It’s a part of the preview program now
In the early days of Google, one of the search engine’s most peculiar features was also one of its most resilient. A button called “I’m Feeling Lucky” sat to the right of the search button, daring users to bypass the results page and go straight into the top result. It stuck around for a long time, which is kind of incredible considering that this sort of bold one-click-and-done behavior hasn’t really ever been how search engines usually function. Google axed I’m Feeling Lucky in 2010 after it cost them $110 million in missed-out ad revenue.
Xbox is testing out something similar, albeit with lower stakes. Reddit user Filthy_Firestarter (possibly a reference to the Prodigy song or the superior Jimmy Eat World cover) is in the Xbox One Alpha Skip-Ahead preview group, which has just been updated with a new dashboard feature. It’s a “Surprise Me” button from within the “My Games” tab, meant to recommend a random game that’s installed.
Crucially, the button doesn’t actually launch the random game. Instead, it merely suggests something to play via a pop-up window, leaving the user to re-roll the dice if they don’t want to play that first game. It’s a convenient option for those times when you just don’t know what to play — if it ever makes it out of the preview stage, that is.
New “Surprise Me/Random Game” icon in My Games & Apps (Skip-Ahead) [reddit]
Published: Nov 12, 2019 02:00 pm