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Microsoft Says Goodbye To WebTV/MSN TV

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the so-long dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has just notified both subscribers of MSN TV that the service would be ending at the end of September (FAQ for subscribers here). The service, which delivered Internet access to a TV screen via a set top box, was the evolution of WebTV Networks launched by Steve Perlman and others during the initial Web boom in the mid '90s. Microsoft bought the company for $503 million in 1997, when Bill Gates was still CEO."

21 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. I owned MSN TV by A+Huge+Loud+Fart · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I owned MSN TV and it was one of the best services of all time. So long, you will be missed...

    1. Re:I owned MSN TV by cyrano.mac · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Microsoft has just notified both subscribers of MSN TV..." So who's the other one?

    2. Re: I owned MSN TV by saleenS281 · · Score: 2

      My grandmother-in-law has one. The reason it's a step back a decade is because their target market doesn't like change for the sake of change. It worked for it's intended audience. A rasberry pi with chromium requires learning something new... easy when you're technically literate and 30 years old, difficult when you're 85 and haven't the faintest clue how to use a modern desktop.

  2. Whatever you use ... by lord_rob+the+only+on · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The company that develops your product might decide to drop its support and you're screwed.

    1. Re:Whatever you use ... by Howitzer86 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Depends on the device. I own a Sega Genesis, a 22 year old machine, that I still play from time to time. It was made before the dawn of internet dependance, thus, as long as I have the game cartridges, I will be able to play the console.

      An Xbox One or PS3 (or PC) may have some game you like that 22 years from now you won't be able to play because the support servers were shut down. Hell, the situation also covers content creation software like Photoshop CS2, which resulted in Adobe making a mess of things and accidentally releasing the un-DRM'd software to the general public. I doubt Microsoft will bother, 15 years from now many people will still care but the outcry wouldn't be great enough to prevent the death of the entire system. We are lucky to have managed that pre-emtively, but we'll have to live with the reality that some of the games and software that we buy simply have an end-date.

      It's worth caring about, at least in principal.

  3. Re:XBox One competition by Stormwatch · · Score: 2

    By that reasoning, maybe WebTV was the reason why they didn't give the Xbox a web browser until last year... something the Sega Dreamcast had out of the box, back in 1999.

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.
  4. Then again... by vikingpower · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...the umpteenth set-top box business model that collapses. Siemens is trying, at this moment, in Central Europe. Why do companies try this business model so often, where it has shown only one consistency, namely that of failure everywhere ?

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    1. Re:Then again... by Stormwatch · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The idea behind set-top boxes is reasonable: a simple cheap device for people who have little use for a full-blown PC. But they used to be so extremely limited in matters of processing power, storage, customizability... to the point that they were not good enough even for those people. Now look at any Android mini-PC that you can get off eBay for $50, it's something completely different. I guess we finally got to the point where set-top boxes can be made good enough and cheap enough.

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
  5. Ummm... by garyoa1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Last time I looked, the hints were that Xbox1 would do the same thing as MSN TV.

    --
    Wuddooeyeno? IITYWYBMAD? Like nuts? eclecticallyincorrect.com
    1. Re:Ummm... by DanielOom · · Score: 2

      It must be that new strategy of transforming Microsoft into a Services and Devices company.

  6. Roku by transporter_ii · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Assume Amazon, Netflix, etc., etc., go out of business, I can still use Plex or Playon to stream movies off my own LAN.

    The really bad thing that would happen is the death of DVDs. DVDs were the single greatest thing to ever happen to the "public domain," copyright be damned.

    --
    Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
    1. Re:Roku by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Assume Amazon, Netflix, etc., etc., go out of business, I can still use Plex or Playon to stream movies off my own LAN.

      The really bad thing that would happen is the death of DVDs. DVDs were the single greatest thing to ever happen to the "public domain," copyright be damned.

      And now you know why the media companies want the DVD to die. As long as you can play it whenever you want, they can't monetize it.

  7. No upgrade path to Xbox One? by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You'd think they'd offer an upgrade path to Xbox One. But no. That's not the Microsoft way. They didn't migrate PlaysForSure to Zune. They sort of migrated Zune to Windows Phone and Xbox Music. They're not good at gracefully supporting their content buyers as the technology changes.

    1. Re:No upgrade path to Xbox One? by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 2

      You'd think they'd offer an upgrade path to Xbox One. But no. That's not the Microsoft way. They didn't migrate PlaysForSure to Zune. They sort of migrated Zune to Windows Phone and Xbox Music. They're not good at gracefully supporting their content buyers as the technology changes.

      That's because internally, Microsoft makes decisions to keep products from eating profits of other profit lines, instead of what is best for the companies total bottom line. As such, PlaysForSure and Zune were competitors, even internally and the thought of Zune giving a break to the people who made the wrong choice was unthinkable. Let them pay the full price like everybody else. Likewise for Zune to Windows Phone and Xbox Music. When you set up your internal teams to compete against each other that is the result you get, winners and losers, but ultimately the consumer loses which means Microsoft loses, particularly when there are non-Microsoft solutions, too.

    2. Re:No upgrade path to Xbox One? by JDG1980 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Microsoft still thinks like a monopoly, even in those fields where they don't actually possess one. In the long run, this will be their downfall.

  8. Re:Remembering Phil Goldman, WebTV cofounder by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 2

    Two words; hot grits.

    You mean Natalie Portman is responsible? Did she hump him to death or what?

    --
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
  9. Smartphones/tablets made WebTV obsolete by JDG1980 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The original idea of WebTV was that it would be a simple web browsing appliance for people who didn't need all the power of a full-fledged computer, and didn't want to learn all the intricacies of Windows. The thing is, we now have other devices that do this even better: tablets and smartphones. And the non-technical crowd has transitioned to these devices en masse. We hear a lot about the so-called "post-PC era", but it isn't because experienced users have stopped using standard PCs. (They haven't, and won't – tablets and smartphones are much too limited to take the place of a real workstation.) Rather, it's because people who never used all the power of a PC in the first place decided to switch to devices that were easier to use, and didn't require antivirus software or weekly security patching. An iPad makes a lousy workstation, but for non-technical users, it's a better web-browsing/email/Facebook device than a Windows PC. And WebTV with its ancient hardware and firmware couldn't keep up.

    1. Re:Smartphones/tablets made WebTV obsolete by colfer · · Score: 2

      Monitors were huge & somewhat costly then, so it saved you that expense & space. But you couldn't scroll to the right! It just clipped anything wider than 640px (?) off. And the resolution of course was low-res TV. Not sure it was so protected from exploits either.

  10. Worst management ever.... by guevera · · Score: 2

    ....and that's saying something.

    The inability of MS's teams to work together might have something to do with the atrocious stack ranking method they used for employee evaluation:

    “If you were on a team of 10 people, you walked in the first day knowing that, no matter how good everyone was, 2 people were going to get a great review, 7 were going to get mediocre reviews, and 1 was going to get a terrible review,” says a former software developer. “It leads to employees focusing on competing with each other rather than competing with other companies.”

    That's from Vanity Faire from last year. I still find it hard to believe. I used to think Balmer hate was just sort of nerd posturing, but after reading that I realized, no, Balmer really is a clueless jack off doing nothing more than reciting the latest MBA buzzwords he learned from the latest business bestseller.

    1. Re:Worst management ever.... by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 2

      ....and that's saying something.

      The inability of MS's teams to work together might have something to do with the atrocious stack ranking method they used for employee evaluation:

      “If you were on a team of 10 people, you walked in the first day knowing that, no matter how good everyone was, 2 people were going to get a great review, 7 were going to get mediocre reviews, and 1 was going to get a terrible review,” says a former software developer. “It leads to employees focusing on competing with each other rather than competing with other companies.”

      That's from Vanity Faire from last year. I still find it hard to believe. I used to think Balmer hate was just sort of nerd posturing, but after reading that I realized, no, Balmer really is a clueless jack off doing nothing more than reciting the latest MBA buzzwords he learned from the latest business bestseller.

      That is a formula not for long term success but ultimate failure. When you force your team members not to actually function as a team, but ultimately be direct competitors of each other you do not get the best product and you don't get it at the most efficient price point.

      Maybe that's why Microsoft is no longer considered a major player by most people. It wasn't because Bill Gates left, it was because who Bill Gates left in charge.

  11. Bill Gates Ripped Me Off! by beaverdownunder · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Microsoft has just notified both subscribers of MSN TV that the service would be ending..."

    Yes, and I imagine the two of them are equally disappointed. (I'm sure someone already made that joke, but I couldn't resist...)

    Seriously though, I was responsible for some of the (frankly torturous) menu music in the earlier WebTV firmware (ooh, .MOD files...) which I was never actually paid for because my cheque got lost in the shuffle when Microsoft bought WebTV Networks. I think I'm happier to be able to say that Microsoft stiffed me though (and more proud of that fact than the music I wrote), rather than if I'd actually been paid. It makes for a better story.

    Surprised the platform has survived this long though...