Xbox One wants to transform television – but why?

http://media.edge-online.com/wp-cont...es-610x343.jpgSo now we know: the evolution will be televised. As had been heavily trailed, Microsoft’s Xbox One reveal in Redmond yesterday focused sharply on the importance of television, sports, and other forms of mainstream entertainment. The platform holder wants living room supremacy more than ever before, and hopes that Xbox One can become the definitive all-in-one box that various lumpen media centres haven’t.As a man who already watches a thrombosis-inducing amount of television, I’m not convinced. The nagging question I had as Yusuf Mehdi swiped, grabbed and panned his way around the UI was: what problem does this actually solve? During his segment there was a lovely moment of Orwellian doublespeak when he gleefully confirmed that switching channels is: “as fast as using your TV remote”. Non-problem solved.“It sounds simple and obvious, and it should be,” lamented Medhi, “but today it isn’t, because of the need to change inputs to get to live TV”. And so it continued. Problems were unconvincingly conjured and then fixed to the audience’s muted delight. When Mehdi asked what the biggest problem facing TV watchers was, I genuinely had no idea.The answer was, apparently, knowing what to watch. Microsoft’s solution was the Xbox One Guide, an admittedly swish-looking EPG, which coupled with ‘trending’ and ‘favourites’ areas, Microsoft hopes can… actually, I don’t know what’s it’s for. Is it for digital ingénues to discover that quite a lot of people like Game Of Thrones? For me to remind myself that I quite like Game Of Thrones?Perhaps there’s some logic to it, if the Xbox One’s functionality helps me unearth a show like Borgen, or a movie like Primer, or a band that’s equally worthy and intellectual – let’s say, The Knife – but wouldn’t I have already discovered these by dint of having friends with such wonderful taste, who I speak to on social media and, begrudgingly, in real life? Conversely, won’t the global trending area inevitably be full of the most populist mulch all day, every day? (Note: I say that as a fan of populist mulch, I just don’t need much help discovering it.) Or, to put it another way, there’s every chance Call Of Duty: Ghosts will be trending from launch until the eventual release of Call Of Duty: Djinns.

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