Live: What's Not Being Said
When the new Xbox Live rolled out with the first shipments of Xbox 360s, it brought something with it, something console gaming needed: all the comforts of PC gaming. Downloadable games, demos, game and movie trailers, and custom content for both games and the console itself were suddenly available to download and store (if desired) on the Xbox 360. Improved match-making, persistent online game stats and rivalries, and other improvements are changing the way we look at online gaming. Can we expect Microsoft's competitors to follow suit and play catch-up, or will they go a different direction? Can Sony follow through on their promise of an impending "Live-killer," or will they keep on keeping on with their free-but-worthless online system?
In the previous generation of video game consoles, Microsoft's Xbox and its Xbox Live online feature-set arguably reigned supreme. While Sony's Playstation 2 offered a free online gaming solution, it had more draw-backs than benefits. One the one hand, it was free, no matter what you played. However, to offset the costs inherent to an online service, Sony just decided to not provide a service at all. Instead, individual game developers/studios were responsible for providing and maintaining game servers for PS2 owners' usage. Players had to connect to this 3rd-party server, create a login (or login with one they had already created), re-connect to the server, find a game to join, and connect to that. Lag was a rampant issue. Microsoft, on the other hand, provided a simple centralized system that they maintained. For the not-at-all-unreasonable price of $50/year (just barely over $4/month), users have access to a centralized system, a system with one login, one password, and you're connected. Any game on the Xbox that supported Live could be played through this system, without complication of any sort. In addition to online gaming, Live provided users with a "Friends List," a way of communicating with your buddies, grouping with them so that you can play together on Live. You could leave messages for your friends if they weren't online when you were, and establish voice chats with them when they were online.
Now we have the Xbox 360, and with it comes improvements and new features. While we currently have voice chat, we'll soon be able to hold video chat with our friends via the upcoming USB camera peripheral. We can download trailers of upcoming games, as well as playable demos. You can customize the Xbox 360 "dashboard" with downloadable themes, and customize your gamer card with various game-inspired avatars. You can host private online games, and invite your friends to the fragging. However, the real excitement isn't in what's currently offered, or what has been promised by Microsoft. What really gets the blood going is the thought of what could be done with this system, and the rumors that have come about based on little tidbits of information.
One thing that many gamers have long enjoyed is hosting their own game server. These servers can be password-protected for privacy, or can be left open to the public. It would be a great addition to Live's featureset if Microsoft would add in the ability for a PC or Xbox 360 to act as a dedicated server for a game. It would allow the "server's" host more control over their game's controls; imagine not having to kick annoying players because they've been automatically added to your server's ban list. In addition to this feature, Microsoft could supplement Live's match-making system, which pairs a player up with other players of similar rank/skill (based on their previous Live stats), with a server browser system. Now, instead of just being thrown into a random game based on your online ranking, you can navigate through a list and connect to your friend's personal server--it doesn't matter that he's ranked in the top 100 and you have a rank of 10k+.
One thing I've been personally salivating over is the possibility of DirecTV content provided directly to your Xbox 360. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, Microsoft and DirecTV announced a "long-term agreement to expand the reach of digital content throughout the home and on the go," and went so far as to indicate that they intend to "extend the DirecTV experience to teh Xbox 360 system." The following month, Official Xbox Magazine reported on the possibility of a 5th "blade" being added to the Xbox 360's dashboard; their "mole" detailed how the DirecTV blade would make available to users the ability to "download TV episodes in high definition, HD movies on demand, and standard-definition streaming DVR (i.e., TiVo) functions."
Two words: crazy hot.
What lies in store for Xbox 360 owners in the near future? If gamers have their say (and if the rumors can be believed), Microsoft will once again dominate the realm of online console gaming in this "Next-Gen" of High-Def gaming.
In the previous generation of video game consoles, Microsoft's Xbox and its Xbox Live online feature-set arguably reigned supreme. While Sony's Playstation 2 offered a free online gaming solution, it had more draw-backs than benefits. One the one hand, it was free, no matter what you played. However, to offset the costs inherent to an online service, Sony just decided to not provide a service at all. Instead, individual game developers/studios were responsible for providing and maintaining game servers for PS2 owners' usage. Players had to connect to this 3rd-party server, create a login (or login with one they had already created), re-connect to the server, find a game to join, and connect to that. Lag was a rampant issue. Microsoft, on the other hand, provided a simple centralized system that they maintained. For the not-at-all-unreasonable price of $50/year (just barely over $4/month), users have access to a centralized system, a system with one login, one password, and you're connected. Any game on the Xbox that supported Live could be played through this system, without complication of any sort. In addition to online gaming, Live provided users with a "Friends List," a way of communicating with your buddies, grouping with them so that you can play together on Live. You could leave messages for your friends if they weren't online when you were, and establish voice chats with them when they were online.
Now we have the Xbox 360, and with it comes improvements and new features. While we currently have voice chat, we'll soon be able to hold video chat with our friends via the upcoming USB camera peripheral. We can download trailers of upcoming games, as well as playable demos. You can customize the Xbox 360 "dashboard" with downloadable themes, and customize your gamer card with various game-inspired avatars. You can host private online games, and invite your friends to the fragging. However, the real excitement isn't in what's currently offered, or what has been promised by Microsoft. What really gets the blood going is the thought of what could be done with this system, and the rumors that have come about based on little tidbits of information.
One thing that many gamers have long enjoyed is hosting their own game server. These servers can be password-protected for privacy, or can be left open to the public. It would be a great addition to Live's featureset if Microsoft would add in the ability for a PC or Xbox 360 to act as a dedicated server for a game. It would allow the "server's" host more control over their game's controls; imagine not having to kick annoying players because they've been automatically added to your server's ban list. In addition to this feature, Microsoft could supplement Live's match-making system, which pairs a player up with other players of similar rank/skill (based on their previous Live stats), with a server browser system. Now, instead of just being thrown into a random game based on your online ranking, you can navigate through a list and connect to your friend's personal server--it doesn't matter that he's ranked in the top 100 and you have a rank of 10k+.
One thing I've been personally salivating over is the possibility of DirecTV content provided directly to your Xbox 360. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, Microsoft and DirecTV announced a "long-term agreement to expand the reach of digital content throughout the home and on the go," and went so far as to indicate that they intend to "extend the DirecTV experience to teh Xbox 360 system." The following month, Official Xbox Magazine reported on the possibility of a 5th "blade" being added to the Xbox 360's dashboard; their "mole" detailed how the DirecTV blade would make available to users the ability to "download TV episodes in high definition, HD movies on demand, and standard-definition streaming DVR (i.e., TiVo) functions."
Two words: crazy hot.
What lies in store for Xbox 360 owners in the near future? If gamers have their say (and if the rumors can be believed), Microsoft will once again dominate the realm of online console gaming in this "Next-Gen" of High-Def gaming.
posted by IcarusFountain at
3:49 PM
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