Right from the time Xbox 360 gamers in India, came to know that Microsoft was going to roll out the Xbox Live service in India, they have been excited. We were excited too, so naturally when we received a text message from Microsoft’s PR agency for a press event for the Xbox Live, we were overjoyed.
The Xbox Live press event was held at Taj Land’s End in Bandra, Mumbai. Initially when we went, there were very few journalists, mostly from the web and print media and most of them were raving about BioShock. Later, cursing the Mumbai traffic, other journalists as well as the Microsoft executives arrived. I didn’t know what to expect next. But soon the presentation started.
Mohit Anand, who happens to be the Country Manager of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft India came and spoke a few words about the Xbox Live. However, those of you who were expecting that the Xbox Live service would be launched in India in a day or two should be saddened, as Microsoft stated that the Xbox Live would be rolled out here very soon and assured it would be done in ‘this’ calendar year. When asked how soon is ‘very soon’, all they could quip is that Xbox Live would be out very soon! What reason do they give for not giving an exact date for the launch? Well, it seems that there is work going on in the backend.
As of now Xbox Live is available in 25 countries and India would be the 26th one. Mr. Anand also stressed on the fact that the Xbox Live is one of the most important USPs of the Xbox 360 and said that rolling out of the Xbox 360 service in India would be a major milestone. He also elaborated on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the game demos, trailers as well as the downloadable content that would be available. When I asked him about any India-centric content, he said, “very soon”.
It was also revealed that accessories like the text input device, wireless headset and the webcam for the Xbox Live would also be launched along with the service. We even had a chance to have a feel of the Chatpad for the Xbox 360 controller. There will be two types of services, which are available worldwide, Silver and Gold. The only major difference between the Silver and Gold service is that gamers who use the former will NOT be able to play games in the multiplayer mode on the Xbox Live. Most of the gamers in India would be very well acquainted with the Xbox Live service as they have used it but doing so by logging on to the international servers.
On hand to give an overview of the Xbox Live service was Juan Posada. He is the senior global marketing manager for Xbox Live at Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD), which he describes as the best job in the world! I am sure most of you would agree to that. He gave a demonstration of the Xbox Live service, basically playing the Forza Motorsport 2 and we would actually see a live race going on. Mr. Posada also spoke on the various features of Xbox Live as the tiers of service, Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA), the social networking features of the service, the voice chat, the Windows Live Messenger as well as the gamer profiles.
He also elaborated on the Gamer card, Gamerscore, Reputation, Gamer Zone, Achievements, Intelligent matchmaking, feedback and family settings. To show the features of the XBLA, he downloaded a game and we could see that he carried on with the presentation and the game was downloading in the background. One of the Microsoft representatives was waiting for a game of UNO on the Xbox Live Arcade. He played the game and simultaneously highlighted features like feedback. Here you can give ratings, good or bad, depending on your experience. It was a nice decision to use UNO to bring to light the various features of the Xbox Live as the game was amazing and most of us have played it before. Here is a video on UNO:
When asked about the pricing about Xbox Live, Mr. Anand mentioned that the pricing will be pretty much in line with whatever internationally it will be available at. Many questions were asked during the Q&A, and one of the most important questions was related to ISPs. He said, “Potentially with some of the ISPs, with some of their programs, it could be a problem. To give you a classic example, the Sify solution that is available today, the broadband solution technically has a problem with the Xbox Live service. And that’s a fact. Because they are using a technology, which is kind of archaic. Those are tests that are currently going on. It is some thing that is not set in stone.” So we asked him, if they have tied up with any ISPs in India. Mr. Anand replied that there are discussions with all of them.
So Xbox 360 gamers in India can expect Xbox Live very soon, but the only thing is that they still have to wait for it. Let’s hope Microsoft solves all the technical issues very fast and Indian gamers get their due.