Windows 10 Xbox App Leak Shows You Can Do Everything But Play Games

The latest build of Windows 10 leaked Sunday, revealing some Xbox One functionality via an all new app. Could this be part of the reason why Xbox Head Phil Spencer will be speaking at the Windows 10 event in January?

The Verge and The Collection Book both managed to grab an early look at the Windows 10 consumer build (9901). While this is still very much a work in progress, this build revealed that Cortana, Microsoft’s Siri-like digital assistant, is built into the search interface for the operating system.

In terms of the Xbox app, it provides the same level of access to the Xbox LIVE as the Xbox One with the exception of playing games. There’s no SmartGlass integration yet, but users will access to the Xbox Store, achievements, friends lists, messaging, and activity feeds.

SmartGlass integration and other features are likely to be added later since this is still an early preview build of the Xbox app. Microsoft is building the Windows 10 to work across multiple platforms. An Xbox One SmartGlass app already exists with many of these features for Android, iOS, and Windows devices, however. It’s possible that this new Xbox app will be limited to Windows 10 devices only.

Still, this leak helps explain why Xbox’s Phil Spencer will be speaking at the January 15 Windows 10 event. The executive stated last week that “it’s time for us to talk about gaming on Windows.” Presumably, he meant something more than just an Xbox app.

The event is billed as “The Next Chapter,” and will focus on the consumer side of Windows 10 along with how the OS will work on mobile devices. A previous event introduced the latest version of Windows along with its user interface changes plus a pitch for business users.

Spencer has talked PC gaming intermittently since taking over as the head of Xbox in March 2014. There was hope that PC gaming would make an appearance at E3 in June, but that didn’t happen.

“E3’s a retail show,” Spencer told Polygon. “It’s a retail show, it’s a console show, so it didn’t really feel like the right place for us to talk about Windows, but Windows and gaming on Windows is critical to Microsoft’s success.”

Windows 10 is currently slated for a fall 2015 release, and Spencer and the rest of Microsoft appear ready to talk about PC gaming now.

What do you think of Windows 10 so far? Sound off in the comments below.

[Images via The Verge, The Collection Book]