With all the hubbub surrounding the Windows 8 keynote today there really wasn’t much mention of Microsoft’s other marvel Xbox Live. With the integration the latest Xbox Dashboard is supposed to have, it is fitting to offer that integration between computer and console.
This afternoon, Major Nelson confirmed that Microsoft will be bringing Xbox Live to the PC with Xbox LIVE on Windows!
We are confirming that we will be bringing Xbox LIVE to the PC with Xbox LIVE on Windows. We are very excited about Xbox LIVE coming to Windows 8. Xbox LIVE brings your games, music, movies, and TV shows to your favorite Microsoft and Windows devices. Bringing Xbox LIVE to Windows 8 is part of our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy. At BUILD we are showing that it is easy for developers to create games for Windows 8 that take advantage of the power of Xbox LIVE. We have much more detail to share about the capabilities of Xbox LIVE on Windows and look forward to the opportunity to do so in the near future.
Anyone excited for this integration? You stoked to be able to hang with your Live friends while trolling the interwebs? Us Mac OSX users aren’t really sure what to think. I mean we feel using Live while on the Xbox only makes sense. We don’t need two devices to do one thing, which is why we own Macs!
Way back in 2008 we had a nice little update to our Xbox 360 Dashboard that actually made you feel lik you were playing on a Next Gen console. Here we are 3 years later and it’s about time we feel like the rest of the Windows world. With the Windows Phone 7 out and in some pockets everywhere, and Windows 8 on the verge, Microsoft wants their entire lineup to feel like a tiled social dream. They bring this idea to their highly successful gaming platform in hopes to make your gaming easy and less clumpy. Hopefully most of you have a 360 and know what it is like to try and find content on the thing. Sometimes items are hard to find, and for the n00b out there, locating a video or game content can get difficult.
Microsoft is here to save the day, once again. Later this year (“Fall”) our Xboxes will be getting a much needed update. With a new design, enhanced performance and some pretty nifty social integration, Microsoft hopes we will have a one-stop shop for all of our media needs. Will Microsoft be able to bring television and movies into the mix to actually provide us with 1 solution for everything we might need? Hop on in to find out!
Microsoft first debuted it’s snazzy live group video chatting service back at CES 2011 – which we covered. And here we are, a mere 7 months later and we can finally see the dimples come to life! Avatar Kinect is a free download to any Xbox Live Gold member, as well as a limited time trial offer for those of you still rocking the free account for the next month and a half.
Avatar Kinect, available today, lets you – or rather your personalized avatar – interact with or hang out with up to seven other friends in 24 virtual stages ranging from a late-night talk show set to outer space to a sports tailgate party. To make the cyber socializing more real, Kinect’s camera tracks gestures and facial expressions – eyebrow raises, smiles, belly laughs and all.
We’ve known this was coming for a long time and us here at GS are kinda stoked to see if finally drop. We’ve been waiting to get our Avatar’s hands on some virtual party beers for a while now. The Kinect Fun Labs creation allows you to ‘chillin out max’ with around 7 of your closest internet buddies(or alone in my case) in a whopping 24 different virtual stages. Don’t worry though, this is Microsoft – so cash will be handed over. Those of you that will want the ability to draw sparkling lines with your real virtual fingers using Kinect Fun Labs ‘Kinect Sparkle‘ will be forced to fork over 240 virtual dollars this Thursday.
We’ve seen the Zune do what it does best – suck. For a long, long time we’ve had to see the brand thrown at us whether it be at retailers, Microsoft’s website, or something I see every day – the XBox Dashboard. I’ve been longing for the day I won’t see that first on my ‘Video Marketplace’ section on the Dashboard, or maybe a day I can re-arrange the listings to have Netflix come first. Instead of that happening, rumors from up here in the Northwest are saying Zune will be getting a much needed revamp.
Since it’s XBox debut back in 2009, not much has been done with the service, but the sweet nothings that are being whispered are saying we’ll have the service updated to rival the likes of Netflix and Hulu Plus. If you aren’t familiar with the latter two, they are a subscription based internet streaming service used on your XBox, Wii, PS3, computer and even your cellphone. Zune has given us pay per view type services – which really limits how many people will use it. And if the specs are true, not many people did use it. Kind of like the Zune Media Player we had years ago, it seemed just like another failure that was under the Zune Umbrella. Well, 2011 and things might just get a little bit better for Microsoft and the Zune brand. With the rumored streaming subscriptions, I feel more people will use the service. I’m not sure how popular their TV Pass service is, but I would assume with the likes of Hulu Plus and Netflix they can’t be too impressive.
We’ve contacted Microsoft inquiring about what type of subscriptions they’ll offer, and if the rumors are even true. As soon as we learn more we’ll let you know. But you can bet this will might give Netflix a run for its money!
[So 20x XP SDCC Event is going to run exactly SDCC hours - July 22nd, 12:30 PM EDT till July 25th, 8 PM EDT.]
Gears of War Producer Rod Fergusson released a tweet a couple days ago bribing the Tweetters out there, that Gears of War 2 will have a Double XP weekend to coincide with the San Diego Comic-Con. His bribe: # of followers divided by 500, that will be the number of double xp.
If there’s one thing Microsoft has blown out of the park and done remarkably well with over the last 5 years, Xbox is definitely where it’s at. Building off the original hardware console, Xbox Live has transformed international multi-player gaming into an extremely easy and intuitive affair.
And now that multiple people in the same house probably want Xbox Live Gold accounts without paying $50 per person, per year, Microsoft is happy to oblige. Introducing Xbox Live Gold Family plans topping the chart at $99/yr.
If you’ve only got two accounts in the household, there isn’t any savings to be had. But it really starts to add up when you start factoring in the 3rd and 4th accounts. On that note, there is a limit of (4) total accounts under a family plan. Ask yourself though, how many people really have 5+ Xbox Live accounts…?
Are you a social gamer or one who cares more for eye candy and being locked away in a dark, somewhat smelly bedroom for hours on end? If you’re the former, Xbox Live is pretty much your only choice. The integration with the console and the ease at which games can be played across continents to the simplicity of buying and downloading new games is second to none.
But if you’re the latter, Sony’s PSN is more your flavor. I mean, how can you beat free? Sony realizing their PSN isn’t quite in the same league as Microsoft’s Xbox Live looks to be trying at it again, with rumors that a highly needed change is coming to the Playstation Network…
Feeling bummed that your modded Xbox 360 was shown the door a couple months back when Microsoft pushed out an update, locking all of said consoles out of their hard drives and Xbox Live? The real source of it all was HDD access. With the update that was pushed out, Microsoft disabled users from access the hard drive where Xbox Live account info is also stored which in turn caused the domino effect of suckage that ensued. Even worse, the update went through and completely scrambled the contents of the hard drive so that a person couldn’t take said hard drive to another box and continue on their merry way.
But today, gamers are realizing that the new Xbox 360 April 2010 Update (direct download link) is actually restoring the lost hard drive functionality. The process is a bit convoluted, but works none the less. The only caveat is that the scrambled contents from your past are still scrambled and unusable — so you have to start from scratch. However, those who’ve more or less accepted the fact that there modded 360 was nothing more than a big plastic paperweight will probably take what they can get at this point.
Give the “rebirthing” a shot by following the guide at Ngohq and letting us know how it all goes for ya. Video of the new update in action below…
If you’re in the heat of the battle within a Halo/Modern Warfare 2/GTA mission on your Xbox and are completely oblivious to any and all threats in the immediate reality surrounding you, a new mandatory warning system coming to New Yorkers will benefit you greatly. The New York Emergency Management Office will soon start issue warning messages via Xbox Live. Messages such as Tornado, flood, thunderstorm, amber alert, etc. will come through the Xbox Live channel into your humble abode alerting the 25 and younger crowd whom are increasingly spending more time away from traditional TV and radio channels that broadcast such emergency information. The move will hopefully spark other agencies and corporations to embrace this whole digital realm of things. Though I hope Microsoft doesn’t allow companies and third parties to go overboard. God forbid Xbox Live becomes overrun with commercials and merchant services. Such a thing would destroy the popular online gaming world. Thankfully I don’t think Microsoft is willing to sell that much of their soul.
So what do you think: Emergency warnings via Xbox Live — Good or bad?
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With all the hubbub surrounding the Windows 8 keynote today there really wasn’t much mention of Microsoft’s other marvel Xbox Live. With the integration the latest Xbox Dashboard is supposed to have, it is fitting to offer that integration between computer and console. 
