For years Microsoft has been hoping to make the Xbox 360 into more than just a gaming console by adding more and more entertainment-centric features. Although it may still be looked at as a platform for playing games that also happens to do other stuff, a new milestone has been reached: Time spent watching videos and listening to music over Xbox Live has surpassed time spent playing multiplayer games online.
It may feel like Microsoft’s entertainment push has been a more recent thing, particularly with the release of the many entertainment apps we’ve seen over the past few months. (Three new ones made it out today, including one of the most anticipated of the bunch: HBO Go, MLB.TV, and Xfinity on Demand.) But it’s been something the company has been touting for years — ahead of the New Xbox Experience’s release way back in November 2008, Shane Kim described the NXE as “a big part of [Live’s] transformation from a multiplayer matchmaking service to a social and entertainment network.” It certainly was, though it still feels like a stretch for the launch of NXE to be compared to the release of the color TV in 1954; the press release sent out at the time was titled, “A New Dawn in Home Entertainment for Everyone Begins Nov. 19.”
