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Microsoft Shows Updated Xbox UI Across Consoles, Handhelds, PC, and Cloud
Microsoft on May 7, 2026 released video from its March 2026 Game Developers Conference Xbox keynote showing a unified interface for consoles, handhelds, PCs and cloud gaming. Jason Ronald, VP of next generation at Xbox, detailed efforts to reduce fragmentation players have noticed across devices. The new homescreen features a user profile in the top right and three ad slots instead of four.
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Microsoft published a new video of its Xbox keynote from the Game Developers Conference on May 7, 2026. The company first showed a consistent Xbox UI across handhelds, consoles and cloud gaming during the keynote in March 2026. Jason Ronald, VP of next generation at Xbox, addressed fragmentation that players had been noticing within the experience across devices and an overall lack of consistency.
“What the team has been doing behind the scenes is doing a lot of work to deliver a consistent experience, so it feels very familiar and very distinctly Xbox no matter where you’re choosing to play,” Ronald stated. The new Xbox console homescreen features the user profile in the top right and three ad slots along the bottom instead of the usual four.
The same interface with the user profile in the top right and three ad slots along the bottom appears on the handheld device shown in the video.
The PC app interface shown looks a lot more like the new Xbox Cloud Gaming interface. Microsoft started testing a new Xbox Cloud Gaming UI that features new animations, a new library section and a rounded design. Microsoft’s slide hints that the new console-like interface could be coming to the Xbox PC app.
Later in the Xbox game dev update video, Microsoft also shows what looks like a new Xbox store on Windows. Ronald stated that the UI won’t be identical across all Xbox devices because of considerations like screen size or input modalities. The Verge reported that at first glance the UI does not look wildly different from what exists today but includes subtle differences across devices.
