With Xbox One, Microsoft Wants to Conquer TV

It’s been nearly eight years since Microsoft performed a major overhaul of its Xbox video game console. In that time, the Xbox has demonstrated remarkable resilience, thriving amid huge shifts in the types of devices and online services people like to use. It may be Microsoft’s only beloved consumer product, in part because the company hasn’t mucked up its winning formula.

With the gaming market shifting away from consoles, though, Microsoft is doing a little tinkering. The goal is to move its system decisively beyond gaming and transform the Xbox into an entertainment hub for users’ televisions. On May 21, the company invited about 200 reporters and analysts to its headquarters in Redmond, Wash., and unveiled the Xbox One, a version of the console it plans to launch later this year. “We turn a TV that’s delivered to you one-way through a straw into a two-way experience that understands what’s going on with you,” says Xbox division head Don Mattrick.