New York State will issue emergency alerts via Xbox Live

Or you could just send the alerts out via SMS because everyone one of these yoots they speak of has a cell phone in addition to a console.

not only xbox but ps3, wii, directv, facebook and myspace too.

DANGER!!!

DANGER!!!

HIGH VOLTAGE!!!

I would approve but everytime I have to sit through one of these it's about some storm 50 Miles away and is in effect from 12:50PM to 1:05PM and it's already 12:58PM.

The EAS is the single most useless piece of "technology" we use in this country.

It will be a sad day when it happens...
"Yes! Just got an Achievement for something about a Flash Flood. Awesome"

RIP.

wow, pretty soon you will see ads like how google works on youtube videos... but instead you will see the bar pop up while playing a game...

or even worse,

Ad Preview pops up during the flight of the chopper gunner in mw2
"Game will resume in 42 seconds"

I HATE THAT!
hope its only for new york god damn...

or even worse you will see

"Alert: Tornado headed near you"

*Looks outside*, I then go back to my 360

"YOU GOT RICK ROLLED B!TCH"

Xbox: "Achievement unlocked: Coastal Flooding please move inland"

Gamer: Huh? i don't get it (continues playing)

Achievement unlocked:
Failed to notice things happening outside the window.

I can see the Adverts for 360 now:

"do you care about your life?

if you do THEN BUY A XBOX 360! now with real life emergency alerts"

Yeah, but they'd probably still hold on to this "Microsoft Points" currency so you'd never know if your bag of Fritos was competitively priced...

What else is Governor Patterson going to do that's going to annoy me? First, new (and ass-ugly) license plates that we have to pay for (let's not forget increased vehicle registration fees) and being taxed on digital downloads (that $.08 added to every $.99 iTunes purchase add up). Remind me again why he wants us to re-elect him?

what if i think its part of the game?

"man GTA is getting a little bit TOO realistic"

Considering my friends have an easier time reaching me via xbox live as opposed to my cell phone.... This might be useful.. As long as it doesn't interrupt my gaming!

"Oh my god! A terrorist attack!?! Okay just one more game..."

Achievement Unlocked! Heavy-handed government interference discovered!

Soo... They just leave Wii owners to die?
I like this plan.

This is a pretty good idea, IMO. Depends how it's designed of course, but a simple notification platform via an XBL message -- which would be pretty easy to implement -- would be very effective at reaching populations who may be otherwise difficult to reach. If you don't listen to the radio often, don't surf news related websites, and don't watch much TV -- things that can probably apply to a good percentage of gamers -- a notification sent over XBL could be an effective warning.

Guess MS will need to up that 100 friends per account in order to get everyone on there!

i wouldn't worry about anything google being showed on a MS product anytime or ever for that matter .we may see thing that showstuff about bing ,but not google .

A very different idea, but a logical one I guess. As long as I'm not getting any of these flood, storm, and snow warnings that get blown *WAY* out of proportion on the weather channel, then I'm cool with that. Like, if there are power outages in the city that may affect parts of Long Island, or we're expecting 2-3 feet of snow tonight, then that's useful.

But don't bother me with Category 1 and 2 hurricanes. My grandmother lived in Long Beach at a spot where the island is is only a few miles wide between the ocean and the bay. She sat through Hurricane Gloria, a category 4 hurricane, in her house that you could literally see the beach from. The bay and the ocean met it was so flooded, but she was fine.

Basically, don't bother me and scare me with useless bull shit. I'm a fucking New Yorker. I've dealt with everything from hurricanes to blizzards to heat waves.

They will probably Eff it up and use it too much.
I live in indiana and I used to not get this crappy alerts on my cable tv. THen they moved to having the scroll bar at the bottom which was acceptable. Now they freezing do the loud beeping and blast the whole screen with text telling you to tune to a channel for more info after robot voice man explains whats going on. It also interrupts pay per view. Makes me want to get satellite.

All I can say is there better _NEVER_ be EBS 'Test Messages' on XBL or that's the last XBL renewal you'll get from me. I like the idea, if it's _ONLY_ used during a real emergency.. But _NEVER_ test on the network... _EVER_