Microsoft is gearing up for next year new home screen UI for Xbox consoles. Today, thanks to a video from The Verge’s Tom Warren, we’ll take a closer look at what to expect from this change.
First responses to change very mixed. The company is trying to promote subscriptions more, and according to some, the new style looks giant ads on Xbox Game Pass.
The main dominant of the main screen is six big pictures display games or applications that you have recently opened. Previously, a large image was only for the last opened game / application.
On the next line we find representatives of your games and applications, Microsoft Store, Achievements and multiple ad slots. The video is about “going to Game Pass” and Mount & Blade 2. They are one line down. showing the latest games added to Game Pass.
Source: MicrosoftThe Xbox boss hinted at a rise in the price of consoles, games and subscriptions
They are only under this ad favorite apps and games, which you can pin. At the same time, at the moment there is no way to move the interface and change the order of individual categories. Which is also the biggest drawback of the whole home screen.
If you go even further, you will find the best free games or the most popular games on Game Pass. Yes, subscribe again. And even one line is dedicated specifically to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
“This home screen really looks like a giant Xbox Game Pass ad and I don’t really like it” Warren added.
MICROSOFT DISAPPOINTED WITH THE NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS?
Microsoft’s decision to promote Xbox Game Pass more on the console’s new home screen may be due to the fact that for the second consecutive fiscal year, the console subscription option pales in comparison to the PC version and above company expectations.
Microsoft expected Game Pass to grow by around 73% by June of this year. But the service increased by only 28%. And yet it Game Pass is profitable and accounts for approximately 15% of the company’s revenue from the Xbox content and services division.
“We are seeing a slowdown on consoles, mainly because at some point we reached everyone on consoles. [hráče, pozn. redakce]who want to subscribe to the service,” notes Phil Spencer, with a 159% year-over-year increase in PC Game Pass subscribers and more than 20 million people streaming games through Xbox Cloud Gaming, up from 10 million at the start of the year. We wrote more here.
From this point of view, it makes sense to visually remind players what they can play on the console as part of Game Pass.
Source :Indian TV
