Xbox One Also Downloads Your Purchases While You're Away

Xbox One, much like PlayStation 4 -- and Xbox 360 before it -- is capable of downloading content while you're away from the console, Microsoft has confirmed.

Xbox boss Marc Whitten said as much in a tweet sent out last night. It stated, "Yes! Of course you can download while you are away. #xboxone - Always up to date, always your console. The beauty of low power mode!"

In a pair of follow-up tweets, he elaborated on this feature, stating, "All marketplace items can be downloaded. You won't have to worry about updates - they'll download [without] you having to care." He also said content can be downloaded from the web, SmartGlass, and Xbox Games (the new name for the Xbox Live Marketplace).

This news comes shortly after Sony reiterated that PlayStation 4 can be turned on remotely. What this means is you could purchase a PS4 game from your phone while away from home, and then your PS4 would turn itself on, download the game, and turn itself back off once it's done.

Exactly how the PS4 and Xbox One remote download features compare is unclear at this point. IGN has contacted Microsoft for further information and will update with any response we receive.

The benefit of such functionality on either console is simple: It allows games, demos, and presumably other content to be purchased or queued up for download while away from the system and then downloaded so that it's ready to be played once you're home. On Xbox 360, content can be queued up for download from Xbox.com, but unless your system is already on, it won't begin downloading until the next time you turn it on -- and, at that point, you might want to play a game online, which prevents content from being downloaded in the background. Remote downloads remove this problem altogether.

A launch date for Xbox One has not yet been announced. The closest to an exact date Microsoft has provided is some time in November. A recent report suggested November 8 as a possible date, at least in the United States, but Kotaku has since reported that is unlikely to be the case, leaving us to continue waiting for some official word from Microsoft.

Chris Pereira is a freelance writer who is excited for these kinds of conveniences in the next generation. Check out what he's saying on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

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