To kick off the Interactive Entertainment section of Interscription, I’m posting a document I pieced together after months of hammering away at the Xbox 360. I’ve sent this to Microsoft through a couple of different online avenues, and received some fairly expected form letters in return. I can only hope someone in that “Bo-Hwee-Muth” of a company will take heed; those “other” folks are right around the corner, and I hear they have a shiny new thing to show the world…
Preface
This writing comes from an Xbox 360 fanboy, plain and simple. I am thoroughly impressed by the amazing feats that Microsoft has achieved with this piece of hardware, and I think its potential is merely beginning to awaken.
I am an original Xbox fan, and I was one of the millions who stood in line on November 22nd to receive my Xbox 360, and one of the fortunate to actually be able to take one home. Since then, I’ve been rabidly fanatical about singing the praises of this console as “the reason we’ve all been playing video games all these years”, and the most impressive technological feat to grace video games yet.
This November, the current industry leader, Sony, will unleash the Playstation 3, and it will be amazing, without contest. They have the quiet patience and financial power to watch the competitor and capitalize on the mistakes made and lessons not learned. Please don’t let this happen to you. I can’t prove to you that failure is an option from this vantage point, 6+ months before the competition appears, but the entire industry knows that Sony’s already crushed those around them that did not heed the requests of the people, uniquely filling those needs and positioning themselves as the current champion of home video game entertainment. I will tell you this document should serve as your guide to completing the thought that was born from genius in the Xbox 360, and that it will allow you (once finished) to focus on supporting developers and filling the market demand for this most amazing of consoles. Ignoring it will guarantee another round of unquestionable opponent victory for the third time in a row. I think it’s time someone else sat in that chair, don’t you?
I’ve been project-managing in companies for years now, enhancing launched products and being part in the creative and technical element of them. In these cases I have harnessed half-baked ideas and brought them to commercially viable products. I see major opportunity lost right now, and the clock is ticking. My sincere hope is that you will listen to what is written here.
I’ve rated each of these thoughts with a five-star rating system and subheadings that will add focus to the multiple projects listed here. I’d be happy to flesh out any ideas that are not clear upon request. Good luck, and thank you for revolutionizing home entertainment for us all.
Dashboard Interface
Blade Cleanup (Importance: Low)
This is only a minor restructure after being mostly comfortable jumping in with zero training on an already great interface. (I mean, that’s what intuitive is, right?)
Xbox Live:
This is probably the cleanest main blade. The changes are needed in the actual Xbox Live Marketplace blade, where most of the action happens. There seems to be several ways to get to the same information, and while this is good, I feel like a more direct “tree” structure might make navigation easier. This is not to forgo some of the “Featured Download” marketing-fueled spots, since these are very valuable in bringing the latest and greatest to the consumer, but some augmented areas might serve us better. There’s a bit of a hodge-podge of “Live-ish” things that can be found here, and although they could be left under the Marketplace, they aren’t very easy to sift through. Here is a suggested layout.
-Games-
- Downloads (Content)
- Demos
- Trailers
- Interviews
- Themes & Gamer Pictures
- **GDC Coverage** (could be rotated out with E3 coverage or other event coverage)
- Download History
- Memberships
- Redeem Prepaid Card or Promotional Code
-Music-
- Music Downloads
- Music Video Downloads
- Themes & Gamer Pictures
- **SPECIAL EVENT**
- Featured Download Area
-Movies-
- Trailers
- Interviews
- Themes & Gamer Pictures
- **SPECIAL EVENT**
Games:
This tab is pretty clean, as well. The Achievements section is well planned, and the Played Games section (while a bit superfluous to most) is also well-executed. (Incidentally, perhaps a quick-and-dirty “Review” option for each of the games played, like a one-thru-five stars, that others could view remotely, and that would be tracked via Live, might not be a bad way to add value to this section).
I’ll tackle the Xbox Live Arcade in a moment, but I think there is some confusion as to the Demos and Trailers sections being placed under the Games tab. The Demos makes sense on some level, but the Trailers section doesn’t really belong here. First, we already have a home (based on the above Marketplace redesign) for Trailers (which now breaks them up into categories), but if it were to be added in a secondary place, wouldn’t it be under Videos on the Media blade? It seems as though it is here simply to flesh out the blade more than anything. Save this room for something more games-oriented.
Xbox Live Arcade. Quite simply, this concept is genius, and is certainly a milestone for the gaming industry. As such, it needs a boatload more lovin’ than it currently has received. I’d really love to see an iconic representation of a top down arcade floor, with different sections in it…
- Action
- Puzzle & Word
- Arcade Classics
- WHAT’S NEW
- Strategy
- Social Sports
- Card & Board
Last Played
My Downloaded Games
…where each category would have an icon that represents the genre. A star next to the icon/word would indicate a new release, while the “WHAT’S NEW” section in the center would hold the newest five releases in all genres.
Media:
Certainly the most concise of all the tabs, this one needs very little work in actual interface (although it’s going to get some attention in Functionality, for sure!). Once you add the full video functionality into the dashboard, there should be a “Media Player” choice at the top of the list that will centralize any media experiences like the “corner media window” that MCE has in the bottom left during background playback. This won’t have to actually run a video window while flipping about through the tabs, but instead be similar to the Music Player that exists today. As mentioned before, a section for trailers and other types of “media” found on the Marketplace might make sense here.
System:
One particular issue is the ability to choose how audio is processed and played back. Would it be possible to listen to stereo mixes in stereo instead of having all audio sent to 5.1 channels? (An audiophile complaint, but the flexibility should be there) Settings that allow the user to change post-processing, normalizing, and other effects for both audio AND video are certainly important things to have as part of the user-friendly experience. (Just refer to the fantastic execution of ffdshow on a “how-to” of providing the exact amount of options and their control).
There isn’t much else that needs to be covered in this section, since this is mostly maintenance. Any user-created or third-party codec information should probably be in here, but only what is logical or necessary. Simply put, anything that needs to be here to support/manage the features suggested in other sections should be here, nothing more. I mean, it’s a console, right? Too much complexity and we’ll all head to our offices to noodle with our PCs…
Sorting Options & Miscellanea (Importance: Medium)
Sorting options are also a huge and impactful feature to have in all appropriate places through the dashboard, specifically places where there are more than a page of choices. The ability to sort alphabetically or by date or by size, much like in Windows, would be a huge plus. I’m sure some of the unused buttons could be bound to provide this sorting functionality?
As far as music, it seems that Windows Media Connect only allows the listing of audio files through ID3 tags.Would it be possible to use filenames?This might be more of a Windows Media Connect enhancement, but the opposite is true when audio is accessed on an external drive (filenames, but no ID3 tags).The option of having both options for both solutions seems pretty logical.
There’s also a small issue of being brought into an “interim” section when something is being chosen; let me explain. I choose a trailer or demo I want to play, and then I’m brought to a screen that says “Play” or “Delete”? If there were more options, this might make more sense, but we can delete content in the System Blade, and if I choose one of these, I generally want to jump right in, and be brought back to the list to check something else out when it is over.
Dashboard Features
Background Downloading (Importance: High)
Yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard this one a whole bunch, and some of the recent interviews I’ve watched/heard have suggested that this is a feature that’s coming down the pipeline. Of particular suggestion, however, is that a user can not only leave the actual download blade, but that he/she can play XBLA games, play DVDs, videos, music, and slideshows, and flip around the blades while the download is happening (basically, everything but play a disc-based game). Simply being able to leave the download blade won’t be enough to satiate the masses. Being able to download while playing full games would be great, but those resources can understandably be focused on pushing next-generation gaming, not downloading things in the background.
Video Support (Importance: High)
Right up there with Background Downloading, this feature is integral to making the Xbox 360 the center of the digital living room. The ability to add third-party codecs like xvid, divx, Quicktime and other compression mediums is vital to this video support. Quite frankly, these formats exist in the home through home computing, and the fantastic Windows Media Connect concept (which will be expanded upon later on) begs for the ability to both stream and playback these video formats. This support should be robust, allowing playback from external devices such as iPods and external hard drives. A glut of new commercially available, super-affordable DVD players support xvid and divx, so this should be a non-issue for our 360s.
Satellite Radio & Web radio support (Importance: Medium)
The in-game music features created for the Xbox 360 are revolutionary! The ability to have your own soundtrack added to a game is simply fantastic, and easily a huge reason to usher in the next generation of gaming with the Xbox 360. Unfortunately, a revolution usually generates the thirst for more. Satellite radio services Sirius and XM have brought us new ways of appreciating music, and free services like Shoutcast and a plethora of others have given us free alternatives for our particular music tastes. Wouldn’t it be great to have these as options for living room? I understand that Test Drive Unlimited has chosen to offer a few satellite radio stations for playback in-game, but this should be an option for the dashboard. Most of these services (including Sirius with a current subscription) offer the ability to stream music for free over the Internet, with a negligible hit to bandwidth.
Expanded Audio/Video Control (Importance: High)
This is mostly a cleanup of existing features.
Fast Forward/Rewind/Step functions for the Media Player; could the analog stick be used for this? The 360 controller is comfortable and easy-to-use. Full expansion of it’s use is appropriate for audio/video playback.
Locally-savable playlists for networked (Windows Media Connect) media; building playlists for different games is something that usually happens when one is in front of the console, and the ability to write playlists to the 360 hard drive (or even save them back to the PC…) seems like a logical extension of the wonderful ability to listen to your own music in-game.
Others Visualizations; Milkdrop is critically acclaimed as the most amazing visualization currently created today. Why not allow the consumer to install third-party vizes on the 360, or have them freely downloadable via the Marketplace? (I have always envisioned an indie “Community Corner” on the Marketplace that would support this type of behavior…visualizations are only the beginning, of course…)
“Customer SDK” (Importance: Medium)
This is a concept I’ve been toying with for some time now. We all love the ability to be able to add screenshots to our backgrounds, but I think this just inspires (yet again) the thirst for more. What if there were an SDK of sorts (think Mario Paint) that would allow the user to tinker patterns, animations, pictures for the dashboard? Perhaps new sounds as well? And the ability to save these “user themes” as parameters on the hard drive? This doesn’t need to be insane or bloated, and a portion of this is already here, but the personalized experience that the 360 is searching for would be wildly expanded if this could be integrated smartly and in a fun, accessible way.
Windows Media Connect
Video Sharing/iPod Sharing & Miscellanea (Importance: Medium)
Obviously this isn’t a feature as much as a continuation of thought, but sharing your videos to the 360 remotely is “the other half” of video support, as the 20GB hard drive won’t allow too much actual storage beyond what it’s currently being asked.
The ability to have your iPod connected to your PC (where it is usually connected) and share it over Windows Media Connect is pretty vital, as well. More and more people every day are using their iPod as their personal music warehouse, and manage that collection on their Windows PC. The iPod support for the 360 is great, and does provide an alternative, but more often than not this requires the user to swap their iPod back and forth between two spots, when this could be easily solved over the Windows Media Connect network.
There also seems to be a requirement to be connected to a specific PC through Windows Media Connect on the 360, and while this is more of an “elite” feature, it would be nice to have the 360 find all of the Windows Media Connect-enabled PCs at the “Computer” choice in the Dashboard (and the in-game blade) instead of “joining” to a particular PC. This would allow you to choose which one is the one from which you’d like to receive media, as opposed to divorcing the 360 from the PC it currently is connected to in order to choose another one.
Game Features
Xbox (emulation)
Custom soundtracks (Importance: Medium)
I completely understand that only some of the original Xbox games support custom soundtracks, but these should now benefit from the expanded custom soundtrack options that the 360 has to offer. It seems logical that this code can point to these new options, since the programmer saw fit to ask the original Xbox hard drive for music per the user’s request?
Achievements (Importance: Medium)
How about the resurrection of the original catalog? What better way than to add achievements for nominal point values to squeeze those extra few out of your old catalog? This will continue to add life into current generation titles as they are released, and will serve as a bridge to the experience between the original Xbox and the new 360 experience.
Xbox 360
Integration of above audio features (Importance: High)
This seems to go without saying, but things like remote iPod support, satellite/web radio support, and other formats will be infinitely more appreciated (and worth the development time) if users can experience them in-game.
Game Control Options (Importance: High)
If there is one thing that has been desperately called for since the time of the original Halo, it is the ability to have native keyboard and mouse support in games. This is certainly a tall order for game developers to come up with keyboard and mouse control schemes for each of their games, and while I’d encourage this sort of support from them, this needs to be an integral portion of the 360, much like the controller is today. Having the ability to use a keyboard for text entry (seamless integration, btw) is a great start, and means that this is more than possible. Text chat is only the tip of the iceberg! The “keyboard” exists in the brain of the 360, so it should be nothing to route the buttons of a controller to a keyboard and mouse. There can be a “Control” section under the 360 Guide section, in Gamer Profile > Game Defaults, where the keyboard and mouse support can live. Here, individual buttons, triggers, sticks and pads can be mapped to the different parts of a mouse and keyboard, and profiles for different games could be managed. If this gets unwieldy, it could also be moved to the “Games” tab, but it seems more logical to tuck it here, where the other options reside.
The ability to have complete flexibility to change the assignments of the elements of a controller should also be part of the 360. Most game developers offer very limited customizability in how the controller is set up in-game, and while this is mostly because the developer has already figured out the optimum setup for the game (and doesn’t want it ruined by a bad binding), this flexibility has too many benefits to ignore. The default for each game should be stored on the 360, and alternate configurations can be saved and carried between profiles.
* * *
Thanks for taking the time to read this through. The 360 is a profound piece of hardware, and it needs to be in the forefront of the industry as an example of how the next-generation should be ushered in. Please don’t lose the race over what is now a small hurdle.
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