November 12th 2009 4:00 pm PT

Xbox LIVE Update coming Nov. 17th

 

I know some of  you are already enjoying many of these features through the Preview Program, but I am happy to announce that the next update that contains Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and Zune video will be available to all Xbox LIVE members launch Nov. 17.

 

Xbox 360 By Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson

  • TheJuggla17

    I’ll never use these features but it’s cool there coming to the dashboard. More power to the users who will actually use these features.

    ~fin~

  • EveofLight

    LastFm is about the only cool thing since I rarely use Facebook and Twitter, but those who like that will enjoy it.

  • HazyCloud

    Awesome. I’ve really been enjoying Last.FM on my console. Glad to see it finally releasing to the masses.

  • Gam3r Evolved

    I’m using the features all the time.. :) I’m looking forward to when LastFM is coming to Norway :) But Facebook and Twitter is brilliant.

    One sidecomment though.. I would like to have the ability to send messages and read my inbox on the Facebook app. And maybe an inline/offline friends list. Except that, I love it :)

  • Living Corp

    Will this include the launch of the music game stores on the dashboard?

  • Euphoric Fusion

    I have had the preview for a while and it’s nothing to shout about.
    Facebook is pretty basic in it’s functions and Zune is just a huge annoyance when you have to wait for it to load before you can view the content on your hard drive or browse the video marketplace.
    Last FM is probably the best feature but seeing as you can’t stream it whilst playing single player games it’s pretty limited too.
    And as a final thought all these addons make the dashboard seriously cluttered.

  • Danshadow9

    How about an update that allows party chat in MW2.

  • vinchenzison

    LastFM doesn’t work for me (Germany) :( Hoping that will all change! Why tease me with the option and allowing me to login if it won’t let me play songs :(

  • moocow21

    Never used Twitter/Facebook/last.fm, so I doubt I will on my 360. I really wish they would just add a internet browser, though.

  • Insimbi

    Cool – will be a great addition to the 360.

  • Xclusivekill3r

    @Danshadow9 Thats IW they are the ones that put that in the game. I don’t think MS has any control over it. I hate it too, it really makes no sense.

  • AtheistCanuck

    @Danshadow9 and @Xclusivekill3r IW put that in to cut down on people calling out where people are once they are dead. It was a cheap way of getting the upperhand on a team that isnt in a party with all 6 players.

  • Ganon255

    I love this update

  • batkinson001

    i am in the preview, and never got last.fm with it. from reading here it sounds as if some did some didn’t…

    I just hope that when the update does launch that My xbox will get Last.fm, as with everything else M$, Canada gets the shaft (Zune, Zune Marketplace, original video marketplace etc.).

  • AriesDog

    The best feature no one’s talking about: Now video content you buy on Xbox Live can be shared with your PC using the Zune player software. Like iTunes, you don’t need to have the device to download the free player software.

  • AriesDog

    @moocow21. Have you tried browsing on the PS3 or Wii? It’s awful. Consoles just aren’t meant for it.

  • oxymoronx420

    “the next update that contains Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and Zune video will be available to all Xbox LIVE members launch Nov. 17.”

    So you’re saying Last.fm will be available to ALL xbox live members 11/17??

    Because this lack of last.fm is complete ISH! They told us worldwide, and now it’s US/UK, so which is it Major? And if it’s not worldwide, then why? It’s not because of licensing(it works on my pc, located IN canada)

  • Gambit3rd

    Facebook function is developed bad, my PDA (Windows Mobile) version has more and more functions.

  • r3dreck

    last.fm is great the rest, hm ok… never use Twitter, FB is kinda slow so don’t bother using it.

  • Sk3tch33Bamaman

    I would like to see the ability to update Twitter from within a game. Sort of like you can send a message while you are in the game. Also, it would be helpful to integrate the photo side of Twitter, like Twitpic adn yfrog, so that you can view pictures posted by your friends on Twitter.

  • JohnnyricoMC

    @atheistcanuck those who really used party chat for that will just resort to different means, like VoIP or TeamSpeak.

    Microsoft adds functionality and then it gets taken away, plain stupid.

  • CosmicSea

    I didn’t try the update preview but i know that i’ll never use facebook or twitter at all,in fact i really don’t want everyone’s on my facebook friend list to know what game i play,how long,ect.There’s already too much privacy concerns with facebook,and if we added a console link to my xboxlive account, im concerned.But the LastFm feature sounds like a very interesting feature,i just hope there’s Heavy Metal,Rock and Hip Hop.I don’t want pop rock,pop music,or country music only,and please tell me lastfm ain’t full of ads.NBA Live 10 have so many advertisings it’s very annoying.Sorry for my poor english,but im sure you understand me.

  • Doug DeJulio

    Major, I am not in the preview program… are the folks who *are* in it under NDA? And if so, when does that NDA get lifted? I’m curious as all get-out, and those folks have had plenty of time to poke and prod the service, so…

  • Fletch955

    I want something really worth while, this and the Sky Player are all stuff I’ll never use on the 360..! All the ideas they’re coming up with recently would be great if PC’s / Laptops didn’t exist, but sadly they do.

    Where’s the free Joyride game for Gold members too?

  • AManOfFewWords

    I’m in the Preview Program and I can’t find The Guild in Zune Marketplace and don’t seem to have any way to get to the classic Video Marketplace to download it.

  • L0ng5h0t

    All I really want to do is copy my digital music files to my Xbox HDD so I don’t have to A) Rip them gain; and B) Waste bandwidth streaming musing while gaming.

  • Perixon

    Major, just what do you mean by Last.fm being available to “all” Xbox LIVE members? Do your buddies in the European Union count or have you guys failed to negotiate yet another deal for us? :/

  • WinterSnowblind

    Last.FM is great, but we really need to be able to keep it running over games.

    I don’t use Twitter/Facebook a whole lot, but it’d be nice to see more game options integrated with them.

  • Helvedeshunden

    Remember that Last.fm is ONLY available for people in a few countries unlike what was previously announced (“best of all last.fm will be available to Xbox Live gold members around the world later this year at no additional charge” – John Schappert)

    Yes, I’m bitter.

  • Red Phoenix 104

    Awesome!! Very excited for Facebook & Twitter integration. :)

  • slambert15

    Nice! Last.fm is my favorite new feature, I was really surprised by that.

  • backofthepack8

    Without a browser, Facebook and Twitter will get boring quickly and without being able to play Last.FM in the background of playing a game, that is a miss also. I had such high hopes for these updates and they fall very short of my expections. Facebook and Twitter are mostly about people attaching links and videos, which aren’t supported on XBox. The ability to look at photos of friends is one of the cool things you can do on Facebook.

  • DesertBear360

    @Danshadow9: You can do party chat in MW2. My friends and I did it 2 nights in a row while playing multiplayer matches and I was on the other team.

  • DesertBear360

    Overall they need to provide a lot more features than just the few that they offer in Facebook. Come on only News Feeds, Update Status, Like options, comments and looking at photos. How about Live Feeds, Wall, the ability to write on a friend’s Wall, and inboxes. For the Facebook app to be of any real use these features need to be added quickly.

  • BillyMagnumFOD

    Lets hope a LOT of the problems are fixed

  • DarkTear81

    Hopefully with a full dashboard integration and not this half-baked preview version.

    And even more hopefully w/o the random disconnects I have since the preview. That screwed my experience a bit…

  • HenkvdWeerdt

    Last few days almost every new game is giving updates and sometimes even Xbox live itselfs. Sometimes i hope for new stuff in the dashboard.

    Will this also be for Europe people?

  • PGRZ

    How much i$ it going to co$t? Micro$oft $eem hell bent on ripping off it$ cu$tomer$ a$ much a$ po$$ible lately therefore im pre$uming it$ going to co$t u$ a fortune ju$t to acce$$ the$e feature$.

  • Neo X5

    @PGRZ
    What are you going on about? These features are included in the Gold Subscription.

  • DesertBear360

    @PGRZ: These features are free.

  • DavidGX

    Dumbest update ever.

  • PGRZ

    Oh, they’re for free? Im amazed. Well done M$.

  • eggcup

    does anyone know where the guild episdes have gone in the new dash, cause i cant find them anywhere on zune?????

  • nonfatnonfat

    The Guild is in Zune Marketplace. I think it was in the independent video section?

  • Anonymous

    Loving all the features.

  • rastansaga

    is it me not understanding it all properly, but is twitter not well integrated into the whole experience (maybe facebook as well, but I’m not too interested in that) – there doesn’t seem any way to automatically see friends twitter accounts, or receive tweets whilst playing games. I can understand the reasons why that might be difficult to enable this late into the 360, but still disappointing

  • RidinSlow

    i dont understand why facebook & twitter are restricted to Gold members. especially when the competition offers free alternatives. the services have been devalued on the 360. i’ve never used Last.fm, so i wont put that one past.

    the worst part of all this is that non of these features run in the background while you play games. i assume ms is working on that for a spring update, but it would help keep some value to have it in at launch.

    i’m certainly not going back to Gold just because these services aren’t available to Silver members.

  • rfi99

    Is this the update where “unauthorized” memories will be disabled?

  • stststststq

    Perhaps the people moaning could suggest some features that could be added that everyone would find useful? There’s always people moaning when they add stuff that they don’t want (and the moaners seem incapable of understanding that other people might find the additions very useful), but they never seem to suggest anything that they should add.

  • Gytis

    I deleted my last.fm account 5 months ago, didn’t even know about the xbox360 program then.. shame :(

  • mchiefvs360

    Great, but I’ll have to download it like 2 weeks later :(

  • MartyPG13

    @fri99
    |
    Yes, this is the update that breaks your “unofficial” memory cards
    |
    And people will still continue to game hack using the official ones, because they can.

  • MadMojo

    Now everyone will get to suffer with the new Zune video library. :( It’s such a step backward without even simple sorting options available to help you find anything.

  • Alex Atkin UK

    I agree with all the negative comments about the new dash, it really is annoying. The best thing to launch is Sky Player and that doesn’t even need this update, it was added to the old one.

    Zune, Facebook and last.fm have to load and also waste your game update slots as they both count as separate applications with associated “an update is available for this title” BS. Its about time Microsoft added unlimited updates saved on the HDD as its just plain annoying how few it remembers. It should be impossible to have a situation where your Internet goes down and you can’t play offline gaming, because it doesn’t have the latest update to activate the DLC or save game format changes.

    Facebook is really poorly designed with too many missing features, I find it totally useless.

    Twitter should have the option to show your latest tweets on the dashboard. Having to specifically look in the Twitter section makes it pretty pointless. Also not having the option of auto-tweets of “X just unlocked an achievement on Y game” makes you wonder why they even bothered at all.

    Last.fm, well if you can’t stream it while in-game, why bother? I am not wasting 360W of power just to stream last.fm when I can do that on my 30W laptop (160W Xbox, 200W HDTV). At least on the PS3 you have music videos so it makes more sense. Sure not everyone has their PC hooked up to their sound system but its still a really huge missed opportunity.

    A lot of these problems would be solved by adding the fabled web browser people have wanted since the 360 launched. I mean you could even make it available only for Gold accounts, I bet that would convince a lot more people to upgrade than these pathetic excuse for applications. Twitter without the ability to browse URLs is pretty useless to me.

  • klamathbr

    Last.FM is cool!!!
    I don’t care about the rest!
    can I rip off the rest?

  • wolfzero01

    so are these on a their own channel, or are they intergrated into the My Xbox one? I don’t use Facebook or Twitter so I really don’t want to see these every time I turn on my Xbox.

    offtopic, does anyone know how to get an Ipod to work with the 360? I used to be able to use mine, but all of the sudden I can’t anymore. I’ve downloaded the media update numerous times but it no longer will allow me to use my Ipod.

  • Celidus

    What happened to the good old days when game consoles actually played games? This stuff is nonsense and is just bogging down the dashboard. I won’t use any of these apps on my 360, that’s what my desktop is for. The 360 is for playing games.

  • batkinson001

    just saw the engadget article on the new update, why the hell is last.fm US & UK only?! Canada gets screwed over again! first the Zune & zune marketplace disaster now this… M$ really doesn’t give a hoot about their media and game consuming neighbours to the north…

  • paperless89

    “all Xbox Live users” ?

    Maybe all Xbox Live users in the US and in the UK since for some reason the deal you guys made with last.fm only allows the service to work in those regions.

  • NBA Kirkland

    Feedback on Last.fm: Cool, but useless to me unless I can listen while I play a game. Please work on that for the next update. Thanks.

  • xxx MickFly xxx

    Come On Tuesday…

  • Hastarin

    Yet another person asking you to comment on “all” users getting Last.FM?! There is no mention of it in the Australian site.

    Zune movies sound interesting but unless they’ve stealthily added scheduled downloads then 1080p movies aren’t going to be of much use to the average Australian due to download limits in peak times. My “off-peak” downloads are 3am-10am I can’t exactly manually start a download at 3am!

  • deltawing12

    Facebook and Last.fm no longer work for me, when I click on them it asks me to re-download them even though I have them downloaded :/

  • Blue Thunder28

    loving the preview.. i use twitter all the time. hopefully I get last.fm when the full update rolls out I’d love to try that out too.

  • tylerthet3

    @deltawing12 Go to Quick Launch and then recent downloads. You should be able to access it there.

  • Velete

    More important non announced news – free ballad of gay tony DLC, watch the newest xbox live insiders video (EU)

    How come major never reports on the good stuff? i see so many great games not get expansion DLC annoucments yet he never fails to spam us with stuff like endless rock band DLC

  • Sherrif Jimmy

    It would be nice to have the BBC iplayer since both the PS3 and Wii are now officialy supoporting it.

  • erka

    Kind of a let down this update, sounded good when they announced it, but now it’s only for Gold members, noway I’m paying for some useless facebook app and twitter.

  • Ze Privateer

    I have to agree with the foolks here to say enough is enough. Like many this is a game machine, and will be until until MS makes it flexible enough that you can get rid of the dashboard crap that you do not want. As well all the propriatory crap that you can only purchase licensed, IE: a wireless adaptor 200% more expensive that normal adaptors. If we wanted all the other stuff, I would not have a house full of laptops and computers. I’m not going to use it and yet I’m forced to endure a dashboard(desktop) that is slow and laggy and useful for 20% of the time.

    Sorry, but I’m using the 360 less because I’m not happy with all the extra stuff.

  • Ze Privateer

    I have to agree with the folks here to say enough is enough. Like many this is a game machine, and will be until until MS makes it flexible enough that you can get rid of the dashboard crap that you do not want. As well all the propriatory crap that you can only purchase licensed, IE: a wireless adaptor 200% more expensive that normal adaptors. If we wanted all the other stuff, I would not have a house full of laptops and computers. I’m not going to use it and yet I’m forced to endure a dashboard(desktop) that is slow and laggy and useful for 20% of the time.

    Sorry, but I’m using the 360 less because I’m not happy with all the extra stuff.

  • Cayne

    I sure hope we can opt out of those things and never see anything about them on the dash again.

  • captpluto9465

    I tried Facebook on my 360, but I doubt I’ll ever use it again on there. I use my PC for that type of stuff and my friends/family don’t really care what games I’m playing. Just like the Twitter option on Uncharted 2, I don’t think people care that I just finished the 14th level. I bought the 360 for gaming and that’s all I’m going to use it for.

  • BCDX666

    I don’t care about any of this stuff, but if Microsoft really wanted us to spend more on DLC, maybe they could sell hard drives that aren’t ridiculously overpriced.

  • HighDef Edition

    Even though I have a Facebook account I am only excited about using last.fm. For the past 5 months I have been creating a great music profile. Can’t wait to hear my ‘TAG Radio Stations’ in surround sound.

  • Veive257

    Oddly, Major’s twitter feed says this will not be an update tomorrow…

    http://twitter.com/majornelson/statuses/5773934697

  • Glenn ZA

    Yes Veive, It is not a system update. Just by turning your Xbox on after the release it will automatically be there :)

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