Microsoft Set To Debut Xbox Live Upgrade

Thanks to reader dj_paulgibbs for pointing to this Yahoo story talking about further upgrades to Xbox Live that Microsoft plan to unveil at E3. Yahoo's sources say these include "advanced community features such as voice chat and locater services that operate independently of games in progress", and also mentions a new "Xbox Music Mixer" for audio, as well as the ability to play video transferred from a PC. This is separate to the Xbox Live software upgrade we mentioned last week.

Comments

interesting

[bigbigbison]

I find it interesting that we are getting this news of xbox live updates, but still no news on what the fee structure will be like after the year expires. One has to wonder if there is some serious debate going on over this up at redmond.

Re:interesting

[toddhunter]

I doubt we will hear about fees long after they are decided upon (probably a long time ago). Best to build up the hype first. If they said it was going to be some rediculous amount (my bet) then it would become another thing for gamers to tune out about.

Re:interesting

[nexex]

from what ive heard, it charges you $50 extending your subscription for a year, once your first year expires...but i would love to see something in writing on what exactly the costs are...

Re:interesting

[mrpuffypants]

Hell, call Microsoft for yourself and ask them...I talked to the Xbox tech support people once a while back and asked them that exact same question.

The tech told me that it was one of their most asked questions, and that the debate about the fees was pretty tight-lipped around Microsoft.

Think about it though: if the new services are part of Xbox live, then that can be how they will justify the increased rates, i.e. "Pay more and now get voice chat world wide included in your monthly fee!" Could be a nice point if two people has xboxes to just use those to talk over state lines rather than get mired in long-distance fee structures

Price structure

[Ransom342]

As long as I get a good service for my money Im not too worried. If they give me those services and some more titles with no monthlys I would gladly pay $10 a month. Thats what I would have to pay for most MMORPG. if they gave me Live and Galaxies for $10/Month I would be happy.

Will it dissuade modders?

[handsomepete]

One of the big selling points for having a modchip (for me at least) is the ability to run the Xbox multimedia apps. Is this Microsoft's answer? A sort of "you can have your music and your video *and* not be banned from Xbox Live" thing? Or is this just a jumping on the do-everything bandwagon (a la Tivo's Home Media)? I'm getting kind of tired of having so many separate things doing so many different things, I'm ready for a little consolidation.. but only if it does each thing reasonably well.

And when will the first of the original Xbox Live subscriptions start expiring anyways?

Re:Will it dissuade modders?

[MBCook]

I got in the late beta and signed up in November, so I'd assume that's when you start to see renewals. That means they'd need to have any new pricing structures (I doubt they'd do this) inplace before that (Oct?).

Re:Will it dissuade modders?

[Nathan Ramella]

Curious question indeed. Microsoft really could hit a home-run with a 'sanctioned' Xbox Media Player, but it's highly unlikely and would probably be feature-bare (SMB? XBMSP? XBMS? Shoutcast Streams?) compared to mod-chip dependent equivalants.
I'd rather use XBMP any day compared to Windows Media Player. I can trust that my viewing habits aren't being monitored and sold off to marketing firms and that software quality will generally go up.

There's an obvious cabal that thwarts unrestricted media management, be it through artifically inflated CD-R/DVD-R costs, MP3 players that don't ship with larger than 128 megs of storage space (Of course, present company excluded...

It just doesn't suprise me nobody has an 'all-in-one' box yet.

Re:more on 'Xbox Music Mixer' via Reuters.

[mrpuffypants]

properly encoded video

that's the kicker...what's "properly encoded?" For microsoft it probably means WMA and ASF or WMV, but I have a large part of my music collection in mp3 (like 90% of the world), ogg people will be left out in the rain as usual probably, and all these nifty new music purchases that I've made with iTune's Music Store are totally DOA.

If this service sees that light of day (and it prolly will), would you consider convertying your collection to WMA just to use the xbox with it? For me it wouldn't be an option because I rip FIRST on my iBook, then xfer to the PC, but what about everybody else?

Buy a steenkin' 256 MB card

[yerricde]

MP3 players that don't ship with larger than 128 megs of storage space

There exist specific "price points" that hold psychological power in an American or European consumer's mind. Flash storage is relatively expensive. Bundling more than 128 MB of flash with a player would push it into a less attractive price bracket. Let those who want to add more than two hours of music to their pocket compressed audio player buy a larger CF card, or possibly switch to a player with rotating magnetic or optical storage. For example, I have an MP3 player with 650 MB of space. It plays MP3 audio written to a CD-RW disc.

Re:Buy a steenkin' 256 MB card

[Nathan Ramella]

Had you read my post and checked out the FrontierLabs mp3 player, you'd have seen that it supports flash ram up to 1gb. Although I only have a 512 meg card myself.
I suspect that if each of us went for a jog, I'd be the one who'd make it home with functional music. :)

Re:more on 'Xbox Music Mixer' via Reuters.

[zero_offset]

that's the kicker...what's "properly encoded?" For microsoft it probably means WMA and ASF or WMV, but I have a large part of my music collection in mp3 (like 90% of the world)

Do you have an XBOX? It uses MP3 internally. I'm not saying you aren't making a good point (MS loves to pimp it's formats and we all know they're sucking that DRM tit) but still... it does use MP3 today...

Functional?

[yerricde]

Had you read my post and checked out the FrontierLabs mp3 player

I did.

you'd have seen that it supports flash ram up to 1gb

I was commenting that while quite a few other players support larger cards, they just come bundled with small cards to keep the price of the player down.

functional music

"Functional"? Is that some sort of math rock?