[Am-info] Some thoughts on XBox Live

[Sujal Shah]

Hi everyone,

	I don't know how many of you are into console gaming or are have kids 
that are, but I've started seeing some of the first substantive reviews 
of XBox Live.  In addition, I play a lot of SOCOM, the PlayStation 2's 
online gaming launch title, and have talked to other gamers about their 
experiences with XBox live (the game supports voice comms).

The review with the best "feature list" approach is the Tom's Hardware 
review that just go posted to /.  : 
http://www.tomshardware.com/game/20021214/index.html

In typical Tom's Hardware style, it's a wide review touching just about 
every aspect, including reviewing some of the titles that are 
Live-ready.

I'll let you read those reviews, but as you might expect, all of them 
have been favorable.   There was a little blurb in wired 2 months ago, 
too, that gave XBox live an edge over the PS2.

In case you're not already familiar with the approach Microsoft is 
taking with XBox Live, Microsoft is essentially running a subscription 
service ($50 for the first year, pricing not yet determined for the 
future).   Microsoft is also running the gaming servers in 4 huge data 
centers around the world.  This way, they are a middle man in any 
revenue stream and, the pitch goes, game companies can concentrate on 
content instead of billing and running servers.

While you can imagine the response from the game publishers (EA has 
officially said "No EA titles for XBox Live"), this approach has 
several benefits for the end user.   Some important ones:

- one signon rather than one per game
- built in IM features across all games (invite friends playing, for 
example, MechAssault to play Ghost Recon with you)
- voice comms available in all games (headset is part of the XBox Live 
Starter Kit)
- one bill rather than one per title

There are also some technical differences.  Some important ones:

- voice comms work fluidly, including full duplex (SOCOM on the PS2 
only allows one person to speak at a time).
- hardware is built in to XBox, and is broadband only (PS2 has some 
modem titles)
- better "game host" features, i.e. finer controls over kicking unruly 
players, etc.

You can read about all of this, as I said.  What I did want to pass on 
was the reaction I've heard from gamers online.  The reaction has been 
positive from everyone I've talked to.  In fact, I know of a number of 
SOCOM gamers that have more or less stopped playing that game to play 
on XBox Live.  The features I highlighted above were the primary 
reasons mentioned for preferring XBox Live over SOCOM and the PS2 
titles.  In addition, people have experienced better reliability from 
the Live servers than the SOCOM ones (especially after christmas!  all 
these new players all of a sudden :) ).

Most people, when they talk about XBox live speak positively about 
their experiences.  So far, I've heard only one negative reaction, and 
that was from someone who doesn't play online much at all (he has a 
bunch of roomates, so they just all pile onto the couch on a single 
XBox and play head to head there).

Anyway, if people have particular questions about this, I can try to 
find out more.  My ex-girlfriend has an XBox and a friend at work has 
the XBox and Live already.  I think that Microsoft is onto something 
here, and has the titles to bring people over.  Once the new Halo comes 
out for Live, I think more people will migrate.  If anyone is 
interested in looking at how Microsoft will create more revenue in the 
future, they should really pay attention to this.  Gamers are 
notoriously loose with cash.  Most of the gamers I've talked to are 
either around 18-21, in college and working just to pay for this stuff, 
or like me (late 20's/early 30's gamers).  The second group is 
significant because it's people like me that have some spare cash, 
broadband (a critical component), and some time.

An aside:  it's amazing to me to see how many husband/wife pairs play 
online.  The wife usually gets hooked after seeing their husband online 
for some time. :)

Sujal

------ sujal shah ------ sujal@sujal.net -----

                  http://www.sujal.net