Xbox One will fix "harder to use" social features in incoming update

Sorting out the Xbox One's tricky social functions will be the priority focus of the console's first major update, Microsoft has revealed.

Speaking to Engadget at CES 2014, Xbox executive Marc Whitten explained the incoming update. "The feedback we've gotten is pretty valid; some of the social stuff is hidden or harder to use than it was on the Xbox 360. So you're gonna see us come out with an update where, well, we're going to fix those things."

Many of the Xbox One's social functions--achievements, friends lists, and, crucially, the party system--have been split into separate applications on the new console, as opposed to being baked in to the OS as they had been previously with the Xbox 360. While this allows for a clean and elegant interface, many users have reported that it makes using the social features cumbersome and fiddly.

"As a person who's been pretty involved in building Xbox Live for the last decade, I take it pretty seriously when people say it's harder to get into a party, and the defaults aren't right, and I don't like the model," continued Whitten.

"So what I'm trying to do with the team is kind of theme some stuff up. Let's take an update and really go through a big list of what we're hearing from customers, what we know is broken with the architecture, areas that we want to improve or complete. I think that's a theme you'll really see us push on--that Live experience."

Elsewhere in the interview, Whitten suggested that the ability to stream gameplay from the Xbox One might be a little ways off and that the company would talk more about the function at E3 2014.

This week Microsoft also announced that it sold 3 million Xbox One consoles in 2013.