Xbox will let you install games before you buy them

 

A new feature coming to the Xbox operating system allows players to download any game before its launch — whether they’ve pre-ordered it from the Xbox store or not — so that games on disc are as ready-to-go as their digital versions.

 

Jerko Cilas, a writer for Lords of Gaming, noted the capability on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.

 

He activated the download using the Android version of the Xbox mobile app that’s in beta right now.

 

Xbox has a new feature that allows you to download and install any game, even if you don't own it. For example if you have ordered a ? version of the game you will be able to preload the game before your ? arrives. Meaning you can play the game the moment you insert the ?.

— Jerko Cilas ? (@DarthChillash) September 23, 2020

 

To illustrate his point, he’s picked up Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and downloaded it, without preordering — again, using the Android app.

 

We checked on the Xbox Store (for the same game) and couldn’t find a means of pre-loading the game without pre-ordering it.

 

Here's proof that I didn't preorder Valhalla, but I can install it through the new Xbox preload functionality. For now, you need Xbox (beta) Android app to initiate the download. Now I can either purchase a ? version or the digital one. Either way, the game will be ready. https://t.co/1QR52YWsub pic.twitter.com/TgmO3rfUBk

— Jerko Cilas ? (@DarthChillash) September 23, 2020

 

We’ve followed up with a Microsoft representative to ask for more details and clarity on when and how this feature will be implemented — whether it will be for all games on the Xbox Store, or only those flagged as “Smart Delivery”, which also affords buy-once compatibility across the console generations.

 

We assume this will be part of the customary large-scale update that the Xbox dashboard gets in November, but we’re asking for confirmation there, too.

 

The quality-of-life implications here should be obvious: Every game on the Xbox One (and, one assumes, the next console series) must be installed to the hard drive, in full, whether the player has its disc or not.

 

(The same is true for PlayStation 4). Since 2013, players have frowned at bringing home a disc from the store, waiting a long time to install it — and, by the way, the day-one patch that usually goes with most launches today.

 

By: Polygon