Xbox Live Expanding to More Platforms?

Keane Ng

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Sep 11, 2008
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Xbox Live Expanding to More Platforms?



A Microsoft job listing points toward the future of Xbox Live, and the key word is expansion: from consoles to mobiles and PCs, Microsoft seems set on taking its service to multiple platforms.

Microsoft wants to expand Xbox Live. That's not a crazy or surprising idea. I think most of us assumed that the company does. Now the first concrete details about how the company wants to grow its successful service have emerged in the form of a job listing for a Live Community Director that suggests that Microsoft wants to merge Live with its other services to create a new "casual and social gaming platform across the Web, the console, mobile and beyond."

Though the job listing [https://careers.microsoft.com/JobDetails.aspx?ss=&pg=0&so=&rw=1&jid=5972&jlang=EN] is big on hypetalk and mumbo jumbo, it contains a few interesting tidbits. The main, general aspect of the job will be to "manage" the Live Engagement Team's "LIVE community strategy and execution across a range of properties, from Xbox LIVE to Windows Mobile," but a wide range of services are also mentioned, from "forums to social networking sites, from MyXbox to MSN Games."

As Ars Technica [http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/08/xbox-gaming-platform-may-soon-span-web-console-mobile.ars] notes, it sounds a lot like Live Anywhere, the buzz word for the Live expansion initiative that Microsoft was making noise about way long ago and really never changed anything. More immediately, however, it calls to mind recent remarks made by Shane Kim, when he was talking about the possibility of a mobile Xbox, and mentioned that Microsoft is "building a service in Live that will... will extend to other platforms."

If that service is this "casual and social gaming platform," it might be a lot less exciting than a mobile Xbox, but were you really expecting that to happen? Let's just play some MSN Games and try not to think about it.

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Curtmiester

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Well this could work. Xbox live is a pretty good system with few bugs but you never know what is going to happen on the internet.
 

Nimbus

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Oct 22, 2008
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This is never going to work. Steam already has a monopoly on this for PC, and mobile games that are not on the iPhone are little more than impulse purchases that last for five minutes.

Stick to what you know, Microsoft.
 

dekkarax

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Apr 3, 2008
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No. You guys already tried that with GFWL, it didn't work, this probably won't either.
 

Merteg

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May 9, 2009
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Wait, does this mean that X-Box gamers can play games with PC gamers?
 

Cogzwell

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Jul 10, 2008
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let's hope not, i want that Community AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY from my PC
 

Megacherv

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Sep 24, 2008
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Hasn't anyone noticed that LIVE is used in more than one area *points to Windows Live*. It's already happening anyway.
 

Merteg

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NoMoreSanity said:
Merteg said:
Wait, does this mean that X-Box gamers can play games with PC gamers?
They already could. See Universe at War.

Sounds nice, but will this mean I will be able to do more with my Live Profile on the Escapist hopefully?
They COULD, but that's one RTS. Do you think that the frequency of such cross-platform games will increase?
 

Darth Sea Bass

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Cogzwell said:
let's hope not, i want that Community AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY from my PC
This and they they can kiss my ringpiece if they think i'd pay for multiplayer on the pc.
 

Althocke

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Aug 7, 2009
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If this means PC gamers and xbox gamers will be able to play online together on more games, what will happen if the controls on PC are easier and give an advantage as opposed to the xbox controller?
 

FloodOne

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Apr 29, 2009
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Darth Sea Bass said:
Cogzwell said:
let's hope not, i want that Community AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY from my PC
This and they they can kiss my ringpiece if they think i'd pay for multiplayer on the pc.
They already kiss my ringfinger. I don't pay to play on a console.
 

Credge

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Apr 12, 2008
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NoMoreSanity said:
Hopefully. Might give Valve a reason to update TF2 for the Xbox if there's cross-platform play.
Blame Microsoft for the lack of TF2 updates.

Anyway, Live is redundant on PC. Mobile phones have no use for it, and any other platform that exists that Live could fit in to already has something similar.
 

Credge

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NoMoreSanity said:
No, Valve can't find a way to make the updates fit on the Xbox. Which is bullshit.
And this is Microsofts fault for enforcing arbitrary rules on their system that make absolutely 0 sense.

It has little to do with Valve. They're actually trying to get it to work.
 

samsonguy920

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Merteg said:
Wait, does this mean that X-Box gamers can play games with PC gamers?
There are cross-platform games, but you have to actually pay a subscription to XBox Live in order to take advantage of that if you are on PC, and its not even with all games that are on both PC and 360.
Sounds like all it is is just streamlining among all the Live services that are available on all platforms Microsoft provides games to. Whoopidee-doo-dah.