Microsoft Reveals Xbox One Entertainment Apps for Launch

Last updated on November 10th, 2013

So, here I sit with a preorder for Xbox One, not something I’d expect to have or something I’d expect to be doing, yet, this is where I’m at. My expectations are for it to meltdown within a few weeks or explode and set my house ablaze, but such is the life of an early adopter, I guess. Part of Microsoft’s big strategy is to make the Xbox One the only box that you need to control for your living room by having a plethora of entertainment apps and giving you the ability to run your cable or satellite TV through it.

I’m willing to say that even if it wasn’t the thing that I was most excited for, it is something to be excited for. Right now I have both my PS3 and Xbox 360 setup with each one doing different things, which is moderately frustrating. PS3 is where I rent VOD movies through Amazon Instant Video, but because of the PS3’s crappy WiFi chip I tend to use Xbox 360 to watch stuff. You can’t use the Amazon Instant App in Xbox 360 to purchase things, but you can watch purchased videos on there, which is such a dumb thing (note: I also just buy stuff on my computer and then watch it on there). I just want things to be streamlined.

So today Microsoft released their mighty list of entertainment apps for the launch window of Xbox One. Most of them are pretty standard and similar to what we have now. The one thing that bugs me is that HBO Go isn’t apparently going to be available on launch day, which means I’ll have to use my Xbox 360 to watch HBO Go, which seems like a ridiculous thing to have to deal with. Also note that this list is for stuff from launch on Nov. 22nd to Spring of 2014, which means it might not all be available on launch day, which is also obnoxious.