Microsoft’s Xbox One is not just about taking on the lounge. It is a proving ground for CEO Steve Ballmer’s “One Microsoft” vision.

Microsoft sold greater than 1 million Xbox Ones within 24 hours of the console’s Friday launch. Sony’s PlayStation 4 sold at in regards to the same rate when it debuted the week before.

The launch is auspicious, if not necessarily extraordinary. It has been seven years since Microsoft released the Xbox 360, in any case; with such a lot pent-up demand, an early rush of sales was inevitable.

Here’s what’s more important than day-one sales: whether the Xbox One’s performance remains strong enough to affirm the buyer-oriented aspects of retiring CEO Steve Ballmer’s “One Microsoft” strategy.

[ Is Microsoft’s Surface 2 the ideal tablet for you? See Microsoft Surface 2: Hands-On Review. ]

A recent Bloomberg article spoke to this query, claiming that former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, widely perceived as a pacesetter for Ballmer’s job, would consider jettisoning Xbox and Bing if he’s selected to steer. The thing cited unnamed sources on the brink of Elop, but even though he’s less trigger happy than implied, Microsoft’s consumer efforts face scrutiny from others to boot.

Influential hedge fund ValueAct, which owns around a 1 percent stake in Microsoft, opposes Microsoft’s decision to fabricate devices, as an example, in keeping with a July report in Reuters. Wall Street commentators along with Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund routinely say Microsoft will be stronger if the Xbox were spun off. Reuters also reported in October that several major shareholders feel Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is obstructing the novel changes the corporate must make– further indication of the contentiousness that surrounds Microsoft’s future tactics.

Nonetheless, it is a foregone conclusion that Microsoft will continue to focus on no less than some consumer markets; otherwise, it don’t have purchased Nokia’s device business. But it’s something for Microsoft to get thinking about smartphones; they’re the gateway to finish users, and Microsoft’s hand was somewhat forced because nobody besides Nokia was wholeheartedly supporting Windows Phone 8 within the first place. It’s something else for Microsoft to take a position billions in Surface tablets, Bing and the Xbox — the primary two have lost greater than they’ve earned, and the Xbox eats up resources which may be better spent on Windows, Office, Azure or other more profitable products.   

To make certain, the $499 Xbox One brings a great deallots to the table, perhaps enough to justify its $100 premium over the PlayStation 4. Its headline features include a next-generation Kinect sensor that could not just identify individual users, but additionally track a gamer’s heartbeat during fitness games. It supports not just cable television, but in addition numerous video services, including Netflix and Hulu; can hook up with the net via Internet Explorer; or even supports multi-tasking for, say, watching a basketball game on one side of the screen while viewing an app along with your fantasy league statistics inside the other.

There’s more. The Xbox One also obeys voice commands, has the cross-platform games you’d expect, and may boast a library of interactive titles once Microsoft finishes building them. Dependent on your taste, you may additionally care about its exclusive games, reminiscent of Forza Motorsport 5 and Dead Rising 3.

Early reviews indicate the Xbox One doesn’t get everything right, but as a grab at front room domination, it’s pretty much as good as anything available in the market — that is to assert, adequate to be intriguing, but not more than enough to be an iPhone-level disruptive force. Research firm Gartner projects the online game market would be worth $111 billion by 2015, a 19% increase over this year, so if the Xbox One expands at the Xbox 360’s reach, the spoils may be substantial.

If Microsoft’s plan plays out, those spoils will extend outside the pure online game market, however. The Xbox hooks into Microsoft’s cloud services comparable to Skype and SkyDrive, and its interface looks more like Windows 8’s Start screen than ever. Under “One Microsoft,” this synergy is designed to show Xbox sales into subscriptions for Microsoft’s cloud services, or, better yet, higher adoption of Windows 8 devices. If it really works, Ballmer’s interest in consumers can be vindicated. But when the Xbox One can’t attract greater than a core gaming audience, incensed investors will start circling.

Microsoft director John Thompson, who leads the CEO selection committee, has repeatedly stated that the company’s next CEO will use the blueprint Ballmer has already established. But you would not expect him to claim anything; otherwise, he’d be dooming products just like the Surface Pro 2 and the Xbox One before they’d even had a big gamble.

 If the Xbox evolves right into a dominant media hub, it’s going to have got to grow from a gamer base, but it isn’t yet clear if the vast majority of gamers will elect Microsoft or Sony.

Apple and Google already dominate gaming, and media consumption often, on mobile devices. Both also are experimenting with easy methods to expand their grasp to televisions. Microsoft and Sony are essentially seeking to infiltrate the lounge from one end, if a further words, but whether or not Microsoft prevails, it may discover a Siri-equipped iTV or some future iteration of Chromecast awaiting it at the other.

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