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Xbox's Mike Ybarra Wants To Improve Game Library, Social Elements, And More
The Xbox One's operating system has gone through several transformations since it debuted in 2013, and with the living nature of video game consoles today, it would be a shock if we're currently looking at Xbox One's final form. We asked Mike Ybarra, director of programming at Xbox, to name the biggest improvement he'd like to make to the Xbox One user interface to hopefully get a glimpse into what could be to come for Microsoft's latest console.
Ybarra's response was fast and enthusiastic. "We have our list of areas," he says. "Like Collection. I’d love to redesign Collection because since people are buying more digital now, the Collection should be something people can go to and be like, ‘Wow, I can see my whole library of games. I see everything and it’s really easy to get to!’ Today, it isn’t. So, I want to go fix Collection. There are some social elements we want to improve. We’ve always listened to what the fans are saying. One thing about the gaming industry is you have very passionate fans about what they want, so everybody understands what our fans want and we’re prioritizing those. I would expect us to continue to invest both in the Xbox app design and the console-based OS design to do more things like New Xbox Experience and really kind of bring them what they want through big catalyst changes and smaller changes.”
The next update (available now to many Xbox Preview Program members) enhances several aspects of the Xbox One user interface, but Collection is not one of them.
Our Take
It's always nice to get such candid insight from the people that control how gamers are able to consume their games. With game collections growing larger and larger each month, an overhaul to how the Xbox One and Windows 10 approaches your collection would be very welcomed.
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