I recently got an Xbox One and have been really enjoying it with Game Pass, playing Xbox 360 games, and smoothly switching between PC and Xbox. But I’m realizing there are some Xbox features that have been discontinued that I really miss. For example, I used to use Xbox SmartGlass all the time, and the Picture-in-Picture feature would have been amazing. What Xbox features or programs that aren’t around anymore do you miss or wish would come back?
5 Answers
I miss having an optical audio out port so much. The HDMI input to watch another device also had so much potential for streaming setups but it never really took off. It would have been great for multitasking or branching out into different kinds of media while gaming.
I’ve gotta say, I miss Kinect. I know it got a lot of hate, but I really loved Kinect Sports and Dance Central Spotlight. If Kinect was optional at launch and the console was priced a bit differently, I think it would’ve been a real hit. I wish those games were compatible with the Xbox Series because I’d still be playing them today!
One thing that always annoyed me was losing the ability to organize the dashboard better. Back on Xbox 360, you could customize it more, but with Xbox One and Series, they kind of killed off that flexibility. It makes the interface feel less personal and a bit cluttered, which sucks if you like to keep things tidy.
Custom Soundtracks on the original Xbox was awesome. Having my own music loaded on the hard drive and being able to swap it out in games when I wasn’t feeling the in-game soundtrack was such a cool way to personalize my gaming experience. I really miss that feature!
I definitely miss the Snap feature from the Xbox One era. It was a big reason I bought the console since I could watch TV while gaming without switching inputs. Also, the backward compatibility program felt like a huge deal. Even now, there are still over 2000 original Xbox and 360 games that aren’t playable, and I really wish they would bring that program back or expand it somehow.
