pass grew out of Xbox Live Gold and was the brainchild of Xbox boss Phil Spencer who aimed to flip the initial perception of the Xbox as an entertainment hub and run into it more as a gaming device.

With Game Laissez passer, users got admission to the online services of Xbox Live as well as a suite of the best Xbox One games and older titles.

Then came Game Pass Ultimate, which bundled the Xbox service with the PC service, with cantankerous-saves enabled in some games. That grew to include cloud-based game streaming allowing users to play Xbox games on their Android devices providing they take a good internet connection.

And that'due south at present developed farther to enable Game Pass streaming on Apple devices via the Safari browser, Windows computers and more. It makes Xbox Game Pass the best bargain in gaming, equally well every bit arguably the crowning achievement of Microsoft's gaming arm.

Xbox Ane: Leaving a legacy

Xbox One X — (Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

Given Xbox Serial X restocks are all the same tricky to secure, the Xbox I is yet relevant today as there are plenty of cantankerous-generation games bachelor for information technology, similar Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Halo Infinite.

And even when the console begins to flag, Xbox Cloud Gaming via Game Laissez passer enables games to be streamed to the Xbox One; I've tried this with Forza Horizon 5 and was impressed by how stable it all was.

But with no more than Xbox One consoles being made, Microsoft has called time on the last-gen machines. Yet it lives on in spirit.

Certain, the initial Xbox One launch was a mess. Merely then the Xbox we know today with the voracious arroyo to backward compatibility support, game access, and the expansion of Game Pass, all stemmed from the Xbox One.

And during the reign of the Xbox 1 we've seen Microsoft build out Xbox Game Studios and learn Bethesda, which has delivered stellar games like Psychonauts ii and Gears 5. It too promises to see some huge exclusives this yr, like Starfield and Redfall.

So pour one out and raise your glass to the Xbox I, equally I firmly believe it'due south the reason why I concluded that the Xbox Series Ten is the ultimate Xbox.

Roland Moore-Colyer is U.K. Editor at Tom's Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes virtually gaming, phones, laptops and other $.25 of hardware; he's also got an involvement in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be establish wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face.