Excitement, relief, anticipation, crowds, celebrities, security, free pizza, chaos, loud music, gamers and fun, sums up what the launch of Xbox One had in Salt Lake City and across the world. Not quite as crazy as the launch of the Xbox 360 and PS3, but I am glad it was not. People waited for days and almost a week for the launch of the last generation of consoles. This time around, the longest person in line waited since 7:00am the day of the launch. After all the waiting in line, tournaments, people screaming and getting hyped, he had no more energy to get excited when receiving his Xbox One. It seemed like everyone had kind of died.
The lack of excitement was understandable. For several hours, gamers competed in FIFA14, Killer Instinct, and Forza 5. There was a live DJ and Tony Beltran from ReAL Salt Lake was in the back playing FIFA14. The place was packed, wall to wall. Microsoft had bought pizza for everyone at the store. That’s right, FREE PIZZA! When you add all of this up, considering all the hours you didn’t sleep with anticipation, it took a lot out of everyone. With that said, all the hours leading up to midnight were amazing, its just at the end, everyone was dead tired.
A week before, Playstation launched their PS4. It seemed like that did not phase anyone at the store. Even I had forgotten about the launch while playing the amazing Forza 5. It seems like people forget about the amazing games that launched with the Xbox One. Forza 5, RISE, Killer Instinct, FIFA14, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Assassins Creed: Black Flag, and more. Sure, most of them are also on the PS4, but a game like Forza 5 really had me trapped in another world while all the madness ensued all around me. Xbox fanatic or not, if you are a true game fanatic, you will plan to own both systems at some point. There is no definitive line when it comes to creativity when comparing both systems.
Overall, Microsoft did an outstanding job with the launch of their newest console. I am sure that we will continue to see the excitement grow as more gamers get a hold of their consoles this holiday season. That’s if you can find one of course. Make sure you come back to The Game Fanatics come January! CES 2014 will be in full swing and so will we. United We Game!
