After a dismal showing last year, Microsoft seems to be doing a bit better this year with the Xbox. Part of this has to do with the fact that long awaited games are launching on Xbox One this year at last- such as Sea of Thieves, which launches tomorrow- and the other part has to do with their excellent services and initiatives, such as their promise to put all their first party games on Xbox Game Pass day and date of their release.
That said, Game Pass users, at the very least, will not be able to pre-load Sea of Thieves– Xbox’s Mike Ybarra confirmed this on Twitter in response to a fan’s question, noting that this is a complex process, and that Microsoft is working on it, since they are aware that this is something people seem to want.
Also on the list of things Microsoft is aware of need improving- parental controls. Responding to a parent who struggled with, and ultimately gave up on, parental controls on Xbox, Ybarra said that this is something Microsoft needs to be better at, promising that they will.
Ybarra also noted in response to a fan suggestion that Microsoft would love to work with Epic to implement Xbox Live for the mobile versions of Fortnite– but naturally, this is just him responding with a platitude, and isn’t indicative of any announcement or anything. For now. Who knows, maybe one day in the future, something like that may even happen.