Mike Ybrarra, Partner Director of Program Management for Xbox and Windows Platform at Microsoft, recently discussed progress being made in regards to Xbox One background music as well as addressed concerns surrounding the Achievement Challenge System in a recent episode of an Inner Circle Special podcast.
Xbox One owners can currently use the Xbox Music app to listen to music while playing a game, but only with Snap. This takes up a portion of the screen thereby interfering with other applications, games, and menus already open. There is clearly demand for a better alternative. On the Xbox Feedback site, more than 21,000 people have voted for “Play Music From Apps Without Snap (Background Music).”
Ybarra noted within the podcast “As we look at background music and we figure out where where does it fit and what’s the technical solution that makes sense, we want to make sure it’s something that pleases everybody.” He continued “And certainly it’s on the list; certainly we’re looking at it, and it’s something we’d all like to have as well.”
Within the interview, Ybarra also discussed struggles surrounding the new achievement challenge rewards system. He acknowledged the usage of this challenge rewards system as “pretty low” while citing such as low usage as reflective of user difficulty in discovering these challenges. The new achievement challenge rewards systems does not provide players with gamer points but rather unlock-able bonuses such as avatar items.
With the holiday season rapidly approaching, Microsoft plans to focus its energies maintaining Xbox Live and other network services fully functional thereby situating a potential system update with features to address these concerns in February of next year.
What are your thoughts on Microsoft’s decision to address background music and the new achievement challenge rewards system? Let your thoughts be known through commenting below!