- The first images of a ground-up redesign of the Xbox Store have leaked online.
- Dubbed Project Mercury, the revamp will offer users a streamlined browsing experience packed with features.
- The new design language is likely to extend to Microsoft’s entire next-gen ecosystem as head towards the launch of the Xbox Series X.
Ahead of official news from Microsoft, what appears to be a next-gen revamp of the Xbox Store for consoles has leaked online.
The peek comes courtesy of Twitter account @wincommunity, which shared a selection of images that hint at some welcome changes.
New Xbox Store Revamp
Microsoft has code-named the ground-up redesign Project Mercury. It boasts a more streamlined, fluid look and feel reminiscent of the layout found on the beta Xbox app and Xbox Game Bar for PC.
Following the leak, multiple outlets were given a hands-on test of the new Xbox Store layout, confirming the leak’s authenticity.
The pre-release build is relatively limited and has background glitches and content dead ends, but it gives a general sense of where Microsoft is heading the Xbox Store update.
As Thurrock’s Brad Sams explains, Microsoft is eager to endow Xbox with its a bespoke storefront to differentiate itself from and improve on the lackluster Microsoft Store.
Functionality Meets Fast, Intuitive Browsing
From what we’ve seen, Microsoft is trying to strike a happy medium between the overbearing functionality of existing iterations and a more intuitive browsing experience defined by sleek graphics, animations, and a more defined visual identity with a bolder font and visuals.
We’re not looking at anything ground-breaking here. But, Microsoft has clearly gone to lengths to simplify the experience while padding the store out with wanted features. These include trends, a search function, reviews, trailers, games, films, overviews, screenshots, filters, wish list, Game Pass, and more.
According to Windows Central, the redesign will arrive simultaneously on Xbox One and Xbox Series X as a ‘single unified platform’ with a shared design language that could extend to Microsoft’s entire Xbox ecosystem. We could be looking at the visual identity set to define Microsoft’s push into the next-gen.
Microsoft hasn’t offered any hints about a release date. But, despite a few blemishes, the work-in-progress build is nothing short of polishes. There’s a suggestion that Microsoft could push out the updated app to the Xbox Insider Program sooner rather than later.
This article was edited by Samburaj Das.
