Xbox One Adding 3D Blu-ray Support

18 Jul, 2014 By: Chris Tribbey

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Xbox One’s next firmware update in August will make the gaming system capable of playing 3D Blu-ray Discs, Microsoft announced.

The update will also improve some social features of the system, including an activity feed change that allows gamers to post text to their feed, “like” and comment on feed items, share game clips be notified when someone likes, comments on or shares their items.

Also, using Xbox Smart Glass or Xbox.com, gamers can remotely purchase games and add-on content, without waiting to get home before downloading. The update will also enable a low-battery notification for controllers, and the ability to turn off notifications while video plays.

The update arrives after a banner month for the Xbox One in June, with sales of the system more than doubling since Microsoft unveiled a $399 version of Xbox One, without the Kinect system.

Overall, new physical sales of all gaming hardware — including both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 — grew more than 100% in June compared with a year ago, according to data from The NPD Group. Console hardware sales grew more than 200%, and combined sales of Xbox One and PS4 were more than 80% higher than the combined totals for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

“Nine out of the past 10 months saw year-over-year growth in new physical video game sales,” said NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan. “While the new hardware launches were a major factor in overall new physical video game growth, the start of this year-over-year growth began in September 2013, two months before the November 2013 launches of Xbox One and PS4. September and October 2013 year-over-year growth for overall new physical video game sales were driven by software increases.” 

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