Leaving E3 2014: The beat goes on with our July update

Hey folks…we’re here in Los Angeles at E3 2014, and it has been a packed house all week long. We filled the Galen Center on Monday for our annual E3 show and rolled out an incredible line-up of blockbuster exclusives for this holiday and next year. And directly after our show, we held a great panel discussion – with Phil, Yusuf and others – for 200 of our biggest Xbox fans. This was the first event of its kind for us…and we loved it. You can also read Phil’s thoughts on the past week at E3 here.

As we pack up our booth, we end E3 just as we started:
Our focus is on you. You’ve shaped Xbox into what it is today, and we can’t thank you enough. We look forward to hearing more from you over the coming weeks – now, officially on Xbox Feedback – a dedicated channel for all your thoughts and recommendations. From what we’ve seen this week, your feedback continues to be amazing. As of today, more than 65,000 fans like you have suggested more than 4,300 ideas and contributed over 181,000 votes.

As we head home, we can’t wait to dig into your ideas and explore what may be possible for the future of Xbox. What better way to keep this momentum going than to share what’s coming in July. Here’s a shortlist of features rolling out in the next few days to folks getting early access to the Xbox One system update.

  • Snap Mode for Achievements. As we showed at our E3 Green Carpet event before the show, we’re offering an easier way to track and view your achievements in the moment. With Achievement Snap, you can track your achievement progress in real time without ever leaving the game. You can also ‘Get Help’ on any Achievements you’re struggling with. Xbox will scan the web for you and deliver relevant tips and strategy content right to your TV.
  • Double-tap to Snap.  Double-tap the Xbox button on your controller to bring up Snap Center, where you can launch Achievements or any other snap-able app, without leaving your game. Already have an app snapped? Double-tap quickly switches between your game and the snapped app.
  • Choice of Spoken Language. Folks in New Zealand, Ireland and Austria, with this update in July, will be able to select voice control using the English or German voice models from other countries.  And if you’re an expat in an English-speaking country, you, too, can choose any of the other English language models that fit you. 
  • Future Digital Bundles and Compilation Discs. We’re doing some work now so that publishers will have options for great digital bundle and disc compilation offerings in the future. As we test this feature, we’ll be seeing more flexible combinations of game titles and game content.
  • ‘Like’ Game DVR clips. We’re adding the ability to ‘Like’ all your favorite Game DVR clips as well as activity feed items in SmartGlass.

Once again, thank you for your incredible support. You’ve helped us make E3 2014 a memorable one. But we have no intention of letting our foot off the gas. We can’t wait to roll out these new features in July as we pave the way for an amazing line-up of blockbusters and exclusives this holiday.

Happy E3, folks. Hope everyone had some fun.