Abhinav Lal

Discuss on thinkdigit forum

Posted on 15-06-2010

Comment on article

Tweet

The Xbox 360 Media Briefing saw Don Mattricks announcing a new era for Microsoft, which will kickoff with the biggest year for the Xbox 360 – 2010. Microsoft says this will be the year when Kinect, what was codenamed Project Natal, will help the company redefine the way you play, and which along with Xbox Live will enable you to "break through the screen" to connect with friends, family, movies, music, and dance, apart from sports with ESPN. It's apparently all about your "living room" to Microsoft, and they're out to make it a more social place, as well as a gaming and entertainment hub for the entire family.

• Microsoft Kinect reveals another limitation - it supports...
• Xbox LIVE creator's LIVE profile hacked - fiasco shines light...
• No new XBOX coming anytime soon, confirms Microsoft

The announcement of Kinect and the new Xbox 360 Slim were leaks that were great to have confirmed, but what we all eagerly awaited was pricing and availability, especially for Kinect. Microsoft disappointed however, by holding back on the price of the 3D camera setup, but graced us with the knowledge that it would be arriving by November 4th, and would be accompanied by 15 launch titles.

The new Xbox 360 Slim looked like a smaller version in a glossy black casing that is a linearly stylized version of the original, all sharp angles. It was called the 'Kinect Ready' Xbox 360, and we hope this does not mean that the original does not support Kinect, even though the new one will be priced at exactly the same price as the original, $299. It will also feature some new hardware, in the form of the fastest WiFi on a console, 802.11 b/g/n, and 250GB hardrive space.

So, apart from the new non-Kinect Xbox 360 games announced (which you can catch read in our game special on Microsoft's E3 conference), the rest of the show was all about Kinect and Xbox Live, and these new experiences they will provide. All of which can be accessed Minority Report style - with the hand, or with voice control!

Video Kinect

While Xbox Live users have had voice chat and party chat for a while now, with consoles even shipping with headsets, it's now time for video chat on Xbox Live. Yes, straight after Apple introduced FaceTime, we get to hear about Video Kinect. A service available only for Xbox Live Gold members, it will allow users of two Kinect enabled Xbox 360 consoles to video chat with each other, and apparently even check out movies and videos together, which we assume will also include other content... Seems pretty cool, and we can see applications of people watching the same thing simultaneously... Wonder how many different people voice chat will support at once, with how many PIP real-time? Windows Live Messenger contacts can also be chatted with.

Zune
While it is not clear whether you have to be a ZunePass holder apart being a Xbox Live members, you will be able to access a simplied UI when accessing Zune content, which Microsoft showed off with the statistic: 7 million songs on demand

Content/Sync Partnerships
Other content partnerships were also revealed, such as Netflix, Facebook, .Last FM, and ESPN. ESPN was really emphasized, and they announced great content (for Americans, wonder how it would translate worldwide) in the partnership of the "worldwide leader in sports" and the "worldwide leader in games" . This included college football and college basketball, apart from live scores, sportscenter, statistics, and more. ESPN is available free for Xbox Live Gold members.

Fitness/Body Training

Click to enlarge

Calibration	Combat training
Taichi practice	Taichi practice (Kinect demo)

Coming closer to the kinetic part of Kinect, we chose to seperate this announement from the many Kinect  games revealed, as it can not only mean some serious exercise, but also lending itself to some very applications we find will be truly mind-blowing, like learning Kung Fu or Kendo. It recognizes your body type, mass, can calculate the calories you are burning, which body area is being targeted, give you combat training (sissy fitness version show, but imagining learning how to correctly wield a daikatana!) and "correct you" when you are going wrong, real-time.

Read on to know more about the Kinect titles expected, including some of the 15 launch titles....

Images courtesy: Engadget