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Xbox One can put Kinect debacle to rest with Windows 10

Xbox One Windows 10

Windows 10 is coming to Xbox One in November, which should remedy sticking plaster OS

Microsoft has today announced a date for Windows 10 to come to Xbox One. The company has long promised that Windows 10 would appear across multiple hardware platforms, but to date only the desktop version has been released. Microsoft has now stated that Windows 10 will come to the console in November, and that finally lets it put the Kinect debacle to rest.

The original operating system relied heavily upon the bundled Kinect device to accept a range of voice commands that weren’t readily available via the controller. Removing the Kinect as a standard bundled device left the operating system with a big problem, and so a sticking plaster menu was added to let non-Kinect owners do things like record gameplay and ‘Snap’ a second window beside their primary gameplay one.

The move to Windows 10 should allow for a fresh take on the Xbox One operating system, allowing for all its burgeoning features to be neatly integrated into a new control system. With new features such as TV recording and even more Windows and Xbox integration this couldn’t come at a better time, such feature sound great but if gamers can’t access them easily they will go to waste.

Xbox One and Windows 10 at gamescom

Windows and Xbox sat side-by-side at the Gamescom event

Just what the redesign means in real terms isn’t yet clear, although we can be certain that there won’t be a desktop in sight. We know that Windows 10 running on Xbox One will allow use of Microsoft’s ‘universal apps’, that is apps that can be run across PCs, consoles and mobile devices.

We can expect a major facelift for the Xbox operating system, though given it already uses a tile-based interface not unsimilar to that of Windows 10 (in its tablet form at least), it may not be unrecognisably redesigned.

We’re talking to Microsoft about Windows 10 and Xbox One tomorrow so hopefully they’ll have some answers. If nothing else it’s telling that the company has finally allowed its two biggest names to sit side-by-side, where before it appeared terrified that the Windows brand would damage the Xbox’s cool, like a parent at a teenage party.

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