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The news comes from a leaked consumer build of Windows 10, which has escaped from Microsoft ahead of a planned January press event. The Xbox App is advertised as unfinished, but merely a "sneak peek" at what can be expected when it makes it to market.
The app allows access to Xbox Live friend lists, achievements and the store, with hints that Xbox Video and Xbox Music may someday be integrated into the main Windows store at some point in the future.
The larger news is in the form of Cortana, the digital assistant that users will be able to utilize to search and write notes and set reminders and so on, all the functions she performs on Windows phones currently, plus what's likely to be a new slate of abilities as well.
Microsoft has been pitching Cortana as a "personality infused" version of Apple's more-robotic Siri, actually hiring Halo voice actress Jen Taylor to reprise her role out of the game, and become another major step toward a Scarlett Johansson-type of OS as seen in "Her." While users may not be falling in love with her, and she hopefully doesn't have infinitely multiplying intelligence, it's certainly interesting to see how an OS can evolve in a way similar to what we've seen in so-called science fiction lately.
Through all this, I'm more curious about how Windows 10 will end up affecting Xbox One.
Microsoft is known for changing their dashboard interfaces dramatically over time (more than
While I don't expect a Start bar on the Xbox One any time soon, I've said since launch that the console is in desperate need a complete interface overhaul, as it's the reason when given the choice to play Amazon or Netflix on my PS4 or Xbox One, I always go with Sony's system.
Perhaps even more important is when Cortana might make it to the one Windows device that she was born to be on, the Xbox. Past the significance of the AI returning to her birthplace, Cortana would give the Xbox One users new reason to use their Kinects, and Microsoft may actually acknowledge that the peripheral exists again as a result.
Cortana voice commands via Kinect would be very cool, and giving the Xbox a voice that just so happens to be one of the most iconic characters in the console's history is an idea that fits like a glove. It's not a matter of if Cortana will come to Xbox One, but when.
If I had to guess, Microsoft may choose to pair these two things together, the Cortana integration and the dashboard redesign. Both are big changes, and when Microsoft redoes their dashboard and its functionality, they usually tend to go all out. And with a new dashboard interface, that would a perfect time for Cortana to pop into existence to help people figure out the new system.
And as always, this ties back to my recent idea to have the Xbox One shed the Kinect as a peripheral entirely and simply integrate a voice command-receiving mic into either its box or its controller. The motion-tracking, infrared camera is what's making the Kinect so bulky and pricey, and if Microsoft just ran with the aspect of Kinect people like the most, voice controls, they could have an integrated feature they could hold over Sony's PS4. There have been no indications this is happening, though maybe I'll be saying I told you so at E3 2016 (which is still optimistic).
With Xbox finding its way into Windows 10, we'll just have to wait and see how much of Windows 10 finds its way into Xbox after its settled on PCs everywhere.
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