14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's E3 press conference was certainly a huge one, with many big pieces of news prepared by the Redmond-based company for its products, be them consoles, PCs or services. One of the most important things for the corporation at E3 was its Xbox Live online service, which will receive support for three very important and popular Internet services: Last.FM, Twitter and Facebook.
At one fell swoop, Microsoft has managed to secure and implement these very popular services into Xbox Live. Part of a new tailor-made experience for the TV, courtesy of the Xbox 360, these services will join the Xbox Live Party feature, which allows console users to watch movies together even if they are on opposite sides of the country.
“We are always asking ourselves how to make the TV more social,” said John Schappert, corporate vice president of Interactive Entertainment Live, Software and Studios at Microsoft. “By bringing Facebook, Last.fm and Xbox Live Party for movies and TV shows to Xbox LIive, we’re not only extending the walls of your living room beyond your home to your friends in different corners of the world, we’re creating the definitive social network, uniting more than 200 million people to share status updates, pictures, thoughts on music and the world’s best online gaming experience.”
Thanks to the Facebook Connnect application, Xbox Live users will be able to interact with their friends anytime and anywhere right from the privacy of their own living rooms. Don't think that this will be limited to update our status or sharing certain photos, as this application will allow you to post updates and screenshots from games which will support this feature, like the up coming Tiger Woods PGA Tour.
Music fans who have an Xbox Live Gold membership will also be able to enjoy million of songs streamed to their own console thanks to the new Xbox Live-Last.FM partnership. The ability to create their own free, personalized radio stations will certainly be something that a lot of people will enjoy.
Those addicted to Twitter will also be quite happy as an implementation of the popular service into Xbox Live is being worked on, but no concrete details are available yet.
Overall, are you excited about these new features? Leave us a comment with your thoughts.