Microsoft Unveils Social and Interactive TV Enhancements for Xbox 360

At a major press event at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, Monday (which saw the participation of director, Steven Spielberg, among others), Microsoft announced a number of new enhancements, services and partnerships for its Xbox 360 device that appear designed to continue the process of transforming it from a mere games console into an over-the-top interactive TV platform for the living room (note: for more on this process, see the article on the new Sky Player Xbox service, published on itvt.com May 29th). The event also saw the launch of a controller-free user experience for the Xbox. "Today, with cultural visionaries at our side and controller-free gaming on our horizon, Xbox 360 authored a new page in home entertainment history," said Don Mattrick, SVP of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business. "For us, this E3 is about breaking down barriers--between generations, between games and entertainment, and most important, between video game players and everyone else--in a way that only Xbox 360 can."

According to Microsoft, the Xbox 360's OTT entertainment service, Xbox LIVE, will shortly offer:

• Integration with social-networking service, Facebook (note: Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook back in 2007), allowing end-users to use their TV sets to share status updates and pictures with their Facebook friends, and also use Facebook Connect to share their "greatest moments in gaming" by posting updates and screenshots from supported games directly to Facebook. The first Xbox game slated to offer Facebook Connect support will be EA's "Tiger Woods PGA Tour."
• Integration with Twitter, allowing users to send and view tweets from their TV sets. (Note: both the Xbox Twitter and Facebook clients visually adapt their services for the Xbox LIVE graphical user interface.)
• Access to CBS Interactive Music Group's Last.fm service (note: this feature will only be available to Xbox users who subscribe to the premium Gold version of Xbox Live), which is billed as offering "millions" of songs. The Xbox LIVE implementation of the service will also allow users to create their own free, personalized radio stations and "listen to them with friends in the living room or across the country," Microsoft says.
• An application called Xbox LIVE Party that will allow users to use their Xbox avatars to watch movies in a virtual movie theater with up to seven of their friends (note: Microsoft last week announced a version of this application for its Sky Player Xbox service--see article cited above) and to interact with those friends, during these virtual movie-watching parties, via voice chat.
• Instant on-demand streaming (vs. the current "queue and view" system) of a "broad selection" of 1080p HD movies and TV shows from Microsoft's Zune Marketplace service with 5.1 surround sound. Microsoft says that this feature will be available in the fall (note: Zune Marketplace is the new name for what was previously called the Xbox Video Marketplace).
• The ability for end-users to use the TV, rather than a PC, to search content on Netflix and to make changes to their Netflix queue.

Microsoft also says that it will increase the number of markets where Xbox LIVE offers TV shows and movies from eight to 18, adding Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. "We are always asking ourselves how to make the TV more social," John Schappert, Microsoft's corporate VP of Interactive Entertainment LIVE, Software and Studios, said in a prepared statement. "By bringing Facebook, Last.fm and Xbox LIVE Party for movies and TV shows to Xbox LIVE, we're not only extending the walls of your living room beyond your home to your friends in different corners of the world, we're creating the definitive social network, uniting more than 200 million people to share status updates, pictures, thoughts on music and the world's best online gaming experience."

Microsoft also used the E3 press event to unveil its new controller-free Xbox 360 motion-sensor technology, which is code-named "Project Natal." The technology, which some observers believe could pose a significant threat to the Nintendo Wii, allows users to play Xbox games using their whole body: "See a ball? Kick it, hit it, trap it or catch it," Microsoft says in its promotional materials. "If you know how to move your hands, shake your hips or speak, you and your friends can jump into the fun. The only experience needed is life experience." According to the company, "Project Natal" centers around a sensor that is the first to combine an RGB camera, a depth sensor, a multi-array microphone and a custom processor running proprietary software--all in one device. Unlike 2D cameras and controllers, Microsoft says, "Project Natal" tracks the user's full body movement in 3D, while responding to commands, directions and even a shift of emotion in the user's voice. In addition, the company says, the "Project Natal" sensor is not light-dependent, can "recognize you just by looking at your face," and "doesn't just react to key words but understands what you're saying. Call a play in a football game," the company adds, "and players will actually respond. Want to log onto Xbox LIVE? Simply step in front of the sensor." "The next step in interactive entertainment is to make the controller disappear," Microsoft press event participant, Steven Spielberg, said in a prepared statement. "With 'Project Natal,' we'll see games that bring everyone together through technology that actually recognizes us."