A new selection of the most popular and user-requested apps are soon to arrive on the Xbox One at the end of the year. The console has suffered from the lack of a broader app selection of late, but Microsoft have shifted their sights onto the problem and hopefully this upcoming new selection has all the ones you want.
Bear in mind, however, that some of these apps won’t be available in the UK, but may be closer to the release date. Current apps detailed for the US are Vine, HBO Go, US Twitter, ShowTime Anytime, Comedy Central and Major League Gaming.
What is confirmed for UK Xbox One customer is the inclusion of Now TV, which integrates voice control into products like Sky TV, allowing the user to shout out their favourite show and the service will try to respond with an appropriate channel.
See also: Games With Gold Service for Xbox One begins
No BBC iPlayer has been spoken of, whatsoever. Strange, given that the service appeared on Xbox 360. The general feeling in the blogosphere is that since iPlayer uses closed APIs (the software which controls how programs interact with each other) and Microsoft requires all apps to have open APIs in order for Kinect voice functions to work. It’s as yet unknown if a workaround or compromise will emerge.
On the bright side, Twitter integration for US customers will be a lot more visible with trending Tweets being shown in the OneGuide when a show is being watched on cable or satellite, additionally a ‘trending’ box in the OneGuide TV listings menu will show Tweets about shows in real-time.
In the UK, the following apps will be coming to the Xbox One and Xbox 360:
- Crunchyroll. Xbox One: AU, AT, BR, CA, DE, ES, FR, IE, IT, MX, NZ, UK, US
- Filmbox Live. Xbox 360: AR, AU, AT, BE, BR, CA, CL, CO, CZ, DK, FI, FR, DE, GR, HK, HU, IN, IE, IL, IT, JP, MX, NL, NZ, NO, PL, PT, RU, SA, SG, SK, ZA, KR, ES, SE, CH, TW, TR, AE, UK, US
- GoPro. Xbox One: US, CA, MX, UK, FR, DE, IT, ES, AU, BR, AT, NZ, IR
- KDrama. Xbox One: AU, AT, BR, CA, DE, ES, FR, IE, IT, MX, NZ, UK, US. Xbox 360: AR, AU, AT, BE, BR, CA, CL, CO, CZ, DK, FI, FR, DE, GR, HK, HU, IN, IE, IL, IT, MX, NL, NZ, NO, PL, PT, RU, SA, SG, SK, ZA, ES, SE, CH, TW, TR, AE, UK, US
- MLG. Xbox One: US, UK, CA, AU
- NBA. Xbox One: AT, AU, BR, CA, FR, DE, IE, IT, MX, ES, NZ, UK, US
- NHL. Xbox One: US, CA, MX, UK, FR, DE, IT, ES, AU, BR, AT, NZ, IR. Xbox 360: US, CA, MX, UK, FR, DE, IT, ES, JP, AU, BR, NL, SE, RU, TW, PL, IN, HK, TR, BE, AT, NZ, SA, AR, NO, CH, SG, ZA, IR, DK, CO, CL, FI, CZ, HU, IL, GR, PT, SK
- Now TV. Xbox One: UK
- Picturebox. Xbox 360: UK
- Sky News. Xbox One: UK, IE, US, CA. Xbox 360: UK, IE, US, CA
- STV. Xbox 360: UK
- TuneIn. Xbox One: US, CA, MX, UK, FR, DE, IT, ES, AU, BR, AT, NZ, IR
- Vevo. Xbox One: CA, US, AU, FR, DE, IR, BR,ES, IT, UK, NZ
The full list of apps for all countries and where they’ll be available is on Microsoft’s website here. . However, the announcement doesn’t mention if the releases are seperate or one big bundle of new apps. We expect the apps to be drip fed to the console one at a time, at some point towards the end of the year. We’ll let you know when each one arrives.