Lucky members of Microsoft’s Xbox Preview Program began getting early access to the New Xbox One Experience this past weekend. Slow down, you don’t want to all go running for those controllers at the same time. There’s no way to manually trigger the update on-demand.
Microsoft announced that it was rolling out the New Xbox One Experience to a limited number of users on Friday through the Xbox Wire news blog. To clarify, this is the same software update that Microsoft showed off at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, complete with Cortana integration and Windows 10 references.
For the record, the Cortana personal assistant isn’t available in this early version of the New Xbox One Experience, but the basics of the new design is. A new Guide, inspired by the Guide from the Xbox 360, floats out from the left of the screen. Microsoft has reintroduced all the separate channels for different types of entertainment just like the Xbox 360 has. When it’s done, Microsoft hopes that users will find this new designer faster and easier than the current software on the Xbox One.
To get the New Xbox One Experience you need to have been a member of the Xbox Preview Program and opted-into getting the update through the Preview Program Dashboard app on the Xbox One. Microsoft plans to roll out the New Xbox One Experience to all consoles plus, backwards compatibility for Xbox 360 games this November.
