Microsoft seized today with its special unveiling event where the company announced its impressive next-generation gaming console, the Xbox One. A redesigned "all-in-one" living room entertainment console meets set-top box built from the ground up, packing a slot-loading blu-ray drive you'll only need to be using once to play games. The Xbox One downloads the game data automatically while you play onto its non-replaceable 500GB hard drive (expandable using external storage) the first time you insert a disc so it'll be playable without it from there on.

Powering it is an AMD and Microsoft developed 8-core processor with an on-board GPU chip and 8GB of RAM. The One's Windows operating system is a combination of three OSs engineered to respond intuitively and powerful enough to run apps alongside a game simultaneously without loss in performance. The Xbox One instantly powers up with a Windows 8-like home screen interface ladened with TV, movie, music and app integration with instant switching from one place to another.

Microsoft has also designed a new Kinect 2 motion sensor that'll accompany the new Xbox One which boasts a 1080p wide-angle camera with heart rate monitoring capability, gesture recognition and voice recognition so you can interact with it thru various voice commands like powering the console on just by saying "Xbox on", which will also turn on your TV. Voice commands are snappy to deliver instant results even when wanting to bring up a certain channel without having to use your TV remote.

Switching between inputs is a thing of the past now that the One features several USB 3.0 ports and HDMI pass-thru which enables you to watch live TV right on your Xbox while your TV, TV provider box and Xbox are interconnected. Built-in WiFi naturally of course. And yes you can game without being online.

With a new sleek console comes an improved wireless controller that utilizes Kinect to automatically recognize which individual has picked up the controller to bring up a personalized player experience on-screen. The new Xbox One controller sports a more ergonomic shape and is fitted with newly designed thumbstick shape and grip texture as well as vibrating impulse triggers with force feedback, and several more improvements - notably a built-in rechargeable double AA battery compartment. The new impulse triggers are perhaps the most impressive new feature to come with the new controller where you'll be able to feel the tightness of a car breaking and the vibration of a motor thru increasing throttle.

The best gaming controller just got better with over 40 technology innovations. New Impulse Triggers deliver precise fingertip feedback for more realistic experiences. We have streamlined the thumbsticks, D-pad, and contours for improved precision and comfort in your hands. Simply put, it is the best controller we've ever made.

The Xbox One runs four times quieter than its predecessor thanks to its redesigned cooling system. Microsoft confirmed that it will not run Xbox 360 game discs. 15 new game titles were also announced including an exclusive launch of Call Of Duty: Ghosts, Forza Motorsport 5, Fifa 12, NBA Live 14, Madden NFL 25, EA UFC and more.

We don't know this for sure, but we think Microsoft's custom hard drive works much like Apple's Fusion Drive in that it combines both a regular drive with an SSD to boost up performance when transferring over data from game discs and then reading that data straight from the drive when launching a game without a disc.

Microsoft has yet to announce a price point/s, but we do know that the Xbox One will arrive later this year along with new games. Further details including even more exclusive game titles are expected to be announced at E3 later this June.