Microsoft: No Cortana on Xbox One Until 2016

If you want Cortana on your Xbox One, you're just going to have to fire up a copy of Halo—any of the many games in the Halo series should do.

Otherwise, if you're interested in Cortana—the friendly digital assistant found in Windows 10 and various Windows Phones—you're going to be waiting a bit. According to a recent blog post from Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, Cortana isn't going to launch on the Xbox One until 2016. And based on his phrasing, we would expect this to happen later in the year rather than, say, January 1.

"Our engineering team is working hard on the new Xbox One experience, the fastest and most social interface we've ever created. As we've been doing for almost two years, we're sharing early builds with our fans, so that they can try out and provide input on new features. We welcomed a limited group of preview members into an early peek at the reimagined Xbox One a few weeks ago. This weekend, we'll be inviting in more. If you've enrolled to receive the new Xbox One experience preview, keep an eye out for the build on your console. For fans already in the new Xbox One experience preview, thank you for all your feedback. Keep it coming! For those who have asked about Cortana, our plan is to add Cortana to the Xbox One experience preview later this year. From there, we'll ensure that the experience is tuned for gamers before we officially launch Cortana in 2016," Hryb wrote.

This is the first time that Microsoft has mentioned a delay for Cortana integration into the Xbox One, which many simply assumed would be arriving as part of Microsoft's big November update for the console.

In the big update, Microsoft's "New Xbox One Experience" will switch over to a Windows 10-based UI. That's in addition to a bunch of other longed-for improvements coming to the console: Support for playing more than 100 Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One, a brand-new Store, a new Community section built around "Game Hubs," easier ways to share your in-game achievements and media with your friends, a brand-new OneGuide (with picture-in-picture support) for those who like using their Xbox One to control their TV setup, and a new Guide that should streamline how you navigate around to different apps and Xbox features.

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If you're interested in checking out the new update before it launches, you better get social. Even though Microsoft rolled out access to the New Xbox One Experience Preview for more gamers this weekend, that's not much help for those who don't have friends who are already in it. No friends, no invite.