Not all features of Xbox 360 will carry over to Xbox One at launch

Launching a new console is proving to be difficult for Microsoft with the transition from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One. The company has struggled to get a clear message to consumers about what the console will do, what policies it will adhere to, and what the future will look like.

Speaking at TGS with IGN, Microsoft’s Albert Penello details the difficulty of launching the Xbox One, and why some features that Xbox 360 fans are used to, won’t be there right away on the new hardware.

“I think even in the U.S., there’s going to be a lot of stuff that was on 360 that isn’t going to be on Xbox One for a while. Y’know, it’s an interesting dynamic that you find yourself in with console launches, but particularly when you’re coming from a super mature platform… in the old days of console transitions, the expectation of what would be moving to the next console was basically isolated to games.”

Penello continues, “I mean, I totally understand people’s frustrations, and it’s hard to give an answer beyond the fact that, from my seat, it’s a console transition and this is part and parcel. There’s a lot of things that we’ll talk about in our vision for the product that aren’t going to be there at launch.”

So just what are these features that won’t carry over? Penello points to some of the functionality found in the current model of the Kinect camera. He also discusses the fragmented global launch for a number of Xbox One features that separate the new hardware from Sony’s PlayStation 4. It’s clearly going to be long term process to get all of these new features out to all of the potential Xbox One customers across the globe.