Gizmodo reports that Microsoft’s Xbox Live “Metro” will go live when this holiday season comes around. It seems that Xbox Live “Metro” users will be able to use their Xbox 360 consoles as Cable and Video on Demand boxes. Folks at Microsoft are suggesting that they are talking to more content providers so Xbox 360 users will be able to experience more contents such as live TV shows and movies. Upon improving contents, Microsoft enhances Kinect features within Xbox Live “Metro” to allow users to control almost all aspects of Xbox 360 with voice recognition and hand gestures. Bing will also integrate tightly with Kinect features within Xbox Live “Metro” so users can use voice recognition to search for things.
New features that Microsoft will release for Xbox Live “Metro” are definitely going to be awesome for Xbox users. I totally vote for them! Nonetheless, I think Microsoft has a narrow vision. Why? Besides Xbox 360, shouldn’t Microsoft allow users to experience live TV shows and Video on Demand and Kinect capabilities on Windows 7 or 8 and Windows Phone 7? Unfortunately, I think Microsoft prefers to sell more Xbox 360 consoles at the same time they generating revenues from contents that Xbox Live “Metro” provides. Whether that be more profitable or otherwise, I’ve no idea. Still, I think more users will appreciate Microsoft if they provide such experiences on not one but more platforms. I also think Microsoft will be able to sell more products such as Windows 8 OS if awesome features on Xbox Live “Metro” become available in Windows 8 and other Microsoft’s products/platforms.
If such vision is going to be realized, I think Microsoft needs to tightly synch the Xbox Live “Metro” features across products’ ecosystem. For an instance, a user watched halfway of a movie on Xbox 360 console, but he got on his Windows 8 laptop to work and yet was able to watch the rest of the movie that he had watched on the Xbox 360 console earlier. More features like that will make Microsoft’s product ecosystem seems coherent, enhancing the overall user experiences. What do you think?
Filed under: Microsoft and Windows, Video Games Tagged: Cable, games, live TV shows, Metro, Microsoft, TV, video on demand, XBox 360, Xbox Live
