Xbox One user interface leaked, launches games in seconds

Xbox One user interface leaked, launches games in seconds

Share This Article

Microsoft has been rather conservative in showing off the Xbox One’s user interface so far this year. We’ve seen a brief Kinect-based demo on stage, and Redmond has released a handful of screenshots, but that’s about it. However, as we draw closer to the November release date, it was only a matter of time before we got a closer look at what Microsoft is doing with its next console. Yesterday, a young man with beta access decided to upload a two-minute video of the new dashboard, and it’s looking quite promising.

In this short YouTube video, this brazen gentleman shows off all of the goods without taking any steps to mask his voice, or even hide his face. He highlights the controller, the console itself, and even functioning software. The video isn’t exactly the highest of quality, but it does give a proper look at what we can expect. He does run into a few beta-related hitches, but the user experience is quite smooth overall from the look of things.

First and foremost, let’s look at the time it takes to launch a game. From the moment he presses the “A” button to the time that the game actually starts is about four seconds — not bad in the least. As the dashboard sports a large “Insert Disc” icon, it’s safe to assume the game is running exclusively from the hard drive. While there is still room for improvement with caching solutions and solid state drives, this is a massive step forward from the sloth-like speed of the Xbox 360.

Now, let’s look at what happens when he pressed the “Guide” button. Despite a small hiccup, it quickly kicks him out to the dashboard, but continues playing the video and audio from the game the entire time. Thanks to the virtualized operating systems and plentiful resources on the Xbox One, multitasking happens very smoothly. Finally, users won’t have to completely exit out of their games to perform simple tasks like web browsing and system configuration.

On the downside, we can already see where Microsoft plans on slapping advertisements. While some supposedly leaked documents dismiss the idea of ads on the home screen, it’s overtly clear that Microsoft intends on promoting the hell out of for-pay services and products. The column of icons featuring “new in beta” and “tips & tricks” is a prime location for something like an Xbox Music ad. At this point, it seems highly unlikely that Microsoft wouldn’t take advantage of every opportunity to make more money.