5 Reasons to Be an Xbox One Owner

Great Lineup

Usually, when it comes to picking which console to purchase, the first thought will go to the games. It doesn’t really matter how powerful a piece of hardware is if you have no reason to use it. Thankfully, the Xbox One is not all flash and no substance. It actually has a respectable line-up full of different genres for players to dive into and enjoy.

As far as exclusives go, you have intense action titles like Sunset Overdrive and Halo 5: Guardians, more dramatic games like Quantum Break, and beautiful indie excursions such as Ori and the Blind Forest. Of course, you can dive into most of the big third-party titles, as well, with support from EA, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Activision, Bandai Namco, and many other respected companies in the industry. You can really do no wrong with an Xbox One, and not have to worry about missing out on the absolute biggest games around. 

Constantly Improving

It’s true, the Xbox One did struggle a bit out of the gate when it released at the tail-end of 2013. This was mostly due to a faulty message and the fact that the competition seemingly hit all of the right notes. But a lot has changed since that cold November. Thanks to Phil Spencer and the rest of the team over at Microsoft’s Xbox division, the company’s latest console is constantly improving, providing newer and better iterations on all of its features while also throwing in fan requests to sweeten the deal.

Since launch, we’ve seen screenshot functionalities introduced, sharing fine-tuned, Free Games With Gold, backwards compatibility, mods, Play Anywhere, and more. It is a console that has been, and continues to be, molded by its fans. That’s actually saying a lot. While one of its competitors is also doing its best to give fans what they want, Nintendo has been struggling with putting something out that consumers are actively looking for. On top of that, no major changes ever seem to hit the hardware.

The Xbox One actually changing over time is definitely a big deal. The console today is very different from what it was two years ago, and chances are that a year from now it will be even better. 

EA Access

EA Access is a subscription that honestly provides a pretty good deal to fans of the publisher’s games. The first part of the deal is the Vault. This allows you unlimited access to a list of past titles and is constantly updated. All you need is an active subscription and you can download a game and play as much as you want. The best part is that they aren’t necessarily really old titles, like you tend to get from Games With Gold. So far the previous year’s games have been added in with updates, and some even join the Vault before 12 months has passed.

On top of the vault, you get early access and discounts to upcoming games. The amount of early access you get varies from game to game, but you can try out blockbuster releases a week before they come out. You can then keep your save files just in case you decide to pick up the game when it releases. If you do decide to go for the purchase, you get a 10% discount for being a subscriber. Not bad when you think of what EA has to offer: Mass Effect, FIFA, Madden, Star Wars, Plants vs Zombies, and much more. 

Play Anywhere

Play Anywhere is Microsoft’s most surprising and welcome addition to the Xbox ecosystem. If you buy a game for your Xbox One, you will also be able to download that same game on your PC or gaming laptop, meaning you can take the game wherever you want. This is Microsoft’s way of providing more options to players in how they experience their games.

This also happens to be a far cry from what the Xbox seemed to be originally. Those first messages showed off a closed-system. One that seemingly required constant check-ins and a steady internet connection. Now it’s being opened up for everyone to enjoy as the gaming industry shifts away from rigid hardware.

This may also lead to more cross-platform play, allowing you to play with friends who may prefer a different platform. Up until now, friends have been forced to buy what others are buying, so this allows more freedom when it comes to spending your money and not giving up your crew. 

Backwards Compatibility

We mentioned this briefly just before, but it’s a pretty big deal. Backwards compatibility was the most requested feature across all new consoles. Players had amassed huge collections during the 8+ years that the previous generation lasted. With new consoles, that meant having to keep your old hardware hooked up with all of your shiny new ones, which isn’t something everyone wanted to do. On top of that, some of the virtual marketplaces were offering those old games you already owned, but you had to pay for them again if you wanted to play on your newer machine.

Xbox One’s backwards compatibility nipped all of that in the bud by letting you play a growing list of older games that are either part of your digital account or from disk. While not every game from the Xbox 360 is available to play, the list is constantly being updated with new, popular titles. Even better is that every Xbox 360 game added to Games With Gold is automatically backwards compatible, so you can download some classics, for free, directly to your console. Not too shabby, huh?

It’s great to see how far the Xbox One has come, and how much further it plans on going. While every console has its own strengths and weaknesses, you really can’t go wrong with picking up Microsoft’s latest.