Xbox Live: We don’t have competition on online services

Xbox Live - Image 1An interview was held with Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft‘s Entertainment and Devices division, just before Xbox Live’s fifth anniversary. In the interview he says that “we don’t have competition” on talking about the PlayStation Network, explaining that Sony has “done some things online, but nothing that can be called a service.”

Bach also talks about current and future plans for Xbox Live, including parental control features and hints at more media content. More in the full article.

Xbox Live - Image 1 

In interview was held with Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft‘s Entertainment and Devices division, just before Xbox Live’s fifth anniversary. In the interview he talks about current and future plans for Xbox Live, and also gives a comment on the PlayStation Network.

Xbox Live has gone a long ways since it first started. As Bach explains, the services available in the service no longer caters to just “serious gamers” but is now expanding to welcome casual gamers as well. Xbox Live is has become a media content service as well.

Their service is already so popular it has gained 8 million users (whereas PSN has about 3 million). When asked whether Sony‘s new efforts in expanding their online network worried Microsoft, Bach replied that:

It’s fair to say that Xbox Live is clearly head and shoulders above anything anyone else has tried to do. We don’t have competition. Sony has done some things online, but nothing that can be called a service. We have a big advantage and we’re going to keep pressing that advantage.

We have a very strong, very powerful computer network that provides the backbone for our service. We have game demos that can be downloaded, video downloads and game downloads. It’s a broad cross section of consumer services.

Already, Xbox Live offers movies and TV shows as part of its services. While Bach refuses to go into detail, Xbox Live aims to go deeper into media content, maybe even selling music. As J. Allard recently said: Microsoft and Zune‘s services will someday merge.

Soon Xbox Live will also get parental control features (nuts), like the Family Timer that allows parents to time exactly how many hours kids can play on the console. He also hints at new ways of interaction through the network.

Via Los Angeles Times

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