The Drive Towards Live!

With all the hoopla over the Xbox 360's graphical power, it's easy to forget that the Xbox's true legacy is its awesome Xbox Live service. With Xbox 360, online gaming is taking one massive step forward.

As it trumps the advantages of the Xbox 360, Microsoft is intent on highlighting upcoming improvements in its already groundbreaking Xbox Live service. First, it's important to note that these enhanced Xbox Live features are only applicable to Xbox 360 owners; for the most part, these new Live perks will not apply to Xbox 1 owners. If you pick up an Xbox 360 on launch day, you can expect to see some significant changes.

Silver Lining
One key addition will be the addition of a free Silver Tier service. This will allow all 360 owners to instantly access many Xbox Live features, with the notable exception of multiplayer gaming, without having to pay for a Live subscription plan. In other words, if you've got an Xbox 360 and a standard broadband connection, you're set. Unfortunately, you won't be able to regularly play multiplayer games using the Silver Tier plan, but there are plans for promotional free trial weekends, in much the way cable companies promote HBO and other pay channels. The Silver Tier will also have full access to the new Live Marketplace system, which we'll discuss in more detail shortly.

Silver Tier plan:

  • Free of charge
  • Grants players full access to Marketplace, for buying game trailers, demos, and various game enhancements
  • Allows players to setup their GamerCard profiles
  • Microsoft will occasionally unlock free multiplayer sessions in various promotions, but otherwise, players cannot play online with the Silver Tier service
  • Access to low-level communication features, like voice chat and limited video chat

    The premium Gold Tier plan will function much like the existing service. You'll be able to subscribe through the Xbox Live service itself, or buy pre-paid subscription cards. And in an awesome change, you will no longer need a credit card to sign up for the service, unless you go with the subscription plan.

    Gold Tier plan:

  • Pay plan, much like the current Xbox Live plan (price still undecided)
  • Existing Xbox Live subscribers should be able to migrate over to Gold Tier seamlessly; no changes or charges will be necessary
  • Grants players full access to Marketplace, for buying game trailers, demos, and various game enhancements
  • Unlimited multiplayer gaming, just like current Xbox Live
  • Full communication abilities, including voice chat (which you can initiate even if you and a friend are playing single-player titles or watching DVDs) and video chat features

    In Line, Online
    Other new Live features include Gamer profiles, which ties together a user's Gamertag (screen name), reputation (based on player feedback), Gamerscore (earned by accomplishing noteworthy game achievements), and Gamerzone (a sort of digital community, from hardcore to family-oriented). Matchmaking will rely on these statistics, so if you've got a solid reputation, it's unlikely you'll ever encounter players with crappy reputations.

    Lastly, the Xbox Live Marketplace seems like it could revolutionize online gaming. Players will use microtransactions--tiny payments that can go as low as one cent--to buy everything from new game characters, new weapons, or new levels. Other novel microtransaction purchases will include game trailers, playable game demos, and other peripheral features. To enable these microtransactions, you'll purchase prepaid game cards; even a five dollar card could give you enough microtransactions to purchase quite a few game upgrades.

    The Final Frontier
    Here's what we know the new version of Xbox Live won't do (at least, not yet):

  • It won't enable users to download full movies or music albums
  • It won't enable users to download full versions of video games
  • Xbox 1 users will not be able to use the advanced Live features, such as video chat

    But beyond that, Microsoft's Xbox Live service is shaping up to be fascinating digital offering. It's completely unique and undeniably compelling, a far cry from the service's shaky early days. Before long, we could be asking ourselves: "Remember the days when we used to play games offline?" Hey, stranger things have happened.

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