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Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles have been updated with four new features by Microsoft, but right now, the features have only been distributed to Xbox Insiders. In other words, for most Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S users, the update and features aren’t live, but this should change in the coming months. In the meantime, Xbox users have a few quality-of-life features to look forward to, involving the Xbox 360, gamertags, game hubs, cloud, and wishlists.
For those who do not know, the Xbox Insider program gives a small selection of Xbox players early access to Xbox console updates and features, hence how they are getting this new update and its new features early. There are also other perks, but this is the most noteworthy aspect of the community initiative program, which is free and remains available to join.
Gamertags
On Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S — just like Xbox One — gamertags are frustaingly short, limited to 12 characters. This is shorter than PS5. Xbox has heard the complaints over this and is extending the number of characters. There is a caveat, though, and this caveat is that it is limited to unique and available gamertags, as well as gamertags that do not include Latin characters
Xbox 360 and Game Hubs
With this Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S update, Xbox 360 games now have game hubs in their game cards. As a result, when Xbox users open the game card for an Xbox 360 game, they can quickly see pertinent information like achievement progress, captures, and “other useful information.” To complement this, there will now be detailed achievement pop-ups from any Xbox 360 game’s achievement list in an Xbox user’s profile.
Wishlists
A few of the most recent Xbox Series X|S updates have been making changes to wishlists, and this one has proved no different. To this end, with the update, you can now add both released and upcoming games to your wishlist directly from game cards, which makes it easier to keep track of upcoming games you are thinking of buying.
Cloud
One of the more annoying features of modern gaming is not being able to start a game because an update has to download. With this update, Xbox is allowing its users to bypass this. More specifically, if a game requires an update but is available to stream through an Xbox Game Pass membership, you can play via Cloud gaming, queuing the update to start when you are done. Unfortunately, there is no way to have both worlds and have them update while playing via the Cloud. To go with this, there is now an option to launch with cloud gaming directly from the game card when a game is either installing or updating.
Do any of these updates make the brand-new price increase any easier to swallow? Well, not if you’re trying to buy a new console because none of this is a system seller. Those who already have a console will appreciate these quality-of-life updates, especially this late into the console cycle.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think, or join the Xbox conversations happening on the Forum.
Free Gift Cards for Xbox Series X Users Awarded by Microsoft
