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Edge-Online: Inside the New Xbox Live - Part 1 and 2
>> From edge-online.com(1)/edge-online.com(2):
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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.
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Full Story: edge-online.com - part1 (3 pages) | edge-online.com - part2
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