Xbox Alpha update teaches a lesson about creating early-adopting updates
1 min read
Summary
Xbox users in the Alpha testing group intended to test upcoming updates before their release discovered that the latest update completely reset their Xbox to its factory settings.
Members of the group received a message on their Xbox which confirmed that the issue was not isolated to individual consoles.
Fixes included installing older firmware or avoiding the update altogether, but actions to be taken post-update were minimal.
The purpose of the Alpha testing group is to test unstable updates before their release; Microsoft can then iron out issues with the update before the wider population receive it.
The story serves to highlight the issue software engineers face of pushing out a update that could have catastrophic issues for users, and the need to test software before wide release.