Microsoft started its Xbox One beta program today. With good reason, too, as we’ve already seen some hiccups in the latest update. This program should allow them to gain useful feedback prior to officially launching a system-wide update.
Starting today (February 20, 2014) Xbox will start sending out invitations to individuals regarding entry into a closed beta next week. The purpose of the beta is to test the new system updates on a few, to see if anything might negatively affect the many. According to Polygon, their contact at Microsoft stated:
“Features that will not be enabled during the preview include party chat, party invites, party matchmaking and party visibility… Once the March system update becomes available to all consoles worldwide, new party features will function normally for all Xbox One users. If this is an issue, you should consider not signing up for this beta.”
The last update didn’t go so well
Just last week Xbox One launched an update to help give USB keyboard functionality, controller battery life indicator, and better voice commands from the Kinect. Unfortunately, since this was not tested in a beta of its own, there’s been a “black screen bug” that has affected some Xbox One owners.
The solution, provided by Xbox Support via Twitter, states to “hold the power button down for 10 seconds” and turn your console back on.
Hopefully with the new update beta tests, issues like the black screen bug won’t occur as commonly. It would seem as we rely more on servers and consistent system updates, precautions like beta updates seem rational, if not necessary.
How do you feel about testing these kinds of updates? Would you take part in the Xbox One beta?
