THE CURRENT generation of games consoles all connect to the web and offer online services, but Microsoft is working the hardest to develop a thriving online community, Xbox Live, that it believes will bring social networking and a wide range of interactive content to the TV screen.
More importantly for the software giant, it would bring Microsoft into the living room and make its Xbox 360 console – which it now refers to as a system – a one-stop box at the centre of home entertainment.
Xbox Live already has 20 million active members, according to Microsoft. To access many of the new services they have to sign up as gold members and pay an annual subscription of €54.99.
At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Microsoft unveiled more of what they will get for their money, including a games-on-demand channel, new feeds to Facebook and Twitter, and additional interactive experiences for the avatar world it launched last November. Xbox members can pick and choose their online characters, dress them up and interact with other users on the network. The avatars can connect in groups and watch films and play games together.
Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten said he believed it was a significant first for social networking. He described the target market as teenagers communicating with friends, laptop in one hand, phone in the other, with the TV on in the background.
“They have to do it that way because until now no one has built the living room and social entertainment experience that lets them do what they want to do naturally,” he said.
“With Xbox Live they get to see Facebook and communicate with their friends over a big TV rather than a computer screen.”
Naturally, the game components remain fundamental and Microsoft is ramping up the online offerings, selling downloadable titles from August.
It already has an on-demand film service through its Zune library, but this is a significant next step with about 30 games to be made available at around the same price that users would pay in shops.
The suggestion that the new service runs the risk of upsetting the traditional retail channel was dismissed by Mr Whitten. “People like to portray it as competing forces, but I don’t think it’s that simple. I don’t see one channel going up while the other goes down. They can both do well.”
The music business has struggled to adjust to the online world, but he was confident that the games industry was better positioned to harness the benefits and turn online operation into an additional revenue channel.
Publishers and console manufacturers are already using the web to provide game upgrades and additional features after the point of purchase.
“With music, a song is a song in whatever format you buy it and it doesn’t change. Games evolve over time and get richer as you download added content,” said Mr Whitten.
Some of the new Xbox Live features highlight Microsoft’s technical expertise in distributing content over the internet.
An instant high-definition on-demand film service brings 1080p picture quality to users without their having to download the film, although an 8MBits/sec broadband connection is recommended. The streaming service still allows for fast forwarding and rewinding.
The number of countries where users can access TV shows and films from the online platform has grown from eight to 18. Ireland and the UK were in the first wave of adoptees, and will be able to access Sky TV content from the autumn.
