Hasta La Gadget!

After too long spent with just adequate ESPN content on Xbox Live, users can now get the full deal with the WatchESPN app. The app provides coverage of all ESPN channels, as well as a variety of other offerings, including highlights and replays. This comes after it was originally announced this past summer.

Users can now watch ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNU, Buzzer Beater, and Goal Line. Features include split screen, my sports, mini guide, control via Kinect, interactive ESPN BottomLine, and reminders. Content can be watched in high-definition, including highlights and replays, while the entire system can be controlled with voice and motion.

The Split Screen feature allows users to watch two games at once, or to split the content up, such as a game in one window and highlights in another. Both screens can be controlled independent of each other, such as pausing one screen while you dedicate your attention to the other. The controlling can be done via Kinect, allowing you to go hands-free.

Next up is the Mini Guide, which gives users sports content previews and quick access at the bottom of the screen, making it easy to toggle between games. Breaking news is delivered via BottomLine, which includes live alerts. Reminders are also tossed into the mix, allowing users to tag games and set up reminders.

[via Gizmodo]

Xbox Live users get WatchESPN app is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s hard to believe a whole decade has passed since the birth of Xbox Live, but here we are. From its roots as an online multiplayer service, Live has grown into a full-fledged entertainment platform bringing users Achievements and Gamerscores, customizable avatars, entertainment services and apps like Xbox Music and SmartGlass. As part of the celebration, you can head over to Xbox.com to try to win a limited edition Tenth Anniversary Xbox 360 and pick up a free copy of Wreckateer. You can also save 50 percent on a number of games that include Fruit Ninja Kinect, Full House Poker and Peggle. After you’ve entered the contest and downloaded a few games, go ahead and put in an extra hour of Halo 4 today, because hey, that’s the least you can do to celebrate a service that’s given you ten years of joy.

Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft

Xbox celebrates ten years of Live, will give special-edition 360s to contest winners originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Nov 2012 20:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft‘s little online gaming service that could – otherwise known as Xbox Live – turns 10 years old today. Launched back on November 15, 2002, which just so happened to be one year after the launch of the original Xbox, it’s safe to say that Xbox Live took the gaming world by storm, despite the fact that Microsoft has been charging for access since the beginning. Why is the birthday of Xbox Live so significant? Because Xbox Live was the first service for consoles that got online gaming right.

Microsoft wanted the Xbox to be an Internet-connected machine from the start, but it was beaten to the punch by Sega‘s Dreamcast. Fortunately for Microsoft (and unfortunately for Sega), the plan for the Dreamcast didn’t pan out so well, leaving the door wide open for Microsoft to hit a home run and really wow consumers with Xbox Live. There were plenty of skeptics in the lead up to Xbox Live’s launch, but 10 years after the service became available to the public, it’s pretty clear that the dissenters were nothing short of dead wrong.

The success of Xbox Live meant that a connected future was inevitable for consoles. However, that wasn’t immediately clear – there were a number of available titles that took advantage of Xbox Live shortly after release, but it wasn’t until the release of 2004′s Halo 2 that everyone knew online console gaming was here to stay. Microsoft took a pretty big gamble on Xbox Live, but by the time Halo 2 landed, it was obvious that gamble had paid off in a big way.

Fast forward to today and all of the major consoles – even our handhelds – are connected to the Internet, ready to take us to a world of online gaming on dedicated platforms that seemed far too risky a mere 10 years ago. Xbox Live really took off with the arrival of the Xbox 360, and these days the service is more of a multimedia hub than it is a platform simply for online gaming and downloading additional content.

Make no mistake, Xbox Live has changed in many ways over the past ten years, so much so that we don’t even think Microsoft could have envisioned the Xbox Live we have today when it set out to make a service for playing games over the Internet more than 10 years ago. Happy tenth birthday Xbox Live – we look forward to seeing where you are in another 10 years!

Happy Birthday Xbox Live! is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Some of us got our first introduction to Xbox Live through the Xbox 360, but Xbox Live was around long before the 360 was on store shelves. The online gaming service has been up and running since 2002, which means that it turns 10 years old this year. To put a finer point on that, Xbox Live will be turning 10 years old on November 15, and Microsoft has something special planned for some of the gamers who have been there since the start.

Microsoft will be sending out special edition Xbox 360 consoles to some of those who have held a subscription to Xbox Live these past 10 years. We first caught wind of these special Xbox 360s – one of which you can see pictured above – from Kotaku, which had a reader write in with an images of a console his friend received from Microsoft. The decorations and the box art for the console suggested that it was for Xbox Live’s tenth anniversary, but at the time the mysterious console left everyone scratching their heads.

That all changed earlier this afternoon, when Xbox Live’s Major Nelson confirmed that Microsoft is indeed sending out these special consoles to “members that have been with us the longest.” Hyrb says in his tweet that only “some” of Xbox Live’s earliest adopters will be getting this console in the mail, which means that you shouldn’t necessarily expect one of these to show up just because you’ve been with Xbox Live from day one. Who’s getting one and how Microsoft is determining that is unknown, so it looks like you’ll just have to wait and see if you get one.

Even if you haven’t been subscribed to Xbox Live for 10 years, you’ll still have a chance to snag one of these special edition consoles. Hyrb said in a later tweet that he’ll be sharing details on how to win one of these later on in the week, so keep your eyes peeled for that information. What do you think of these Xbox Live anniversary consoles? Do you want one?

Microsoft sending out free Xbox 360s to Live veterans is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When it comes to the Xbox Live activity chart, we’re used to seeing some kind of Call of Duty game at the top. This is not an occasional thing either – week after week, you can expect the latest Call of Duty title to rank at number one in terms of Xbox Live activity. These days, however, Minecraft is on the scene, and it has something to say about Call of Duty‘s continuing dominance.

Major Nelson has shared the activity chart for the week of October 15, which shows Minecraft snatching the top spot away from Modern Warfare 3. That has to be a pretty big achievement for Mojang and the folks at 4J Studios, as it isn’t often that Call of Duty gets unseated, and this time around, the unseating was done by an Xbox Live Arcade game. Sounds like it’s time to bust out the champagne.

Indeed, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has been well received by gamers. Just earlier this month, Mojang and 4J announced that the game had passed 4 million sales, which definitely isn’t bad for an Arcade title that launched in May. Have a look at the top 20 most popular games on Xbox Live for the week of October 15 below.

1. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
3. EA Sports FIFA Soccer 13
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops
5. Borderlands 2
6. Halo: Reach
7. Battlefield 3
8. Modern Warfare 2
9. Madden NFL 13
10. NBA 2K13
11. Happy Wars
12. Skyrim
13. Gears of War 3
14. RESIDENT EVIL 6
15. GTA IV
16. FIFA 12
17. Forza Motorsport 4
18. Dishonored
19. EA SPORTS NHL13
20. Halo 3

Of course, Minecraft also came in first on the list of top Arcade titles, managing to come in above titles like The Walking Dead and the freshly re-released Sonic Adventure 2. Can Minecraft keep it up? It’s hard to make that call – on the one hand, Minecraft is proving to be incredibly popular with Xbox 360 gamers, but on the other, Modern Warfare 3 has a ton of players, so it’s going to be hard to keep it out of the top spot. We shall see soon enough, but for now, we’ll just let Mojang and 4J revel in their victory.

Minecraft surpasses Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox Live activity chart is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.