New Xbox One Experience Rolling Out To Some Preview Program Members

Written by Brandon Hofer on September 18, 2015

News: Microsoft and Major Nelson have revealed that some preview program members will begin receiving the new OS beginning today.

Microsoft has revealed that the New Xbox One Experience is going to begin rolling out to select preview program members today. Earlier in the week they sent out a message to all the preview program members via the Xbox One console itself asking if you would like to be included in potentially getting the New Xbox One Experience early to test out. If you want to be considered then you had to opt-in and if you have no interest in doing so then you don’t have to do anything at all. Choosing to opt in to the early stages of testing the New Xbox One Experience has some potential pitfalls though as not all of the games work properly yet, some of the apps might not launch properly and more. There will also be frequent updates (at least twice a week) leading up to the big launch in November. Additionally, if you choose that you do indeed want to participate in this New Xbox One Experience beta test and then decide you don’t want to do it anymore, you can revert back to the current Xbox One OS but it will have to do a factory reset on your console which essentially erases everything off your hard drive. Your game saves should be fine thanks to Microsoft’s cloud but everything else would most likely have to be re-downloaded.

Beta testing the New Xbox One Experience is on a different level than what Preview Program members are used to which is why you need to opt in and then confirm that you would like to participate due to the risks involved. Please also keep in mind that if you opt in that doesn’t mean you are guaranteed a spot. They will let in a small number of people at first and then as the testing progresses over the next two months more and more people will be allowed in. Some of the features of the New Xbox One Experience will include:

A New Guide

There will be a new guide that will allow you to access essentials quickly with just the press of a button and without having to leave the game you are playing. You will be able to access this new guide from the home screen by pressing left or double tap the Xbox button on your controller. By doing this you will bring up Friends and Parties, Notifications, Settings, Snap and Messages.

Redesigned Home

The new home screen will have vertical scrolling and a rearranged interface that will give you faster access to your most recently played games and apps. You will also be able to share achievements and clips with the community, see what your friends are playing and much more.

New Store

The store has been redesigned and will be easier to navigate. Some of the new features of the store include:

Four easy to access areas - Games, Movies and TV, Apps, and Music will have more real estate on the main Store page dedicated to surfacing top content to you.

New vertical gallery view - Using Games as an example, the all-new vertical gallery view within each area affords more listings to be showcased at a glance and the listings themselves are optimized for easier browsing with intuitive categories like Featured Staff Picks, New Releases, Top Played, Top Rated, Coming Soon and Recommendations.

There is obviously more that will be included in the New Xbox One Experience but that is a small taste of what you can expect. If you are in the preview program be sure to keep an eye on your messages in case Microsoft needs to contact you.