Xbox News Fresh From #GAMESCON2015

There have been a plethora of X1 announcements so far, but time is short, and so is this piece:

All future Xbox 360 \’Games With Gold\’ will be backwards compatible.

So, from here on out, your Xbox Live membership will net you 4 games a month- 2 each on both the X1 and the 360- that are playable on the Xbox One. Backwards compatibility itself will \’ship\’ in November.¹

I\’m wondering if they\’ll do anything for those of us that hadn\’t been adding Xbox 360 games to our accounts due to the lack of backwards compatibility? My gut says no, as it would be overly complicated for games that can be bought used for very few bucks.

Xbox One Gaining DVR Functionality

\”full-featured DVR functionality\” is coming to the Xbox One next year, according to Mike Ybarra, the director of program management for Xbox.

The upside is that the service will not require a subscription, but the downside is that it is only confirmed to work with OTA.² Details are scarce in regard to the service working with cable or satellite signals.

The detail that sounds amazing, though, is that recordings will be streaming-compatible with Windows 10 devices via the Xbox app. Further, you\’ll be able to download a recording for viewing wherever you like.

Xbox One Chat Pad To Launch In November

A chatpad may seem a little out of place in 2015\’s voice-enabled world, but Microsoft apparently sees an audience for an updated chatpad. With actual MMO\’s starting to arrive,³ this isn\’t a bad idea, but… It would make a lot more sense if you were playing cross-platform with folks on the PC who would be less likely to be on Xbox voice chat.⁴

Of course, that in itself would make future PC-to-Console ports infinitely more appealing, especially if you could transfer characters freely between versions for games that have been out for years.⁵ Going the other way, the peripheral will be compatible with both Xbox One and Windows 10, so if you like playing PC games with the controller from your couch, you\’ll now still be able to hammer out \”lolnoob\” like a boss.

In addition, the pad has an audio pass-through, sound controls, backlighting, and two programmable buttons. As a bonus, it comes with a voice headset.

The Chatpad will ship in November for $35- not bad. Heh, with all that, maybe there will be a pretty decent market for it after all.⁶

DirectX 12

November is shaping up to be a big month this year for Microsoft and their Xbox. In addition to new hardware, games, and UI/system features, the Xbox One will be moving to Windows 10 and DirectX 12 under the hood. According to M$, there are over 100 developers currently working on DX 12-based projects.⁷