“[S]omething interesting has happened in the last few years. While people are still playing a ton of video games, 40 percent of all Xbox activity now is non-game. Put another way, we’re seeing an average of 30 hours of video consumption per month per Xbox, a number that is growing fast. And people are expecting more – more options, more games, more videos, more entertainment.
The vision for Xbox is straightforward: All of the entertainment you want. With the people you care about. Made easy. That is why you’ve seen us invest in partnerships with ESPN, Netflix and Hulu. That is why we’ve baked social directly into the experience with Xbox LIVE – connecting gamers, friends and families across the globe. That is why you’ll see Xbox marketed more as an entertainment brand this year. And that is why we’re investing so much in Natural User Interface technologies (speech, touch, gestures) to make the entertainment experience that much easier-and more fun. With Kinect, we’ve made NUI real for millions of people, and we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what’s possible.
Frank X. Shaw, VP Corporate Communications Xbox
I’ve long believed in Xbox Live as another powerful social network along the lines of Facebook, but even more strong due to the shared experience by engaging with and playing a videogame with your friends (as opposed to posting to a friends wall, you’re accomplishing a goal together).
What I’ve been dreaming for some time, and what I hope Shaw implies when he speaks of Xbox as an entertainment brand, is an entertainment experience that is socially absorbed to the point where it’s as though you are chilling with your friends in your basement whenever you want.
While Xbox Live already involves this kind of experience playing and communicating with friends over chat and headset playing videogames, I hope the company applies this social involvement to their entertainment partnerships. This is to say, ultimately, watching movies, shows, sports, etc. with friends and family across the world.
While this already exists in the streaming sites like Justin.tv and Livestream, and in a smaller capacity with apps like GetGlue and IntoNow, Xbox can truly bring this technology and culture beyond the tipping point and I really hope it does.
