Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Xbox One rewards cord keepers with live NFL games

By
Xbox One NFL App Fantasy_TeamRoster
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Back in May 2013, when the next-gen Xbox One gaming console was revealed to the world, the sports-loving Internet exploded over the news that Microsoft had entered into a deal with the NFL that would bring pro football to the new hardware in the 2013/2014 season and beyond. Little more than that was revealed at the time, and before we knew it a whole summer’s worth of games-focused trade shows came and went with barely a word on the subject.

Now that pre-season football is winding down and EA Sports’ yearly Madden NFL game is out now, gamers are thinking football. With the season’s first matchup between the Denver Broncos and the Baltimore Ravens set for this Thursday, there’s no better time for Microsoft to give football-lovers a peek at what’s to come on the Xbox One and show us what that NFL partnership entails.

Recommended Videos

Cable subscribers enjoy the added benefit of streaming content from ESPN and ESPN2 in the app.

At long last, an official NFL Network app is coming to a Microsoft platform, but this one requires a cable TV subscription that includes NFL Network. Once that’s set, users will be able to access NFL Network content, including Thursday Night Football and NFL Redzone coverage. As many had suspected after the initial announcement was made, there’s not a lot of content if you don’t have a cable subscription. You’ll be able to check out highlights and other content available at NFL.com through the app, but a cable TV subscription is necessary to watch full games.

The app’s design resembles many of the other reference apps that we’ve seen for Xbox One so far. A content bar at the bottom of the screen offers quick access to any games that may be underway and other, related content. You can scroll through video highlights and stat sheets on a per-game basis, and send the content you’d like to check out to another bar, located at the righthand edge of the screen. Fantasy football fans that have NFL.com-hosted leagues can have a team’s stats automatically tracked. Support for additional fantasy providers is coming in 2014, but everyone will have the option at launch of manually telling the app which players to track. You can, of course, also make these bars vanish and have whatever game you’re watching occupy the full screen with nothing else to pull your attention away.

Microsoft expects the NFL app to make an even bigger splash in the 2014/2015 season. The NFL partnership was very young when the Xbox One was first announced, only a few weeks old at that point. That’s why there was nothing to see at June’s E3 trade show in Los Angeles, and that’s why nothing surfaced in any subsequent announcements. Until now, of course, as a new season looms. The expectation with the Xbox One releasing in November is that enough performance and user feedback will be gathered to have a new and improved experience ready by the time the 2014/2015 season kicks off.

The ESPN app that is currently available for Xbox 360 is also getting a makeover for its Xbox One release. It shares a similar layout to that of the NFL app, just with content pulled from a much broader spectrum of sports. Most users of the app will be able to access any of the content on ESPN3; this includes a significant number of college games, multiple tennis and golf majors, and more. It’s a little bit of everything. The catch is that your Internet provider has to have a deal in place with ESPN, though we’re told that all of the major ISPs are locked in.

Cable subscribers enjoy the added benefit of streaming content from ESPN and ESPN2 in the app as well. Much like the NFL app, bars on the bottom and righthand sides of the screen fill out with additional content. The bottom bar is broken into multiple channels. ESPN Trending, for example, streams in brief packages that are pegged to some major happening or another in sports news. You’ll see stuff here like Top Ten Goals or an update on Miami Heat storylines. Then there’s myESPN, a user-tailored channel that populates with content based on which sports and teams you follow; the easiest way to set that up will be through your login at ESPN.com.

The cable subscription requirement continues to be a sticking point for those of us that prefer to enjoy televised programming from other sources, but Microsoft’s upcoming sports apps for Xbox One certainly deliver on the promise of enhanced TV-watching that the original console announcement nodded to. Now if only we could subscribe to NFL Network content without paying for a larger cable package…

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Adam Rosenberg
Adam Rosenberg
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…
Every summer 2024 gaming showcase: full schedule and stream recaps
Every summer 2024 gaming showcase: full schedule of live streams
Geoff Keighley shows a slide showing the top 10 selling Steam Games of 2024.

This summer, we're living in a brave new world. E3 is officially dead -- for real this time. That means there's a vacuum to be filled as publishers still look to showcase their games during high-profile events. There's both good news and bad news for anyone who looks forward to E3 season. The good news? Summer Game Fest is filling that gap, alongside several streams that'll orbit around it. The bad news? Keeping track of it all is a huge pain.

Over the next few months, we'll see scattered shows from Sony, Xbox, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and more game companies. To help make your life a little easier, we're rounding them up in one place. We'll keep this article updated throughout the summer, adding in the VODs of all the streams once they air, so check back in from now until September so you don't miss a single show.
State of Play: May 30
State of Play | May 30, 2024 | [English]

Read more
Xbox Game Pass has its own Super Mario Odyssey, and it’s a delight
A giant ghost is wrapped in chains in Hauntii.

PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have a lot of advantages over the Switch, but there's one advantage Nintendo never loses: games. While Sony and Microsoft struggle to put out consistent exclusives, Nintendo always manages to put out fairly high-quality games on a monthly bases (even if some recent releases have felt like filler). The fact that you can only play Super Mario Odyssey on a Nintendo console will always be the company's ace in the hole.

Thankfully, enough developers have been influenced by Nintendo's design that it's not hard to find a great title that scratches the same itch as a Nintendo classic on competing platforms. Just look at games like the Pikmin-inspired Tinykin. Xbox has been especially smart about seeking out games like that over the years and adding them to Xbox Game Pass. It's done that once again with one of its newest additions, the delightful Hauntii.

Read more
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is coming to Xbox Game Pass at launch
A soldier squats in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 key art.

After days of speculation, Xbox confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will come to Xbox Game Pass at launch. Xbox has not specified which platforms it will come to, though.

When Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was officially announced last week, fans immediately began speculating about its Game Pass status. It's the first Call of Duty title released since Microsoft successfully acquired Activision Blizzard, so a Game Pass launch seemed likely. While the announcement was initially leaked by a Game Pass notification, Xbox has now officially confirmed that the game is bound for the service.

Read more