With the worldwide launch of the Xbox One, Microsoft is now busier than ever dealing with errors, hardware issues and other queries that need clarifying. Lead for planning on Xbox 360, Xbox One and Kinect Albert Penello recently answered questions regarding a number of topics.
For instance, if you’ll notice when trying to record using the DVR function and the “Xbox, Record That” command, you’ll only get a 30 second clip. You might think this is misleading, considering that Microsoft boasted about being able to record up to five minutes of video. Penello clarified this on Reddit, stating that, “We are always buffering 5 min. ‘Xbox, Record That’ grabs 30 sec. Think about it like a holy crap moment you want to grab. To get the past 5 min, you would snap Game DVR and get the full 5 min. You can also snap GameDVR and manually record 5 min forward.”
As for those who saw this story about not installing the Day One update, Penello stated that, “No, it’s just that this file is not the day one update. It’s a recovery file. It’s much larger than the day one update, is more complicated to install, and you still have to connect to Xbox Live when you are done. It was never intended to replace the update.”
Meanwhile, on NeoGAF, Albert was issuing clarifications regarding the Xbox One’s hard disk drive management. There was a furore created apparently due to the console itself handling the deletion of files and that too when you’re low on space. Penello stated that the console doesn’t delete things automatically. “I confirmed again. I’m correct. Its possible that Jeff [Gerstmann] misunderstood the question. Additionally, since people asked, a copy of your saves is stored locally for access offline.”
On the issue of HDD management, he gave a long explanation about what data you could and could not manage. “I’ve never suggested that people don’t need storage management. I completely understand why people want to see what storage they have left. It’s a feature that will be enabled later, once we get external storage supported and people need to move things around.
“I do think it’s unlikely to be an issue in the short term, as people probably won’t have enough games to run out of space. But it’s something we know is needed and will be enabled later. In the meantime, we aren’t going to be randomly deleting your files IF you end up running out of space. You can manually delete any file as shown in the screen above. Like 360, that will delete the file but the save game will still be stored.
“Save game files (and Upload Clips) are not user manageable. In order to prevent save-game collision across different consoles and different states, we manage the sync between the local save game and the cloud. A copy of your save game is stored locally and synced to the cloud automatically in the background. If you loose internet connectivity, you can play offline and keep saving no problem. Once you reconnect everything syncs again.
“The data that is ‘automatically’ deleted are things like DVR caching and other OS or system level caches. Hope that clarifies. With the exception of automatic save game syncs, data management features are still there. We need to add HDD capacity views and will have that feature in the future.”
He also confirmed again that you can delete stuff on the fly. “Yes you can. The only thing you can’t see is the amount of storage available on the HDD. You can manually delete things, and when (if) you run out of space you manually delete to make room. We don’t just start deleting things.
“We went with user-upgradable external storage vs. internal replaceable. That feature is coming after launch, and at that point there will likely be more sophisticated storage management.”
And to think, we’re not even past launch day yet! Stay tuned for more details on the Xbox One in the coming weeks.