XBL Twitter, Facebook beta this month

By Games Industry.biz Published 7 October, 2009

Subscribers and press to test new features.

The next public beta for the Xbox 360 dashboard will take place before the end of the month, according to a representative for Microsoft.

The latest update will include Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm integration, and was first announced at E3 earlier this year.

"People are excited about the new services coming to Xbox Live such as Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm," said Craig Beilinson, director of marketing for Entertainment and Devices at Microsoft, during the company's Open House event in New York.

A limited number of users will get an invite to the beta, as will members of the the press, although exact details have not been finalised, reports MTV.

Picture of Games.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Shinetop #1 2 years ago

    "People are excited about the new services coming to Xbox Live such as Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm"

    What people? Microsoft people? Facebook/Twitter/Last.fm people? Or the people who are actually using Xbox Live? And is he actually reporting what he heard from his users, or is he telling his users what they should be excited about? Seeing how he's director of marketing, I'm guessing the latter.

  • Xerx3s #2 2 years ago

    Last.FM seems an interesting feature, if they also integrate it into the guide music player function. Couldn't care less about the rest.

  • Vice.Destroyer #3 2 years ago

    Well, I am one of those people that is excited about Last.FM. But my imagination does not let me see Facebook and Twitter on Xbox 360 as anything other than unwieldy. Both to navigate and to compose messages on the 360. Even with a chatpad.

    I'll keep my iPhone by my side, if I really need to game and tweet and facebook.

  • Stu #4 2 years ago

    Any news on the Sky TV update? Sky magazine was saying mid-October.

  • Toothball #5 2 years ago

    Exactly what Xerx3s said. I currently don't use any of these sites although Last.fm sounds like the most interesting of the three.
    Edited by 1 at 07/10/09 @ 10:47

  • GamerG #6 2 years ago

    I'm looking forward to having facebook, I reckon it will be good to show photo's and such and will save having to fire up the PC if I want a quick check of my messages.

  • Scrumhalf #7 2 years ago

    Picking up my MacBook and opening the lid - is far, far faster than firing up the XBox and typing using a pad.

  • Retroid #8 2 years ago

    The only upcoming features I care about are Last.FM (still haven't heard whether we'll be able to listen whilst playing a game) and Sky.

    Twitter and Facebook can sod off so far as I'm concerned.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #9 2 years ago

    @ Shinetop

    I'm excited. Not jumping-on-my-bed excited, but I'm looking forward to it.

  • telboy007 #10 2 years ago

    Having used orb in the past to stream drum & bass internet radio stations via the 360 whilst playing mass effect, which was err.. bangin' or whatever street terms you kids use nowadays, and loving it. I really hope you're able to do something similar with Last FM. Stroke of genius if they do, utter pants if they don't. Looking forward to the "I facebooked you mum" gags over live voice chat.

  • sadakos_fury #11 2 years ago

    There was something on Kotaku about the Sky deal a few days ago. They seemed to think it would be happening sooner rather than later.
    More interested in this than any proto-stalker applications.

  • CableNut #12 2 years ago

    LastFM is all i want :)

  • vegard #13 2 years ago

    wish we could get spotify instead of last.fm, that would please me immensely. and i like being pleased!

  • LiamK #14 2 years ago

    What farticusmaximus said. Plus, surely it's only quicker opening your MacBook lid if the MacBook is already on, which is hardly good for the environment, is it?

  • kinky_mong #15 2 years ago

    @vegard: I agree.

  • Lukree #16 2 years ago

    Spotify support would be cool. At least if it would be possible to listen Spotify while playing!

  • RedPanda #17 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Peew971 #18 2 years ago

    Hands on on Joystiq. Too lazy to link.

  • vegard #19 2 years ago

    From Joystiq: "One obvious oversight of Last.fm currently is the inability to listen to music while playing games. Currently, Last.fm is a standalone application, with no way of launching it while in the middle of a game."

    Big fail.

  • RedPanda #20 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • skillian #21 2 years ago

    So Last.fm is for Gold subscribers only, doesn't play during games and doesn't scrobble from your media player?

    That cannot be right surely?

    edit: actually, it is beta still I guess.
    Edited by 1 at 07/10/09 @ 13:02

  • Toothball #22 2 years ago

    Ah, so we can't launch Last.fm in games? Guess I'll stick to running music through my PC as I currently do with.

  • Peew971 #23 2 years ago

    Before we start the bashing, let's all remember it's free (I doubt anyone would buy a Gold sub now just for that).

  • vegard #24 2 years ago

    in my opinion a little bashing is in place.

    the last.fm feature could have been great. to me it feels like if your girlfriend starts playing with your testicles and then refuses to go ahead with a blowjob.

  • Retroid #25 2 years ago

    Joystiq: "One obvious oversight of Last.fm currently is the inability to listen to music while playing games."

    FAIL

  • Moribundman #26 2 years ago

    I have Last.fm on my PC and on my phone, both of which feed it info based on the choons I play. That means as soon as I hook my xbox up to the service it'll already know what I'm into and play songs I like (and presumably a few ads).

    That is damn nice. If you can play them while gaming (á la the standard Xbox MP3 player) then this is a fantastic service. Even if not, it means I can play last.fm on a decent sound system in my living room (fopr parties or ambiance) rather than on my tinny laptop speakers or headphones. [EDIT: Just read Retroids post - what a stupid missed opportunity that is!]

    Twitter will be handy, Facebook less so but a nice addition if the UI is pretty and there's some 360 integration to raise it above what is basically an app you can get on any iPhone/Android/Windows Mobile phone...

    Sky might be nice to get the odd pay per view show now and again if you're not on Sky, but that seems to have lots of small print, registering with Sky and paying extra for stuff that doesn't exactly endear it to me. I hope to be proved wrong!

    I was on the beta list for the NXE upgrades recently so I hope I get an invitation for this too!
    Edited by 1 at 07/10/09 @ 16:38

  • TheJuriel #27 2 years ago

    Since I still cannot change my XBox Live email address so I could even just link it to my MSN account... I call prrrrrfffffffttttt on this. Also, I don't REALLY need to check my Facebook messages RIGHT NOW when I'm playing a game, so eh.

  • TheJuriel #28 2 years ago

    Buuuuut Last.FM might be interesting. Depends what kind of metal stations they have. Would finally give some value to having a Gold membership.

    Edit: Wait, Gold members still have to listen to ads? What a fail.
    Edited by 1 at 08/10/09 @ 08:00

  • TheJuriel #29 2 years ago

    Wait.

    "One obvious oversight of Last.fm currently is the inability to listen to music while playing games. Currently, Last.fm is a standalone application, with no way of launching it while in the middle of a game."

    WHAT. THE. FUCK

  • phantom516 #30 2 years ago

    Well as alredy stated Twitter+Facebook= pointless , that's what pc's and iphones are for. Lastfm should be quite good , sky looks as expensive as a normal subscription= pointless , only thing I'm looking forward to are the 1080p movies on demand any word on those ?? Also fall updates usually land first week of December , any dates from microsoft ?