Sitting on a couch in a hotel suite opposite the Tokyo Game Show last month, Microsoft’s Scott Austin, director of digital games at Live, ran me through a quick demonstration of the service on an Xbox 360 he had set up on the room’s flat screen.
Austin said that Facebook, like Twitter and Last.FM (both services also coming to the Xbox 360 this year), are an important part of the New Xbox Experience. The console and its user interface is broken down into thrill pillars, he said: Web based services, interactive entertainment and social networking.
While he wasn’t able to show me Last.FM or Twitter on the console, he was able to show off a build of Facebook running on the Xbox 360.
The interface would be very familiar to anyone who has used Facebook before. The console version allows you to read your friends’ news feeds, comment, check out profiles and read and write messages.
Austin told me that videos and Facebook apps or games are not yet a part of the service that will be available on the 360, but that it was something Microsoft was “looking at”.
One of the cooler aspects of the Facebook integration on the Xbox 360 is that your friend’s list now shows you which of your Facebook friends aren’t on your Xbox 360 friend’s list. It also gives you the ability to add them, if you have the space.
Posting updates from your Xbox 360 will mark the text with an Xbox symbol as well.
I asked Austin if there were any plans to overhaul the New Xbox Experience user-interface menu on the Xbox 360 in the near future. With the inclusion of things like Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM along with pages dedicated to a game’s universe, it seems like a possibility.
“The new Xbox experience interface is what you are going to see for the foreseeable future,” he said. “Its design allows us to contract and expand.”
Mr Waffle
October 7, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Hope it takes advantage of the chatpad. It should be a criminal offense for programs on the 360 (eg the Guitar Hero games) to not support it…
Report PermalinkStinky
October 7, 2009 at 1:47 PM
Of course it will support it. You can use a regular USB keyboard as well.
Report PermalinkSimeon
October 7, 2009 at 10:29 AM
“The console and its user interface is broken down into thrill pillars”
THRILL PILLARS ARE MY FAVOURITE INDIE BAND.
Report PermalinkJames Mac
October 7, 2009 at 10:52 AM
Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but does anyone find Facebook thrilling?
Report PermalinkJohnnoz
October 7, 2009 at 11:37 AM
Don’t particularly care about facebook or twitter support. But this is the first I’ve heard of LastFM support!
Report Permalinkf4cti0n
October 7, 2009 at 11:38 AM
So are we able to disable the facebook section from even appearing? Because the less facebook on my 360 the better.
Report PermalinkRiavan
October 7, 2009 at 12:06 PM
I wonder how much of facebook we’re going to be able to use, or will it just involve the twitter bit of it?
Report PermalinkTooh3y
October 7, 2009 at 2:28 PM
Well I can see the benefit of facebook on the 360. I’m already an addict on the computer, seems to me that you’ll be able to check out photos/inbox and status updates…I wonder if it’ll be able to display full profile pages?
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