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Xbox One DVR plans cancelled

If you were hoping that your Xbox One would become the ultimate TV box, prepare to be disappointed. Microsoft has revealed that it is suspending its plans to turn its Xbox One into a DVR.

At last year’s Gamescom in Cologne, Germany Microsoft announced that DVR functionality would be coming in 2016. It turns out that announcement was a bit premature. “After careful consideration, we’ve decided to put development of DVR for Over-the-Air TV on hold to focus our attention on launching new, higher fan-requested gaming experiences across Xbox One and Windows 10,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge. The company added “We’re always listening to fan feedback and we look forward to bringing more requested experiences on Xbox One, Windows 10 and Xbox Live this year.”

Ever since current CEO Satya Nadella took the Microsoft helm over from Steve Ballmer back in 2014, it seems that he’s been steering the ship towards a universal Windows 10 platform. This is in contrast to pre-Nadella Microsoft, which had each one of the company’s arms in a different pot. And in keeping with the new philosophy, with each subsequent update, the Xbox One has been starting to look more and more like a PC. Not only that, games that were once exclusive to Microsoft’s home console, like Gears of War and Forza, are now debuting on the Windows 10 store.

Doubling down on games seems to be the better move, as Microsoft caught the ire of gaming audiences back in 2013 by positioning the Xbox One as an entertainment-heavy Kinect-focused device. Once Phil Spencer took over as the Head of Xbox, he quickly changed Microsoft’s messaging towards gamers, and has since seen much praise from the community.

With E3 starting next week, we’re fairly confident Microsoft will continue on its universal Windows adoption.

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Imad Khan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Imad has been a gamer all his life. He started blogging about games in college and quickly started moving up to various…
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