Xbox Games Hub : One Step back for Serious Gamers in Windows Phone 8.1
Starting with Windows Phone 8.1, Windows Phone team decided to de-couple some of the core apps so the future updates are easy and more features can be rolled out faster. Games App or Xbox Games App is one of them. Apart from that new features have been introduced, new looks and changes. We take a look at what we lost and what we got in this post
Double Listing:
The first thing you will notice that games now appear both in regular app list and in the game hub. This has its own advantage and disadvantage. While it is easier to search for a game right from the app list search, its also confusing because it’s listed twice.
This boils down to one thing. If you are Xbox Gamer, Xbox Hub makes sense for you. If you are casual user, you will be happy to use the app list.
Collection:
This is the first section you will see once the app is up and running.
Missing Recent Category:
Like before, the apps are listed in the This is sorted by “Xbox” games i.e. games which have Xbox Live achievements . Rest of the games are under “Other”. However, the recent sort is gone which used to list your most played games on the top or the one you played last.
This is a major step back for hardcore gamers. Specially those who did not want all their games to be pinned on start screen and wanted to quickly play the last few games again.
No More Pin to Start & Uninstall:
Long press on any game here and you would find, Nothing. This is a major step back and hardcore games wont like it. The option to Pin to Start, Rate and Review and uninstall a game have been taken off. These are available only in the app list and it’s painful.
The Demoed Game Store:
Right at the end of collection section, instead of “get more games”, you have the Games Store icon which does exactly the same thing that link was doing. However instead of being greeted by 6 Tiles, you get top free, new+rising, top paid, best rated and the genres.
One thing to note about the Genres is that it lists link ”XBOX” which lists all Xbox Games for Windows Phone. This is not new and was available as one of the big tiles.
The Social Page:
The Xbox section is now named as Social because the Game hub is called as Xbox Games instead of just game and it makes more sense because you can do a lot more.
While your Xbox Avatar keeps playing hide and seek, you would be happy to notice that now you have 4 actionable items instead of two. You get achievements, profile, messages and friends. The one which is removed is the Avatar Editor which is now in profile > avatar.
This is a step ahead and games, specially who engage on Xbox Game a lot would love it. one tap for message, friends list and your profile is just what I always wanted.
Conclusion:
That pretty much sums up the changes but I am sure there are few more under the sleeves which you guys must have already figured out. One of the major hiccups of the app is that it has gone slow and you need to wait several seconds for it to go live. I am sure this will be fixed and WP 8.1 is still in developer preview so hold on to it.
While the reorganization of few menus, look and feel of app (more space to breathe) are a warm welcome, getting rid of recent list, pin to start and so on are major step backward. I hope all this to be fixed in upcoming updates. What do you guys think?
