17 Sep, 2011
Christmas is about to become more interesting, as Steve Ballmer has re-announced Xbox Live TV will be launched this coming holiday season. With the technology of Kinect behind it, Ballmer is confident that the project will take off running come this December.
Earlier this week, Ballmer demoed Xbox TV at an event in Anaheim, California. While it gave attendees a glimpse of what was to come, details were light conerning content, partners, pricing, what movies, and TV series would be available, CNN reported, but Ballmer said that Microsoft would be working with “dozens or hundreds of additional video content suppliers” to provide a wide variety of choices.
Ballmer said that “news, sports, and your favorite channels” would be available alongside video-on-demand. With the ability to use the Kinect to search using the Bing search and voice commands, Microsoft believes it will make users choose the Xbox services over other competitors. “Having all of that content is right on, it’s fantastic, but it brings a new challenge with it,” said Ballmer. “Certainly we all know the frustrations of using guides and menus and controllers, and we think a better way to do all of this is simply to bring Bing and voice to Xbox. You say it, Xbox finds it.”
Besides providing all of the content, Microsoft also hopes that the community base of 35 million Live users can create a social experience around TV shows and movies using Xbox Live TV. “The vision is kind of simple,” said Ballmer. “You should have any entertainment you want with all the people you care about, really simply and on any screen.”
During the live demo, an employee set the parameters of “Xbox, Bing, the Office,” using Kinect’s voice recognition. The initial search worked with Kinect, but a search within the seasons for specific episodes did not work. “It’s a good thing that’s shipping for Christmas,” said Ballmer to a roomful of laughter.
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