If you"re on the Preview Alpha ring of the Xbox Insider Program, it"s once again time to check your console for updates. Today"s build, which is 15063.2001, or rs2_release_xbox_1704.170321-1900, contains a lot more than other recent builds, however, and has a number of new front-facing features.
The feature set is the one that was outlined earlier this week by the company, which said that the build would be rolling out over the next month. Indeed, this is a significant update that comes in at around 3.6GB, and the version number is 1704.
Here"s what"s new:
Arena on Xbox Live
- World of Tanks fans will be able to participate in new tournaments on their Xbox One, created by ESL and powered by Arena on Xbox Live.
- Discover tournaments from your Xbox One or Xbox app on Windows 10, get notifications when your match is ready, jump directly into your match on the Xbox One, enjoy automatic results reporting, and show off the results on your activity feed.
Profile and Activity Feed
- Custom gamerpics are finally here! From your console, Windows 10 PC, or mobile phone, update your gamerpic with a custom image. We’re excited to bring this top fan-requested feature to Xbox Live and expect it to be in preview longer than other features to ensure it’s great for everyone when released.
- New ‘Join broadcast’ button in your profile, one of the many ways to access the game stream of someone broadcasting their gameplay.
- Your profile will display your Arena tournament history and upcoming tournaments.
- In your Activity Feed, we’re adding the ability to hide individual posts, pin posts to the top of your feed, and filter posts by friends, games or Clubs.
Clubs and Looking for Group (LFG)
- When you create an LFG post, as the owner you will be able to see new vetting cards that include hero stats from gamers interested in joining your party. Hero stats are contextual to the game you’re playing, showing you relevant stats like kill/death ratio, rank, or score.
- Achievement hunters, this one is for you! You will be able to search LFG posts from the Achievements tab, related to the Achievement you’re trying to finish.
- We’re adding the number of open LFG posts to the Game Hub and Club Hub headers.
- Have you made a successful LFG post that you want to create again? Now you can see previous LFG posts that you have created, participated or shown interest in, and can copy them to create new posts.
- When creating an LFG post, see all the recent tags you’ve used and easily select them.
- Club owners can upload custom images for their Club logo and Club background. Just like custom gamerpics, we expect this to be in preview longer than other features to ensure it’s great for everyone when released.
- Club owners and admins will be identified and labeled in their text posts to better help them stand out and manage their community.
- Club owners and admins can pin a post at the top of their Club feed.
My Games and Apps, and Settings
- In ‘My Games and Apps,’ we’re adding the ability to filter your game library by platform – Xbox One and Xbox 360.
- Captive Portal support for wireless internet is coming to Xbox One, which allows for Wi-Fi authentication through a browser. Great for colleges, hotels, or public Wi-Fi locations.
- In the Settings, we’re adding the ability to select Kinect auto-zoom for Beam and Twitch broadcasts, as well as for the Skype app.
- On the Xbox app for Windows 10, we’re adding the option to select the audio input and output sources for Party chat.
There are also a couple of known issues:
Settings - Display & sound
The Audio output page is under construction and some of the new settings are not yet functional. New support is planned for Dolby Atmos for home theater, Dolby Atmos for headphones, and more in upcoming builds. An announcement will be made when these new features are ready to try out; enabling these settings now will have no effect.Wireless Display
The Wireless Display app fails to launch and immediately crashes to Home.
If you"re one to follow the version and build numbers of Xbox and Windows updates, these are quite significant. The version number indicates the year and month of the update, so 1704 would mean that this update should be finalized next month; however, the Creators Update is 1703, meaning that this update is not part of the Creators Update.
But the build number is still 15063.2001, which confirms that 15063 will be the RTM build for the Creators Update, and it will align with the number for PCs and phones. After all, 15063 is the current Fast ring build for Windows 10 phones, Fast and Slow ring build for PCs, and Alpha, Beta, and Preview Ring 3 build for Xbox One consoles.
If you"re in the Alpha ring, you can grab today"s update by heading over to Settings -> System -> Updates. If you"re not, you can work your way up by completing Surveys and Quests in the Insider Hub.