XBox Redux

I used to be a die-hard Playstation guy.  I spent many a happy hour on both the original and the PS2.  I had both an original XBox and a 360 and while I liked them, I haven’t really been in deep love.  It was kind of an ugly duckling – it had some potential but it was not really there.  I’m not a big fan of the controller (maybe I’m not the demo but they’re too damn complex for me) and while I signed up for XBox Live I never saw great benefit in it.  Until now.Microsoft released an update to the interface that is terrific.  More importantly it gives a much better look at where this product is headed and it’s way beyond gaming.  Gone are the clumsy tabs one used to use to navigate.  The new interface reminds me of the “cover flow” feature Apple has (not the first time the Redmond folks have learned from their southern cousins).  The use of personal avatars is nice and although they’re not where they need to be they’re a good response to the Wii‘s use of them.  There are other social elements included in a new “party” area as well.

But the really interesting thing to me is that Netflix streaming is now a part of the package, and the marketplace for videos seems to have been made better as well.  And that’s the thing – this is the beginnings of the “alternative” cable box.  There is no reason why MS can’t pump IPTV through this thing as well as pop a web experience.  Most of the games incorporate virtual goods – why not am aggregate them into a store?

There are short comings too.  While I’m not 100% sure it’s their fault, the servers MS has seem slow (I connect wirelessly so I’m willing to think it might be me but my wireless laptop has no speed issues wiht the web).  Non-MS content seems to come through pretty quickly – maybe it’s being served by someone else?  You also need the bigger (optional) hard drive for this – you run out of space quickly, particularity if you rip your games to the unit’s HD (a brilliant built-in feature in the new interface) so they play more smoothly.

This is a good business lesson.  Having sold millions of these units and since they’re outselling the PS3, Microsoft could have left this alone and done pretty well.  Instead they’ve set themselves up to take these little game boxes into an entirely new business.  You can’t ever stop getting better, even if you’re the market leader.  And this ugly duckling is now a pretty swan!