A huge amount of information regarding the Xbox One‘s upcoming Summer Update has been released by Microsoft on their official Xbox blog. Detailing the process of how all of this year’s new features will be delivered, director of program management Mike Ybarra said that members of the Xbox Preview Program will get first access and that the new content will roll out in waves rather than all at once.
New features will rollout to the Preview audience in waves, not all at once. We’re really excited about this update as it lays the foundation to bring together more people and more games across devices through Xbox Live.
So you probably want to know what exactly these new systems are, right? You can see below for the nitty gritty on several of the improvements, features and changes headed your way over the next few months.
Cortana on Xbox One: Cortana is coming to Preview in the U.S., U.K., France, Italy, Germany and Spain first, and gamers can expect the familiar Cortana experience found on other Windows 10 devices. Cortana voice commands on Xbox One will work with both headsets and Kinect. You’ll be able to use Cortana to find great new games, see what your friends are up to, start a party, accomplish common tasks, turn on your Xbox One if you’re using Kinect, and more.
New Game Collection: We’re updating the Game Collection interface to make it faster and easier to find and launch the games you’re looking for. Now you’ll be able to see more of your Game Collection, quickly access your own ‘Ready to Install’ tab, and get more information about titles in your queue.
Facebook Friend Finder on Xbox One: Facebook Friend Finder is expanding from the Xbox app to Xbox One and is a great way to find and add your Facebook friends on Xbox. As more gamers link their Facebook and Xbox Live accounts, you’ll start seeing more suggestions for Facebook friends to add and game with on Xbox Live.
Improved sharing on Xbox One: We’ve made it easier to share your screenshots, GameDVR clips, and achievements on Xbox One. Gamers can now share their most epic clips and captures with the community in fewer steps.
Xbox and Windows Store convergence: We’re starting to combine the best of the Xbox Store and Windows Store to give gamers a single cohesive experience across their devices. On Xbox One, we’ve streamlined the shopping experience to help you find the games you love faster and at the best prices. You’ll be able to filter, browse and search results by genre, read reviews written by fellow gamers – including those voted “most helpful” by the Xbox Live community, easily recognize what titles are on sale with strikethrough pricing in lists, and more.
As was the case with The New Xbox One Experience Microsoft released late last year, it seems that this new one is all about improving accessibility and introducing new social features and the like to make it just that little bit easier to find what you’re looking for at any given moment. Besides that, Microsoft appears to be making another big push to streamline its Xbox and Windows services into one seamless experience.
For even more details on the Xbox One‘s Summer update, you can head over to the Xbox Wire blog here or watch the video above.