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INTERVIEW: Microsoft on the future of Xbox Live
With Microsoft announcing that it's set to raise the price of its Xbox Live Gold service this November, we sat down with Microsoft London's Ijaz Akram to find out what the future holds for Microsoft's online service...
Written by David Scammell, 31 August 2010
GamerZines: Microsoft dropped Xbox Live support for the original Xbox a few months ago, and the reasoning behind it seemed to be so that you could add new features to the network that the architecture of the original Xbox stopped you from doing. However, there hasn't been anything obvious added since, nor have there been any announcements about upcoming features, so why was the service dropped?
Ijaz Akram, Xbox Live, Microsoft London: The real thing for us was to say that we're looking forwards and looking at what our community wants, and the big thing that we pushed for was new features, new hardware which we're launching with Kinect, new Live experiences, and how to keep pushing those features forward.
GZ: So did original Xbox support restrict the network from moving forwards?
IA: No, I don't think it was anything about restrictions on the network. It comes down to user experience. It's about what's right with the right level of community and the right level of engagement to take it forward. You'll see that when we launch on November 10th with Kinect and soon before that we'll have a new dashboard update with all the great new features that come as part of Kinect and make Live a really good experience.
GZ: Will the dashboard update be coming before Kinect, then?
IA: We haven't confirmed a date as yet.
GZ: Something that's been rumoured for years is a further level of subscription being introduced to Xbox Live, like an Xbox Live Platinum membership. Would Microsoft ever consider adding another subscription band to the service, especially considering you're implementing new technology to the service via Kinect?
IA: The one thing that we've announced is Family Gold, which offers four memberships for just under the price of two. We're always actively looking to offer better membership options for our users, and Family Gold is our big announcement. We think that for less than four dollars a month which is the price of Xbox Live Gold at the moment in the US, it offers a really good experience and there's no plans to change that at the moment.
GZ: Are you looking at developing Kinect-specific features for Xbox Live? For example, a recent interview mentioned the idea of Kinect being able to pick up on the user wearing a Manchester United shirt and then letting them connect with other Manchester United fans.
IA: Yeah, that was Marc Whitten saying that - my boss's boss. What he was talking about was, imagine the possibilities. His point really was based around, this is what we're shipping, look at the games, look at the experiences, but imagine the possibilities of what you could do. I would leave that to your tremendous imaginations to think about what you can do with Kinect now that you have the camera. I think that's what Marc was referring to in his interview.
GZ: Right, but you are looking to use Kinect on the Xbox Live service somehow?
IA: With Kinect at the moment... you'll see in the demo how it works with Zune, which is one of our services. That's a great example of how Kinect will be used on an existing service. It's really exciting though, the interface that's being developed, some of the apps. I would say keep an eye out for announcements as we're pushing forward with Kinect in the future.
GZ: Have you ever considered putting 3D movies onto Zune?
IA: I think 3D's an interesting technology. We haven't got much to say about 3D at the moment, I think looking at where we are in terms of hardware uptake for 3D, it's a great technology but it's somewhere where we haven't got much to comment on right now.
360Zine Issue 49
For our latest Kinect coverage, click here to download 360Zine Issue 49 for free.GZ: How do you deal with interference while using Kinect to watch a movie on Zune, and by that I mean, some children may be quite animated while watching a scary or funny film. Is there a lock mechanism to prevent Kinect from accidentally skipping through the film by picking up on their hand movement?
IA: I'll show you what the camera actually sees. Loads up skeletal tracking software Alright, so that's me as the primary input device. You'll see Reese in the background, but this is me, primary input device. This gives a tech example of various objects in the room. We've got sofas, we could potentially have a table in front. We can move back, move forward, kids are here. So I am the primary input device and that is how we take away and deal with that kind of interference. I would also say to you, think about how a remote control is used. If a kid snatches it out of your hand, changes it around, you're always going to have that kind of interference with any device.
GZ: Is there any way to skip directly to the next chapter as you would on a standard DVD?
IA: In this build we only have a fast forward and rewind. The final service may well differ.
GZ: Looking at other services added to Xbox Live recently, did Game Room do as well as Microsoft had hoped?
IA: I think we're really happy with how Game Room's performed. It's trying to do something different with arcade games, looking at virtual environments, getting avatars into spaces and playing around with it. We've still got a pretty strong community of people using it, and it's just another option for users to go in there. We've got games, we've got content, we've got video apps, we've got all of these entertainment experiences and I think Game Room fits into that as well.
GZ: Does Microsoft have a figure on how much room you need to use Kinect? There has been a lot of confusion when it comes to space requirements.
IA: Yeah, I'm happy to talk to you about that. What you'll see when we launch Kinect is 'Introduce Yourself To Kinect', which is an out of box experience that calibrates you and your environment, and recommends the best spot for you to place yourself. That's been done after thousands and thousands of hours of research. We looked at hundreds and thousands of environments, and actually sat in people's living rooms and worked out where is the best area to do that. The experience that'll ship will take into account a lot of those inconsistencies that might exist in different environments, but at the moment there's nothing to talk about with set distances. It works in a whole number of environments.
GZ: Is it true that Kinect will alter your avatar's appearance to represent your actual body shape?
IA: At the moment the avatar is a virtual representation. There's nothing that we're announcing at the moment which is saying that because you're tall and slim, your avatar will be tall and slim, there's nothing along those lines. The avatar can be whoever you want it to be. If you want to be a blonde 22 year old girl, that's up to you. That's part of the fun.
GZ: Avatars were obviously created by Rare, but will Rare also be a key studio for Kinect?
IA: Like all of our first and third party publishers, Rare have always had a range of game titles they're looking at. The one that they're looking at this year is Kinect Sports because it's such an important for us and for them.
GZ: Will there be the opportunity for developers to patch Kinect support into existing games?
IA: At the moment, the games that we have and the games that we've announced are going to be Kinect-compatible. I don't think there are any plans to patch or retrofit any existing games at the moment.
GZ: Thanks for your time, Ijaz.
Kinect coverage available in 360Zine Issue 49 - click here to download it for free!
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