Summary
Xbox’s new change to its recently updated dashboard UI has many fans frustrated as their games and apps become harder to find. After extensive testing periods since late last year,Xbox’s sharp new dashboard UI has finally begun rolling out to everyone over the past few weeks. The last major update to Xbox’s dashboard was in late 2020, when the square game tiles were changed to have smoother, rounded edges.
AsXbox’s dynamic backgroundsbecame a major customization feature with the launch of the Series X and S, fans have been asking for the dashboard to become less cluttered as to give the flashy new backgrounds more space to flourish on the screen. However, this was only one of many issues with the old UI. Xbox’s settings and store used to be apps that would clog up space on the dashboard after launching them. Now, with the updated dashboard UI, Xbox’s most frequently used basic functions like the store and settings are no longer apps, and the game tiles have been made much smaller along the bottom of the screen, finally letting players' backgrounds shine.
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One aspect of theXbox dashboardthat hadn’t changed with the update was the location of the My Games and Apps tile. In both the new and old UI it was situated right under the leftmost, most recent game tile for players to easily access their library of owned games. However, elsid 156 pointed out on the Xbox Series X subreddit that their My Games and Apps tile has been replaced with a “Browse the store” tile.
This change is understandably upsetting to fans, as it seems like Xbox is doing away with providing quick and easy access to player’s owned titles in favor of enticing them to buy more games. With this altered dashboard, access to players' games and apps is relegated to a small circle icon at the top of the screen. While it’s still just one click up from the leftmost game tile, the change leaves a bad impression on fans who simply don’t care about easier access to the Xbox store. Combined with the other three large tiles dedicated toand other games, and fans would be justified in not being happy about the new UI update.
WhileXbox’s new dashboarddoes look great, the big focus on pushing players to spend more with ads and the replacement of My Games and Apps with a giant store tile likely won’t do the updated UI any favors in terms of fan sentiment. Perhaps this change is merely a temporary test, though with Xbox’s Insider program in place for such testing, this seems unlikely. As the new dashboard update continues to roll out to Xbox owners, time will tell if this new store tile will remain for the long term.
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