YouTube, Bing, and Live TV Coming to Xbox 360
The various services will continue to bolster Microsoft's Xbox Live offering, as will the interactive UFC Xbox Live integration.
Aside from games, Microsoft set out today to demonstrate that the Xbox 360 is more than just a gaming machine. Similar to what they did during last year's press conference, the company announced a number of new services, as well as a brand new interface for the Xbox 360 to tie it all together. YouTube, Bing, and live TV were all touted as new features due out alongside the New Xbox Experience this fall.
The exact functionality of YouTube and live TV weren't detailed to any extent, but it was revealed that players will have access to live broadcasts like sports, local news, and TV shows, with the latest episode of Castle being shown to prove it. UFC on Xbox Live received quite a bit more screen time, demonstrating the interactive nature of the new service. Players will be able to watch actual live fights on the service and throughout the fights will have the option to guess who will win and even earn achievement points based on different actions. Similar functionality has been demonstrated with ESPN 3. Players can also check out special features for an upcoming fight like training and the weigh in session.
Bing was the most heavily touted feature, as it integrates with all facets and services of the Xbox experience. "You say it, Xbox finds it," was the tagline associated with the new feature, due to its integration with the Kinect peripheral. Players can simply state what they are looking for and Bing will locate all related media with the request. In one portion of the presentation, the user searched for Harry Potter, and Bing was able to bring together disparate forms of media, like movies, games, and other features into a single seamless presentation, allowing users to access any media associated with the keyword. According to Microsoft, the new Bing functionality will allow users the quickest and simplest access to all content provided by their Xbox 360.
Throughout this portion of the presentation, Microsoft showed off the advanced Kinect integration with the New Xbox Experience. Via gesture, voice, or controller, players are able to navigate simplified and cleaner looking menus to access content. Falling in line with Microsoft's mobile OS, the New Xbox Experience organizes everything in various boxes that connect together to make a larger rectangle.
The New Xbox Experience and associated services will be available this fall.
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