Microsoft has started rolling out the much-anticipated September update to Xbox One consoles worldwide, finally adding the long-promised media player app a few days earlier than originally anticipated.
As previously confirmed ahead of Microsoft's Gamescom press conference, the September update will add a new Media Player app to the console's dashboard, letting gamers play music and video files from a USB flash drive or external hard disk.
Microsoft's Larry "MajorNelson" Hryb revealed the update would be arriving ahead of schedule in a blog post last night. "Today, we will begin rolling out new features and updates to Xbox One for fans all over the world," he explained. "These updates include new ways to bring your personal media to your Xbox, updates to the party system, more ways to interact with your Xbox, and new social features for XboxSmartGlass." He also gave a video rundown of all the new features, revealing how they all integrate with the current Dashboard.
With the update installed, gamers will be able to see which of their friends are playing the same game, perform quick actions like muting and see party activities in the revised Party app, use a second screen and the SmartGlass app to post status messages, share game clips and read messages without leaving your game on the main screen, and the ability to boot straight into TV from standby for anyone with a connected set-top box.
Unfortunately, the update hasn't added support for DLNA multimedia playback from a network attached storage (NAS) device or networked PC - this is still scheduled to arrive at some point, but not before the end of the year.
Xbox One owners should see a prompt to download and install the update, or if their consoles are set up for automatic downloads it should be ready to install the next time you switch it on.
