Xbox One has seen many improvements since its original launch, especially with Microsoft’s consistent monthly updates. That being said, there’s still plenty to be improved upon. GamesTM spoke to J. Allard, former chief experience officer and chief tech officer for Microsoft’s consumer products division, who oversaw the launch of the Xbox and Xbox 360 before leaving in 2010, and asked about any features or ideas that the team was unable to implement.
“After we wrapped up 360, about a month before launch, one of the founders of 360 that had left the company came in for a full day visit and to see what the team had done in the year since he left. His comment was ‘I’ve never seen a product meet 95% of the original spec, you guys nailed it.’ I asked him what 5% was missing and he said, ‘I don’t know, but I couldn’t give you guys a perfect grade!’
He further stated that a lot more can be improved the way achievements work. “There’s still a lot more that could be done with the achievements infrastructure, for example, and we had designed most of it but it remains unfinished. I think that user-generated content is still a very second-class citizen in most game experiences.”
“The idea of persistent worlds is really the realm mostly of MMORPGs still and not a universal concept in most games. The new shiny object is clearly the VR/AR space, which I think is at least a decade away from approaching mainstream and being able to deliver a flawless, affordable experience with intuitive UX mechanics. I hope the team still has the passion and focus on evolving Live into its full potential because I see a lot of remaining runway there and awesome stuff that can be done for gamers.”
What are your thoughts on this and do you think there’s still some room for Xbox Live to grow? Let us know in the comments.