Microsoft’s original vision of the Xbox One is all but a shadow of its former self as the company walked back on an over-the-air peer-to-peer content exchange center, emphasis on TV and film content, always-on DRM verification, and Kinect interactions.
Now, perhaps, the last vestigial of Microsoft’s dream of a do-all in-home entertainment box is being removed as the company makes plans to phase out its health-focused Xbox Fitness experience. When the Xbox One was first revealed, Xbox Fitness was a highly touted experience that was intended to help spur use of the Kinect sensor while also offering living room-based health and fitness related content.
Microsoft partnered with several leading health, wellness and fitness entities to build out content for the Xbox Fitness experience that included guided workouts, breathing, and Yoga training as well as food and lifestyle tips from experts programs such as p90X and others.
According to a post from the Microsoft Studios division:
- Beginning today, June 27, 2016, Xbox Fitness content will no longer be available for purchase. For existing users of Xbox Fitness, the content you’ve purchased will be available to play for a year, through June 30, 2017.
- On December 15, 2016, we will be removing our “Free with Gold” offer. Until then, Gold members will still be able to access and play the over 30+ workouts available for streaming as a part of this offer for free.
- On July 1, 2017, Xbox Fitness (and all associated content) will no longer be available for download/play. This includes content you’ve purchased. At that time, Xbox Fitness will no longer be available for download from Xbox Marketplace and content will not be available for play from the Xbox Marketplace nor within the game. Xbox Fitness users will no longer be able to access Xbox Fitness and the associated workouts/programs.
The news comes presumably because of the lack of user interest in the app or experience. Unfortunately, the original dream that the Xbox One team sold fans on of an embedded TV- and app-focused entertainment console that could also establish a peer-to-peer selling commerce while also enabling a plethora of voice and gesture based navigation in the home, is seemingly coming to an end.
