GRcade

New Features Rolling Out to Xbox Insiders This Spring

Welcome to the new year Xbox Insiders! We have many new updates for you in the coming months and today the first set of features begins rolling out to the Alpha Skip Ahead and Alpha rings. We’re adding some improvements to Xbox Game Pass Quests, smarter messages, and a few convenient input updates.

The team at Xbox is always striving to improve the Xbox ecosystem based on fan feedback—we appreciate every thought and idea shared! Enjoy trying out these new features and providing your valuable feedback.

Streamlined Xbox Game Pass Quests

Xbox Game Pass Quests are better than ever! As this feature rolls out, you will be able to access quests progress directly from the dash and browse all quests from My Profile. Start earning rewards for playing great games, jump in and try out Xbox Game Pass quests!

Introducing Message Requests

Your messages are getting smarter. Xbox is adding a new Message Requests feature in messaging which will prioritize messages from your friends and anyone you want to communicate with while separating out messages from people you don’t know into a message requests tab.

Like all features in Preview, this is still in development, and we wanted to make you aware that group messaging between 1902 & 1904 builds is not supported (1-to-1 messaging still works fine!).

Mini virtual keyboard

We understand that navigating a virtual keyboard can be a challenge whether you’re writing an LFG post for Apex Legends or inputting a 5×5 code for a new game. In order to improve this experience, we are testing out a new mini virtual keyboard option for Xbox One. This new virtual keyboard makes it easier to navigate and type using a controller. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

Restart added to Power Center

Based on user feedback, a new option to restart the console has been added to the Power Center. You can now access this feature quickly by holding down the Xbox button on the controller to bring up the Power Center instead of having to navigate to it within the System tab.

Improved uninstall

When you try to install a new game or app today with a full HDD we send you to your collection to choose what to remove. The new suggested uninstall feature will instead send you to a page that has titles suggested for removal that will free up enough space for your install and to make things even easier it will auto-kickoff the install once the space is freed up!

You can also get to the new drive manager page via Settings > System > Storage to easily manage your existing content and uninstall multiple titles at once.

Programmable button on Xbox media remote

The Xbox media remote is being updated to allow the OneGuide button to be reprogrammed to launch a media app instead of OneGuide. This is a great shortcut to jump into your favorite media app and start watching.

Experiments

A subset of Xbox Insiders may see some experimental features in addition to what’s listed above. These are designed to gauge interest and solicit feedback from a more focused group.

As always, thanks to all the Xbox Insiders for your feedback. Your insight and input are both critical and crucial to making a better Xbox experience for gamers around the world.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Started Headlander on gamepass. For anyone who's a fan of metroidvanias, or even those (like me), who are not, but don't mind a dose of it mixed in with other genres (notably bullet hell), give it a go. It's really, really good so far (about 2 hrs in).

rinks wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Started Headlander on gamepass. For anyone who's a fan of metroidvanias, or even those (like me), who are not, but don't mind a dose of it mixed in with other genres (notably bullet hell), give it a go. It's really, really good so far (about 2 hrs in).

Oh, yes, this is excellent. I’d got it mixed up with something else and thought it was an FPS. After your post, I had a look, and I’ve been playing it this afternoon. Very much my kind of thing. Thanks for the tip.

Microsoft’s Evolving Gaming Strategy Takes A Giant Step Forward

Earlier this year, Microsoft made a peculiar announcement on the Windows Insider blog related to gaming. With build 18334, Microsoft said they were bringing new technology to Windows 10 and were offering up State of Decay for free to try but that’s all the information that they provided.

Wanting to understand more, I started poking around and asking for more technical help to dig out the information needed. Thanks to help from NazmusLabs and Rafael, I was able to better understand what is happening and thanks to a few people familiar with the company’s plans, we can piece together the puzzle.

When you download State of Decay, the oddities begin immediately. Instead of downloading from the Microsoft Store server, serverdl.microsoft.com, where all content comes from including PlayAnywhere titles, the game downloads from assets1.xboxlive.com.
What it looks like Microsoft is doing, instead of porting each Xbox feature back to the PC one by one, they are simply dumping the entire Xbox one installation/servicing plumbing and making it the primary installation for Windows.

For a few months, I had been hearing that Microsoft was working to bring Xbox and the Microsoft store experience closer together. This appears to be part of the GameCore strategy that is designed to make it significantly easier to bring Xbox games to the PC. Granted, the challenges today of building a PC and Xbox game using the same assets is significantly easier than the last generation but Microsoft wants to make it a streamlined process for maximum value for developers to support both platforms

There is also a new Gaming Service app, Microsoft.GamingServices app, that installs two drivers; xvdd.sys = XVD Disk Driver (Microsoft Gaming Filesystem Driver) gameflt.sys = Gaming Filter (Microsoft Gaming Install Filter Driver). As WalkingCat notes, xsapi.dll = Durango Storage API, XCrdApi.dll = Durango XCRDAPI, both of these references can be found in the files: Durango was the codename for Xbox One.

On the surface, what it looks like Microsoft is doing is collapsing any differences between PC and Xbox gaming to make it the same experience on both devices. The company is in the process of making the delivery mechanisms based on the Xbox infrastructure, appears to be making it possible to run Xbox games on the PC, and replacing the existing Store PC games infrastructure on that of what Xbox has built.

And this isn’t some half baked port to the Windows ecosystem either. Much like the Xbox does, this updated mechanism supports delivery optimization too.

This is a substantial development process for Microsoft and not something that happened overnight. While it certainly looks like developers will be able to use a single binary package to target and Xbox and PC, I believe the larger ambition is to make the gaming experience the same on both PC and Xbox.

If Microsoft can make this a reality with performance being top notch on both platforms, it means the addressable market for Xbox and PC gamers is going to be the same which makes it a much more lucrative target than other platforms.

more heat than light wrote:Yeah I've picked up Cobalt before. Hopefully be something else.

Peter Crisp wrote:

more heat than light wrote:Yeah I've picked up Cobalt before. Hopefully be something else.

What are the chances they can get Anthem .

Peter Crisp wrote:

more heat than light wrote:Yeah I've picked up Cobalt before. Hopefully be something else.

What are the chances they can get Anthem .

twitter.com/majornelson/status/1100787821604831234