The Technological Development of Xbox Live Through History
March 19, 2009Nowadays it seems all new technologies that surface are created from already pre-existed technologies, and Xbox Live is no exception to this system. Xbox live historical precedent in the pre-industrial era would without a doubt have to be the online support that came with the Sega Dreamcast. The Dreamcast arrived at the scene of console gaming in 9/09/1999, and it was the first gaming console ever to support online play with players from all over the globe, and it even came with a dial-up modem connection to allow users to easily connect to the server, but this connection never supported broadband connections, which resulted in very unhappy customers. Aside from that, just as with Xbox live, downloadable content was a major addition, and was readily available for all users, but due to memory and space restrictions during that time the hardware had very limited capacities, it never really took flight and grew. Consequently the Dreamcast did not have a great effect on society and the gaming community because of lack of support, as well as the games released at launch had graphical glitches constantly. Though on the other side the Dreamcast was the first console that allowed arcade players that usually play in their local mall arcades have the necessary tools to play their favourite fighting/racing game without leaving the comfort of their own house. With all things considered the Dreamcast had limited upgrades such as memory and space for user which drastically decreased its popularity, and its online functions didn’t contain any type of interface like the Xbox.
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After the horrible failure of the Dreamcast that was due its lack of third party support, it was eventually put out of commission. Then in November 15/ 2001 the original Xbox was released. After about six month of the official release of the Xbox the first generation of Xbox live launched, because it was going through beta trials. This first generation greatly took all the superior features that the Sega Dreamcast online comprised of and improved upon it. Microsoft provided better support than its predecessor (Dreamcast) by actually putting in an Ethernet cable slot for easy connection for broadband users, while on the contrary the Dreamcast required a separately broadband adapter. As well for digital distribution of content through downloading, the original Xbox had their own built in 10GB hard drive, and weren’t restricted with memory like the Dreamcast. With the use of broadband internet and more available memory, there was in increased bandwidth that allowed the ability for users to use voice communication with teammates in games. Xbox live improved upon the online support of the Dreamcast to greater extents when they introduced the friends list, where users can easily keep track of their friends. The social trend that Xbox live followed was to be different from its other competitors Sony and Nintendo by focusing on their flagship console seller: Xbox live. Finally, the first generation of Xbox live proved that users wanted to be play games online on consoles by its great success, and growing community.
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Now finally in the next generation of Microsoft’s Xbox took its place on store shelves in November 26 in 2005. This seventh-generation console called the Xbox 360 came out with brand new generation of Xbox live that greatly improved every single aspect of the original. First of all the space capacity was greatly increased from the original, with the options to buy a 20GB, 60GB, and 120GB hard drive. Before Xbox users got demos from monthly magazine subscriptions in the format of discs, but with the new space capacity of the system, Xbox live has the option for users to download demos digitally for free to try out. To this date there have been millions of downloads through this Xbox live marketplace (location to digitally download and purchase content). Compared to the bland bleak look of the old Xbox live interface (plain green text) with very little features, the Xbox live marketplace is a sight for sore eyes with its easy to use interface. Another improvement with the upgraded service is the new experience involving voice chat. Sure, the original live also had voice chat, but you could only talk with others when you were playing the same game. Now users are able to chat with their friends in parties up to 8, at any time. With the technologically advanced Xbox 360, its higher processer power and bandwidth have gone a step further than voice chat, and have introduced video chat through the vision camera. This modern service of an online gaming community has created a social and multimedia blend with its extra contents, such as streaming videos, renting movies, watching television series, and streaming media from the home pc. Overall this new iteration of Xbox live has affected society a great deal by already achieving over 17,000,000 users, and having over a billion hours logged in (Xbox live wiki chart).
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Xbox Live. (2009, March 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:12, March 19, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Xbox_Live&oldid=277990969
Marketplace home. (2009, March 18). In Xbox Official Site. Retrieved March 19, 2009, from http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US
Dreamcast Connects Console Gamers. (2009, March 18). In Gamespy. Retrieved March 19, 2009, from
http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/july03/25smartest/index17.shtml
Xbox Brings “Future-Generation” Games to Life. (March 10, 2000). In Microsoft. Retrieved March 19, 2009, from http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2000/03-10xbox.mspx
