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Throughout the history of the Xbox brand, the company has done some goofy stuff. The Xbox One’s launch was a special kind of disaster. But, then again, every company is guilty of the classic “own goal” move where they commit a senseless, unforced error you’d think they’d learn not to do. This time, though, I think the general gaming public is in the wrong for all the vitriol over the Game Hubs feature Xbox is testing via the Insider Program.
The Verge’s Tom Warren did a little demo of the Game Hubs feature. And, listen, if you had a rational reaction to the following video, I’m not talking to you. I’m talking about the ones who immediately started dunking on the Xbox like Phil Spencer blew up an orphanage.
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It boils down to this: if you want to play an Xbox game, you select the game, it briefly takes you to a Hub where you can see your achievements, playtime, etc., and you select “Play” to boot the game up. Two button presses. A second or two of your time. But, as the internet does, some people immediately flew off the handle regarding the demo.
guys, it’s another second — your xbox experience will be just fine
“It’s good that they’re *testing* this, and not straight up releasing, but such a UX nightmare should have never made it that far. The primary action should not become the secondary just to show some useless information,” one internet user states. Like, come on. I get it — I do agree that it should be an opt-in deal. Which, surprise surprise, Warren confirms in a YouTube comment that you can indeed disable the Xbox Game Hubs feature.
“There is a way to disable this Game Hubs feature for the home screen, but it will still appear elsewhere in the Xbox dashboard.”
Wow! It’s almost like jumping down someone’s throat without waiting for the full picture is absolutely unhinged behavior. It’s not like we react first and think later! Yes, it’s fun to dunk on companies when they do something flagrantly stupid. But, Xbox did nothing wrong this time, y’all. The pitchforks and torches need to be saved for something deserving of an online angry mob being formed.
