Xbox news recap: Gifting is now live, Xbox One X had an “amazing first week” and more

Michael Cottuli

Welcome to our weekly Xbox news recap series, where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Xbox. Let’s get started.

Gifting now live for everyone on Xbox One

People have been wanting gifting as an Xbox Live feature for years. Now, near the 15th anniversary of Xbox Live, the feature is finally live. You can see the option to “buy as gift” when you hover over a game in the Microsoft Store, and get those games out to whoever you’re trying to treat. The feature comes just in time for the holidays, so Microsoft will almost certainly make a killing off of it.

Xbox One X had an “amazing first week”

According to Aaron Greenburg, the Xbox One X is enjoying a ton of success in its first week out on shelves. The console ended up reaching 80,000 units sold in the UK alone – a number that the PS4 Pro took nearly a month to reach. Greenburg’s tweet tells us that the console has been getting “similar results” across the globe, with North America’s numbers being “much bigger.” We thought that the console was pretty great, and it’s exciting as Xbox fans to see people rally behind the premium console.

Xbox Live turns 15

Xbox Live has turned 15 years old this week, giving all of us an anniversary that makes us feel really, really old. While Microsoft didn’t have any kind of formal celebration to commemorate our favorite online gaming service, a ton of Twitter users enjoyed taking to Twitter and sharing a screenshot of their profile. For people who have been around since the start, a proud “15” was plastered on their page for everyone to see.

Xbox Insiders now have more filtering options in the Store

Xbox Insiders now have a quality of life update that will help them find games on the Store a bit faster. Insiders can now filter out games by price, star rating, and some capabilities. You also have access to things like ESRB ratings if you’re buying games for a family, and a few more basic filters that you may be more used to. The new filters are enabled on all Insider rings, so anyone who’s an Insider can play around with them.

Thanks for joining us. To keep up to date with all the latest Xbox news, keep a close eye on our Xbox One tag.