Xbox Live gets a makeover to appeal to the masses
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Calling all soccer moms, Joe Six Packs and anyone else who doesn’t play video games. Microsoft wants you.
The Redmond, Wash., technology giant is sprucing up its Xbox Live online game service next month to become more inviting to average consumers who may not know, or care, about Halo. The new look, scheduled to launch Nov. 19, lets people use Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console to create and customize avatars, try out games and navigate through a library of 30,000 movies, TV shows and video clips.
To veteran Xbox players, this may not be overwhelming news. They already know how to get around Xbox Live to buy episodes of ‘South Park,’ download games and squeeze in a few live rounds of Halo with their friends -- all before breakfast.
For everyone else, Xbox Live can appear to be an intimidating playground for teenage males. That’s why Microsoft has been working hard to make its service more approachable to lure in other consumers. It’s also adding more mainstream content, such as on-demand movies from Netflix so viewers can stream films to their televisions from their Xboxes. Next year, Microsoft will host live game shows, called Primetime, that anyone can jump into.
Microsoft has some serious couch-time competition. Sony, which makes the PlayStation 3 console, has also announced ...
... that it will be launching a new look for its own online service sometime this fall. Called PlayStation Home, it will allow players to create avatars, purchase games and interact with one another.
Both Sony and Microsoft are anticipating a day when consumers will want to buy at least some of their entertainment online rather than in boxes and jewel cases at Wal-Mart. But their approach to how people will do so differs dramatically. Sony thinks they will feel more comfortable in a realistic virtual world, where they can stroll to a virtual mall or sit down in a virtual theater with their online buddies. Microsoft, on the other hand, is betting that users will want to flip through menus.
Though it might seem superficial, designing how people interact with technology can be crucial, as Apple has demonstrated with its iPhone and iPod music players.
‘We want to reach the broader market,’ said Shane Kim, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for strategy and business development. ‘To do that, we’re expanding the breadth of entertainment available on Xbox Live. We want to provide entertainment without limits.’
-- Alex Pham
Xbox Live image by Microsoft