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24th October 2005:
Xbox Live dies so it can live
A relaunch of Xbox Live will take place today ahead of vast new features aimed at the upcoming Xbox 360.
Posted by Chris Barnett - Xbox - UK and Europe

Microsoft will today carry out a planned single day closure of its online console gaming service, Xbox Live and the associated Xbox.com website in order to make changes in preparation for the Xbox 360 launch that is nearing.

Full services will be resumed tomorrow if everything goes smoothly and the company has confirmed that a number of enhancements and additional community and global ranking functionality will launch to coincide with the launch of its next generation console.

Changes include the addition of Xbox Live Marketplace, and an 'achievements' record system, which catalogues every player's special accomplishments in every Xbox 360 game played (online and maybe even offline), although all new additions will be invisible to gamers until the Xbox 360's US launch date on November 22nd.

The achievements records will be visible on the Xbox.com website, also scheduled for down-time throughout the day, in a new site area called 'My Xbox'. Records will be attached to the personal gamer card for every customer, which can be viewed via the website or the Xbox Live interface. This will take a form similar to a Microsoft Hotmail profile, which is fairly logical as Microsoft like to standardize their platforms for continuity.

Players will be encouraged to check up on the stats of other players, and the gamer card info will be incorporated into a number of different Microsoft websites, including MSN spaces and the official Xbox forums. Community gaming and competition is a major part of Microsoft's focus for the new console, which it hopes will reach a much wider audience than traditional hardcore gamers. This is perfectly plausible when you consider that the initial marketing strategy involves demo pods in supermarkets, as we reported last week.

If online gaming and profiling can become a standard feature for gamers and non-gamers alike then it will mean that more games can feature components involving online play. In theory every game could have some online component, no matter how small. Even a single player RPG could have a simple 'completion time' that could be uploaded into a ranking leader board.

The Xbox 360 will launch in three continents over a matter of weeks, beginning in the US on November 22nd, heading to Europe on December 2nd and Japan on December 10th. The tri-continent console hardware launch is a first for the industry and will be a major testing ground for future console releases.

Chris Barnett

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