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Microsoft reveals a 12-minute demo of the Xbox One

Microsoft has revealed a 12-minute demo showing off the Xbox One's voice activation skills.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
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Joe Svetlik
2 min read

The Xbox One will be with us in just under two weeks, and ahead of its launch, Microsoft has revealed a mammoth 12-minute video demo showing off the console's skills.

The demo is hosted by Xbox's chief marketing and strategy officer Yusuf Mehdi and corporate vice president Marc Whitten. It shows how you can personalise your dashboard, and stick your games, movies and music easily at hand. The console's facial recognition skills are also on show, along with its voice-activated controls.

Walk in the room, and your Xbox One recognises you and welcomes you with a greeting note on screen. Then it loads your custom home screen.

If there's more than one of you in the room, you can switch between your home screens just by speaking. Say "Xbox, show my stuff", and your home screen appears, complete with your layout and chosen colours, and all your movies, games and apps exactly as you arranged.

The demo shows how easy it is to jump in and out of games, too. Saying "Xbox, load Forza Motorsport", will fire up said game, resuming where you left off. You won't have to wait for it to load, it just starts playing.

It's just as easy to duck out of games, too. Say "Xbox, go to Internet Explorer", and the Microsoft browser loads, just like that.

Similarly, "Xbox, go to TV", brings up the last telly show you were watching. Of course you could use the controller to navigate, but that's a bit 20th century, no?

The Xbox One hits the UK on 22 November -- that's a week before its arch rival, the PS4. It costs £80 more than the PS4, but comes with the Kinect camera for controller-free gaming.

Are you excited about the Xbox One? Or is the PS4 the one to watch? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.