Finally, the one all you Xbox owners have been waiting for! The Summer Xbox update is here and is rolling out this weekend from today and includes Cortana, Background Music and more.
The full Change log is as follows:
Xbox One
- Background Music: One of the highest requested features for Xbox One was the addition of background music to allow users to listen to their favourite songs while gaming. This is now a reality and will be supported by Pandora (launching soon), Groove Music, iHeartRadio and others to come later.
- Cortana on Xbox One: Cortana is now available on Xbox One in the U.S. and U.K. Cortana brings a wider range of voice commands with “greater accuracy with natural language and text dictation” as well as the ability to use a headset to communicate with Cortana or Kinect. Microsoft promise to bring more features to Cortana but users can look forward to using Cortana to start a party, turn on the Xbox One and more.
- Improved Game Collection: The Game Collection interface has been improved to make it faster and easier to find and launch games Games can now be organised and managed easily while there is also the addition of the ‘Ready to Install’ tab and ‘Updates’ tab.
- Language Region Independence: Location is no longer a barrier, Xbox One owners will now have the ability to change the Language Region of their console no matter where they are located. For example this means that for English speaking players living in France, they can now keep their language as English.
- Xbox and Windows Store convergence: Microsoft are beginning to combine the best of the Xbox Store and Windows Store to give gamers a single cohesive experience across their devices. On Xbox One a new streamlined shopping experience will help users find the games faster and at the best prices. Search results can now be filtered by genre, read reviews written by other gamers, recognise sale items with strikethrough pricing in lists as well as new channels added.
- Facebook Friend Finder: Now on the Xbox One, players can connect their Facebook account to your Xbox Live account to find friends that play Xbox.
- Improved sharing on Xbox One: Sharing screenshots, GameDVR clips, and achievements on Xbox One has been made even easier. Gamers can now share their most epic clips and screenshots with the community right from home. The Activity Feed settings have also received an update so users can now decide what will get automatically shared to your feed.
Xbox app and Windows 10 PC gaming
- Top Windows 10 PC games show up on Xbox Live: Microsoft are bringing the top Windows 10 PC games like League of Legends and XCOM 2 together with the Xbox Live community. Meaning Windows 10 PC games will have their own Game Hubs on Xbox Live. Whether gamers are on PC, Xbox One, or mobile phone, they will have the ability to see what PC games their friends are playing, share PC gaming clips and screenshots with the community, and message friends on Xbox Live. Party Chat is also cross platform, so if your own Xbox One or Windows 10 PC you can chat to your friends.
- 60 fps game clip recording with the Game Bar: Using the new “Very High” video quality setting in the Xbox app, players will be able to record game clips in up to 60 frames per second from the Game Bar (Windows + G) once the Windows 10 Anniversary Update starts to roll out on August 2nd.
- Windows Game Bar improved full-screen support: One of the most common requests seen for the Windows 10 GameDVR feature is the ability to use the Windows Game Bar with more games running in full-screen. Support has been added for six additional games in full-screen mode with Windows Game Bar: League of Legends, World of Warcraft, DOTA 2, Battlefield 4, Counterstrike: Global Offensive, and Diablo III. With those games, once the Windows 10 Anniversary Update starts to roll out on August 2nd, players will be able to use Windows + G to bring up the Windows Game Bar when the game is running full-screen.
Xbox app on mobile
- Xbox app on iOS and Android: Announced and released during E3, the Xbox app is now available on iOS and Android. Mobile users can now stay connected to the Xbox Live community, see what friends are playing, share game clips and screenshots, and view achievements through the Xbox app on Windows 10, iOS and Android devices.
What do you think of the Summer update? What changes would you like to see made by Microsoft? Let us know in the comments below.
