Top Xbox One features we are still waiting for
No doubt the Xbox One has come a long way since its debut in November. The console, at launch, was lacking a huge feature set promised by Microsoft. Recently, the publisher has been working tirelessly to push out…
No doubt the Xbox One has come a long way since its debut in November. The console, at launch, was lacking a huge feature set promised by Microsoft. Recently, the publisher has been working tirelessly to push out monthly updates to give gamers the tools they need to make gaming on the Xbox One a powerful experience. They’ve already given us external hard drive support, fixed the party chat and given us the ability to broadcast gameplay directly to Twitch. Here is a list of Top Xbox One features we hope are in the pipeline for future updates.
Digital Game Sharing
One of the most original ideas Microsoft had planned for the Xbox One was the concept of sharing your games digitally with friends and family. Unfortunately, this feature had to be nixed after Microsoft reversed course on their digital rights management system for the One.
We believe this feature is still entirely possible to implement. Any user who has purchased titles digitally or received a free digital pack-in game (such as Titanfall or Forza 5), should be able to allow any member on their friends list to try that game for a user specified amount of time. In that time, however, the player loaning the game would not have access to play the loaned game. This would allow gamers to try out wide range of Xbox One titles while also not getting into an tricky licensing issues between the owner of that license and the person borrowing the game.
Preloading Games
A staple of the Steam platform is giving users the ability to download a game ahead of release and being able to “unlock” that title upon its midnight street date. As many digital purchases have already discovered, large games such as Call of Duty: Ghosts (>40GB) take hours to download, especially with weak internet connections. Sometimes users also run into the issue of download servers being very slow at the time of release. This is due to overwhelming amount of congestion of players surging to download the newest title at the same time.
By allowing the preloading of games, Microsoft will alleviate the stress and load the servers are experiencing by spacing downloads out over time. This will also allow players to hop right in at the crack of midnight to enjoy the content they have shelled their hard earned money for.
Lastly, Microsoft’s digital release policy is to allow the digital sale of games at midnight in the furthest west territory of that country. An example is that when a game is released digitally in the US, it is launched at midnight Pacific Time, meaning gamers on the east coast have to wait until 3AM local time to be able to load up their game. With preloading, Microsoft would be given more flexibility to the times for each specific timezone a game is made available to play.
Liking and Sharing Content
Probably the most intriguing feature of social content is the ability to be able to like and share that content with all of your friends. Years ago, Facebook gave its users the ability to “thumbs up,” or like a person’s post. Twitter came along and allowed its members to “retweet” (share) content. It’s looking more likely that the Xbox One will allow the liking of Game DVR clips in a future update, but what about being able to share content or posting it to your favorite social media site?
Gaming is more social now than it has ever been and a vast majority of gamers also find themselves on social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Why not give those people an opportunity to reach a broader audience with their original Xbox One content?
Make More apps “Snappable”
Snapping apps is a differentiator for the Xbox One over its console counterparts. The ability to play your game on a large part of your screen while having TV snapped to stay caught up on the big game is a huge plus. But where is the love for apps like Netflix or Amazon Instant video? We love multitasking, so why not allow us to use the Xbox One to its fullest potential and allowing us to be as unproductive as possible?
Backwards Compatibility
Okay, so maybe not the biggest one for me, but a lot of gamers would love to be able to play their Xbox 360 games on their new hardware. We’ll just call it the nostalgia factor. Logistically, we know this probably isn’t possible. But why not be able to bring our old purchase Xbox Live Arcade games over. Once again, we know there are probably a few logistic issues there, but some of us have made a considerable investment to the platform. I for one have put my Xbox 360 away, for good, and would love to be able to play some of the great titles that were available on the platform.
As Microsoft continues to update their platform, we expect to see a few of these listed items get checked off the list. Come on Microsoft, give us your promise and make the Xbox One the most social and best place to play for gamers!
If you think we missed anything, make sure you post a comment below to tell us your most missed feature on the Xbox One.
