Games By Russell Holly Dec. 2, 2013 3:28 pm
Microsoft’s unified user experience across their operating systems is being taken one step further with an internal branding decision aligned with the Halo franchise.
One of the more positive things about the Microsoft user experience is that it looks the same no matter what you are using. The tile experience is incredibly similar across the Xbox, Windows, and Windows Phone platforms, and Microsoft is the only company so far to have been able to visually unite their operating systems in such a way.
It looks like Microsoft is now planning to update these platforms in a unified fashion as well, and the plan for the next major OS update in Spring 2015 has been internally dubbed “Threshold.”
Hardcore Halo fans may find that name oddly familiar, and that’s because Threshold is the name of the planet that sat beside the first ring in the game. This isn’t the first time Microsoft has dipped into the Halo honeypot for internal names either. Remember Cortana, the name for the Google Now-esque personal assistant that Microsoft has been working on? These are far from the only instances.
As the owner of the Halo franchise now, Microsoft has been far from shy about using content from that universe in the rest of its products. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does cause you to ask how long it will before these little Easter eggs stop putting smiles on the faces of fans.
The impressive thing to take away from this announcement is the update window Microsoft seems to have established. With the Xbox One UI and Windows 8.1 freshly available for users to kick the tires, a spring 2015 launch launch for their products continues the shorter iteration periods that Microsoft has been working towards. Microsoft will surely have smaller, interim updates for all three platforms in the mean time, but a planned point for each platform like that is a great move on their part.
Now read: The Xbox One costs $90 more than the PS4 to manufacture
More...
One of the more positive things about the Microsoft user experience is that it looks the same no matter what you are using. The tile experience is incredibly similar across the Xbox, Windows, and Windows Phone platforms, and Microsoft is the only company so far to have been able to visually unite their operating systems in such a way.
It looks like Microsoft is now planning to update these platforms in a unified fashion as well, and the plan for the next major OS update in Spring 2015 has been internally dubbed “Threshold.”
Hardcore Halo fans may find that name oddly familiar, and that’s because Threshold is the name of the planet that sat beside the first ring in the game. This isn’t the first time Microsoft has dipped into the Halo honeypot for internal names either. Remember Cortana, the name for the Google Now-esque personal assistant that Microsoft has been working on? These are far from the only instances.
As the owner of the Halo franchise now, Microsoft has been far from shy about using content from that universe in the rest of its products. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does cause you to ask how long it will before these little Easter eggs stop putting smiles on the faces of fans.
The impressive thing to take away from this announcement is the update window Microsoft seems to have established. With the Xbox One UI and Windows 8.1 freshly available for users to kick the tires, a spring 2015 launch launch for their products continues the shorter iteration periods that Microsoft has been working towards. Microsoft will surely have smaller, interim updates for all three platforms in the mean time, but a planned point for each platform like that is a great move on their part.
Now read: The Xbox One costs $90 more than the PS4 to manufacture
More...
