XB One Feedback - add Windows Store Support - please vote

[Patric.Z]

Hi, I have created the following idea on Xbox User Voice site. Please vote this up if you like the idea.

[h=1]"Please allow Windows Store apps to be run on Xbox One. With the 150K apps, this will give Xbox One a huge advantage over PS4.[/h]Most of the Windows Store apps are totally usable with a controller and/or Kinnect already. There are 150K apps including at least 50K games. This may be on the road map already, if so, please put this as a priority and let the users/developers know when the team expect this to happen.
Also, get XBMC on Xbox One! With XBMC, Xbox One will be the ultimate home entertainment center."


Please allow Windows Store apps to be run on Xbox One. With the 150K apps, this will give Xbox One a huge advantage over PS4. – Xbox Feedback

 

[Keith Wallace]

It's not just a matter of letting it happen. It requires convincing developers to rewrite code for controller/Kinect navigation and use. Microsoft can't force that.

 

[Patric.Z]

I may be wrong, but I believe all (or most) windows store apps support multiple inputs, I.e. Touch, mouse, or keyboard. If an app is usable with keyboard, it should be totally usable with controller, and Xbox has at least three ways to mimics mouse input.. I.e. analog sticks moving cursor like on Xbox internet explorer, using kinnect hand gestures, and smartglass app. So I believe most apps are functional natively with Xbox's input methods.

 

[Keith Wallace]

1. It doesn't matter if it's possible. The issue is convincing developers to WANT to make apps for it.
2. It's not simple to just have any of those apps work well with those inputs. The SmartGlass would require developing two apps, potentially (depending on how you wanted them to interact). The Kinect is likely something many of the developers have 0 interest in, and they likely have little-to-no experience with it, making it a complex coding problem for some. Then the controller...sticks aren't mice. Mouse-like navigation with a controller is a bit cumbersome. It can work, but not necessarily well. Games like Wordament don't work well with a controller (or mouse+keyboard, to be honest). I guess it depends on the apps you want on the One, but some concepts just aren't great for controller input.

 

[MobileVortex]

It's not just a matter of letting it happen. It requires convincing developers to rewrite code for controller/Kinect navigation and use. Microsoft can't force that.

Did you watch anything from build? Microsoft has already developed tools that will import all the drivers and basic software needed to interrogate Touch, Hand Gestures, Controller, Mouse/Keyboard, Pen, and Voice into their apps with almost no effort from the developer with their "universal apps". Of course tweaking will be needed, but on stage they took an app that was written for windows 8, and "ported" it to windows phone and xbox in real time and it took a matter of minutes.

Honestly i dont think this feature needs to be requested, its already in the works. I will vote anyway tho!

Build 2014: Here come the universal apps | ZDNet

 

[Keith Wallace]

I don't care about build, I'll never watch it. Regardless, it doesn't change the fact that it's asking developers to spend more time developing stuff that they haven't used in the past for a platform their stuff might not be a big deal for.

I think that more helps apps going forward, rather than convincing the developers of already-released stuff to re-code their stuff.

 

[MobileVortex]

I don't care about build, I'll never watch it. Regardless, it doesn't change the fact that it's asking developers to spend more time developing stuff that they haven't used in the past for a platform their stuff might not be a big deal for.

I think that more helps apps going forward, rather than convincing the developers of already-released stuff to re-code their stuff.

I dont think anyone is asking for EVERY SINGLE APP to be available on xbox. But there are plenty of apps that could be useful, and Microsoft has made tools to make this possible.

Developers are always re-coding and updating tweaking their apps, this is a natural progression.

Build is probably the best conference that Microsoft hosts, but I have a degree in development and programming so it interests me.

 

[Keith Wallace]

I've got a CS degree myself, it just doesn't interest me to watch, to be honest.

 

[MobileVortex]

Do you watch any developer conferences? What language do you use?

 

[Patric.Z]

Thanks everyone participating in this discussions. We may have different opinions, but its great that we can discuss, and I hope to bring this to all users and Xbox team's attention.

As for the windows store apps, not everyone will be useful or make sense on Xbox because it's different from the platform that those apps originally designed for, however, lots of the we windows store apps are useful on Xbox, (at least for me) why not give user the choice? Don't like any of those apps? Don't use it. But I am sure almost everyone will find something useful, such as vlc player, plex player, file managers ( yes, sometimes I want to access files on my network), the travel app would be cool on big screen, camera apps (yes, why not? for those have kinnect) some local VOD clients (which I don't see how they will come to xbox under current xbox app model and they important for localization), and more importantly games! Lots of the games are compatible with Xbox controllers, such as those racing games, minions rush, rpgs, action games etc, a lot of them. Of course, not every single one is compatible, but its no different than having a desktop with no touch screen and those games/apps not being compatible. I know, we don't buy Xbox yo play these games/apps, we have some serious games, but why not give the choice? I will definitely use some apps and play some of the games. Also. Apps designed for widows will grow much faster than apps for Xbox, which has only 5m users and may have 70m at the end of life.

I bought a t100 to use exclusively with my home theater connected to a 60 inch tv. On t100, I have xbmc installed, for things outside of xbmc, I used mostly windows store apps only for media consumption. I like using store apps because they are simple, safe, no crapware and scale well with big screen and works well if you are far from the screen. For every program I have a windows store alternative, I use the windows store app. If I can use those apps on my Xbox, I won't need a T100 (or a Windows PC) for those things.

I also use XBMC to play movies that I ripped and saved on my NAT, If Xbox team can help to bring XBMX to Xbox, Xbox will truly be the One solution for living room entertainment. (XBMC was originally developed for XBOX. I used it on my original XBOX and it was so cool back then.) It's sad that they are more focus on Android now (they are on most major platforms though).

I don't think apps have to be specifically designed for xbox to be useful, look at the android TV boxes, they are mostly using the regular android apps, which was not even designed for keyboard and mouse input. They are fully functional with a regular mouse or air mouse. Honestly, to me, Xbox has a much better value comparing to those boxes and PS4 if we have Windows apps and/or XBMC.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Do you watch any developer conferences? What language do you use?

None yet, I just graduated, and haven't put the skills to use yet. Our school was almost exclusively Java, though we did a little work in HTML, CSS, C, C++, hex, machine, Scheme, and Prolog as well. If I had taken the iOS development, I could have tried Objective-C, but it offered nothing to me. I didn't get to take the databases course (was full), in which case I would have gotten work with SQL/Oracle as well.