Xbox updates, inspired by fans, start rolling out to all users today

Microsoft is on a roll when it comes to their Xbox community. Yesterday, an Xbox One Insider discovered the self-service refund, which is turning out to be quite a hit with gamers. Today, Major Nelson announced that an update will be rolling out for Xbox One. But this isn’t just any update, many of the additions are highly fan-requested features.

The first in line are new features in the Profile and Activity Feed. Now users will be able to visit another person’s profile and select the “Join broadcast’ button to instantly jump into the stream. The Activity Feed is also seeing a bit of a rework, offering users the chance to hide individual posts or pin them at the top of the feed. Furthermore, posts are now able to be filtered according to game, Club, or friends making it easier to sift through the chaos.

It looks like Clubs and the LFG tools introduced last year are what really got the meat of the update though. Here is the list:

• When you create an LFG post, as the owner you will be able to see new vetting cards that include hero stats from gamers interested in joining your party. Hero stats are contextual to the game you’re playing, showing you relevant stats like kill/death ratio, rank, or score.
• Achievement hunters, this one is for you! You will be able to search LFG posts from the Achievements tab, related to the Achievement you’re trying to finish.
• We’re adding the number of open LFG posts to the Game Hub and Club Hub headers.
  Have you made a successful LFG post that you want to create again? Now you can see previous LFG posts that you have created, participated or shown interest in, and can copy them to create new posts.
• When creating an LFG post, see all the recent tags you’ve used and easily select them.
  Club owners and admins will be identified and labeled in their text posts to better help them stand out and manage their community.
• Club owners and admins can pin a post at the top of their Club feed.

The update also rolls out with the long overdue Xbox One/Xbox 360 filter in My Games and Apps. Gone are the days when users had to scroll through lists of both generations of games, some of which including way too many titles in similarity.

It’s clear the Xbox team are striving to be the consumer-oriented model that drives gaming communities. No wonder Sony PS4 players are at an unrest. Maybe they could use a UserVoice forum?