Two Xbox One updates on the way, but performance is taking a back seat

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Games By Russell Holly Feb. 5, 2014 4:00 pm
Microsoft’s Xbox team took to their blog today, outlining an update about the current plan for improving their latest console over the next couple of months. The good news is that Microsoft is listening to their users, but some of the exciting stuff we’ve been waiting for appears to have been delayed.
Nobody releases a perfect gaming console, but the cool thing about living in 2014 is the ability to quickly release updates to improve those consoles as you go. Microsoft and Sony are both scrambling to roll out the first major update to their consoles since launch, and today the Xbox Team set some expectations for those updates. The most important thing is that there won’t be just one update, rather a pair of updates that we’ll be seeing in February and March. Unfortunately, the big performance boost we’ve been hoping for on the Xbox One probably won’t be there until the March update.
The first update, due out February 11, addresses some relatively small things that Microsoft probably should have had sorted at launch. The battery readout for their wireless controllers will finally be available to users, displayed on the home screen next to the time. Microsoft doesn’t seem to have labeled the controller whose battery readout is being displayed in the screenshot they provided, so we don’t know yet what happens when multiple people are playing on the console at the same time, but it is significantly better than nothing.
Microsoft is also making it easier to manage storage space on the console, as well as offer users control over their install lineup. The ability to use a keyboard with the console is also going to be added, but Microsoft failed to mention exactly where in the Xbox OS this feature will be useful. If it’s only useable in the browser, for example, that’s not totally useful for most people.

The March update is most likely the more interesting of the two updates, but the Xbox Team decided not to overwhelm up with specificity on this update. Instead the update has been dedicated to the release of Titanfall in order to add more hype to the first big exclusive game release for this console. While what we’ve seen of Titanfall so far has been incredibly impressive, there are currently available games like Tomb Raider that Microsoft would do well to offer an explanation on. The update contains “many new features and improvements, most significantly to our party and multiplayer systems”. This is likely a hat tip to the performance gains expected by disabling Kinect video processing in areas where it is not necessary, among other performance tweaks to firmware on the console. We’ll know more about what this update means for users in March obviously, but the lack of actual details is a little concerning.
Microsoft is going to keep plugging away at these console updates until they get it right, and it’s an undeniable positive that they seem to be listening to their audience and delivering fixed for the complaints that have been expressed so far. Users are much closer now to getting the console they wanted Microsoft to deliver at launch, and just in time for some great games to hit the console. As long as everything goes as planned, the Xbox One will head into the second half of this year on quite a positive note.



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