Xbox One The Last Three Years

Back in 2015, I listed the Xbox One Console as my most disappointing moment of 2015. Three years later, I thought I would take a look back and see if my gripes with the console have been fixed.

Back then, I only had a 6mbs download speed, which suited me fine for what I did. I also didn’t have many online devices, and the Nintendo Wii U, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 didn’t have big updates back then. So it surprised me seeing how big game updates were getting and it came out of left field. Not too long after I wrote my piece I upgraded my internet to 50mbs. It may still be slow to some, but for me, it made downloading updates much more tolerable. I can now use other devices while the console updates a game.

Now that I got that resolved, have my thoughts on the console changed? Yes and No. Yes, the console has been getting monthly updates to improve on features. Xbox Live has been getting good with their content and discounts for Gold members. My favorite is the Game Pass, which is perfect for people who want an impressive library of games without breaking the bank, not to mention backwards compatibility on certain Xbox and Xbox 360 games, making it the only gaming console of the current generation to have this feature.
These praises don’t come without some hiccups, like how now with the current consoles, my Xbox One takes the longest to boot up. I counted; Xbox One takes almost 15 seconds,  PS4 6 seconds, and the Switch a second. There may be some factors to this, such as me owning the original Xbox One minus the Kinect and not having “Instant On” activated. But it does feel like Microsoft wants me to upgrade to the Xbox One S, as now my disk drive is slowly acting up. Speaking of speed, the updates still haven’t fixed the long installation times for physical games, and yes, it is recommended that the console be offline for faster process then go online to download the patch. When I put in a game for the PS4 within seconds the game is installed and downloading the updates. That surprised me and made me think of buying PS4 versions of multiplatform games in the future.

My biggest gripe that hasn’t been addressed is the short battery life of the controllers. I had the same issue with the Xbox 360. Either buy batteries or the official battery pack, as I find myself having to charge the darn thing every three days while the PS4 and Switch I charge once a month. How is that, especially with the Switch Pro Controller having all these features, yet the last time I fully charged it was last month, while the Xbox One I had to recharge before I wrote this?

In short, my thoughts on the Xbox One is better, but I feel that it’ll be a matter of time before I’m forced to upgrade, as the console is showing its age with newer updates.

Xbox One The Last Three Years is a Louis Hughes retrospective of his last three years with the Xbox One console.