On Tuesday, May 21, Microsoft revealed to the world its next-generation console to compete against the Wii U and the PlayStation 4. As viewers watched from countless livestreams, the Xbox One was officially announced.

The One was unveiled with a short trailer, which gave the audience at the Redmond, Wash., tent a first look at the new console. The One is a very boxy, straight-edged piece of hardware. Gone are the curvatures and circular edges of the Xbox 360 in favor of a more simplistic approach.

This design choice did not stop at just the console itself. The new Kinect, previously rumored to be called Kinect 2.0, had the same straight-edged black and gray look as the One it hooks up to. In this iteration of the motion-sensing peripheral, the camera is an upgraded 1080p shooter that can now track more joint and muscle movements than ever before. The sensor can even go so far as to sense a player’s heart rate.

While not everything is known about the new Kinect, Microsoft confirmed that the One will not function without the sensor connected. This means even if a player doesn’t plan to use the voice/motion capabilities of the Kinect, he/she will still have to find a place to stash it close to their console so that it can stay connected.

Consequently, all Ones will come packaged with a Kinect sensor.

The controller sports the same matte finish as the rest of the console, with a wider and beefier look than its predecessor. All buttons remain the same, save for the Start and Back buttons being replaced with two others, the functions of which Microsoft did not elaborate to the press.

Triggers now have their own rumble motors in addition to the controller’s main ones in the body. The battery pack is now completely within the controller, eliminating the bulky convex of the Xbox 360’s pad.

The Xbox Home button has moved further up the front/center of the device, and performs the same function as the current controllers (accessing the Dashboard and viewing notifications).

The controller’s bumpers have also changed slightly, receiving a size increase that seem to coincide with the rest of the controller’s enlargement. In IGN’s video overview, Scott Lowe commented that the refined d-pad (directional pad) of the controller has a new “mechanical” feel.

The console itself will have roughly the same specs as its competitor, SONY’s PlayStation 4. As seen in IGN’s comparative guide, some of the One’s specs are less powerful than the PS4’s, while others have yet to be announced or confirmed.

Of course, Xbox LIVE is a large part of the Xbox experience, and it’s no different for the One. A few months ago, PlayStation 4 touted its new features coming with the acquisition of streaming company Gaikai. Now, Microsoft took the online reigns by telling the audience that the updated servers for LIVE would be able to pull some processing tasks from the system. This means that when playing a game that requires lots of power, the connected One can use LIVE’s offsite servers to speed up whatever the user is doing. Microsoft stated that this allows the One to be more powerful the older it gets (the technology is still being experimented with).

Additionally, Microsoft revealed that LIVE would be able to record and share gameplay on the One, much the same as the PS4. However, it appears that there is no physical Share button on the One’s controller. MS said that captured footage is saved to the cloud, which leaves the 500gb hard drive room for other things like game installs.

Cable television was a large part of the One’s reveal. Essentially, Microsoft built the console to take over home entertainment’s collective features, one of which is HD cable TV. The One has the capability to replace a cable box, allowing full integration into the gamer’s dashboard without having to switch inputs. A demo was shown that showcased how fast the One could switch between activities, with going from a game to a TV show taking less than a second.

Deals with EA and the NFL were also shown, which will bring interactive user experiences to sports fans. Additionally, a live-action Halo TV show was announced, with famed director Steven Spielberg helping make the universe come to life.

Very little was shown in the way of games at the conference. Trailers for the new Forza and Call of Duty: Ghosts were showcased, but zero gameplay was ever revealed (only pre-rendered footage made it to the public; Microsoft has stated that games would be a larger focus of its E3 show in a few weeks).