[OFFICIAL] Xbox LIVE Preview Program: Zune, Facebook and Twitter

[TrickierStinky]

got my sign up confirmed, just need to wait for the update to get to me anyone in the uk got it sorted? also is there halo waypoint in this update? i read on major nelson twitter that it was to be included

[DJD]

Somebody obviously doesn't understand how complex a process it is get media based services out in the rest of the world. Media content owners/distributors are ****ing ######.

I do agree that $60US for Live should not immediately mean 60Euro but Microsoft is hardly the only company that does that.

I know how hard it is, but it doesn't matter anyway i ran last.fm using an American account and was really disappointed bye the state its in.

Honestly i was just a bit ****ed off that we got the shaft again, and started to rant :laugh:

[Unimatrix Xero]

12:25am still waiting for update (UK based) :(

[Snakehn]

how nice, i read about the update being rolled out this morning but had to go to work, when i came back, i turned on the 360 and it started updating ;)

[+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹]

Want me to send you a message from my 360 Matt :p Had the update since about 9am ish yesterday :p

[minimalisticx]

got my sign up confirmed, just need to wait for the update to get to me anyone in the uk got it sorted? also is there halo waypoint in this update? i read on major nelson twitter that it was to be included

halo waypoint is coming next week

http://twitter.com/majornelson/status/5085542508

[NoLiMiT06]

What the hell is Halo Waypoint?

[Neo003]

What the hell is Halo Waypoint?

Microsoft's announcement of Halo Waypoint, the Halo "destination" coming to Xbox Live this Fall, was light on details, overshadowed by the reveal of the Halo Legends anime series. Fortunately, 343 Industries' Frank O'Connor was at Comic-Con to clear things up. Waypoint will offer Halo enthusiasts access to audio and video content in addition to community features and the option to follow your "Halo career." O'Connor explained that Waypoint will track the Halo games you play, the achievements you unlock and other aspects not directly tied to "Halo 3, Halo Wars, and Halo games ongoing."

O'Connor says that Waypoint, accessed from the Xbox 360 dashboard, and likely from the My Xbox section, will be a "really good place for you to interact with other people."

"There's a lot more to Waypoint than just watching movies and listening to podcasts," he said, saying that fans of the series are underserved on their Xboxes.

"Maybe you just want to see a really old Halo trailer from E3," he explained, saying that fans shouldn't need to leave their consoles to see that kind of content. "We're going to aggregate everything that you would want to watch from the Halo universe on that site. But it's a lot more ambitious than that. It's going to evolve in features and functionality to make it the prime destination for the Halo fan."

As far as pricing, O'Connor says that Microsoft is still figuring out whether Xbox Live Silver members will need to pay to access the product.

"Certainly, if you're a Gold member you're going to get access to all of that experience," he said. "We want everyone to have this same experience, but the question is, if there's multiplayer features that are technically connected to Gold, it's easier to deal with. There's a lot of reasons that [tying it to] Gold makes sense."

Halo Waypoint will also be the first place fans will have the chance to see episodes of Halo Legends, the series of shorts developed by Japanese animation studios. They'll be available to viewers for a limited time, debuting on Xbox Live as "events," not just dropped on the Xbox Live Video Marketplace.

"You'll be able to see episodes in their entirety via Waypoint in a staggered schedule," O'Connor explained. "Those events will be global?it will be in every Xbox territory?and we'll make those things sort of 'come participate' events."

Those events won't necessarily be debuting as if they were broadcast on television?you won't need to be at home at 8 PM to get your first peHalo Legendsds. That would be tough if you have a life?or you live in distant time zone.

"We'll find a window to make it fit and adjust that accordingly around the world," O'Connor said.

Still, make plans to be near your Xbox if you want to watch the anime series before it's released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital distribution next year. Waypoint will let you see it a lot sooner.

Kotaku.com

[NoLiMiT06]

Oh thanks, sounds pretty neat. Not to big into Halo anymore ODST was boring to me... What they need to fix is the current features and make them more accessible from sections like My Xbox or something and alot last.fm to be played during games and get rid of the ads.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

tried the Facebook app last night , wasnt impressed, seemed laggy, and to many feeds ( the main feed with everything is the last feed for some reason )

[0sit0]

tried the Facebook app last night , wasnt impressed, seemed laggy, and to many feeds ( the main feed with everything is the last feed for some reason )

yea facebook looks very cheap lol, twitter looks clean and interesting but I don't use it that often :pinch:

[Chrysaor]

What a useless update, can't even use the features without gold subscription.

[HawkMan]

Awww....

too bad you couldn't have known this before yo signed up, since it wasn't announced over 6 months ago or anything....

[t0mbi]

YAY! I got in! But i gotta wait to get home lol.. :p

Which means im still not banned from live lol...phew

[Unimatrix Xero]

just got up and got the update, installing now :D w00t

[SMELTN]

What a useless update, can't even use the features without gold subscription.

It honestly kills me how many people are expecting these updates without purchasing Gold.

[Unimatrix Xero]

everything works like a dream, but still cait sign in with my UK based Zune account on the PC Zune Player

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

It honestly kills me how many people are expecting these updates without purchasing Gold.

Considering nearly every single platform/device out there that has Facebook/Twitter/LastFM support has free applications or a web browser to access them I'm not really surprised.

MS do a good job of taking pretty basic applications/services and making you believe they should be premium.

LastFM apparently has a fair collection of ads as well? Why is that seen as a premium application when any working PC can download spotify for free and use it ad supported without a subscription?

[HawkMan]

Because Basic users get nothing. they get a gaming console.

gold users get all the extras.

Anyway, is the zune marketplace on the xbox movies only, not music at all ?

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Because Basic users get nothing. they get a gaming console.

gold users get all the extras.

Yeah but people find it annoying that MS have taken it upon themselves to define that someone that merely buys their console is basically a peasant and deserves nothing, only people that pay them further money in a subscription deserve any loyalty at all.

You've gotta love that someone that pays out hundreds of dollars or pounds is deemed not to be worth of anything, not even demos at the same time as everyone else.

Hey Lives awesome for gaming and all that jazz, but MS have a seriously overly harsh view of some pretty basic apps/services at times. The difficulty with gamer perception is they have most of the people on Gold believing what they believe, only Gold members deserve anything. Some of you guys act like MS have invented Facebook/LastFM/Twitter and Silver users should be laughed at for even asking for these things.

You don't have to be an online gaming nut to want to stream some music at a party when you're friends are over, there should be reasons for people on Silver to actually want to have their 360 hooked up to the internet.

[what]

On the other hand, Microsoft wants to convert as many Silver members as possible to Gold, and offering more Gold-only features sounds like a good plan to me.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

On the other hand, Microsoft wants to convert as many Silver members as possible to Gold, and offering more Gold-only features sounds like a good plan to me.

Well obviously that's the reason but I'm just giving light to the other side of the argument, not everyone wants to play games online, or plays enough to pay to do so, that's just their preference of gaming. Very few people will shell out money every month only to use applications/services widely available on other devices (mainly their PC) for free, so one begs the question why does MS think these services are worthy of the premium tag?

I really doubt adding Facebook/LastFM/Twitter to the gold package is changing anyone's mind, the people who pay for gold will largely be those who pay it to play games online. Therefore Silver owners see it as an annoyance that MS won't throw them any new features, these people don't want to play games online and feel aggrieved for that preference. It's almost as if MS are saying unless you change your gaming taste you ain't getting **** peasant user :p

LastFM would be useful for everyone, and it's ad supported, don't see why it can't be for all 360 owners.

[spenser.d]

^^^The other side of the argument is bogus, especially after so many people complained that there wasn't enough of a difference between gold and silver to make it worth it to them to pay up. Well, now there is more of a difference.

-Spenser

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

^^^The other side of the argument is bogus, especially after so many people complained that there wasn't enough of a difference between gold and silver to make it worth it to them to pay up. Well, now there is more of a difference.

-Spenser

Yeah that's exactly what I'm talking about, people paying for Gold looking for services that wouldn't normally be branded as premium anywhere else become premium just to self-justify paying their subscription to MS and make them look superior to Silver.

It's a silly mindset to have, I don't see why any 360 owner, on Gold or Silver, wouldn't want to see these fairly basic web "plugins" be usable by everyone with an Xbox - They're completely unrelated to gaming and cmon, as I said above you pay for Gold to play online, if online became free I bet my house most of you would not carry on paying monthly for any of these applications :p

I can understand Netflix being Gold only, but not these services.

Edited October 24, 2009 by Audioboxer

[BajiRav]

Yeah that's exactly what I'm talking about, people paying for Gold looking for services that wouldn't normally be branded as premium anywhere else become premium just to self-justify paying their subscription to MS and make them look superior to Silver.

It's a silly mindset to have, I don't see why any 360 owner, on Gold or Silver, wouldn't want to see these fairly basic web "plugins" be usable by everyone with an Xbox - They're completely unrelated to gaming and cmon, as I said above you pay for Gold to play online, if online became free I bet my house most of you would not carry on paying monthly for any of these applications :p

I can understand Netflix being Gold only, but not these services.

To be honest, I don't understand why even Netflix is Gold only (I already pay for Netflix). But I see these as extras that comes with my XBL Gold. It's not like they increased annual fee after adding facebook etc.

At this rate, people will start bitching that they should get free games since they are already paid for XBL & Xbox.

Didn't Sony had something similar where you have to pay for watching some content? Just imagine this being the same. ;)