Today at Gamescom in Cologne, Microsoft took the stage to announce a few interesting tidbits regarding the Xbox One. A new white Xbox One bundle sans Kinect is coming in October, and a previously announced major third-party title is now officially an Xbox exclusive. In addition to the announcements on stage, a blog post from Microsoft’s Jeff Rubenstein outlined a handful of software improvements slated for the platform later this year. Among them, live television streaming to SmartGlass devices stands out as a major feature for Xbox One enthusiasts.

Most controversially, Rise of the Tomb Raider is now shipping exclusively on the Xbox One. The game was shown off at Microsoft’s press event during this year’s E3, but just about everyone expected the next Tomb Raider game to be released on PC and PS4 as well. After all, the previous entry in the franchise was available on a total of five different platforms. While there is undoubtedly a substantial financial incentive coming from Microsoft in exchange for exclusivity, this comes as a huge disappointment to PS4 and PC gamers alike.

On a brighter note, a white version of the Xbox One was announced as well. Priced at $400, this bundle includes a white Xbox One, a white controller, a digital copy of Sunset Overdrive, and some pre-order bonuses for the game. Of course, this model doesn’t come with a Kinect, so you’ll need to acquire one separately if you’re interested in motion controls. Additionally, a themed Call of Duty bundle will also ship this year at $500 with a 1TB internal drive and a copy of Advanced Warfare. It doesn’t come with a Kinect either, so it seems that Microsoft is done pushing that peripheral on its customers.

Over at the Major Nelson blog, Rubenstein lays out all of the features coming in the next major software update for the Xbox One. Mostly, we can expect refinements to existing features and the user interface, but there’s some big news on the video front as well. A dedicated media player app will be added to the Xbox One, and it will enable playback of a wide variety of formats stored either on a USB drive or on a DLNA server. Considering how limited the existing DLNA support is on Microsoft’s console, this will be a huge improvement. Let’s just hope Sony follows quickly with native DLNA support as well. Until then, we’ll just have to use Plex.

Last but not least, SmartGlass apps on iOS, Android, and Windows will soon be able to stream live television from the Xbox One. Provided that you live in a region where the Xbox One works with your television, you’ll be able to watch, pause, and rewind your TV feed with SmartGlass without interrupting anyone playing on the console itself. This is a very neat addition, but can it close the PS4 sales gap? One way or the other, the upcoming holiday shopping season will likely tell us if Microsoft has any hope of catching up with Sony during this generation.