ESPN 2.0 on Xbox Live features improved guide, stats feed and more

by Griffin McElroy on Jul 27th 2011 1:26PM

The ESPN application on Xbox Live offered some interesting functionality to sports fans, though perhaps not enough to make it a viable competitor for their standard cable fare. ESPN 2.0, a massive renovation of the platform scheduled to launch August 25 (just in time for college football), will be a much more worthy contender.

Gizmodo recently previewed the updated software, revealing a number of its new, tantalizing features, such as the ability to watch two games on ESPN 3 at once, and a live score feed on the side of the UI.

The highlight feature is the new Guide, a carousel of thumbnails showing currently streaming programs, each of which include stats, scores and information about each game. Check out a video demonstration of the software on Gizmodo, and join us in wishing for a future where every sport is simulcast conveniently on our gaming consoles. (We've just got to get our Jai-alai fix.)

Source: Gizmodo

Tags: college-football, espn, espn-2, microsoft, sports, xbla, xbox, xbox-live, xbox-live-marketplace

Reader Comments (45)

Will this ever come to the uk ?

@CaptBirdeye
Don't you guys get Sky on PSN or something?

@CaptBirdeye That's what was I was thinking. I would probably get it if they did release it.

@Assmar 1 sky is cable in the uk and two PSN is PlayStation network I know be I live in the uk.

But you can already watch two feeds on a PC. Actually, you can watch like 5 feeds at once; and at least with my cable service, you can also access ESPN1/2/Uni live programming. Does the xbox version not even require a cable service to access ESPN3?

Yes but it is mostly football (or soccer) and golf.

@Rubbishy Me You're going to get the same content on Live as otherwise.

sweet, here's to hoping for more NCAA football coverage this season

This is actually an amazing feature, and the upgrades sound outstanding. I watched several playoff basketball games on the Xbox. The quality was pretty good, certainly no worse than cable. (worse than HD of course) And to Assmar, no, you don't need to have any TV subscription (dish or cable) to get access to ESPN3. People complain about the price of XBL (typically when promoting their console of choice) but features like this absolutely justify $4/month to me.

@berzirk

If you have Time Warner, you do need a TV subscription.

@berzirk yah this is a great feature for people who choose not to buy cable (like me)

@Arimus25

Yes, but if you have ATT, you don't.

What I want to know is if it will finally work for those of us with Time Warner.

@chimpotle That's likely an issue to take up with Time Warner, not XBL.

@chimpotle Ask Time Warner.

@chimpotle I'm hoping that it not only works, but that they include ESPN Networks support.

For those who don't know, Time Warner and Bright House subscribers haven't been able to get ESPN on Xbox LIVE but we can get ESPN3.com. We also have access to espnnetworks.com, which streams content from 4 ESPN channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN Buzzer Beater).

If they bake ESPN Networks support into this 2.0 release, I'll forgive not being able to use ESPN on my Xbox for the last 8 months.

Also, if you want access RIGHT NOW to ESPN on Xbox LIVE via Time Warner, you may want to take a look at this page...

http://broadband.espn.go.com/espn3/auth/microsoft/initAuth?mvpd=twc

@GB330033

Dude...as a TWC customer I've been stewing about not being able to use ESPN on my 360 for so long. I periodically write emails to espn and TWC and they just say "we're working on it"

I can't wait to get home and try this code...don't mess with me, is it really working :P??

If so, a thousand thanks...but when were they planning on telling us?

@Thiago123

I used a code from there a few weeks ago and it worked for about 3 days, but then they locked me out and shut down the page. Now that the page is back up, I've grabbed about 50 codes just in case ;)

@GB330033

I am hating TWC for taking so long, and its no other reason but to see how they can keep out the people who do NOT have triple/double play.

@GB330033

Well I gave it a go tonight. The access code definitely let me into the full app, allowing me to see what was playing live and on-demand. The 'ESPN 3 Powered by TWC' logo was even present. Unfortunately, trying to access any of the live or on-demand content just lead to an error code or a non-stop buffering screen :(. Ugh, what a tease, lol.

Well, off to write more emails to espn and twc, and check if FIOS or U-Verse are available in my neighborhood. SPOILER ALERT: They still aren't...

I support this improvement.

@Truant - I was really amazed too by this article. I totally agree with it. Although, its kinda hard to explain but I try to not interfere with the progress or anything about it.

free bets

I'm all for improvement, but due to my area's BrightHouse stranglehold, who knows if I'll get to enjoy all the features. :(

All of this stuff is already on the ESPN3 website. And since you need access to ESPN3 to use this stuff on Xbox 360 it means if you are waiting for this improvement you're waiting unnecessarily.

@spin cycle

I'd click-thru and watch the Gizmodo video. The features and interface with Kinect integration is far better than the ESPN 3 site.

@spin cycle the point of watching it on the website is irrelevant since alot of people would rather watch streaming on their nice big TVs(like netflix,hulu). we've had ESPN3 on the xbox already for awhile now(done entirely through the UI), just couldn't do two event coverages on the same screen, you have to pick one or the other. Also the live score feed is a nice addition.

@spin cycle the ESPN3 website is a horrible mess. It's got to be done by some of the worst web designers. Plus, it's on a small PC monitor. That's what made ESPN so refreshing on the 360. And this looks to exponentially improve it.

Good. ESPN on 360 as it stands is a bit of a mess.

MMA and the NFL...that's what I want.

Give me the NFL please!

@swajus Since ESPN usually only gets one NFL game a week I don't think you'll ever see it on ESPN 3. If you do it'll be at a premium.

Is there any focus on European football?

@Solais @YourMomsLover Just call it it's real name football 1. English football came first google it and 2. It NFL The ball is mostly carried but in football the goalkeeper is the only player aloud to carrier it. ENGLISH FOOTBALL IS NOW CALLED FOOTBALL NFL IS NOW CALLED HANDBALL.

@byaboy look up the etymology of "football". It's called football because you play it on foot and not on horseback (like polo). Soccer is short for Association Football.

@Agies Football came first so football name was reserved.Football is also a bigger sport bigger is better every body knows that.

@byaboy "Unqualified, the word football applies to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears, including American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union and other related games."

Rugby Football, which American Football is loosely based on, was codified before Association Football.

They pulled the NHL highlights during the playoffs - hope that comes back

don't suppose one of those features is working with time warner cable? =[

Awesome.

I love having this on my 360, there is tons of soccer coverage, watching the U17 World Cup was great. Just wish more EPL matches would be viewable after they have aired live.

I love the idea of having a live score feed. I just bought a ps3 though :(

If they could incorporate the NFL games with some sort of feed for nfl picks like here, now that would be something

Wow thanks for that wonderful article. Looking forward for more of your post. And Oh yeah! if you love the NFL? love the excitement of betting on the outcome of a game?

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@stewartmaria33

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@Truant - I was really amazed too by this article. I totally agree with it. Although, its kinda hard to explain but I try to not interfere with the progress or anything about it.

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ESPN 2.0 on Xbox Live features improved guide, stats feed and more

Reader Comments (45)

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 1:31PM CaptBirdeye said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 1:34PM Assmar said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:11PM Rubbishy Me said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 5:03PM byaboy said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 1:34PM Assmar said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:12PM Rubbishy Me said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:19PM spin cycle said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 1:36PM tanooki equipped said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 1:38PM berzirk said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 1:49PM Arimus25 said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:02PM tanooki equipped said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 4:46PM Ordeith said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 1:38PM chimpotle said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 1:47PM blackangel209 said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 1:51PM HazyCloud said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 1:53PM GB330033 said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:46PM Thiago123 said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 3:27PM GB330033 said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 4:33PM PedoJokerBear said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 11:53PM Thiago123 said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 1:52PM Truant said

Posted: Aug 31st 2011 12:48PM stewartmaria33 said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:02PM foxhound said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:19PM spin cycle said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:24PM Truant said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:34PM tanooki equipped said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 3:11PM onlysublime said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:26PM Once known as Shadsy said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:53PM HaVoK308 said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 3:30PM swajus said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 4:55PM Agies said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 3:47PM Solais said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 5:08PM byaboy said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 5:45PM Agies said

Posted: Jul 28th 2011 5:30AM byaboy said

Posted: Jul 28th 2011 11:32AM Agies said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 4:14PM OnToGloryReturns said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 5:22PM SpongeBobPistolPants said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 8:00PM RadioActiveLunch said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 11:34PM bergen wine said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:13PM nflpicks said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:17PM nflpicks said

Posted: Aug 17th 2011 5:59PM stewartmaria33 said

Posted: Aug 17th 2011 6:00PM stewartmaria33 said

Posted: Aug 31st 2011 12:48PM stewartmaria33 said

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