Millions flock to Xbox Live's new social-media features

[Matthew DeCarlo]

After talking about it for several months, Redmond finally rolled out its social-media update for Xbox Live last week, allowing gamers to access Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, as well as the Zune marketplace, and it seems that many people have flocked to the new features.

According to company spokesman David Dennis, at least two million users have logged into Facebook, making it the most adopted of Xbox Live's new functions. Dennis said that half a million Last.fm accounts were created in the first 24 hours, and Xbox Live users streamed 120 million minutes of music.

Meanwhile, the Zune marketplace -- formerly called Xbox Live marketplace -- served videos to 1.7 million users in the first week available. No figures for Twitter's usage were offered, but Dennis did say that there have been "tweets from nearly every market where we have Xbox Live."

Check out Microsoft's rundown of the recent update for more information. If you have used the new features, share your thoughts on them in the comments. Is there anything you would change?

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https://www.techspot.com/news/37076-millions-flock-to-xbox-lives-new-social-media-features.html

 

[yorro]

This is a good news, I can now tweet as I play. Cool

 

[RealXboxMaster]

Here is another great feature added to our beloved Xbox Live community.

 

[Guest]

You must be a gold member to use it. I will not pay for something I can get for free on my PC. What a joke.

 

[PCIGamer]

i like it, but i wish they would give you the ability to disable this stuff.

 

[saintbodhisatva]

whats really becoming more ubiquitous? PCs becoming portable or Social Networking becoming portable?

 

[t0nel0ke]

This is a great feature. You're not forced to pay for this, it's just an added bonus for those who already subscribe to Xbox Live.

 

[Ranger12]

Ha so I guess this fits well with the 1 million 360's being banned. Wonder how many people will dish out the cash for a new now that there's a few extra goodies on live.

 

[blackcharlowins]

This is a great feature they added. I figured they would come out with IE for Xbox, but I could see that causing hacking problems. Either way, its a good start on using your Xbox for everything!

 

[Aolish]

Whats the diffference between twitter and sites like facebook anyway? I mean i do understand the point of twitter... you tweet what you are currently doing. However don't ppl do the same thing on facebook? I have a facebook account and many people on that site literally keep everyone updated on what they are doing.

 

[Razerblade]

This is very handy! I hate having to leave the Xbox to go onto facebook. Now I can use facebook without having to move!!! Keep the improvements coming Microsoft!

 

[lupinnktp]

This is a nice addition, but no surprise, though internet access ability is spreading over most gadgets, a rather common trend nowadays

 

[freedomthinker]

Im really glad that MIcrosoft is cleaning up its act quite a bit lately , i haven't heard this much positive feed back for quite a while , now the only thing left is Windows ;D

 

[BlindObject]

I don' really use the bird website, but facebook is cool, and I still have to try last fm. Maybe youtube should jump in there too..

 

[swilllx2p]

Guest said:
You must be a gold member to use it. I will not pay for something I can get for free on my PC. What a joke.

This is exactly my thoughts on this. I personally think its ridiculous that microsoft charges money for xbox live. I'll stick to doing things free on my pc as well as more functionality by far.

 

[Afenix]

I really can't get it, why should i pay for everything, that i can have free on the pc? Microsoft is really selfish, you must pay money to enjoy everything that xbox live offers, when you can use the PC/PS3 to get the same? I've heard that microsoft will be removing all of the xbox live money fees, making it a free social network like psn. As we see nothings happening...

 

[Guest]

WOW..! M$ now realizes that they no longer have anything over SONY price wise, so they are now playing the numbers game over some little add-ons.... trying to get an edge now that SONY'S PS3 is on a roll and will continue to out sell the X-Box last-gen DVD player.

That 1 year head start is all but gone M$, too bad you gave us a defective console just to rush ahead of SONY and even charge us for every and anything to do with that piece of crap.

Now just continue speak of #'s as we continue to enjoy what a true gaming console is supposed to be PS3.. It only does everything....PlayStation - Play Beyond.

 

[danteoz]

I don't own an xbox nor a twitter account, so i guess I don't understand whats so cool about getting on there from your xbox pay for service on top of your existing internet pay for service. Gaming consoles are for gaming right?

 

[matchu]

Might be pointless to pay for access to FB and stuff from the XBox, but some people already have the subscription for actual gaming purposes. Even though, frankly, i wouldn't bother with those myself...

 

[fref]

I'm one of the few people still resisting Facebook, Twitter and other such sites. I just don't have time to update a Facebook account every 15 minutes. Doing it on a game console sure won't change anything for me.

 

[mattfrompa]

it would have been much smarter to simply integrate a browser into the console...oh wait, then the EU might get a stick up their a** request a ballot screen : P Seriously though, both the Wii and PS3 have browsers, and it would have been a better move in my opinion.

 

[JudaZ]

Dont really care about facebook, or twitter in my xbox.....but i do like the addidtion of Zune. .. now if the could only add something worth watching on Zune as well .. it would be great ...

allso love the new games on demand feature they added a while back....
been asking for that for a loong time..

 

[ajickes]

Pretty cool feature... it may not be that useful to many but I know there are lots of people out there who'd like to share with their friends their many XBOX 360 achievements real-time. Aaah... the power of Facebook and Twitter.

 

[yangly18]

I don't tweet, although I have one. I do facebook though, and I did sign up on my xbox. I was expecting maby a new setup for how they would present it, but its just like the xbox home screen. You can't do nearly as much stuff on it as if you just booted up your desktop/laptop and went on the site. I'm logged onto the site 24/7 anyway on my computer, so I haven't seen mush use for it. This might be a nice thing for thoes of simple taste and needs, but some of us need more than what has been presented to us on xbox.

 

[davimous]

It's nice to be able to download a show in full hd and watch it in my living room. Sure I could download it for free but four people huddled around my 22 inch monitor can suck. They just need to get some more movies now.