Xbox Live is a multiplayer gaming and content delivery system created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It was first made available to the Xbox video game console in November 2002. An updated version of the service became available for the Xbox 360 console at that system's launch. Games for Windows - Live makes certain aspects of the system available on Windows Vista PCs, with plans to extend Live to other platforms such as handhelds and mobile phones as part of the Live Anywhere initiative.
History
As Microsoft developed the original Xbox console, online gaming was designated as one of the key pillars for the greater Xbox strategy. Opting to create a unique console experience, it was decided that a hard disk drive and an ethernet port were vital to the platform, allowing for a more PC-style experience. The former would allow for downloadable content, such as new levels, maps, and characters, while the latter allowed adaptability to standard ethernet equipment. The ethernet port also served as an end to a means, since Microsoft decided that their online gaming service for the Xbox console would require a broadband connection, stating that dial-up connections would not allow them to standardize features (such as voice communication) and were inappropriate for intense online gaming. Critics scoffed at the idea, citing poor broadband adoption at the turn of the century.[1] Sega made a similar attempt to capitalize on the ever-growing online gaming scene when it launched the Dreamcast video game console in 1998. The console shipped with a dial-up modem while a later-released broadband adapter was not widely supported or widely available.
When the Xbox launched on November 15, 2001, the as-yet unnamed online service was destined for a Summer 2002 deployment.[2] Xbox Live was finally given a name at E3 2002 when the service was unveiled in its entirety. Sound dampened booths and broadband connected Xbox consoles - featuring an early version of Unreal Championship - demonstrated the service on the show floor. The Epic title was one of the flagship titles for the service, which was now slated for a debut on November 15, 2002, marking the anniversary of the Xbox launch. Microsoft announced that 50 Xbox Live titles would be available by the end of 2003.[3] The service was revolutionary in many aspects. Utilizing the required broadband bandwidth, Xbox Live featured a unified gaming "Friends List", as well as a single identity across all titles (regardless of the publisher), and standardized voice chat and communication; a feature that was still in its infancy, even on the PC.
Leading up to the launch, Microsoft enlisted several waves of beta testers to improve the service and receive feature feedback. When the service debuted, it lacked much of the functionality that later titles included, but Xbox Live grew and evolved on the Xbox and many aspects of the service were included with the Xbox 360 console out of the box, rather than through a later update. Microsoft's 5000th patent was a Live-related patent which gives Xbox 360 users access to watch other gamers compete against each other over Xbox Live.[4]
The packaging for playable Xbox Live titles on the original Xbox console featured the trademark gold bar underneath the Xbox header. Splinter Cell and Brute Force sported a Live "bubble" design, as they only featured downloadable content. This was changed later, wherein all Xbox Live titles included the universal gold Live bar. By the time of the Xbox 360, all titles were required to provide at least a limited form of Xbox Live "awareness".
Xbox Live hit a milestone in July 2004, [1] when it achieved 1 million subscribers; and again in March 2007, when it achieved 6 million subscribers. [2] With the release of Halo 2 later in 2004, the subscription base doubled within the following 12 months.[3] Since its release, Halo 2 has generated over a half a billion game plays totaling up to over 710 million hours.
Xbox Live has been shut down temporarily for maintenance several times since its launch, with the latest down time occurring on March 27, 2007. During such downtimes, users are unable to access any aspect of Xbox Live, including downloadable content. Xbox Live downtimes do not typically last longer than 24 hours.
|¥5229
|}
==
On the Xbox 360
With the launch of the Xbox 360, Xbox Live went through a major change. The most notable change is the establishment of two subscription types, called Silver and Gold. Xbox Live Silver is free to all Xbox 360 owners. While it does not allow access to online play, it still has access to other Xbox Live features such as the friends list, messages, and the Xbox Live Marketplace as well as downloading game demos. Xbox Live Gold, which requires a monthly or yearly subscription fee, allows users to access all available features on Xbox Live. This fee can be paid automatically through a recurring credit card charge, or can be paid using a code supplied from a card purchased at a retail store. Neither version of the subscriptions requires the use of the 360's hard drive, but gamers must have a memory card for downloads.
Xbox Live features:
- Gamer tags for user identification
- Avatars, or gamer pictures, for association with gamer tags
- Mottos for display on gamer profiles
- Gamer zones which represent gaming style and influence player matchmaking (Recreation, Pro, Family, Underground)
- Ability to change one's gamer tag for 800 Microsoft Points
- Game achievements are listed with gamer tags and can be compared with friends' achievements
- Reputation rating which is voted on by other players who decide to either prefer or avoid another player
- Gamerscores which are a total of a player's achievement points
- Friends list, which is a list of a player's chosen friends
- Recent player list, which lists the last 50 players one user has played with
- Xbox Live Marketplace content
- Multiplayer online gameplay
- Enhanced matchmaking using cumulative gamerscore, reputation, ___location/language profile, skill level, and gamerzone.
Marketplace
A system of Microsoft Points based transactions and prepaid subscription cards are available for the 360, cutting down the number of separate credit card transactions Microsoft handles and allowing users without credit cards access to the service.
Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360
Xbox Live friends list connects friends across Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft Windows-based PCs and Windows Mobile-powered devices. These friends and families can easily connect and chat directly from their Xbox 360 connected television using Windows Live Messenger, a network of more than 20 billion relationships and more than 260 million active accounts. It is possible to text chat with up to six people at one time, while playing games, listening to music, or watching movies. Text chat adds to the variety of options friends and families already have to communicate with on Xbox Live, including voice and video chat. Users will see at a glance if their existing friends on Windows Live Messenger have gamertags. A disadvantage to this is that users with "Child Accounts" cannot use this feature, regardless of family settings.
Users of Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360 can text chat using the virtual keyboard accessible on Xbox 360, or by connecting any USB keyboard to the console. Microsoft will launch a QWERTY text-input device, a new accessory that will connect directly into the Xbox 360 controller to support text and instant messaging in the summer 2007.
Gamertag
Gamertag is the universal name for a player's username on Microsoft's Xbox Live. Using a Gamertag, any player can be located and messaged from within Live. There are several websites which allow users of Gamertags to upload photos and information about themselves. Gamertags can be changed using a premium service on the Xbox 360 console; there are four available slots in which to create and delete them.
A player's Gamertag account status can be checked using a variety of online tools, this is useful especially when trying to organize games on 3rd party websites where you cannot always be sure if a person has a genuine Gamertag or not.
Gamertags can be used in a variety of places, including Xbox, Xbox 360, Games for Windows Live, Zune, and XNA Creators Club.
Gamerscore
The Gamerscore is a measure that corresponds to the number of "Achievement" points accumulated by an Xbox Live user. These Achievement points are awarded for the completion of game-specific challenges, such as beating a level or amassing a specified number of wins against other players in Xbox Live matches. Initially, retail Xbox 360 games offered up to 1250 points spread over a variable number of Achievements, while each Xbox Live Arcade title contained 12 achievements totalling 200 points. Achievements surprisingly became a very potent system seller for the console [4]. There was even a minor outcry when GameSpot published an article on how to achieve 6,000 easy Achievement points due to the lax nature that some 360 titles had on Achievements, notably EA Sports and 2K Sports titles, that would require almost no effort from the gamer to get the maximum 1,000 Achievement points. It must be noted that the following year's sports titles (2K Sports' 2K7 and EA Sports' 07 titles) featured far more challenging Achievements.
Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) coined the term for individuals who played games explicitly for the purpose of unlocking achievements to add to their score: Gamerscore Whore[5]. In November 2006, a gamer reached the 100,000 Gamerscore mark. As of April 15, 2007, RANCE6 has the highest Worldwide Gamerscore with 143,294. As of April 15, 2007, David Dreger (aka Knuckles Dawson) owns the legitimate record for consecutive days earning at least 1 Achievement point with 510 straight days (1 year, 145 days).
On February 1, 2007 Microsoft announced on their Gamerscore Blog some new policies that developers must follow related to Gamerscore and Achievements in future releases.[5] All games must have 1,000 Gamerscore in the base game - the title could ship with less than 1,000 Gamerscore but anything added later must be free. Game developers also now have the option of adding an additional 250 points via downloadable content (for a total of 1,250 Gamerscore) - this content can be either free or paid. Xbox Live Arcade titles may add up to 50 points via downloadable content (for a total of 250 Gamerscore).
During the final development of Crackdown, developers pleaded with Microsoft to raise the number of achievements per game. As a result, the maximum number of achievements a game can have has been raised from 50 to 60.[6]
Gamercard
Gamercard is an information panel used to summarize a user's profile on Microsoft's Xbox Live. The pieces of information on a Gamercard include:
- Gamertag
- Gamerscore
- Reputation
- Gamer Zone
A player's gamer card can be viewed via the Xbox 360 Dashboard, or online through Xbox.com. Several third party sites, such as Mygamercard.net and Xboxusersgroup.com, allow users to post a rendered version of their Gamercard as a small Flash applet or JPEG image on any website or webforum.
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is the central destination for Xbox 360 gamers to find, download, try, and buy smaller games on the Xbox 360 console. The Xbox Live Arcade offers a large catalog of fun, broad-appeal games that can be downloaded via Xbox Live. Game size is 150MB or less to enable quick download [6].
Examples of some of the more popular among them are Lumines Live!, DOOM, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, Gauntlet, UNO, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and Smash TV. As of April 25, 2007 there have been 56 titles released for Xbox Live Arcade on the Xbox 360.
Xbox Live Diamond Card
A real-world "perks card" known as the Xbox Live Diamond Card is available to American Xbox Live subscribers. The card is printed with the gamertag of the owner, and will grant discounts and other benefits at various retailers to the owner of the card. Retailers listed by Microsoft include Ticketmaster, Cambridge Soundworks, McDonald's, Carl's Jr., etnies, Quiznos Sub, Sam Goody, Timberland, Hollywood Video, Gamestop, TiVo, DogFunk, Velocity Micro, Circuit City, Target Corporation, Arby's, and Papa John's. [7] The card is free, but only available in the U.S., and only for 12-month subscribers.
TrueSkill
TrueSkill on the Xbox 360 is a skill-based ranking system that is used across all games. It involves the user playing ranked games against other players, with the results used to update the skill level estimates of those involved. For each game, a user has two hidden statistics: an estimated skill level, and an uncertainty factor. As a player continues to play further matches of the same title, the system revises the estimated skill level and decreases the uncertainty factor. As the uncertainty in the estimate decreases, the estimated level moves up or down by a smaller amount with each successive match. The eventual goal is to exactly determine the level of the player, i.e. his or her "true skill level".
When matchmaking, the system attempts to match individuals based on their estimated skill level. If two individuals are competing head-to-head and have the same estimated skill level with low estimate uncertainty, they should each have roughly a 50% chance of winning a match. In this way, the system attempts to make every match as competitive as possible.
In order to prevent abuse of the system, the majority of ranked games have relatively limited options for matchmaking. By design, players cannot easily play with their friends in ranked games. Instead, the system supports unranked Player Matches, which allow individuals of any skill level to be paired (often including "guests" on an account). Such matches do not contribute to the TrueSkill rating.
Xbox Live Vision
The Xbox Live Vision camera was announced at E3 2006,[8] and was released September 19 2006 in North America, October 6 2006 in Europe and Asia, and November 2 2006 in Japan[9]. Release dates for Australia, and New Zealand have not been confirmed.[10]
The first "Camera Enabled" game, a video game incarnation of the classic card game UNO, was released in the Xbox Live Marketplace on May 9, 2006. [11] The Xbox 360 versions of World Series of Poker and Rainbow Six: Vegas tout a "Digimask" technology that will map a player's facial expressions onto his or her in-game avatar.[12]
The Vision camera comes bundled a wired Xbox 360 Headset, one free month of Xbox Live Gold membership, and two Xbox Live Arcade games - UNO and TotemBall (both being free downloads on the Xbox Live Marketplace). A second package (the Gold Pack) is available for $79.99 which contains Robotron 2084, 200 Microsoft Points and a 12 Month subscription to Xbox Live Gold in addition to the headset, UNO and TotemBall.
Xbox 360 Wireless Headset
The wireless headset uses the console's built-in 2.4 GHz wireless receiver to communicate with the Xbox 360. This allows players to use the headset without an active controller from up to a range of around 30 ft. It runs on a rechargeable battery and has a charger included. The headset is currently available in North America and is priced at $59.99 USD.
Live Anywhere
Microsoft's Live Anywhere initiative will enable a variety of non-Xbox platforms such as Windows Vista PCs, Windows Mobile phones, and Java-enabled phones to connect to Xbox Live, albeit with lesser functionality. A gamer will be able to keep a Gamertag, purchase and play Xbox Live Arcade games, and connect to other Xbox Live users to play Arcade games and conduct text, and audio chat. The service will be open to any 3rd-party developers, but they must be able to provide key functionalities such as game ratings, achievement points, and the ability to properly connect to Xbox Live.
So far, the only non-Xbox platform supported by Live is Windows Vista, with the new Games for Windows - Live service which launched on May 8, 2007.
Game with Fame
The "Game with Fame" initiative has been Microsoft's way to connect their gamers with celebrities. In this program, players can play online with or against famous groups or individuals for a limited period of time. Some of the recent participants have been Quietdrive, Shia LaBeouf, Jack Black and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Players often have to send a friend request and/or e-mail to a certain gamertag or address in order to allow them to play a certain game with said celebrity. Further information is available on the Game with Fame homepage.
Xbox Rewards
Xbox rewards is a program to give both casual and hardcore players incentives to play on Xbox Live by subsidizing the achievement points gamers accumulate with actual rewards. This works by having gamers register for challenges and the gamers who succeed the receive prizes dependant on the bracket they are in.
Security
In order to ensure quality of service Microsoft implements many measures of Security for its Xbox Live service. A modified Xbox represents a potential security risk to the integrity of the Live service, Microsoft's systems, and other Xbox Live users. Microsoft implements a proactive security check that assures that only unmolested machines may access their service. On May 17, 2007, Microsoft ceased permitting modified firmware consoles. Users with firmware of unknown origin, quality or intent were banned permanently from Xbox Live, says Microsoft. A Microsoft representative says the action was taken to assure "the integrity of the service and protect our partners and users." [7]
Getting Online
While most people can simply connect the Ethernet cable and enjoy Xbox Live, It isn't always as easy with some people requiring their laptop or PC connection to be shared or even configuring their wireless network. The official Microsoft site does cover some areas and also solutions to common errors such as IP Failed, MTU Failed. Another website that offers a free support service is Xbox Live The Guide Which covers vast amounts of common issues, Other issues can be resolved by using the forum. The forum has members who specialise in networking, connectivity and media issues.
Controversy and criticism
Other criticisms leveled at the Xbox Live service concern the Xbox Live Marketplace. The service has come under fire from both gamers and the gaming press for charging for downloadable content. Notable incidents include a horse armor download for Oblivion costing $2 [8] and Microsoft charging for a Gears of War map pack that developer Epic wished to give away for free (it will become a free download 4 months later). [9][10] Game Informer also said that Microsoft forced other companies to charge for content they wanted to give out for free.[11]
Fraud
It has been discovered that pretexting has been used to impersonate a Xbox Live user for the purposes of malfeasance. Microsoft has implemented greater security levels to make defense against social engineering more robust.[12].
References
- ^ Dean Takahashi. Opening The Xbox: Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution. p. 339. ISBN 0-7615-3708-2.
- ^ Microsoft. "Xbox Erupts on the Scene". Retrieved 2006-12-01.
- ^ Microsoft. "Xbox Live Turns up the Volume on the Future of Gaming".
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessed=ignored (help) - ^ Console Watcher. "Microsoft's 5000th Patent: Allowing Users To Spectate Other Players Through Live".
- ^ http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2007/02/01/540575.aspx
- ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1551557/20070202/index.jhtml
- ^ http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2007/05/17/xbox-live-security-5-17.aspx
- ^ www.joystiq.com/2006/04/04/bethesda-responds-to-oblivion-backlash/
- ^ http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2007/04/10/microsoft_says_no_to_free_xbox_live_content.html
- ^ http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3159109
- ^ http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5359&Itemid=2
- ^ http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2007/03/23/xbox-live-security-update.aspx
See also
External links
- Official Xbox Live website
- Xbox Live Diamond Card
- Major Nelson's Blog, by Larry Hryb, Xbox Live Director of Programming
- Gamerscoreblog, The Inside Scoop from Microsoft Xbox and Games Employees
- Xbox Users Group, The best Xbox Live Add-on seen by Xbox.com
- Xbox Live The Guide, A Website & Forum Dedicated To Resolving Xbox Related Issues
- Xbox 360 Achievements, A Website & Forum Dedicated To Revealing Xbox 360 Achievements
- Xbox Live Arcade, A Website & Forum Dedicated to Xbox Live Arcade Reviews, News and Forums