Xbox Stays Committed to the 360, Launches Handful of New Updates
posted Saturday Sep 19, 2015 by Nicholas DiMeo
Even though the Xbox One is well past its freshman year, Microsoft is still committed to the Xbox 360. With new preview programs, free games and other enhancements, both the current-gen and old-gen consoles are well worth their value. The Xbox team is looking to add to that value by giving Xbox 360 users more abilities and linking the console to the Windows 10 world.
First, one of the frustrations when using the 360 was that you were unable to see what your Xbox One friends were doing. That's no longer the case as a new 360 update will allow you to see what your friends are up to on Xbox One or in Windows 10.
The 360 also had its Cloud Storage featured upgraded. Major Nelson announced that the 512MB limit has been lifted to 2GB this week. That great benefit comes along with the ability to now redeem codes from messages, access Microsoft Movies & TV, play music from Groove Music and other minor improvements.
However, that's not where it ends. Xbox's Mike Ybarra took to Twitter to talk about more of the features that Xbox 360 users would see in the coming weeks. On that list is the ability to gift your friends money for their Microsoft accounts. His tweet, while naturally short, said,
Full flow for gifting $ to friends via 360 will be turned on soon. Not yet!
This is a huge deal as it is the first time we have seen the ability to give money to friends on consoles. And while there is no word if it will show up on the Xbox One, it would seem like a natural extension and fitting for the current-gen device to also sport the cash-gifting feature. Still, all of these updates to the 360 certainly extend the life of the console and further cement Microsoft's commitment to the console. Plus, an older but still very popular console is a nice testing ground for features that may be considered for the Xbox One. Microsoft has a captive audience and it makes sense for the company to use its loyal user base to test out future concepts and ideas.
