Today it was the turn of the XBOX to take the limelight with two big announcements.
1. The Beatles will be on Rock Band.
That’s right, The Beatles have officially licensed select songs to play on Microsoft’s XBOX 360 platform. This move will surely move the platform and the game into a much wider audience than the traditional ‘hard rock’ slant the game has had to date. The game is already for pre-order on Amazon UK.
2. XBOX live will open up to allow connections with Facebook and Twitter bringing the gaming experience to a much greater level of interaction. This is important news as all the games consoles have been fighting to become part of the consumer’s daily life, not just game playing. This announcement offers great opportunity to bring the worlds of gaming, and the living room, to the worlds of social networks.
I speculate that both announcements are very important footholds in the evolution of the XBOX 360. I for one will be dusting off my XBOX and seeing what it can do.
Please excuse the formatting on this post. Sometimes WordPress just won’t do what you want it to…
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Adam Russell
on Jun 2nd, 2009
@ 9:38 am:
So does that mean you will finally accept my friend request?
I think there is maybe a temptation to get a bit carried away on this one… It feels like we are celebrating a kids university graduation whilst they are still in playschool. These are steps in the right direction, but:
1. I really don’t see the Beatles Rock Band being as big as people are hyping it to be. The Beatles appeal to the older generation *cough* but there are probably more people in my generation that want to play GnR and even more younger people who want a rap version of Singstar (or something) or a DJ version of rock band (two turntables and a microphone).
2. The Facebook thing is a smart (if blatantly obvious) move – but what they should really be doing is ditching the xbox live skin and adopting something like Facebook Connect completely… That way I don’t have my Xbox live connections in one place and Facebook somewhere else.
Microsoft’s killer app isn’t going to be games – they just don’t get the mainstream in the same way as Nintendo. What they need to focus on is media – why don’t they do a deal where every Skybox / Tivo / whatever comes with a 360 packed in… It’s a risky move but it would finally get mum, dad et al finally using the system.
Jamie Riddell
on Jun 2nd, 2009
@ 10:12 am:
Yeah, I need to go and turn it on to see those requests. God knows I still pay £5 a month to Xbox Live. The PS3 with its Blu Ray player graces the living room. The Xbox is banished upstairs, not sure if I even have any games for it.