Xbox One DVR plans cancelled

By Imad Khan June 8, 2016

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.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

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…

Gaming

The best external hard drives for Xbox Series X

xbox all access price pre orders retailers 2

The Xbox Series X's 1TB sounds excellent on paper, but in reality, Microsoft's console only offers about 802GBs of storage due to updates and the operating system. You may find yourself filling up your space quickly, especially if you're looking to download every new title that becomes available on Xbox Game Pass. Let's face it, Call of Duty alone takes well over 100GBs of storage — and with the system targeting 4K resolution, games are only growing in size.

The Xbox Series X is compatible with any external hard drive up to 16TB of storage. Games optimized for the Xbox Series X can only be stored on, but not played from, an external drive due to the games being designed to take advantage of faster loading speeds and Xbox Velocity Architecture. However, when it comes to storage for your Xbox Series X, there are many options to choose from as your game library expands. We have compiled a list of external drives that will make your gaming experience seamless. Note that they will come with the proper cables needed to connect to your Xbox console.
Seagate Storage Expansion Card

Gaming

April’s most anticipated RPG is coming to Xbox Game Pass

Key art for Eiyuden Chronicle Hundred Heroes.

We've learned about the titles that will come to Xbox Game Pass throughout the back half of April, and several of them are games getting added to the catalog the day they launch. Of those, the most notable is Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

While that name is a mouthful, RPG fans will want to pay attention to Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes as it is a spiritual successor to the long-dormant Konami RPG series Suikoden. Many of the developers who worked on the original Suikoden games worked together to reimagine the concept for the modern era, creating an RPG with over 100 recruitable party members, engaging combat, and a gorgeous pixelated art style that gives Square Enix's HD-2D games a run for their money. Prequel game Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is already on Xbox Game Pass too, so Microsoft seems all-in on backing this Suikoden successor as we wait for Konami to release remasters of those titles or a new game in the series.

Gaming

Fallout 4 is finally getting free Xbox Series X and PS5 upgrades

New Fallout 4 Creation Club mod content coming with the Xbox Series X and PS5 launch.

Bethesda has confirmed that the current-gen update for Fallout 4 will finally release on April 25.

That's good timing, as a Fallout TV show just released on Amazon Prime this month to positive buzz. Fallout 4 came out for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox One in 2015, and this definitely looks like it will be the most substantial update the game has received since its last expansion was released.