New changes to Xbox's Dashboard have finally been revealed. Last year Xbox announced the beginning of a multi-month testing period for new versions of the Xbox Home Experience. Over the months of experimentation Xbox has taken feedback from Xbox Insiders and have now honed in on a new sleeker version of the Xbox Dashboard.
Since the debut of dynamic backgrounds alongside the launch of Xbox Series X and Series S, many owners felt the Dashboard was too cluttered to allow their favorite backgrounds to really shine and stand out. Over the years gorgeous motion-based backgrounds for games like Halo Infinite, Grounded, Fallout, Pentiment, and even the recent Dead Space remake have been made available to Xbox users for free. The Dead Space background was especially criticized with its main feature near the bottom of the screen being fully covered up by game tiles and ads. The latest Redfall background remedied this a bit with all the characters visible atop the first row of titles. Still, with the Dashboard UI remaining unchanged during the transition from the Xbox One generation to the launch of Series X and S in 2020, many Xbox gamers feel it's high time to spruce things up on the home screen, and change is imminent.
Xbox gave a glimpse at the future of its Home Experience via a post on Xbox Wire which showcased an image of the updated Dashboard along with some exciting new features. The most immediately noticeable change is the significantly smaller game tiles which now sit much lower on the screen, giving backgrounds plenty of space to flourish on the top half of the Dashboard. Another benefit to smaller tile sizes is the addition of two more of them, bringing the number of visible game tiles on the Dashboard from seven to nine.
Along with adding small icons for the library, store, Game Pass, and settings up at the top of the screen, Xbox is introducing an exciting "responsive game art feature" which, when enabled, will display art from each game that's currently hovered over similar to a streaming platform like Netflix or Disney+. It's unknown if each game will feature more than one piece of art that will pop up, but the feature is sure to keep things fresh for Xbox gamers on the Dashboard. Additionally, the "My games & apps" title will now show four games that will constantly change based on games that need to be updated or wish-listed items that go on sale.
It's still unclear whether the controversial rows of Game Pass offerings and advertisements from an earlier test build still exist when players scroll down from this new Dashboard. While no timeframe was given as to when this update will roll out to the public, members in the Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha rings will be starting to preview the updated Home Experience this week. With that, it wouldn't be unwise to expect the update to go live sooner rather than later.
Source: Xbox Wire