This past weekend was quite an exciting time to be a fan of Microsoft's Xbox, with the big Xbox Games Showcase towards the end of Summer Game Fest celebrations bringing the community tons of amazing looks at Halo: Campaign Evolved, Fable, Clockwork Revolution, and Gears of War: E-Day — the latter two of which have been confirmed as Xbox console exclusives.
As it turns out, though, the good news for Team Green doesn't stop there, as Microsoft has now rolled out a new major update for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles. This update is only available to select members of the Xbox Insider Program for testing right now, but will hopefully come to all Xbox users in the near future.
So, what's new? Well, in my view, the highlight of the update is the introduction of a new social feature that allows you to see people you're mutually friends with when viewing someone's profile — regardless of whether you're friends with that person or not. I'll be using that a ton when deciding whether or not I want to accept friend requests I'm unsure about.
Microsoft has also given elements of the Xbox UI a revamp, with "rich poster-style artwork" for "a more immersive library experience" in the My games & apps section along with toggleable status icons. Home and My games & apps have been split into distinct sections as well, while new shortcuts make navigation between menus faster and easier.
Another new feature is the inclusion of an "Add to wishlist" button to Game Cards for upcoming titles, meaning you'll no longer have to navigate all the way to a game's store page in order to put it on your wishlist. Ultimately, it's a small thing, but still useful; being able to add something to your wishlist the moment you see it means you won't have to worry about forgetting to do so later.
Finally, the Sleep mode for Xbox consoles is being replaced by the Shutdown (energy saving) option that was first introduced in 2023. Microsoft says this option reduces your system's power usage by 20x while it's off, but still allows it to receive, download, and install updates for games, apps, and/or the console itself.
All in all, this is a sizable update, and a welcome one. Notably, it comes about a month after Microsoft's Xbox CEO Asha Sharma asserted that "We have to sweat every single detail," and that she planned to push for more frequent console updates that improve the user experience as this one has.
It also comes after Sharma revealed an ambitious long-term plan to make Xbox "where the world plays," and later stated that her goal for the platform to become "the number one gaming and entertainment company." Platform upgrades like these play a vital role in bringing that vision to reality, as useful features and convenient functionality attract users and keep them coming back.
I hope it doesn't take long for these features to come out for everyone. In the meantime, though, you can sign up for the Xbox Insider Program in the free Xbox Insider app on console and PC and hope you get testing access.
Are you looking forward to putting these new features to good use while playing on Xbox? Let me know in the comments.
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