19 April 2023 , 09:00
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Microsoft’s plans to overhaul the Xbox Home dashboard have been put on hold after several months of experimenting with alternatives behind the scenes.
True gamers know that the blades from the Xbox 360 era represented console UI perfection. That said, part way through the Xbox One generation Microsoft wanted to harmonise a lot of its digital products in line with Windows 10’s arrival. This quickly led to the panel-based Xbox Home dashboard design we have today, which has remained a staple throughout the Xbox Series X|S generation so far. Plans had been in place to replace the panels, but they’ve since been halted due to community feedback.
Microsoft announced in an Xbox Wire post back in September that members of the Xbox Insider program were invited to help “shape the new Xbox Home experience”. This led to multiple months of experimental additions to the existing Xbox Home dashboard, done to help Microsoft learn “how to create a more personalized home screen experience and address some of the top trends and fan requests”. These changes didn’t yield the improved results Microsoft was hoping for, however, so it's back to the drawing board with the existing dashboard staying put – at least for now.
So said Microsoft itself in yet another Xbox Wire post, this time thanking those who took part in the multi-month experiments. “We heard from you that the changes to the top of Home did not leave enough space for you to enjoy your backgrounds and that it felt crowded,” said Ivy Krislov, senior product manager lead. They then went onto explain that future experiments would be paused “to prepare for bigger updates that we will release soon”.
All this leads us to believe that Home dashboard for Xbox Series X|S won’t be changing any time soon, as Microsoft packs everything back up to consider alternate options. Until then, Alpha and Alpha-Skip Xbox Insider members who were using the experiment version of Home will soon have it reverted back to the standard version most Xbox users see.
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While it’s good that Microsoft has listened to fan feedback, I’m at a loss for why it wants to mess with what is ostensibly a perfectly fine way to navigate around the Xbox ecosystem. Change is good, but if there was a time to change up the Xbox Series X|S dashboard, it was back when the console first launch almost three years ago in November, 2020. I’m not sure what exactly it was about the experimental version that didn’t jive with people, but this was the correct decision as opposed to forcing it upon the wider player base.
In fairness, the PS5 UI isn’t all that great either, being a definite step down from the PS4 ’s console dashboard due to its lack of themes. What used to be a great way to personalise your console UI in a way that was unique to everyone else’s has since become a bit sterile – on both Xbox and PlayStation platforms. That said, Microsoft is wise to listen to the feedback of the fan community, and I’m sure they’ll continue experimenting with other Home dashboard options to better make navigation easier.