XBOX 360: THE LIVE SERVICE EXPOSED!
Straight from the horse's mouth - how Xbox 360 will change your online world.
16:39 Ever wondered how Microsoft's Live gaming service is going to change with the advent of Xbox 360? Well wonder no more as we've recruited Jeff Henshaw, exec producer for the Xbox 360 platform to give you the goods.
One of the immediate changes to the Live service will be that a number of Live features will be available to all Xbox 360 owners with broadband, right out of the box!
Jeff Henshaw reveals all: "The free level of service is called Live Silver. That'll take you right up to being able to play multiplayer gaming. If you actually want to go head-to-head and play online you'll go up to a Gold level, priced at a similar level to what you see today".
And methods of payment for Live Gold will no longer require a credit card. With Xbox 360 you'll be able to subscribe in all sorts of ways. "We're accepting debit cards, cheques cards and prepaid retail cards," Henshaw explains. "People can go to a retailer, buy a card that represents new characters or cash credits, then come here and enter the code to get it".
The free elements of the Live Silver service are wide-reaching. In terms of games, you'll be able to make separate subscriptions to Massively Multiplayer Online games, play specific retail games during Free Xbox Live Weekends, download free and premium game content from the Xbox Live Marketplace, make Microtransactions and download free and premium movies, music and TV. From the Message Centre you'll be able to send and receive Game Invites, Friend Invites, Text, Voice and System Messages. In terms of your Live Profile you'll be able to store and show Online Achievements, have a Gamertag, access the Gamer Profiles of others, maintain a Friends List, a Recent Players List and Voice Chat in and out of game. All for absolutely free!
The Live Gold paid subscription service will further allow you to enjoy the online features of retail games at any time, and every Xbox 360 title will have Live features. Live Gold also supports seamless transition of your Live account from Xbox to Xbox 360, allows enhanced Matchmaking and use of Review Rating (reputation) and Gamerzone features.
A massive part of the new Live service will be the Xbox 360 Live Marketplace. This is where you find free and premium downloadable content from games publishers, download episodic game slices and also make Micro transactions - buying and selling custom game content created by yourself and other gamers. Jeff Henshaw elaborates: "A lot of games will support it from day one, and a lot will have PC-based tools where you author the content on PC and feed it over to your Xbox 360 through the network. Initially, the Marketplace is for game publishers to provide content to consumers, but we do see it evolving over time to a consumer-driven model, where people can sell things in a personal store front". More PC connectivity will come in the form of Live compatibility with Instant Messenger. Henshaw believes that we'll see PC-to-Xbox 360 Instant Messenger and video chats, "within a year to 18 months" of launch, and possibly cross-platform gaming between Xbox 360 and PC further along the line.
Henshaw also explains other media-sharing functions of the Xbox 360 over Live. "On Xbox 360 these music and media experiences are shareable. If I'm listening to music, I can have a conversation with someone and stream my music to them. So I have a photo slideshow, and I can actually play that slideshow across Xbox Live while I'm video chatting.
"We can play chequers and web chat at the same time. We can send emoticons and vibrations to each other, and chat. That's an example of a shared experience on Xbox 360 which I think is going to be pretty compelling. This is how I'll share pictures of the kids with my grandparents. You're doing this and thinking 'Why didn't any other console do this?' After spending hours struggling with the PC or struggling with the web, Xbox 360 is easy.
"If you don't have a home network, you can plug anything into your Xbox 360 and have access to the data. I'll plug in my MP3 player and the Xbox 360 will detect the music and display a list of artists. Now, the Xbox 360 is streaming music off the MP3 player. You stream them to friends, you don't actually transfer the data. Digital photos work in a similar way. I can plug my digital camera in, the Xbox 360 will detect it and ask me if I want to do a slideshow or apply a filter. I can invite friends to share my photos and music online. You're extending your lounge via Xbox 360."
Straight from the horse's mouth - how Xbox 360 will change your online world.
16:39 Ever wondered how Microsoft's Live gaming service is going to change with the advent of Xbox 360? Well wonder no more as we've recruited Jeff Henshaw, exec producer for the Xbox 360 platform to give you the goods.
One of the immediate changes to the Live service will be that a number of Live features will be available to all Xbox 360 owners with broadband, right out of the box!
Jeff Henshaw reveals all: "The free level of service is called Live Silver. That'll take you right up to being able to play multiplayer gaming. If you actually want to go head-to-head and play online you'll go up to a Gold level, priced at a similar level to what you see today".
And methods of payment for Live Gold will no longer require a credit card. With Xbox 360 you'll be able to subscribe in all sorts of ways. "We're accepting debit cards, cheques cards and prepaid retail cards," Henshaw explains. "People can go to a retailer, buy a card that represents new characters or cash credits, then come here and enter the code to get it".
The free elements of the Live Silver service are wide-reaching. In terms of games, you'll be able to make separate subscriptions to Massively Multiplayer Online games, play specific retail games during Free Xbox Live Weekends, download free and premium game content from the Xbox Live Marketplace, make Microtransactions and download free and premium movies, music and TV. From the Message Centre you'll be able to send and receive Game Invites, Friend Invites, Text, Voice and System Messages. In terms of your Live Profile you'll be able to store and show Online Achievements, have a Gamertag, access the Gamer Profiles of others, maintain a Friends List, a Recent Players List and Voice Chat in and out of game. All for absolutely free!
The Live Gold paid subscription service will further allow you to enjoy the online features of retail games at any time, and every Xbox 360 title will have Live features. Live Gold also supports seamless transition of your Live account from Xbox to Xbox 360, allows enhanced Matchmaking and use of Review Rating (reputation) and Gamerzone features.
A massive part of the new Live service will be the Xbox 360 Live Marketplace. This is where you find free and premium downloadable content from games publishers, download episodic game slices and also make Micro transactions - buying and selling custom game content created by yourself and other gamers. Jeff Henshaw elaborates: "A lot of games will support it from day one, and a lot will have PC-based tools where you author the content on PC and feed it over to your Xbox 360 through the network. Initially, the Marketplace is for game publishers to provide content to consumers, but we do see it evolving over time to a consumer-driven model, where people can sell things in a personal store front". More PC connectivity will come in the form of Live compatibility with Instant Messenger. Henshaw believes that we'll see PC-to-Xbox 360 Instant Messenger and video chats, "within a year to 18 months" of launch, and possibly cross-platform gaming between Xbox 360 and PC further along the line.
Henshaw also explains other media-sharing functions of the Xbox 360 over Live. "On Xbox 360 these music and media experiences are shareable. If I'm listening to music, I can have a conversation with someone and stream my music to them. So I have a photo slideshow, and I can actually play that slideshow across Xbox Live while I'm video chatting.
"We can play chequers and web chat at the same time. We can send emoticons and vibrations to each other, and chat. That's an example of a shared experience on Xbox 360 which I think is going to be pretty compelling. This is how I'll share pictures of the kids with my grandparents. You're doing this and thinking 'Why didn't any other console do this?' After spending hours struggling with the PC or struggling with the web, Xbox 360 is easy.
"If you don't have a home network, you can plug anything into your Xbox 360 and have access to the data. I'll plug in my MP3 player and the Xbox 360 will detect the music and display a list of artists. Now, the Xbox 360 is streaming music off the MP3 player. You stream them to friends, you don't actually transfer the data. Digital photos work in a similar way. I can plug my digital camera in, the Xbox 360 will detect it and ask me if I want to do a slideshow or apply a filter. I can invite friends to share my photos and music online. You're extending your lounge via Xbox 360."
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