Xbox Series X Reversing Controversial Change Made With the Xbox One

Microsoft is reversing a controversial change it made during the Xbox One era with a future update to the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. The peak of Xbox remains the Xbox 360 era. The second-ever Xbox console was by far its most successful, selling roughly double the next best Xbox console. To date, it is the only Xbox console to go toe-to-toe with its PlayStation counterpart, in this case the PS3, in terms of sales. 

Going into the third generation of Xbox, all Xbox had to do was modify and build on the Xbox 360. It didn’t do this. It threw everything out and made many changes with the Xbox One, most of which proved controversial and ultimately to be many wrong decisions. Much of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S generation has been slowly undoing the mess of the early Xbox One generation. The latest example of this is Friends Requests are coming back. 

On the Xbox 360, if you wanted to be friends with someone, you sent them a friend request. If you didn’t want to be friends with someone who sent you one, you denied the friend request. It was a simple process that didn’t need to be changed. But it was. With the Xbox One, Microsoft pivoted to a “Following” system that was meant to replicate a more social media-like experience. It was an inferior experience, which is why Microsoft is correcting course. 

Right now, the return of friend requests is still in the testing phase, but the plan is to roll it out to everyone in a future update, presumably before the end of the year, though Microsoft doesn’t commit to this. 

The followers system is going nowhere, it will just exist alongside this system. There will be accounts you can follow, but these will be separate from your friends. To follow someone, you don’t have to get any permission from them. To be their friend though, you do. The two lists of connections will be separate going forward making it easier to sift through the two without one cluttering the other. 

“Existing friends and followers will update automatically with this change. You’ll stay friends with people who had also added you as a friend previously and continue following anyone who hadn’t,” writes Microsoft. 

Microsoft doesn’t go into why it has added friend requests back after removing them, but it was clearly because of demand. Whatever the case, the feature will presumably be the standard going forward with future Xbox consoles.