Remember how Sony boasted about having excellent pre-order numbers for the PlayStation 4, boasting roughly 1 million pre-orders before launch? Till now, we haven’t learnt too much about how the pre-order numbers for the Xbox One are looking…until an Xbox One developer talked about the same recently on Reddit.
As per this reply, the dev stated, “When I saw reports of Sony having a million or 1.5 million pre-orders for the PS4, I didn’t even think twice about it. We’re not disclosing pre-order numbers at the moment for accounting reasons but I know for a fact we have just as many. Don’t be bogged by published statistics. At the end of all this, what matters is the games you want to play.
“Which games will people go back to over and over. Go with that. Look at the list of exclusive launch titles for each console. I’m quite curious how Microsoft will put consoles on shelves at launch day given that almost every console we made and will make until launch are accounted for.”
The developer also talked about the Xbox One’s Snap Mode, and how it will work. “Snapping can be done in two ways. One is via the controller by selecting the ‘Snap an app’ button on the Home screen. This will show a list of apps that are snap capable. The other is via voice commands. ‘Xbox, snap X.’
“The majority of the apps that come at launch can be snapped, though not all. Some apps are by design only to run in snapped mode. As more apps will be developed in the future by third parties, they can choose whether an app can be snapped based on what kind of experience the app will provide. Game titles do not have the option be to snap enabled (shrunken to 1/4 size) even if the developer wants to.
“What MajorNelson confirmed is that once you have an app snapped, it will by default have focus. You can then press the center button twice to switch focus back to your original app/game. E.g You are playing a game. You say ‘Xbox snap Internet Explorer.’ Your controller is now controlling the browser and not the game. Tap the center button twice to switch back to the game.”
The Xbox One will be launching on November 22nd across 13 territories. Are you excited about it? Let us know in the comments below.