Hello Xbox fans! We’re excited to share something Xbox have been working on for a long time: the all-new Microsoft Store on Xbox. Far more than a typical app update, they’ve rebuilt the experience from the ground up to make it faster, safer and easier to use than ever before. The good folks are obsessed with getting it right for customers, and we can’t wait for you to see what they have been working on.
Faster
The new Microsoft Store on Xbox is more than twice as fast as before. It launches in under two seconds, and the browse performance is greatly improved – it’s faster than ever to load pages and find what you need, whether it’s checking out a sale price or watching HD trailers.
The Microsoft Store on Xbox makes it easier than ever to discover what you’re looking for, whether you want to try out a gaming membership like Xbox Game Pass, find a specific title or DLC, or access an app, movie or TV show. View trailers inline while you search and browse (or turn on autoplay for the most seamless experience), easily see which games your friends are playing, and get information about discounts and offers at a glance.
Easier
The goal at Xbox is to provide an inclusive and intuitive experience for everyone, and they are truly committed to making it easier than ever to find your next favourite game, app, movie, or TV show. This starts with a fully redesigned navigation system, allowing you to jump between shopping experiences in a snap or deep dive into something specific.
In order to improve ease of use, Xbox have revisited and refined a few features and functionalities:
- With the redesigned search functionality, it’s easier to filter your results.
- Guided by your feedback, we rebuilt the Wish List. You can now easily add new games to your Wish List and quickly check your list content (including keeping tabs on any sale pricing for your Wish List items).
- The updated shopping cart makes it easier to add items to your cart as well as view the items in your cart before and during purchase.
- We’ve also made it easier than ever to shop across four generations of great Xbox content by enabling customers to view pricing while browsing for new Xbox One games and backward compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles, as well as add these games to your Wish List or shopping cart.
Safer
Team Xbox have also been working hard to make sure that the Microsoft Store on Xbox is the best place for families to shop for gaming and entertainment. To help parents ensure that their children are interacting with appropriate content, customers must be signed in to their Xbox account before browsing. Being signed in also helps you have a more personalised experience – you’ll see content that is more relevant for you.
Similarly, they have made improvements to the way content is filtered to align with the family settings applied to child accounts. With this update, the team ensure that content rated beyond a user’s content filter level does not appear anywhere in search or browse experiences. This means that a child with content filters set for an 8-year old will not be able to view content in the store that is rated for a teenager, for example. The update also guarantees that content filters are applied even when multiple users are signed in. It also makes it easier for parents or caregivers to grant exceptions to restrictions for particular games, movies, or TV shows they may allow their family members to have access to.
You’ll see content ratings more clearly surfaced: All trailers start with a consistent ratings pre-roll, ratings information is always clearly shown at the top of game details pages, and persisting age ratings information shows up all the way through the purchase process.
If you want a closer look at all of these updates, there’s a walk through on Major Nelson’s video podcast – check out the video above.
How to participate
Team Xbox will be rolling this update out gradually, so if you’re an Xbox Insider, you may begin to see the new Microsoft Store on Xbox starting as early as August 5; the experience will be available for more Insiders over time before it rolls out to all users this fall. If you encounter any issues, please submit feedback via Report a problem (hold down the Xbox button on your controller and select Report a problem from the power menu). Please submit feedback under Category > Apps and Subcategory > Microsoft Store. If you are not yet an Xbox Insider you can find more about and join the program at Insider.xbox.com.