Xbox Live Fall and Winter Updates

[Trill Co$by]

Received an email today from Xbox Live about new features being brought Xbox live that are definitely going to bring people over from Cable to simply streaming through your console. So far, all updates require an active Xbox Live gold subscription before they can be accessed.

Some features confirmed include:

HBO-GO - For United States market only With your HBO subscription through your local cable provider, you'll be able to watch all of your favorite HBO Shows, movies, and specials right on your console. This way, when you're stuck at a hotel and don't want to watch the five channels that they have on their TVs or pay for their HBO movies, you can start your consoles and play your HBO movies.

YouTube - Worldwide With Xbox Live, this fall and winter, you will be able to watch all of those viral videos that are so hilarious right in the comfort of your own living room.

Syfy Channel - WWE Friday Night Smackdown and all of your favorite Syfy Original shows will be coming to Xbox Live and will be able to view right in the comfort of your own home.

UFC - Get the latest on all of your UFC news and updates, watch some of the classic fights, and even watch UFC fights live from the comfort of your own home with you Xbox live gold membership.

IHeartRadio - After a successful IHeartRadio Music Festival that partnered with Xbox 360, the new Music app that's taking custom radio by storm is coming to the Xbox Live marketplace. Now you can listen to your favorite radio stations anywhere from the comfort of your living room. Great for when you need to get some cleaning done, but don't feel like firing up your computer to do it.

More updates for upcoming XBOX LIVE features can be found here. Feel free to discuss these new features.

Personally, I'm most excited about the Syfy coming to Xbox live because if this is a success, then we could possibly see USA Network and other stations coming to XBL as well, where we can watch more of our favorite shows.

 

[¡Roján!]

Yeah, I'm definitely psyched for the new update. My xbox looks a bit boring at the moment and the new update looks to add a little bit of much needed pizzaz in the dashboard. It incorporates the now famous Metro UI used in Windows 8 and Windows Phone. The incorporation of Bing is also quite clever and works well. And, another thing that Microsoft have done quite well is making Kinect compatible with the dashboard. As of late, kinect really hasn't been necessary in the Xbox experience, but with Microsoft making having a kinect better for your gaming and media it sort of makes you want to buy it. And, adding TV stations was a genius idea. It makes the need for having other media players unnecessary. The Xbox really is becoming the all in one console.

 

[vampireblade]

i cant wait either if im able to pull myself from gears of war ill be able to enjoy the new features that will be there most importantly for me this is youtube because hopefully the xbox will have a web browser finally which means ill be able to surf the web when on vaction seeing as i do not have a laptop.

 

[Karilas]

Any word on how much of this banging shit we can expect over here in the UK? The difference in content availability as it stands is frankly staggering!

 

[Unsold Bacon]

This is great. Extra feature being added is always good. I just wish ESPN wasn't only available in the United States. At least give us TSN or The Score!

 

[Trill Co$by]

Any word on how much of this banging shit we can expect over here in the UK? The difference in content availability as it stands is frankly staggering!

I had to go find the initial email for reference, and from what I read, it would appear that Syfy and HBO-GO are the only ones that are US Exclusive. It would make sense seeing as they're US Channels and the others are worldwide phenomenons.

 

[Vintage Nick]

This is just my own personal theory, but I think that Microsoft is using the 360 as a guinea pig now to see how much crap they can cram into it, and analyze it for their next XBox.

Honestly, I'm excited for these updates, and hopefully many more to come.