5 reasons to shun the Xbox One

This Friday, 8 years to the day after the release of the Xbox 360, Microsoft will unveil its latest gaming & entertainment console, the Xbox One. At $499, the new Xbox is $100 pricier than the PS4, but it also comes with the Kinect camera/microphone sensor, which is mandatory this time around. The Xbox One mission: provide an all-in-one entertainment center for your living room. Our advice: don’t buy it. At least not in 2013. This is similar to our advice on the PS4, but we’ve come up with one more reason to avoid buying Microsoft’s latest black box on launch day.

1. Payback

A few months ago, gamers were enraged with what Microsoft was planning with the One. A required Internet connection and stifling restrictions on used games were going to be an integral part of the Xbox One– until the cries of 1,000,000 angry souls made their way to Redmond, WA.  Sure, Microsoft reversed course on most of its intended affronts to our gaming freedom, but if you’d like to send them another message about what they were intending to do to the consumer, refusing to buy an Xbox One is the loudest statement you can make.

2. Red Ring Fool Me Once…

Did you buy an Xbox 360 between say, 2005 and 2007? If so, the odds are way too good that your console was hit with the dreaded Red Ring of Death. There were a handful of problems that plagued millions of systems worldwide. And did you hear about the issues with the PS4? It all adds up to a lesson in patience. Have some, and you’re likely to avoid the hardware headaches that often affect early adopters.

3. Greed And Gold Go Hand-In-Hand

Wanna watch a movie on Netflix? That’ll be $60 please. What? I already have a Netflix subscription! Yes, but to enjoy Netflix and Skype on the Xbox One you’ll need to have an Xbox Live Gold membership. On the PS4, Netflix access is free. Both systems require yearly membership fees to engage in multiplayer gaming, though.

4. The Kinect Clause

How much dust would you say is piled on top of your Kinect for the 360 these days? Did you ever bark out orders in Mass Effect 3 or take a walk around your car in Forza Motorsport 4? While some party games made good use of the camera, most gamers feel like it failed to live up to the hype. Now, owning an improved Kinect is mandatory. Microsoft changed its tune on requiring it to be connected, but still, you’re paying more for a system to get a peripheral that many people don’t want.

5. All Those Games On Your 360 HDD

If you racked up a ton of downloadable games through Xbox Live Arcade, they’re stuck there. Yep, the Xbox One (and PS4, at least for now) offer no backwards compatibility, even for digital titles. We find it hard to believe that a launch lineup of a couple of dozen games — even if they look 10% better — can justify turning one’s back on an HDD stuffed with content and a growing library of 958 games.