Edge-Online: Inside the New Xbox Live - Part 1 and 2 Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Edge-Online: Inside the New Xbox Live - Part 1 and 2 Posted by XanTium | August 1 12:50 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From edge-online.com(1)/edge-online.com(2): [QUOTE] With the core gamer market in the US pretty much wrapped up and PS3 snapping at Xbox 360's heels in every territory, Microsoft needs to extend its console's reach. And it's looking to Europe to do that. Later, when we meet John Schappert, vice president of Live, software and services, he calls Europe the Xbox's new 'battleground' for good reason: 360 sales there have long trailed those in the US, despite Europe's larger population. With the PlayStation brand retaining strong cachet, Xbox 360 routinely sells the fewest consoles each week in France, Germany, Spain and Italy, even if it has a much stronger presence in the UK. And Live, the main differentiator between Xbox 360 and PS3, will be the way to do it. "The gameplay style in Europe is more casual, more collaborative and social," Henson says. "They're a key part of us getting the next 20 million on the service. We're asking how we become something that's relevant to everyone. I think Europe is the North Star, the sign that says 'here's what it looks like to broaden the service to everyone'." On this most carefully orchestrated of visits, where every meeting runs exactly to time and every attendee is perfectly prepared and on-message, Henson, warmly genial though he is, is performing a routine that establishes Live as the foundation stone upon which Xbox 360's fortunes will rest. "Because of the amount of stuff that's coming into Live, it's actually a little difficult for people to find it, especially people outside the core users," admits Whitten. "It's based on this idea that you know exactly what you want to do: hit the eject button, put the disc in, go to multiplayer and start playing your Halo match. That's the way it's always worked. That worked super well for the cognoscenti of the console world, but the truth is that there's an amazing amount of content that for a lot of people is hard to find." The new dashboard, therefore, strikes out in a different direction. "The idea is to move toward this channel metaphor, so you can see at a glance the types of things that I can do on my box, to make these things much more relevant about me," Whitten explains. Jeff Faulkner says, "Today, if you're playing Halo and I say: 'Hey, let's play Uno', it's a case of, 'Right, I'll set up the session and I'll invite you in'. There's a whole bunch of steps and I'm wondering what's going to happen, where he's gone. For new people that's difficult. So what if the party leader selects the new experience and we all go there together - no loss of communication, no loss of us being together and social?" Add to that the new UI's avatars, which Whitten sees as a way of articulating a more social atmosphere: "The Community channel will be filled with animated avatars that are all saying: 'Come on over, I'm playing this'. Press one button and you can party up and get into their experience or start that conversation." Another gesture to the hardcore is the Guide. Its functionality has been increased to match all that the current dashboard can do and use the same blades interface, but still fits into the same 32MB of RAM, and Whitten claims that it will be more responsive. It's intended as a core users' shortcut device, and will allow players to quick-launch in and out of content. [/QUOTE] Full Story: edge-online.com - part1 (3 pages) | edge-online.com - part2

[Chancer]

Quite simply live costs more in Europe and has far less content. adding avatars or altering the way live works will not make a scrap of difference to that.

[bucko]

imho I think MS make enough money from Gamerpics, Themes, Arcade titles, Movies etc (I know there are publisher costs but MS gets a good cut) so I think MS should make Live £15-£20 a year not £35 a year if they want to reach 20million. Most people I know wait till a game is £25, most of my mates agree that £45-£50 is not worth it for a game unless it's really, really good, and so I don't understand why MS expects us to pay £35 a year when you get winey little 12 year old kids on Halo3 saying a million mum jokes.

I've also had quite a few harsh British insults recently and I'm questioning weather it's worth £35 a year when I can get the same titles on the PS3 and play online for free (except halo3 etc). Also I think the submit player review and file a complaint system needs to be vastly overhauled to make Live worth the money on Gold.


This post has been edited by bucko: Aug 1 2008, 06:49 PM

[sabbath_dude]

Quite simply live costs more in Europe and has far less content. adding avatars or altering the way live works will not make a scrap of difference to that.

Totally agree.

I've also had quite a few harsh British insults recently and I'm questioning weather it's worth £35 a year when I can get the same titles on the PS3 and play online for free (except halo3 etc). Also I think the submit player review and file a complaint system needs to be vastly overhauled to make Live worth the money on Gold.

I'm kinda getting sick of the idiots on the service too. The last few weeks I've noticed a big increase in the amount assholes who glitch or start verbally abusing me/others for no good reason (it's usually really harsh racial stuff too). The feedback system is a total joke IMO and filing a complaint doesn't seem to do anything either. I never glitch, quit early, steal kills, trash talk and I'm generally a very considerate gamer yet my rep is around the "65% avoided you" mark so obviously the system Microsoft currently have in place is not working. I expect the occasional bit of trash talk but more recently I've been asking myself why the hell I pay a yearly sub to be verbally abused by some screaming 12 year old kid.

[Achtung]

Totally agree.
I'm kinda getting sick of the idiots on the service too. The last few weeks I've noticed a big increase in the amount assholes who glitch or start verbally abusing me/others for no good reason (it's usually really harsh racial stuff too). The feedback system is a total joke IMO and filing a complaint doesn't seem to do anything either. I never glitch, quit early, steal kills, trash talk and I'm generally a very considerate gamer yet my rep is around the "65% avoided you" mark so obviously the system Microsoft currently have in place is not working. I expect the occasional bit of trash talk but more recently I've been asking myself why the hell I pay a yearly sub to be verbally abused by some screaming 12 year old kid.

I totally agree with you, I find that I have stopped playing games I enjoyed online due to the fact that there are so many racial comments or burnouts talking about how high and drunk they are at the time.

That's not even including the endless amounts of time you join a game and some retard is putting feedback through there microphone on purpose or blasting some retarted music.

Microsoft really has to start doing something to address this, because adding cute little avatars is not going to change this.

[Tiuk]

That's why for the past couple of months I've either not worn my headset when I play, or I mute everyone but my friends. It's just not worth the hassle. I don't want to hear 12 year olds, sorry. Or people who are older but as mature (or less) as 12 year olds.

[flashfreak]

My live ran out months ago and i havnt renewed, mainly cos i havnt got enough free time to justify paying for it. I've been wanting to get it back for ET quake wars but just havnt.

I love this though, very cool:

Jeff Faulkner says, "Today, if you're playing Halo and I say: 'Hey, let's play Uno', it's a case of, 'Right, I'll set up the session and I'll invite you in'. There's a whole bunch of steps and I'm wondering what's going to happen, where he's gone. For new people that's difficult. So what if the party leader selects the new experience and we all go there together - no loss of communication, no loss of us being together and social?"

Thats gonna be awesome