Microsoft Cancels Inside Xbox

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Microsoft Cancels Inside Xbox


Production of Inside Xbox is coming to an end in North America and Australia.

Xbox community guy Larry Hryb, better known to the world at large as Major Nelson, revealed today that the long-running Xbox Live program announcement [http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/insidexbox/]. "Consequently, we've decided to discontinue production of Inside Xbox in the United States, and as a result this content will also no longer be available in Canada, Australia and New Zealand."

Somewhat oddly, Inside Xbox will continue first-party production in other regions, including EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa], Mexico and Japan, although changes to EMEA programming could be coming as Microsoft re-examines its operating model in the region.

The screen won't go completely blank, however, as the Major said Microsoft will "leverage third-party news and video content available through a variety of existing and future partners" and will also occasionally produce "first-party offerings" as well. But current shows, including Major's Minute, Featured Videos and Insider Moves, are done.

"This decision was not made lightly. Our teams working on Inside Xbox have done a great job connecting with our members and delivering high-quality, informative game news and tips," he wrote. "We thank them all for their contributions to the Xbox Live community and wish them all the best in their future endeavors."



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bobmus

Full Frontal Nerdity
May 25, 2010
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Wait, people actually watch that stuff? It was always just random crap filling up my Home Screen for me...
 

thepyrethatburns

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Sep 22, 2010
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So.... No more Major's Minute. No more Sent U a Message. No more....show where Jessica Chobot smiled at you in that unblinking oddly creepy way. No more.....other shows that had people with more facial expressions.

Personally, I suspect the new update killed them. It was one thing for me to watch some of them if I could say "Hey, that looks interesting" in video section of the previous dashboard but another for me to actively search through (often broken) archives for the show.

Other things that I took from the announcement:

Statement: Microsoft will "leverage third-party news and video content available through a variety of existing and future partners"
Translation: Oh, are you going to see a lot of ads for Doritos.

Statement: Our teams working on Inside Xbox have done a great job connecting with our members and delivering high-quality, informative game news and tips," he wrote. "We thank them all for their contributions to the Xbox Live community and wish them all the best in their future endeavors."
Translation: Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
 

The Wykydtron

"Emotions are very important!"
Sep 23, 2010
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Wait, so the UK Sent U A Message and Nexus are still on? I hope so... That episode where they laugh about not having to deal with endless questions about Skyrim now that it's out and it cuts to a bucket of papers burning labeled Skyrim Questions for a brief second was hilarious.

Plus there was once Batman cosplay... Epic lols were had


Fuck, the English sense of humour is amazing.

I suspect the Dashboard updates killed it though, "hey look at all these cool videos! Now we shall hide them behind fifty billion different menus to get to them! Nyahahahaha!"

EDIT: I don't suppose they're archived somewhere on teh interwebz are they? I tried Youtube the once but no luck there XP

I need that Skyrim episode nao...
 

Bvenged

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Sep 4, 2009
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Woop, UK keeps our IX!

Andy & Dan's "Nexus" and "Sent U A Message" shows are the only thing tolerable in the Xbox features video section. IGN and the OXM Reports and Gamespot features are total crap. Monday musings are interesting, if mostly moronic, too.

I always thought USA's Major Nelson was massively annoying anyway.
 

CardinalPiggles

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Jun 24, 2010
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Even though I live in England, so I won't be affected by this (yet?) I stopped watching all of those shows regularly because it takes longer to find them now, before they had their own tab on the menu, and now they are buried under a load of crap I don't care about.

Oh well, I have my PC to look towards for entertainment.
 

Doclector

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Aug 22, 2009
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The Wykydtron said:
Wait, so the UK Sent U A Message and Nexus are still on? I hope so... That episode where they laugh about not having to deal with endless questions about Skyrim now that it's out and it cuts to a bucket of papers burning labeled Skyrim Questions for a brief second was hilarious.

Plus there was once Batman cosplay... Epic lols were had


Fuck, the English sense of humour is amazing.

I suspect the Dashboard updates killed it though, "hey look at all these cool videos! Now we shall hide them behind fifty billion different menus to get to them! Nyahahahaha!"

EDIT: I don't suppose they're archived somewhere on teh interwebz are they? I tried Youtube the once but no luck there XP

I need that Skyrim episode nao...
Yeah, england's inside xbox is amazing. I actually really look forward to them, not necessarily for the info, but because it's genuinely entertaining. I hope those don't get shut down too.

this could be a major misstep. To be honest, major nelson's blog is full of everything, meaning I have to trawl through lots of obvious/boring stuff. Elsewhere, you wait for news to trickle through. There's something about an easily digestible bit of weekly community news straight from the horse's mouth that appeals to people, and without that news, offers that microsoft hope to do well may not do so well, and stuff that people wanted to know about that people didn't publicise well (coughkonamicough) won't pick up that little extra audience, especially with a dashboard that makes you search for such things.
 

Baresark

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Dec 19, 2010
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Sometimes I think to myself that Microsoft is a giant hulking ship... that is sinking really really slowly. They get into so much but everyone else seems to do it better. In gaming they have the 360 which does fine as a console. But their OS platform is sinking at this point (I mean, Steam is making a Linux platform), their Xbox Live business is hostile towards developers, their phone platform is a bit of a joke (not because it's not good, but because it gets no support from anyone)... It's just crazy shit... I could just be in a doom and gloom mood because I need to sleep though. :p

Edit: So tired I didn't finish my thought. This just feels like another thing they don't do as well as others so people aren't that interested in it. Game coverage is done well from so many places that it would be hard for a company like Microsoft (the king of self destructive micro management) to compete.
 

FoolKiller

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Feb 8, 2008
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Well Microsoft is, as usual, idiotic. They probably saw that viewership dropped dramatically since the new dashboard and figured people didn't like it anymore.

The fact of the matter is that I didn't watch it after the update because I can't be bothered to look for it. The mess that is the new dashboard has basically ruined my 360. Now I don't look for previews, demos, arcade titles, or DLC. I just pop in the disc and press play. No one wants to navigate that mess.
 

zombieshark6666

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Sep 27, 2011
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FoolKiller said:
Well Microsoft is, as usual, idiotic. They probably saw that viewership dropped dramatically since the new dashboard and figured people didn't like it anymore.

The fact of the matter is that I didn't watch it after the update because I can't be bothered to look for it. The mess that is the new dashboard has basically ruined my 360. Now I don't look for previews, demos, arcade titles, or DLC. I just pop in the disc and press play. No one wants to navigate that mess.
1984? <.<

Maybe they're just trying to kill off all that stuff because they don't make a lot of money out of it compared to retail games? I know I stopped keeping track of what's going on. I just try to get to my game without triggering a loud ad or something.

To be honest, if the points system didn't suck, I would have made most of my gaming purchases in the Arcade and Indie sections.