Xbox One Games Update: Microsoft Launches Trial And Unlock Demos

You can now download Xbox One game demos and then pay to unlock the full version without having to download the title again.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) recently updated its latest console with the same game trial abilities available on Xbox 360 – where you can search for any game on Xbox Live Arcade, see if you like it, then pay full price to gain complete access to the title.

"When Xbox One launched you could do game demos and you could do games. But we didn't have the functionality that was on Xbox 360 -- that 'trial' experience where you could download a demo and then convert it [to a full version]," Chris Charla, director of ID@Xbox at Microsoft, told Eurogamer on Friday.

"But now we do. In the same way that we update the Xbox One OS every month, they update the development system every month -- or regularly, anyway. So that's something that we recently turned on. I don't think we've seen any ID@Xbox games yet that have shipped with trials, but we may well in the future. It's something that's open to everybody."

The feature isn’t available for current games, but will be for future titles.

"Saying that, we have had a lot of player requests for some way to specifically find the ID@Xbox games," Charla added. “We have talked about adding some functionality so that people can do a search for just the ID@Xbox games.”

ID@Xbox is a program run by multimedia giant Microsoft that allows independent video game developers to self-publish games for Xbox One. Registered developers gain access to two development kits for free, and there aren’t any fees to update any game submitted through the program.

"You can expect lots more games coming," Charla promised players. "There are literally hundreds of ID@Xbox games in development right now. There a lot in development for 2015, and some for 2016, too."