14 DAY TRIAL // The E3 Expo is about to start and all the gaming industry major players are there. Microsoft makes no exception and so it had a big press conference before the Expo showcasing upcoming titles and features for its Xbox 360 gaming console. Some of the more interesting features, at least for the non-gaming crowd, are all the social networking elements added to the Xbox Live dashboard, like Twitter and Facebook integration.
The Redmond company always wanted its Xbox to be more than just a gaming machine, hailing it as the media hub of the house. The online component was also a big part of the Xbox 360 strategy and the software giant has had huge success with its Xbox Live service, which offers a way of keeping in touch with your friends, mainly to play online with your regular group but also to chat or browse their profiles. In a sense it already has some basic social networking components and it's clear that the company wants even more, which is why it is announcing the integration of three very popular services right now.
Facebook is currently the largest social network in the world, with well over 200 million users – some estimates say 240-260 million –, and it continues to grow rapidly. Twitter of course is getting a lot of hype and media attention and has seen spectacular growth over the last few months. And Last.fm is one of the most popular social networks centered on music and a very popular Internet radio also.
Twitter will get most of the attention for now as it will be fully supported in Xbox Live, allowing you to see other users' tweets as well as post new ones yourselves. Facebook will be supported with an app that you can download from Xbox Live and which will allow you to browse through photos, update your status or view your friends’ profile 'streams'. More interesting though is the fact that the Facebook Connect login standard will be supported by Xbox this fall, which, for one, will allow players to broadcast their gaming exploits on their profiles. Facebook Connect integration could be a big thing for game developers, as it would give them access to a potentially much bigger market if only for the free exposure, though Facebook apps or even games tying in with games on the Xbox and other gaming consoles might not be that far off.