Timing Is Everything: Content Update Releases for Xbox One
Published March 6, 2015
Introduction
Because of the intricacies of the connected systems and the complications that can arise from attempting to release during peak usage hours both in the United States and in Europe, the releases of content updates for the Xbox 360 platform take place during a prescribed window. The standard release time for Xbox 360 is 09:00 UTC during U.S. Daylight Savings Time and 10:00 UTC during U.S. Standard Time (that is, whatever aligns to 02:00 in the Pacific Time zone in the United States).
On Xbox One, the content update system is more flexible and is set up to accept updates during a specific timeframe each day. That time period is known as the Connected Standby Maintenance Window. Connect Standby is a feature that you can, and should, take into account when considering the best timeframe for releasing updates to your content. This paper discusses certain best practices around scheduling release times for your content updates. For additional information about publishing Xbox One content updates, see the following:
- Designing Title Package Layouts for Updates: Best Practices and Guidelines (white paper)
- Title Packaging, Content Updates, and Streaming-Installation Testing (white paper)
Regional timing for Connected Standby
The most beneficial time for releasing any update is whenever the least number of users are playing a title—in other words, the time when the largest number of Xbox One consoles are in their Connected Standby window.
Consoles that have enabled Connected Standby mode will check for system and content updates between the hours of 01:00 and 03:00 local to the console, and the console will take those updates even if it has entered Connected Standby.
Whatever the local time is for a console’s Connected Standby window, the times established for content updates are specified in Xbox Developer Portal (XDP) in relation to Coordinated Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time), shown as UTC. The UTC times corresponding to the Connected Standby times for several regions are shown in the following table. The times marked with an asterisk are the day before expected in UTC.
| Location | Connected Standby time |
|---|---|
| Minneapolis, MN, USA | 07:00–09:00 UTC |
| Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 03:00–05:00 UTC |
| London, England | 01:00–03:00 UTC |
| Zurich, Switzerland | 00:00–02:00 UTC * |
| Cape Town, South Africa | 23:00–01:00 UTC * |
| Moscow, Russia | 22:00–00:00 UTC * |
| New Delhi, India | 19:30–22:30 UTC * |
| Singapore, Singapore | 17:00–20:00 UTC * |
| Tokyo, Japan | 16:00–19:00 UTC * |
Note XDP does not shift to or account for Daylight Savings Time (in the United States) or Summer Time (in Europe). As a result, release times as they relate to UTC could be offset by as much as an hour in some time zones due to Daylight Savings/Summer Time conversion.
Using XDI to find the right update window
Releasing your updates at 09:00 UTC is a reasonable standard, but it might not align with the usage patterns of your particular title. We recommend that you examine your title’s usage patterns—specifically, to identify its peak usage times—so you can determine the best timeframe in which to release updates for it. You can do this by looking at EventXplorer in Xbox Developer Insights (XDI). To see peak usage in XDI, follow these steps:
- Click Event Explorer.
- Select your game from the Title drop-down list box.
- Select RETAIL from the Sandbox drop-down list box.
- Select the most-recently released build version from the Client App Version (Build Number) drop-down list box.
- Choose a date at least two days in the past, preferably close to a weekend (which is when peak usage occurs).
- Click the Run button to the right of your options.
- Select the event with the highest number of instances (the one at the top) for your product.
From here, you will see a grid showing usage from the date selected (second column from the right) and the preceding nine days. The color legend to the right of the grid will show that peak event activity (80–100%) is a bright blue and lowest event activity (0–19%) is gray.
Using the gray area as a guide, you will be able to see the time (UTC) when your title has the fewest concurrent users. From that information, you can determine what might be the ideal time to release an update. Bear in mind that if the time you choose falls after the Connected Standby window ends (03:00 local to the console), it could take up to six hours for consoles in that region to get the update if they are powered down and in Connected Standby.
Publishing lead time
Although the bits for the update are already on the content delivery network (CDN), the publishing system still performs a CopyToCDN operation as part of deploying the update to the Xbox Update service.
Because of this additional CDN action, the time between when the update is published and when it can be available must always be equal to or greater than two hours. Not adhering to this rule will result in consoles’ receiving a “404/not found” error when they are notified that an update is available.
If you do release an update that favors a specific region of your primary user base and is not within the 09:00 to 10:00 UTC timeframe, we recommend that you work with your Release Manager to make Xbox Operations aware of the release timing and so they will be prepared for a drop in connected users.
Expectations and community management
In releasing any content updates to your title, it’s your responsibility as the publisher to respond to customer issues during the release window if any problems with the update are reported to be occurring. If you need assistance with troubleshooting or gathering information in addition to data you already have ready access to, please remember to reach out to your Account Management team at Xbox.
Bear in mind that it could take some time for the console’s authentication token to be renewed. If this token is expired, it will force the console to check the service and look for an update. Console authentication tokens expire every four hours and proactively try to refresh after two hours. In general, a 30-minute window should be taken into account when the release time comes to ensure that there isn’t a caching issue with the console.
Users can attempt to force a check for the content update and/or renewal of their authentication token to address this by attempting any of the following:
- Close the title by clicking the Menu button and choosing Quit.
- Soft-reset the console by shutting it down, either by touching the Xbox logo on the front of the console or by holding down the jewel on the controller and choosing Turn Off.
- Hard-reset the console by pressing and holding down on the Xbox logo on the front of the console.
Summary
Thanks to the Connected Standby feature on Xbox One, publishers now have greater control over the release timing for their content updates. With information gleaned from XDI, a publisher can make informed decisions about when to release updates for each product in a way that provides the most positive impact to the users of that product.