official Microsoft E3 2012 Presentation

[Debus42]

i just don't see the point of SmartGlass, in the sense that it's certainly not for me. To use their own E3 example, why on earth would I want to be watching Game of Thrones, and then be shown a map where another character is on my tablet? I want to watch the episode, not look at a map. I also think that using your smartphone to control the menu system on the Xbox is lazy when you can just pick up the controller. I'm sure it works on a very technical level, but again, I just want to play games, with my controller.

[George P Global Moderator]

People bring up the "but I want to watch my video not look at my tablet/phone!" argument often it seems yet negate the fact that many many people often want to look up something in the process of watching some show, specially a complex one like Game of Thrones. Or if you're watching something and someone else keeps asking you questions about it, why answer them and miss the show you so obviously just want to watch and do nothing else? Hand them the tablet or phone and let them read the info they want.

The point is that Smart Glass is flexible enough to work in many different ways. It's not a simple DLNA push app, it's not a simple media information app for what you're watching on TV. It can do those things and more, it's up to the developer to use it as they want. The examples of using it for gaming, I think, are great and open up the possibility for some very interesting things. Hell if I can have a tablet positioned close to me so I can just see the full world map in a game like Assassins creed or some big RPG that alone, for me, would be great. It gets pretty annoying how often I find myself going in and out of the map in assassins creed games, the mini-map doesn't cut it for me with that type of game.