Xbox One, Microsoft's answer to the challenge from Sony's PlayStation 4 has not been able to beat its competitor when it comes to the sale of consoles, but that has not stopped the American company from building its product with an eye on the future.
Xbox executive Kudo Tsunoda explains in an interview with GameIndustry the path taken by Microsoft in getting ahead of the curve with its arch rival.
Though he would not commit on saying that the gap has closed between the two, he added that Xbox One has more exclusive games than other platforms. He confirmed there will be seven exclusive games roll-out for the holiday and many more coming in 2016.
With Sony deciding to stay away from Gamescom 2015, Xbox was a winner by default, showcasing games that many had not seen even at E3 2015. Something Xbox One owners and fans can be proud of.
Though Sony's PR team had its early wins, Microsoft has since corrected it and has given credence to its constant reminder that it has been listening to its fans. The company has included backwards compatibility to woo its fans back, giving an edge over PlayStation 4.
"With backwards compatibility, it isn't something that we just think gamers might want. We know. We're looking for and soliciting that feedback. It was the number one most requested feature for Xbox One by far," said Tsunoda.
Then there is the addition of Cross-Buy, Cross-Play feature with Xbox One which also plays well for its gaming plans with the new Windows 10.
"For a long time we've had PC gamers and console gamers who weren't really able to play together. That's why Cross-Play is still such a powerful idea. You should be able to play what you love, and play together, regardless of what device you're playing on. It's about connecting people," added Tsunoda.
He also said that the idea was to allow fans play the games "wherever they want, on whatever device they choose, and making that easy. Long term, that's really what we're trying to do as a platform."
Microsoft had toned down drastically its insistence of Kinect as a compulsory addition, presently making it an optional feature. It recently introduced Chatpad for communication.
He also offered hope and was positive of the trajectory taken by his company. He said that Xbox has more to offer than its rivals. "It's a really unique value that only we can offer. You still need very gamer-focused values, but there's lots of things you can do with our technology. We've really got a lot more going on [than our competitors]. We're doing things that can't be done on any other console," Tsunoda said.
Xbox August Update Adds New Features
Microsoft has revealed the details of its Xbox August update. It noted that Windows 10 has been built keeping gamers in mind. Windows 10 integrates some of the popular features of Xbox consoles.
Xbox Wire has provided details of the Xbox August update following the inclusion of "new functions" that allowed game streaming from Xbox One to Windows 10 PCs. Now owners will be able to stream game in 1080p/60fps.
- 1080p/60fps Game Streaming –You can now stream games from your Xbox One to Windows 10 devices in high-res HD quality at 1080p/60fps. The new streaming capability works best for gamers who have home networks with adequate bandwidth. In the Xbox app on Windows 10, go to Settings > Game Streaming and set the video encoding level to Very High, which will then stream games from your Xbox One to your Windows 10 PC at 1080p and 60fps (frames per second).
- Right Click – You can now right-click on one of your friends and select Send Message or Invite to Party to more quickly connect with your friends.
- Notifications – Starting today, you can enable or disable notifications for when you are invited to a party or a multiplayer game via Settings > General > Party & Games Invitations.
- Recently Played – Now you will see an animated display alternately showing you how many friends have played each game along with the four most recent players. The display will then switch to show a second tile with your last played date, Gamerscore and Achievements percentage complete. If you click on the game, it will take you to the Game Hub, where you can see a list of all of your friends who have played the game sorted by most recently played along with their online status.
- Compare Achievements with a Friend – You can now compare your achievement status with one of your friends who has played the game. From a Game Hub page, select Achievements > Compare at the top right above the list of all of the achievements.
- My Games – Updated My Games supports a grid view with a jump list, where your games are now displayed in a grid sorted alphabetically. If you click on a letter, you can collapse the list and then select a specific letter of the alphabet to more quickly find a game. The list of games that are automatically discovered has been updated as well.
- Add Games – The ability to manually add games to your collection that have a link in the Start Menu by selecting My Games > Add a game from your PC has been updated with a help link to help you add games to your collection.
Along with this, it can also be noted that this update rolled out on 18 August and it has updated the Xbox app on Windows 10. It has fixed the issues cropping up with sign-in, localisation and game streaming.
