At E3 2011 Microsoft introduced a new dashboard interface for the Xbox 360. Looking at this closely lately I noticed that this is awfully familiar – in fact most of us have seen this before. At the moment this dashboard replicates that shown on the Windows Phone 7 and the early previews of Windows 8. It has also been announced lately that Microsoft intend for their new software to be interconnecting. What does this mean for the future of Microsoft’s home console?
Cross-Platform Gaming
Getting 360 games to play alongside their PC-based versions may be a hard concept to develop but this is definitely the direct I think Microsoft are looking to go. We’ve seen limited games like Shadowrun and Lost Planet: Colonies Edition attempt this but with varying results. Windows 8 integration however could bring this up to the next level with fully realised cross platform play. The only issue with this is whether the console users will be at a disadvantage with their controllers against the keyboard and mouse PC gamers.
Multi-Platform Purchasing
We’ve already seen examples of buying games over several platforms with the release of Portal 2 on the Playstation 3. When buying the console version users were also given a free copy of the PC software to go along with it. This is a very exciting concept that could evolve dramatically over the next few years and give users the organisation to play on the go or over different platforms at different times.
It is likely that a fully integrated dashboard would come along with this concept especially as Microsoft look to release their new graphics-heavy Windows Phone and Xbox UI’s over the next few months. Taking this a step further they could also incorporate a central gaming hub that would hold all your installed games, achievements, demos and Gamertag. This could be used as a central control to connect to your friends, start matchmaking and more – the possibilities are endless.
PC & Mobile Achievements
Hoping on the back of the Cross Platform Gaming will no doubt be the inclusion of further achievements. There are a selection of Xbox 360 users who are pure Achievement hunters and would stop at nothing to get their fix. We have already seen examples of this with Arkham Asylum and Fallout 3 but imagine all future games holding this potential. Personally I don’t see the point in buying the same game twice but there are those of you out there who wouldn’t think twice.
Media
Alongside the Achievement based inclusions and no doubt the central gaming hub would no doubt be Media syncing. Whether this be through software like Last.Fm or through personal storage this feature would almost be a must.
The ability to send movies to and from different systems, or synching TV stations to your Xbox would be a great benefit to those couch potatoes in all of us.
Cloud Saving
As we have been told by Microsoft, Cloud Saves are already coming to Xbox Live. For those of you who don’t know these are for Game Saves and Live Profiles which can be accessed by any console at any time. This could also be incorporated further and allow you to pick up you Game Save from your Xbox at home to your friends PC version and pick up exactly where you left off.
The other feature mentioned recently is the ‘Beacon’ support which goes one step further when broadcasting what you're playing or watching on your Xbox. This will allow users to flag what they want to play, and lets friends on XBL or Facebook to see so they can meet you for a game.
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Most of what I’ve spoken about above is complete hearsay but it certainly shows what and interesting time we have ahead of us. Are there any features you would like to see implement in the future or do you think this is all getting a bit far fetched?
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