Team Xbox Q&A: Tila, from the Game Pass Team

This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: Xbox Wire.

Hi, Tila! Thanks so much for agreeing to catch up today. We typically start by asking our guests to describe what they do for Team Xbox. Mind sharing your role and some of your responsibilities?

Thanks for reaching out. I’m happy to share! I’m currently a Program Manager in Xbox Game Pass. My primary focus is the Game Pass mobile app, partnering with our business, developers, design, user research, data, and marketing teams to plan and deliver a great app experience, connecting gamers to Game Pass wherever they are.

In the past, we’ve worked with you to gather early information for the Game Pass on Mobile app. Can you tell our readers a little bit about Game Pass and what part the mobile app plays?

Game Pass is a subscription service. For one low monthly price, you get unlimited access to over 100 games so you can explore and play a wide variety of games from blockbusters to critically acclaimed indie titles. If you want to own the game, you can purchase it at a discount, up to 20% for the game and 10% for game add-ons.

The Game Pass mobile app lets you stay connected to Game Pass when you’re not in front of your Xbox console. You can browse the catalog to discover the next game to play. Once you discover a game you want to play, you can remotely install it to your Xbox console with the tap of a button. With notifications enabled, you’ll know the installation progress so you can play as soon as your game is ready. If you can’t remotely install the game at that moment either due to bandwidth or hard drive space limitations, you can add it to your playlist and easily get back to it at any time. The app also notifies you when there are new games available in the catalog so you can stay up-to-date and discover newly added games.

Additionally, we’re bringing Quests to mobile with our next release. Game Pass members can sign up for Microsoft Rewards, view Game Pass quest details, and track progress.

As you know, my team cares a lot about listening to and implementing early feedback given to us by our Xbox Insider community. Is there anything you learned from the Game Pass on Mobile beta that has guided further development of the app or service?

Feedback is extremely valuable to us at any stage in the development cycle to help ensure that we’re building the right tools and features for our fans. When we published our beta app last August, we received over 2,500 pieces of feedback from the gaming community. I read through all of them (seriously!) to understand how we’re doing and how we can improve. All the feedback and suggestions helped shape the app to what it is today and in the future. One of the things we learned from the beta was the feedback on the lack of support for tablets. When we released the beta, we didn’t support tablets. There was an overwhelming amount of feedback to add support for tablets; we listened and released tablet support when we released the app.

Is there a way Xbox fans can continue offering up useful feedback and ideas related to Game Pass and the mobile app?

We love to hear all feedback, ideas and suggestions about Game Pass and the mobile app. You can submit your feedback on our Idea Drive page. If you’re using the mobile app, you can shake your phone to send us feedback! I read every single piece of feedback that is submitted through these channels. I look forward to hearing about all the feedback and ideas!

Ok, let’s step back from work for a bit! What are some of your hobbies?

Does binge watching TV shows count as a hobby? ? If so, that’s my number one hobby. I’m currently binge-watching Monk which is an older comedy-drama detective mystery TV series.  I also love to read, particularly mystery novels so I can try to solve the mystery as I’m reading along. You can start to pick up a trend here…

Do you have a game you’re really into right now that you’d recommend others play?

I’m currently playing a game that’s in Game Pass called The Gardens Between. It’s a time travelling puzzle game about a pair of friends whose treehouse falls into an ocean dream with small islands of different themes made up of their shared experiences. Each level’s objective is to get to the top of the island to deliver an orb of light that enhances their memories. It’s such a beautiful and relaxing game!

Finally, is there anywhere Xbox gamers can keep in touch with you (Gamertag, Twitter, etc.)?

You can find me on Twitter: @nguyentila – I’m more a lurker, but I’ll always respond if someone @ mentions me.