A series of updates are set to arrive on the Xbox One, expected to begin rolling out to Xbox One Preview this week, and the Xbox app (beta) in the coming weeks, with Cortana coming to the console.Mike Ybarra, director of program management for Xbox, has advised via a blog post that “the familiar Cortana experience found on other Windows 10 devices” can be expected, with Cortana voice commands on Xbox One to work with both headsets and Kinect.
“You’ll be able to use Cortana to find great new games, see what your friends are up to, start a party, accomplish common tasks, turn on your Xbox One if you’re using Kinect, and more,” Ybarra writes.
“We’ll continue to build Cortana features over time, and our vision is to use Cortana to help elevate your experience as your personal digital assistant for gaming. Just say ‘Hey Cortana’ or launch the app to get started.”
Ybarra has advised that, among the other changes on the way, the Xbox and Windows stores will start to become unified, “starting to combine the best of the Xbox Store and Windows Store to give gamers a single cohesive experience across their devices”.
Meanwhile, top PC games such as League of Legends and XCOM 2 are being brought together with the Xbox Live community, with PC games to have their own Game Hubs on Xbox Live.
Whether on PC, Xbox or mobile phone, users will be able to see what PC games their friends are playing, share their own PC gaming clips and screenshots and message friends on Xbox Live, and on both Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs will be able to party chat with friends.
In other updates, the Game Collection interface is getting an update to make it faster and easier to find and launch games, while Facebook Friend Finder is expanding from the Xbox app to the Xbox One.
It will be easier to share screenshots, GameDVR clips and achievements on Xbox One, while gamers will be able to edit and share GameDVR clips on any video editor with clips recorded on either Xbox One or PC, uploading the clip back to Xbox Live through the Xbox app.
Other updates will see users able to share game clips and screenshots from Xbox Live to Twitter in the Xbox app through the sharing options on each capture, while users will also be able to decide what automatically gets shared to their Activity Feed across the Xbox One and the Xbox app.
