The Xbox TV era ends in May with the removal of OneGuide TV listings
Microsoft plans to remove its OneGuide TV feature from Xbox One in May.
Watching live TV is no longer as important as it was before, so this feature joins Windows Media Center and WebTV in Microsoft's cemetery.
The OneGuide TV menus on Xbox One are designed to overlap your cable box and provide a better way to access content.
The OneGuide TV listings via Xbox One were originally part of Microsoft's broad ambitions to dominate the living room.
And you can also combine the feature with an Xbox USB TV tuner to access free TV channels.
“Based on customer usage and feedback, we are constantly working to improve the Xbox experience,” says Jonathan Hildebrandt, program director with Microsoft's Xbox Experiences group.
To that end, he added, starting in May, we're discontinuing OneGuide's live TV listings via Xbox One.
OneGuide users can still access HDMI Pass through Xbox One to view connected devices, or continue to access the Xbox USB TV tuner, but TV menus are removed.
The announcement marks the final nail in the coffin of Microsoft's original dream of transforming the Xbox One into a digital entertainment center, or modern cable TV box.
Kinect and HDMI Pass through were central to this plan, but the $ 100 price gap between Xbox One and PS4, lower-performance VCR-like hardware, and a focus on entertainment clouded what was essentially a gaming platform.
Microsoft is gradually rolling back the Xbox TV effort in recent years with the removal of the Kinect, the sudden disappearance of Xbox One mode, the disappearance of media features, and the Xbox TV DVR feature.
The Xbox One seemed like a dream to viewer style, but the dream soon dissipated after a few years of console existence.
Microsoft's Xbox Series X or newer Xbox Series S platforms no longer include HDMI Pass through or the company's OneGuide app.
