Microsoft is giving its Xbox Feedback program a slight overhaul. The company this week revealed that Xbox Feedback is becoming Xbox Ideas, complete with a new home and a greater emphasis on honing in on specific feature areas or topics.
The program will still solicit feedback from Xbox Insiders as usual, but the process for gathering that feedback is now part of a three-phase system. Each Idea Drive campaign will run for between one and three months, with the goal of focusing on a limited number of ideas at a time.
The first phase involves collecting ideas from Xbox Ideas users. During this phase, Microsoft says that it will "very carefully moderate" the ideas and make any necessary edits for clarification on those that are accepted. Duplicates will be pruned, and any unrelated ideas will be weeded out.
After the collection phase, ideas go into a voting phase in which users can vote and comment on all of the new ideas. When voting closes, the ideas will still be visible on Xbox Ideas. Microsoft will then review the results and post them on the Xbox Insider blog.
There's one last feature of Idea Drives called the suggestion box. Microsoft explains:
The last feature on the site is the Idea Drive Suggestion Box. This is your opportunity to pitch an Idea Drive of your own. If there's an area of Xbox that you want to help improve, please suggest the Idea Drive here. Just like the Idea Drive forums, this area is highly curated, and specific idea requests or unrelated posts will be removed, so please focus on suggesting general Idea Drives. If we pick your Idea Drive then you can post your Idea.
The new program is an effort by Microsoft to keep Xbox feedback more tightly curated and focused. If you're curious, you can check out the new Xbox Ideas UserVoice page for more. As for the older Xbox Feedback UserVoice, Microsoft says that it will remain available as a read-only archive, so you'll still be able to read old posts, but you won't be able to comment, vote, or submit new posts.
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.
The Dell XPS 15 is our choice for best 15-inch laptop
For a lot of people, a 15-inch laptop is a perfect size that offers enough screen for multitasking, and in a lot of cases, some extra performance from powerful hardware. We've rounded up the best of the best at this size.
Halo: MCC's live service elements make it better, not worse
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is more popular than ever, but some fans don't agree with the live service approach 343 Industries has taken with it. Here's why those elements are, at the end of the day, great for the game and for Halo overall.
Microsoft's Surface Duo is not 'failing up'
Microsoft announced this week that it was expanding Surface Duo availability to nine new commercial markets. While Surface Duo is undoubtedly a work in progress, this is not a sign of a disaster. It's also doesn't mean that Surface Duo is selling a ton either. Instead, the reason for the expansion is a lot more straightforward.
These are the best keyboards to use with Xbox Series X and S
Xbox Series X and S continue Xbox's support of mouse and keyboard control, so we rounded up the best keyboards to use with your next-gen console.