Bringing Gaming Mainstream - The Xbox 360 debuts on MTV

Always Connected and Never Modded?

One of Microsoft's very clever tactics with the Xbox 360 is the inclusion of a multi-tiered Xbox Live service. For those that aren't familiar with it, Xbox Live is Microsoft's online gaming network for Xbox owners. Priced at around $50 per year, Xbox Live will let you play Xbox Live enabled games against gamers all over the world. With the Xbox 360, Microsoft is introducing two tiers of Xbox Live subscription: Gold and Silver.

The Gold tier will apparently be similar to what people are paying for today, with all of the new features brought forth by Xbox 360 (e.g. better matchmaking capabilities, more downloadable content, etc...).

The Silver tier is a free option to all Xbox 360 users that Microsoft says will offer the following:

"Players can express their digital identity through their Gamer Profile; connect with friends anytime, anywhere through Xbox Live voice chat; send and receive text and voice message; and access Xbox Live Marketplace to download demos and trailers along with new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins, classic arcade and card and board games, community-created content, and more to the detachable Xbox 360 hard drive — all right out of the box at no extra cost. Composed of user-generated information such as Achievements (rewards players have earned in games), Gamerzone (style of play), and a custom-created Gamertile (a visual icon to represent the gamer online), the Gamer Profile makes it easy to connect with the Xbox Live community."

So basically, the Silver tier will let you download some new content, trailers, chat with friends and give you an avatar among other things. But what's interesting is that Xbox Live Silver will most likely also be used to prevent people from hacking/modding the xbox 360. The current Xbox can be modded to run just about anything - from Linux, to working as a media center to running pirated games. There is one major exception - Microsoft checks a number of items about your Xbox when you login to Xbox Live to make sure it isn't modded; if it is, you can't connect. By offering a free Xbox Live service to all users, Microsoft is trying their best to combat the mainstream market from modding their Xbox 360s - however in order for the ploy to truly work Microsoft really needs to make the Silver tier more attractive. But then again, maybe Microsoft isn't concerned about the limited modding community and is more interested in making sure it doesn't spread modding mainstream as it takes the Xbox 360 more mainstream.

The other limitation to the Xbox 360 modding community will be the fact that all Xbox 360 games are supposed to be Live-enabled. If the more compelling features of future titles revolve around Xbox Live, modding interest in this new console may be further diminished but by no means dead.

The new Xbox 360 controllers feature a "360 button" in the center, that will act as sort of a "home" button - taking you to a screen where you can launch games, view messages from your online buddies, get access to downloadable content, etc... Microsoft brought a console to market with the first Xbox, but with Xbox 360 they are really trying to build another flexible machine to have in your home, supported by and working with your PC.

The Xbox 360 will accept images from your digital camera, movies and music either through its USB ports or (presumably) over the network.

Final Words

There's a lot more to this powerful new console, and we will be covering it as well as the hardware behind Sony's Playstation 3 during next week's E3 expo in Los Angeles.