Xbox Testing New Dashboard Feature

Xbox Testing New Dashboard Feature

• Xbox is testing an update that allows users to combine dynamic backgrounds with static game art on the dashboard for a seamless experience.
• New console features include game art popping up as the background when hovering over titles, with free dynamic backgrounds available.
• As Microsoft tests the update, anticipation grows over whether it will roll out separately or as part of a larger Xbox UI update.

Xbox is working on a new dashboard feature that will enable users to combine dynamic backgrounds with static game art when scrolling through their games and apps on the dashboard. Currently, having static game art enabled as the background and hovering over games or apps that don’t have game art attached will display the default Xbox background.

One of the cooler dashboard features that was introduced with the launch of the Xbox Series X and S were new backgrounds. The new consoles allow users to have game art of the currently selected title momentarily pop up as the background before they scroll to the next game and so on. Dynamic, motion-based backgrounds were also a big addition, and Xbox has released a ton of free ones over the years since the consoles’ 2020 launch. First-party games like Halo Infinite, Hi-Fi Rush, Starfield, even big third-party titles like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, 2023’s Dead Space remake, and Cyberpunk 2077 all had dynamic backgrounds come to Xbox gamers for free.

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More Evidence of Xbox Handheld Console Surfaces

As rumors surrounding Xbox’s potential handheld console continue, a source states that a recent act from Microsoft may add to the speculation.

The Verge’s Tom Warren revealed that Xbox has begun testing a new Xbox UI wrinkle that will allow gamers to use dynamic backgrounds in tandem with static game art in order to avoid having the default Xbox background pop up when having the latter option enabled. Warren demonstrated how this would work in a short clip underneath the tweet. Starting on the Xbox Support app with a dynamic background enabled and visible, Warren scrolled one tile right to Fallout 4, which prompted the title’s game art, a suit of power armor in a garage, to replace the dynamic background before Warren continued right to the Xbox Media Hub, which caused the dynamic background to return. This will work with all types of Xbox’s dynamic backgrounds.

Xbox Dashboard Update Will Let Players Seamlessly Combine Dynamic Backgrounds With Static Game Art

It’ll be interesting to know whether this feature will roll out on its own or if it’ll come as part of a much larger Xbox UI update at some point down the road. One of the Xbox UI’s biggest issues still remains: the abundance of home tiles used exclusively for advertisements, mostly for Xbox Game Pass deals. Many Xbox users are still hoping that Microsoft will ease up on dashboard ads, which would clear up that space for other, more useful functions. There’s still plenty of room for advertisements below the home screen Xbox can utilize that doesn’t impede on the proper set of home screen tiles.

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As more big first-party Xbox games begin rolling out this year, like the imminent Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Obsidian Entertainment’s Avowed, Xbox fans can undoubtedly expect corresponding dynamic backgrounds for each of these games to drop alongside them. As for when Xbox users can expect this smoother background experience to be implemented, seeing that it’s not a major change, it may be on the way to Xbox consoles sooner rather than later.

Xbox Series X

Microsoft’s ninth-generation console, the Xbox Series X is a powerful machine that can support 4K resolution and 60 fps, depending on the game. Released alongside the Xbox Series S, the Series X has a Custom AMD Zen 2 CPU, a Custom RDNA 2 GPU, and 16 GB of RAM.

BrandMicrosoftOriginal Release DateNovember 10, 2020 $487 at Amazon