Those of you waiting on Windows apps coming to Xbox One, your wait is nearly over.
Speaking at the Microsoft Build keynote in San Francisco this morning, Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, announced that universal apps will make their way to the Xbox One this summer with the Windows Anniversary update. “Windows is and will continue to be an open development ecosystem where anyone can build, deploy, and service their games and applications,” said Spencer.
Additionally, it was announced that all retail Xbox One consoles will have the ability to become developer kits to help software developers enhance their apps for TV screens. Starting with a demo releasing today, the mode will be a downloaded app that will allow anyone to experiment with Universal Windows Program (UWP). Developers will be able to pair their console with Visual Studio put up apps on Xbox. The apps language, XAML, is designed to work with touch, mouse and controller. Speech recognition will also be supported. Nothing fancy is required, but unlocking the all the abilities will require users to create a Dev Centre account for $19.
In order to try out the Dev Kit demo, users will need to meet these requirements:
- A member of the Windows Insider Program
- Running Windows 10 on your PC
- Have a wired connection to your PC from your Xbox One
- Latest Visual Studio 2015 and Windows builds
- Have at least 30 GB of storage free on your console
Although the demo is releasing today, it was advised that users wait for the full launch in the summer update before trying it out, as Microsoft said we might run into issues.
