For years Microsoft has been hoping to make the Xbox 360 into more than just a gaming console by adding more and more entertainment-centric features. Although it may still be looked at as a platform for playing games that also happens to do other stuff, a new milestone has been reached: Time spent watching videos and listening to music over Xbox Live has surpassed time spent playing multiplayer games online.
It may feel like Microsoft's entertainment push has been a more recent thing, particularly with the release of the many entertainment apps we've seen over the past few months. (Three new ones made it out today, including one of the most anticipated of the bunch: HBO Go, MLB.TV, and Xfinity on Demand.) But it's been something the company has been touting for years -- ahead of the New Xbox Experience's release way back in November 2008, Shane Kim described the NXE as "a big part of [Live's] transformation from a multiplayer matchmaking service to a social and entertainment network." It certainly was, though it still feels like a stretch for the launch of NXE to be compared to the release of the color TV in 1954; the press release sent out at the time was titled, "A New Dawn in Home Entertainment for Everyone Begins Nov. 19."
Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi told the L.A. Times that the average household (with an Xbox Live Gold subscription, according to The Verge) spends 84 hours on Xbox Live between playing games online, watching videos, and listening to music. That figure is a 30 percent increase year-over-year, with more than half of that 84 hours being spent with videos and music. For a comparison, the average household spends 150 hours watching television every month, though with streaming services becoming more and more commonplace, it seems likely that will drop and usage of devices like the Xbox 360 will continue to go up over the next few years.
"What we're seeing is that people are turning on the Xbox to play games and then keeping it on afterwards to get other types of entertainment," Mehdi said.
The transformation of the Xbox 360 from its launch until now -- complete with the addition of the apps mentioned above, Netflix, ESPN, and others -- is nothing short of remarkable. And the success the company has had with these initiatives is part of what makes recent rumors of an Xbox 360 Lite, as it's been called, not entirely laughable. It reportedly would be coming late next year as a trimmed down 360 with support for Kinect, Arcade-style games, and the media apps which have proven to be so popular.
If it comes in late 2013 as the Xbox 360's life cycle is winding down -- the system's successor is heavily rumored to be coming out around that point in time -- it would be a smart way to continue making money off of the system without hurting the gaming business. And provided there's enough of a price disparity between it and the new Xbox, it wouldn't necessarily have much of an impact on that, either, as the markets for a brand-new, high-end gaming console and a box capable of playing certain games and media streaming are fairly distinct.
Whether or not such a system is ever released, media functionality is going to be a top priority in Microsoft's next console. System updates for the 360 have put those features front and center -- just look at the number of times you have to tab over to get to the 'Games' category on the current dashboard -- but as someone who continues to primarily use the system as a gaming device, I'm not worried games will be forgotten by Microsoft. Gaming is how Xbox made a name for itself, and media features, however good they may be, will not be enough to sell a box that costs several hundred dollars when the Xbox 360 and any number of other much cheaper options exist. A top-notch gaming experience is what early adopters will be looking for in a new console, and whether those experiences are delivered on DVDs, Blu-rays, or digitally, the importance of ensuring the gaming side of the system is as good as possible is unlikely to be lost on Microsoft.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
0 comments:
Post a Comment