Xbox Alpha update teaches a lesson about creating early-adopting updates

Members of the Xbox Alpha testing group, consumers that try out upcoming updates before they go live for everyone, were surprised to find out this week that the latest Alpha update was a bit more destructive than simply not working. It is occasionally the case that one of these updates does not fully realize one of its new features that is still in testing, but that’s not quite the case with the latest update. This one actually reset the entire Xbox to factory settings, essentially wiping everything from the console.

Members of the insider testing group turned on their Xbox consoles, both Series S and Series X, and were confronted by a rather succinct “There was a problem with the update” message.

This message was then shared by insider testing members on social media sites like Reddit, confirming that it was not an individual issue. There were fixes, like trying to install older firmware or simply avoiding this update altogether, but not much could be done after the update took hold. Thankfully, since the Xbox backs up saves to a cloud, the most that would be lost were screenshot and video captures kept locally and a lot of wasted time redownloading everything.

Moreover, this is kind of the point of the early access program for new updates. Most of the updates are fine, but they are essentially just crash tests to make sure things are ironed out before going to people who did not sign up for unstable updates. In that sense, even a buggy update is successful, because it lets Microsoft stamp out problem areas.

But it is every software engineer and programmers’ nightmare, the kind of thing that jolts them awake at night in a cold sweat: what if something is pushed out and it has catastrophic effects? Unfortunately, it cannot really be avoided with any certainty. Software needs to be tested eventually and, as prepared as a team can be before they push it out to the first group of testers, there will always be unpredictable variables.

An important lesson to know, though, is how accepting the audience is of this dynamic. In this case, people signed up to be part of this program fully understanding that it was at best unstable. But for a wider audience? This would absolutely not fly. Armed with that information, a lot of pressure can be put aside.

But if you are in the insider program, maybe wait a little bit before updating your Xbox.