It was recently announced that more than 45 new apps would be coming to Xbox One and Xbox 360. At first glance, great news….at least if you live in the United States!
But for the rest of us, it’s all a bit of a damp squib.
Out of those 45+ (there’s 46 actually, I counted em!), a measly 13 (Yep, I counted those too although have to admit to needing help as I just ran out of fingers), are coming to the UK and even less than that will be arriving on the remote shores of those undeveloped countries, Germany and France!
I fully understand the need and requirements to focus most efforts on the US, it’s something that is bound to happen considering the placement of the Xbox headquarters and the amount of sales in that part of the world as opposed to the rest of us, but c’mon, I thought the advancement onto the next generation was meant to open up some of those borders that we had reluctantly gotten used to on the 360.
And out of those 13 we have in the UK, how many are going to be looked at on a regular basis? I’ll give them Sky News, I’ll even give them Now TV and with a massive push I’ll even give them the NHL, NBA and MLG apps…..but the others? Where is Sky Player (you know, that thing that works amazingly well on the older Xbox 360), BBC iPlayer and ITV Player? These are now staples of the UK TV viewing population and if Microsoft really wants the Xbox One to be THE entertainment hub of our homes then these must be included as a matter of priority.
So has the UK got a bad deal or is it right that the main emphasis is on the US side of things? I dunno, but I just hope we don’t go seeing the States getting all the goodies yet again!
Even the big deal of ‘Watch With Twitter’ seems a bit of a gimmick. Are we really going to be sitting there watching our favourite show with a third of the screen being filled with some gumpf coming from the Twitter feed? It sounds a bloody good idea, but hey let’s admit it, it’s not going to get used an awful lot. Is it?
I must admit to being relatively happy to see TuneIn Radio included as it’s something I’m very familiar with, but would I really ever use it on Xbox One? I doubt it, and whilst we’re on the audio subject it would have been nice to see some big guns go up against Xbox Music. Will we ever see the likes of Spotify, Deezer and Co appear in our living rooms or will those guys forever be deemed the enemy when compared to the Big X’s Music app? Again, it’s totally understandable from Microsoft’s point of view, but it still boils down to the fact that if the Xbox One is to be deemed the future of the living room, we want ALL our services available.
Don’t we?
Damn right we’ll buy their console, mainly because for the most part it’s crazy good.
But the apps recently announced? Disappointing!
Meh use iplayer on my ps4 it’s been there since launch…. No idea where the hell Itv payer or 4od are-for either console….wht’s up with that you’d think they’d want their devices available to as many people as possible after all they make money off them…
Has not even been one year. Give it a chance, the apps will come. Microsoft knows you guys buy their console.