The Next Xbox One Update To Come Late April

Microsoft has been busy troubleshooting and tweaking their hardware and software now that millions of Xbox One consoles have been sold and are being used regularly.  Hiccups in the software still exist, something any moderate or heavy user has likely noticed, but Microsoft have been hard at work to correct the issues at hand.  For the third month in a row an update will be rolled out to improve the software and hardware experience for the Xbox One.  In April, here’s what you can expect to see in the final released update:

• Automatic update download and installation for always connected Xbox One consoles that opt to never fully shut down (but instead use low power settings)
• Blu-Ray application improvements, including proper support for movies that use 50 Hz refresh rates
• Controller firmware updates for even better headset performance and wireless connectivity

Further updates should also make the cut, but these few have been confirmed by Microsoft to make the April rollout and have been reported via Microsoft’s Xbox Wire.  The ability to auto download and install software updates without the need to power on your Xbox and perform the multi-step process of updating the console will be a nice feature going forward.  If updates roll out in the morning while you’re at work, you should have an updated box ready to go when you get home that afternoon/evening so no time is wasted playing catchup.

There will still be more planned updates coming from Microsoft.  A monthly rotation of getting updates out could continue depending on the severity of any remaining bugs and performance issues.  We anticipate a lot of the kinks to be worked out by the summer timeframe and more major UI advancements and features to be added around mid/late fall 2014.

Xbox One Digital Games To Get “Competitive”, Games For Gold On The Way

Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, aka Larry Hyrb, made a comment in regards to a fan who contacted him via Twitter, asking about special preorder opportunities that were offered by the likes of retailers but not on Xbox Live.  Hyrb makes comments regarding Microsoft’s forecast for digitally distributed content, which hasn’t been clearly outlined yet but Hyrb says “we’ll share the goodness… but not now”.  In the little that was said, Microsoft seems to be planning to open up digital preorders on their Xbox Live platform in the future.  Seems like something we might have already been privy to but has yet to be implemented.  But the good news doesn’t start and end there.  There is also consideration of offering “competitive” deals for digitally distributed content.  The absence of material manufacturing, shipping, and retail stocking certainly would make the process of making games cheaper.  Having top-tier games available for as much as $10 off of disc versions would likely encourage droves of players to buy digitally.  In turn, groups like GameStop who rely heavily on game and console sales would be a little strained to follow suit, but eventually this is the way games are going to go.

Having digital games makes it impossible to have issues like “disc cannot be read” errors or broken discs entirely.  You cannot lose a digital copy of something and can always uninstall it and reinstall it as long as you use your Xbox Live Gamertag (or Microsoft Account).  In addition to that, your Gamertag is now portable, allowing you to pull a already-purchased game from Xbox Live even on a friend’s Xbox One (of course, your Gamertag is the one that is granted access to that game on other consoles).  Microsoft have also stated that, while their “Family Share” system was cut because of the outrage against the heavy focus on digital distribution, the share system would be brought back in a future Xbox update for digitally acquired games.

To cap off the news, Larry Hyrb also went on to talk about the Games for Gold program that launched on the Xbox 360 last year.  Within the next few months Games for Gold could be launching on the Xbox One, where those with the Xbox Gold subscription will be able to download free games.  Typically there have been two games released for free per month, one in the first two weeks of the month and a second during the last two weeks.  This program is confirmed to come to Xbox One, we’re all just waiting for the official kickoff.

A 10% Power Increase For Xbox One In Pipeline (Rumor)

Critics of the Xbox One typically point toward the Xbox One’s inferior DDR3 memory option for graphical and raw power capabilities.  The PlayStation 4 currently sports DDR5, which quite simply runs faster than DDR3.  However you look at it, the fact is the PS4 opted for slightly better hardware this time around than Microsoft did with their Xbox One unit.  The differences are actually quite slim because both consoles sport the same CPU from AMD, known as the Jaguar APU.  Just a couple months before the Xbox One launched Microsoft had apparently made a breakthrough with the type of silicon used on the Xbox One, something that engineers of the console made great boasts about going into the hardware design phase of the console.  This breakthrough resulted in an 88% boost in power, power that wasn’t available during the biggest part of game development for groups like Crytek, DICE, Infinity Ward, and more.  This could of the reasons why certain games opted for a lower native resolution of 720p or 900p instead of a native 1080p that gamers are promised that own the console.  That 88% closed a large gap between the two competing consoles and has both consoles close to parity.  But get this, rumor has it that that gap could basically be eliminated with a future update to the Xbox One.  How interesting, yes?

According to some currently anonymous sources familiar with the Xbox software and hardware development groups, there is a big update for the Xbox One in the pipeline that is due out this year.  In all likelihood, this could be part of the big update that has been recently talked about by Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, known as Larry Hyrb, and other internet sources.  How is it possible to push the power of a console already released?  Simply put, optimization.  There is no secret that Windows 8, Windows Phone, and the Xbox 360 software are very good for performance.  Users that went from Windows 7 to Windows 8 actually experienced better performance out of the same machine because the software was lighter compared to its predecessors.  The launch-day software of the Xbox platform is still largely in production.  There is tons of work to be done, indicated by the fact that the Windows 8.1 team had some members picked to help get the Xbox software ready for launch.  The optimization could be strictly software related.  Microsoft is a software company first and foremost, so the company getting their ducks in a row with the Xbox OS is likely part of the coming power increase.  Xbox software employees have even gone on record to state that they intend to make graphics drivers and other aspects of the software the best anyone can get.  This makes a huge difference when you’re trying to squeeze every ounce of power out of your console, because the more efficient and cleaner the software runs, the better the hardware can perform.  Eliminating bottlenecks is very important, and if you look at the differences between the Xbox 360 day-one OS versus today’s OS, you’d not only see a major change but experience a smoother experience.

So while we await true confirmation on this, the word is that the Xbox One is slated for a 10% power increase.  Whether that’s coming from software improvements or Microsoft just simply figuring out how to push their existing hardware harder while remaining cool and stable is to be determined.  Either way, this bodes well for future multi-platform releases and developers won’t have to take into consideration power differences between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.  This will also pull one more bullet out of the PlayStation 4 fan-boy army’s chamber, something I’m sure Xbox fanatics will be happy to do for them.  Just be warned that there is no precise timeline available on this, but expect something within the first 6 months of the Xbox One’s launch for a big software update to start.  The Xbox team was notorious for a big annual update, so there could be something more sizable coming in the fall of 2014.  Still, something in the realm of March or April wouldn’t be out of the question for a big software update considering big Windows Phone and Windows 8 updates are due out in that time frame as well which is said to bring better unity to all Windows devices.  This large Xbox OS update with a rumored power upgrade could fall in line with those updates as well.