Xbox

Xbox Live - Spring Update from Microsoft

Simply connect to Windows Live Messenger through your TV set with the Xbox 360 console

By Filip Truta, Games Editor

10th of April 2007, 12:40 GMT

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Xbox LIVE Arcade, Games for Windows and Windows Live Messenger just aren't enough for Microsoft. And why should it be? It's never enough when it comes to communication possibilities and that's what Microsoft's new Spring Update for the Xbox 360 system is all about. Friends and families can easily connect and chat directly from their television using Windows Live Messenger, a network of more than 20 billion relationships and more than 260 million active accounts.

As of May 7, 2007, the Xbox 360 Spring Update

will provide Xbox 360 owners worldwide with access to Windows Live Messenger features, broadening the communication options on the Xbox LIVE social network. Just so you know, the 6 million-subscriber Xbox LIVE community currently send more than 2 million text and voice messages a day and can now use Windows Live Messenger to text chat with up to six people on their contact list at one time, while playing games, listening to music or watching movies. Text chat merely adds to the variety of options that friends and families have to communicate with on Xbox LIVE, including voice and video chat.

The bottom line is this:
- Current relationships on Windows Live Messenger and Xbox LIVE will be unified on Xbox 360;
- Thus, users will be able to see if their existing friends on Windows Live Messenger have gamertags;
- In the end, they will be able to instantly expand their breadth of connected experiences, sharing them online.

Jerry Johnson, product unit manager of Xbox LIVE at Microsoft said: "Bringing the largest IM community in the world, Windows Live Messenger, to Xbox 360 makes sense, as Xbox LIVE has really become the largest social network on television. For our growing community of 6 million on Xbox LIVE, using Xbox 360 is a very social, connected experience."

Continuing with his speech, Johnson argues about the tremendous amount of possibilities a user will have with the release of this new Spring Update: "They are using Xbox 360 to play games, music and movies while simultaneously communicating with one another through video, voice and text chat. With this announcement we are simultaneously expanding the access of Xbox LIVE users to existing friends and family while introducing Windows Live Messenger users to the benefits of Xbox 360."

Here are just a few new features and enhancements of the hundreds that the update will provide:

- A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.
- Enhanced family settings features for Xbox LIVE communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.
- A new Xbox LIVE Marketplace blade lets Xbox LIVE members access the content they seek - whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States) - from one place on Xbox LIVE.
- Updates to Xbox LIVE Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox LIVE Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox LIVE members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. Expanded Tell a Friend capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
- A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox LIVE Arcade games.
- New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
- Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

Remember, the Spring Update is free beginning the week of May 7.

TAGS:

Windows Live Messenger | Microsoft | Spring Update | Jerry Johnson | Xbox 360

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