New Xbox aims to take over your living room

REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft pulled back the curtain on a new Xbox gaming console Tuesday called "Xbox One."

It's the first new console in eight years, and Microsoft gave it a flashy introduction at its campus in Redmond.

It's not just for gamers. It's touted as an all-in-one hub for movies, music, games, the Internet and live TV.

You control it with your body. A high-definition camera system reads your body movements. And it recognizes your voice. It starts up with a home screen showing personalized content.

"It's time for tech to step behind the curtain and you and entertainment to take center stage," Senior Vice President Don Mattrick said.

Once users connect cable and web to it, they will never have to leave the Xbox world. It's a game console, web surfer, DVR and web cam rolled into one with software feature called "instant switching" that connects all those features.

Senior Vice President Yusuf Mehdi demonstrated it in front of about two hundred journalists and Microsoft employees to cheers and applause.

But all that nifty technology got mixed reactions from people KIRO 7 Eyewitness News approached outside an electronics store.

Quinn Forman of Seattle owns the current Xbox 360. He is eager to try out the gesture control, saying, "It's going to be much more easy to do, especially with… the voice commands and just the different options. And it's going to be more of a hands-off system."

Ken Loganbill of Issaquah is taking a wait-and-see approach. "I would wait until everything gets sorted out," he said. "It just seems like the early stuff doesn't always work quite as well as you think it's going to work out."

Microsoft is so intent on keeping users connected to the Xbox, the company is even creating a TV series based on one of the most popular Xbox games.

The new console is to be released "later this year," though the company wouldn't be specific. Pricing was not announced.

KIRO