Microsoft is about to expand features to be used on its XBOX 360 consoles. It won’t only be used to play excellent games to help relieve stress, but it will also become a tool that will connect its users to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
This new feature is scheduled to be launched sometime this week.
Taking benefit of the new feature is fairly easy. Users will only need to utilize it through the XBOX LIVE feature, which is built into their XBOX 360 consoles.
If it’s true, it means that Facebook and Twitter users will no longer have to turn on their PC every time they need to update their Facebook or Twitter status messages. They could do it through their gaming consoles.
XBOX LIVE itself is a service provided by Microsoft for its XBOX 360 users, which has become a connecting platform between its users and the Internet. Through this feature, XBOX 360 users may also play their games in multiplayer mode online with other users/players from all over the world.
“We’ve seen tremendous response from users of this new feature”, said XBOX LIVE General Manager Marc Whitten, as quoted from the DetikINET, Tuesday (17/11/2009).
Microsoft seems to be working hard in creating this new feature. This is no doubt due to the competition in the gaming console industry, which seem to be getting hotter from time to time. As we all know, there is several players in the gaming console war, including Nintendo with its Nintendo Wii and Sony with its PlayStation consoles range.
Gamers who are using illegal software or games will no longer be able to access XBOX LIVE as their accounts will soon be deleted by Microsoft. Up to a million of users are expected to be affected by this new move of Microsoft.
XBOX LIVE is one of the services that Microsoft provides to its XBOX 360 users. Some of the features that XBOX 360 gamers could get from joining XBOX LIVE includes multi-players online gaming, game patch downloads, and even streaming videos.
This membership-based online service that was commenced in 2002 has been growing rapidly and has members from all over the world. Unfortunately, this service had also been taken advantage of by some gamers who are using illegal game copies as well as modified XBOX 360 consoles.
“Gamers should have known that using pirated game copies and modifying their XBOX 360 consoles are considered as illegal behaviour. Therefore, we will be getting rid of all of their accounts from XBOX LIVE”, as mentioned by Microsoft’s spokesman, quoted from DetikINET on Thursday (12/11/2009).
There are about 600 thousand to 1 million registered users who are expected to be removed by Microsoft from the use of its XBOX LIVE service.
Cooperation between Polyphony Digital and Sony is serious, which is proven by creating Gran Turismo 5 to try make a racing simulation game that gamers dream of.
Gran Turismo 5 (GT5) is a racing simulation game that is very promising. The game that is scheduled to be released in March 2010 is also increasingly becoming a hot topic among gamers.
To satisfy the desire of gamers, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) and the polyphony digital are making it in such a way that it will be a breathtaking simulation game to play.
Kazunori Yamauchi, CEO of Digital polyphony and founder of the Gran Turismo series said: “The making of Gran Turismo 5 had spent $60 million. In addition to GT5, there are other games that had costed a larger budget, depending on the size and scale of the game. However, in my opinion, the amount of money spent is still small”.
GT5 will come with a much better graphics quality than its predecessors, “There are about 400,000 polygons on each vehicle, and that number is hundred times more than it is in GT4,” said Yamauchi, as quoted from DetikINET on Friday (6/11/2009).
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