The Xbox One has made quite a turnaround since its 2013 launch.
On Friday Microsoft began rolling out the biggest software update yet to its Xbox One console, adding backwards compatibility and a new layout that puts games front and centre, while also fixing many of the vestigial issues left over from the console's botched launch.
The Xbox One has come a long way since its introduction, when then Xbox boss Don Mattrick positioned it as an always-online general entertainment box with a mandatory Kinect sensor. After gamers rejected the machine in droves, current boss Phil Spencer has fought hard to reposition it as primarily a dedicated games machine, and with the introduction of this new software the transformation is more or less complete.
No more square panels: the new Xbox One splash screen.
The first thing users will notice is that the Windows-8-like square tiles of the old interface are gone, replaced with a vertically-scrolling list. The new software is actually based on Windows 10, but you wouldn't know to look at it. The homepage still focuses on your most recently used apps, but getting to your pinned apps, games library or social links are all a single button press away. The TV-focused OneGuide stuff is still there, but it's been pushed over a couple clicks to the right. Everything feels light and snappy, and you no longer spend half your time backing in and out of heavily-animated menus.
The original Xbox One dashboard was designed to be navigated with voice commands and hand gestures, so getting around could be cumbersome. This new look is clearly designed primarily for use with a controller (and hand gestures are abolished entirely), and it makes finding what you're after noticeably faster. If you're used to skipping the navigation entirely and just saying "Xbox, go to Netflix", you can still do that.
One of the big complaints with the previous interface was that accessing social features like friends lists and parties required backing out of your game and navigating the clunky menus of the home screens. Now, these features can be accessed from any screen on the console, even in the middle of a game, by double-tapping the guide button.
Xbox 360 games sit alongside all your other stuff. If you bought the game digitally it will just appear on your Xbox One. If you bought it on a disc, just insert it.
For many, the most important update is the introduction of Xbox 360 compatibility and, while it wasn't that long ago that Mattrick-era Xbox claimed this was an impossible feat, the feature has been implemented impeccably.
At present 104 Xbox 360 games can be played on Xbox One, with more to come in the future (Spencer says he aims to have all Microsoft-published games included eventually, but other games must be approved by their publishers). The list is far from complete but includes favourites like Mass Effect, Borderlands, Mirror's Edge, Fallout 3 and all Gears of War games.
If you purchased a compatible game digitally on Xbox 360, it will automatically appear in your download list for Xbox One. Ditto for any downloadable content you own for any compatible game. If you own the game on a disc, you simply insert it into the Xbox One and it downloads. You have to have the disc in the machine whenever you want to play it.
The games look and play flawlessly on the newer console, and somehow Microsoft has kept all the old 360 functionality intact without sacrificing Xbox One's new tricks. For example you can still interact and party up with your friends online using the old 360 guide (regardless of whether they're using a 360 or an Xbox One), but you can access the new Xbox One guide too, as well as all the game recording and social features. You can even access your old saved games if they're stored into cloud, although if you want to buy a new 360 game you'll need to use a 360 or Xbox.com.
It's no secret that Sony's PlayStation 4 has been handily outpacing the Xbox One in sales since the two machines arrived, in a stinging reversal of the last console generation where the Xbox 360 dominated Sony's PS3 for several years after launch. Yet a lot has changed since the change of leadership at Xbox early last year, starting with the decision to sell the system with the Kinect, continuing with a raft of smart decisions to get exclusive games on the platform.
Now Xbox One finally has something positive the PS4 does not have: the ability to play your old games. With more Windows 10 stuff on the horizon — like the ability for game designers to integrate Cortana into their experiences — the jostle for platform supremacy is set to get interesting again.
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