Job posting hints at new Xbox Live

by Kyle Orland { Feb 18th 2008 at 3:14PM }

Despite a few updates to the basic interface, Microsoft's Xbox Live has remained a remarkably consistent gold standard for online console gaming since it relaunched with the Xbox 360. Could the service be due for a major overhaul for the next console generation? It sure could, if a Microsoft job posting is to be believed.

The posting, which went up in January, looks for a project manager who wants "to be involved in the next release of Xbox" and "[build] the games, the console interface and logic, and the server support for a totally new LIVE experience." The manager will also act as a games producer to "help implement our first generation games that will run in this new environment." The posting doesn't reveal much about the functionality of the new Live, but apparently it will include a "dynamic server support to create a compelling, fresh scenario each time," whatever that means. What features would you want to see in the next generation of Microsoft's online service?

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]

Tags: job-posting, LIVE, microsoft, online, xbox, xbox-live

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Cyro @ Feb 18th 2008 3:20PM

"What features would you want to see in the next generation of Microsoft's online service?"

Free of Charge!

StarFoxA @ Feb 18th 2008 3:21PM

Agreed.

Zertoss @ Feb 18th 2008 3:24PM

Exactly the first thought that crossed my mind.

Vol @ Feb 18th 2008 3:59PM

Stability.

Cesaria @ Feb 18th 2008 3:24PM

Let's make it happen, MS. Just don't make it crippled, like Sony's online.

Cesaria @ Feb 18th 2008 3:24PM

I meant that to be a reply to Cryo.

Extinction @ Feb 18th 2008 6:03PM

I can play online on PS3 even during christmas unlike the crippled live which even brings the blade interface down with it

Whittico @ Feb 18th 2008 8:51PM

Nice Radiohead image by the way

william @ Feb 18th 2008 3:25PM

free of charge = more ads then people will complain about that to so i dont think add free for all would be a good idea maby a second rate gold class in between silver and the gold we have now with more adds and stuff like that but they wwould not get certain things like a free game or free dl content.seems fare to me if you get a 50$ service a year for free

PSN: KillaKornbread @ Feb 18th 2008 3:32PM

PSN doesnt have ads, granted LIVE has more stuff but the PSN runs just fine. Microsoft could do LIVE without ads and dedicated servers, they just want to squeeze every penny out of you. i hope they do make LIVE free though since everyone should be able to share in the free online glory!

Anticrawl @ Feb 18th 2008 3:35PM

Perhaps we should be demanding dedicated servers from the game publishers? Or perhaps we should have the option to host matches as a dedicated server on our internet connection without having our Xbox 360 online. Perhaps companies could host xbox live servers in exchange for a little "this online match brought to you by..." logo before or after a match.

Zertoss @ Feb 18th 2008 3:35PM

Battle.net has also managed to run fine without any payments, though they do have ads (for Blizzard-related products and are about as intrusive as the ads currently on Live).

Sky Shark X2 @ Feb 18th 2008 4:12PM

PSN: KillaKornbread Keep saying that about PSN, now but wait untill it gets the user base size of XBL now, if its still free the servers will probably fail often, be laggy, not well kept up. Sony will implement ads and possibly a price to use the service. You act as if the PSN is the light at the end of the Tunnel, its not as time goes on the light will fade and be replaced by the dispair of a cruddy unkempt service due to not having enough money to upkeep it. Sony already is at a large loss on each PS3 sold, so they get no money from the PS3 to help aid the costs of the PSN.

deaftly @ Feb 18th 2008 4:24PM

Once PSN gets ya know.... like 10 million members, you're going to see a fuck load of ads

Extinction @ Feb 18th 2008 6:09PM

PSN has a million less users than Live.

And all PSN users can play online unlike Live.

So yea, stop with the "wait till PSN has so many users" bs.

deaftly @ Feb 19th 2008 9:44AM

no.

xGeneral DEATHx @ Feb 18th 2008 3:25PM

How about dedicated servers?

Lone Starr @ Feb 18th 2008 3:50PM

I second that emotion.

TrojanGuy @ Feb 19th 2008 12:37AM

Agreed.

netgem21 @ Feb 18th 2008 3:27PM

If we don't pay the small cost of £39 a year, we will not get the same service we're all used to. Remember, it's just the cost of a game. Fine - make it free, but your DLC will never become free, movies and TV shows will become more expensive and game reliability will be terrible. If you want your 360 to turn into a Sony PS3, this is what'll happen. Keep Xbox Live Charged.

Dopple Boppler @ Feb 18th 2008 3:34PM

Concur'd.

John McPoop @ Feb 18th 2008 7:05PM

@netgem21

Im sure this from a guy who has never played a PS3. I own all 3 consoles and the PS3 does the same thing the 360 does. It allows me to play my games online except its for free. I have never cared for a gamer score, chatting with random people or anything else people trash Sony about. I am sure Home will be o.k. but I will probably use that feature seldom as well. I think if Sony gave people free tickets for massages, a free airplane ticket or filet mignon people would still bitch that the massage didn't have a happy ending, flight wasn't first class and the steak didn't have peppered bacon around it. People are always looking for a way to trash something. Anyone who thinks that Live has to cost money to be good is crazy. Sony will never charge for PSN regardless of the amount of users because it doesn't have to. For that matter Microsoft doesn't have to either but is squeezing every buck out of the gamer it can. Kind of like charging for a Wi-Fi adapter, HD movie player, DRM issues with LIVE, Region locked games, screwing early adopter by not giving HDMI, LIVE service and making us use a crappy proprietary hard drive in 2 sizes and not to mention they only fix RROD for free but that is only 1/3 fatal problems the 360 has due to overheating. I am on my 6th repaired console (had to force 3 to RROD because they would no longer read disc but Microsoft wanted to charge me $99.00 to fix it!!!) and I have taken perfect care of this thing (the system is just trash).

The only thing LIVE has over PSN in my mind is more users and thus a better chance of matchmaking in games. But in terms f comparing it to PSN they are essentially the same thing at their core. And the PSN has not crashed for an entire month due to bad network infrastructure.

You people need to quit hating just for the sake of justifying your purchase and having a virtual pissing contest with your E-Dicks.

Sweet Tooth @ Feb 18th 2008 3:30PM

FREE ONLINE GAMING !!!!!!!!!!!!

Sky Shark X2 @ Feb 18th 2008 3:29PM

I hope they still charge but give us dedicated servers. Also complete Market Place integration would awesome. Pop open the Guide 2.0, select marketplace, brings up a streamlined version of the market place, que up a download then press the guide button again and get straight back to gaming. I just our achievements/gamerscore carry over. If not I'd like to see a new "Xbox 720" GS and then on the profile page it says Xbox 360 Gamerscore: xxxxx.

samfish @ Feb 18th 2008 3:32PM

A system that allows you to trade/exchange/sell XBLA and Xbox Originals games would be really cool...although absurdly improbable.

Also! A system where it detects words over Live such as "h-mo, "f-g", "n--ger", "jew", etc and bleeps them if you have it set.

PSN: KillaKornbread @ Feb 18th 2008 3:38PM

amen. i hear the N-word so much online that i dont even use the headset anymore. CoD4 is terrible for that ive discovered.

FOXHOUND @ Feb 18th 2008 3:41PM

agreed. Hearing that rubbish doesn't make you respected by any means.

Farseer (GDI) @ Feb 18th 2008 4:02PM

"...and bleeps them..."

You're too kind, sir.

I would suggest immediately dropping that player from the match. Bleep out someone like that, they'll just think it's funny and your entire game will be a series of beeps. Assholes still like to play, so after the third or fourth time that they're kicked from a game, they'll realize that they have no choice but to stop saying those things that they are too cowardly to say IRL.

Sky Shark X2 @ Feb 18th 2008 4:14PM

Um...there's a mute button for a reason, once more games implement the button that was once known as the A-hole button from Halo3 muting people will be easy, there's your bleeping right there. To bleep people automaticly is censorship and would violate the 1st most likely.

Trev @ Feb 18th 2008 4:26PM

@Sky Shark
The first amendment is not all-encompassing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_words nor is XBL commonly the forum for political critique. There are terms of service and were a voice-bleeping system to be implemented, it would probably be covered there.

The first amendment is not to protect people that want to (much to my surprise, being neither) inform me I am black and homosexual.

NATO_Duke @ Feb 18th 2008 4:30PM

Good try Sky - Live is not a place for free speech; it isn't the government's communication line. It is a private pay service owned by a company and there is no 1st amendment right to be protected. Such rights are to protect you from the government – not the private sector.

Mike @ Feb 18th 2008 3:33PM

"to be involved in the next release of Xbox"

Sounds like a hint at a new console to me

PSN: KillaKornbread @ Feb 18th 2008 3:36PM

oh and not trying to downplay this story at all, (its just the last one they posted) but where the hell is all the news that supposed to be tumbling out of GDC now? ive been watching all day and there have only been like 3 rumors and a gameplay vid of a game i dont care about. this is like christmas for me and i can feel that lump of coal at the bottom of my stocking...

netgem21 @ Feb 18th 2008 3:40PM

On Wednesday, the Microsoft Keynote will happen. That's when it all kicks off. Blu-Ray Add-on, Halo 4, Call of Duty 5, Gears of War 2, Alan Wake - all possible...

I seem to remember J Allard saying that the Xbox 360's Marketplace Points system would - quote unquote:

'Allow a user to, for example, design a skateboard for Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. He could then sell it on the marketplace for points and use the points to buy other items.'

This has not happened.

Sean @ Feb 18th 2008 3:44PM

Almost all the cool stuff at GDC happens at the tail end of the week. Microsoft's keynote isn't until Wednesday (for instance).

samfish @ Feb 18th 2008 3:54PM

GDC is also not E3. I don't think there'll be any REALLY big news coming out of this except maybe Gears of War 2 being officially announced.

I'm not expecting anything really from Sony and Nintendo, though.

Anticrawl @ Feb 18th 2008 3:36PM

Gotta have multiple person voice chats or video chats. Other than that I don't know.

xGeneral DEATHx @ Feb 18th 2008 4:52PM

I second that sentiment, Anticrawl. At LEAST 4-way Private Chat.

Dark Mobius @ Feb 18th 2008 3:39PM

Maybe at last is a XboxLive service for Latin America.

Hey Apples @ Feb 18th 2008 3:43PM

How about a more intelligent user profile system? For many games, they go out of their way to make this as cumbersome as possible. Sign out, sign in, guest accounts, etc. Random guitar controller X is magically holding my profile hostage, etc.

And on a related note, better rights management for downloaded content. The current DRM system is downright unacceptable, especially given the system's proclivity for hardware failure.

Ranus Studios @ Feb 18th 2008 3:45PM

How about they make it less of a focus in every frigging game lately.

Actually, that's more of a complaint about the current state of games themselves.

I guess I'll just go with free, then.

FOXHOUND @ Feb 18th 2008 3:45PM

It's going to sound slightly frivolous, but I wouldn't mind a decent web-browser on XBL compared to the flash-incapable Wii/PS3 ones.

xFenixKnightx @ Feb 18th 2008 3:59PM

Yeah Ill take a web-browser. How can a Microsoft system not have web browser? I dont NEED it but I would like it. With flash of course =)

Also multiple private chat. I dont think that they will EVER make Live *free* so I dont get my hopes up for that. I just want them to make it even sweeter than it already is.

Also, dont do anything like Home please. You dont know if Home will work out or not. Right now my thoughts are kinda meh about it. Id rather be gaming than walking around from place to place to see Trailers and Trophies and such. People in the Beta were already complaining about this.

Farseer (GDI) @ Feb 18th 2008 4:05PM

Aahh, but flash = free casual games.

free casual games = less people buying XBLA games.
(or in the case of Wii: free casual games = less people buying Wii games.)

xFenixKnightx @ Feb 18th 2008 4:19PM

Well then BLOCK those free casual game websites. Would it be difficult to block say, yahoogames.com or msngames.com? No.

Extinction @ Feb 18th 2008 6:12PM

I use flash on my PS3 and PSP web browsers.

zero2dash @ Feb 18th 2008 3:46PM

#1 get rid of the MS points nonsense.
Say a $5 game is $5, not 400 points which leaves me with 100 points to stare at or (ridiculously) spend on dashboard themes or gamerpics...or sit on, unused, for all eternity. Seriously. Get rid of the stupid points.

#2 Silver members (free) can play online but have dashboard ads. Gold members play online and have no dashboard ads. Really there's no excuse to not have the service be free, other than being a bunch of penny pinching grinches. PSN is free, Nintendo WiFi is free, Steam is free, 99% of the PC games out there that aren't MMOs are free. Is Live great? Sure, I love it. Do I wish it was free? Damn straight I do. Now that I have a gaming capable PC again, I will not be re-upping for Live Gold when I can play all my other (PC) games via Steam for free. Which is exactly why I bought the PC versions of CoD4 and Orange Box and will be buying the PC version of Bioshock over the 360 one.