marc whitten
Latest
Facebook and Twitter coming to Xbox Nov. 17
Xbox owners: You have five days to start thinking of your lives and the lives of others in trivial, 140-character chunks. Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten has told Fast Company that the Dashboard update containing Twitter and Facebook integration will officially arrive on November 17. If the date seems familiar, you're not losing your marbles: The specific timing for the update was revealed and reneged last month. Now, you'd better hurry up and beat the Chatpad rush at the store.
Microsoft announces Avatar Marketplace, unlockable apparel
During Microsoft E3 2009 Blogger / Enthusiast Luncheon -- you know, this one -- Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten announced the Avatar Marketplace for the Xbox 360. The Avatar Marketplace, unsurprisingly, will allow 360 owners to download new apparel for their Avatars. Players will be able to browse game specific storefronts. Yes, storefronts, so don't expect all the apparel to be free.In addition, Whitten also announced Avatar Awardables. Awardables, as their name implies, are articles of clothing that can be awarded by Xbox 360 games for completing certain tasks. "I think you're going to see a ton of new content that comes from that," said Whitten. The apparel won't be limited to things like shirts and shoes either, as the ODST Avatar above illustrates, it's conceivable we could see little Alan Wakes and Raidens running all over Xbox Live soon.Whitten didn't announce any release date for Awardables or the Avatar Marketplace, but given the ODST apparel, we'd say Fall 2009 is a good bet.
PrE3view: Monday, June 1, 2009 (Day 2)
Okay, so E3 proper won't technically start until tomorrow, but that doesn't mean we have a dearth of journalistic activities lined up for today. We've got a few huge press conferences to attend today, including the first appearance of one of the Big Three. Will Microsoft unveil its oft-rumored motion camera technology? Is Metal Gear Solid 4 coming to 360? Will we hear shocking revelations about the Zune HD? Will J Allard bite the head off a live chicken? We'll find out in just a moment.Here's our schedule for the day! Make sure you hang around for teh scoops, and what have you.Monday, June 1, 2009 (Presented in Eastern Standard Time) 1:25 pm -- Microsoft Media Briefing (get your Bingo cards out, folks!) 3:15 pm -- Xbox Live Panel with Marc Whitten 4:00 pm -- EA Press Conference 7:00 pm -- Ubisoft Press Conference 12:00 am -- Guitar Hero Special Event (with special, secret guests)
Exclusive Q&A with Marc Whitten on Microsoft DRM tool
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/xbox/Exclusive_Q_A_with_Marc_Whitten_on_Microsoft_DRM_tool'; Maybe it was our constant pestering, week after week, month after month, asking everyone at Microsoft what was going on with the DRM situation on Xbox Live – read: some consoles which had been repaired or replaced had lost the ability to play certain XBLA games or view some Xbox Live video content without being signed into Xbox Live – but sometime after announcing the pending release of the DRM tool, we were given the opportunity to speak with Microsoft's Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox Live, about some of the outstanding questions we had. Anything we missed? Leave your own questions in the comments and we'll try and get the best ones answered. Joystiq: What took so long? And how long has Microsoft been cognizant of the problem and did the RRoD situation exacerbate this situation?Marc Whitten: This update is in response to the requests for this from our community. Xbox LIVE members have been asking for an easier way to transfer licenses, and we've been working hard behind the scenes to make this happen. We know the license transfer process has been difficult... I experienced it first hand when I upgraded to an Xbox 360 Elite, but we think this new DRM tool will be great and worth the wait. How does the tool work? Can we reauthorize content from console to console, or enable on multiple consoles (ala PS3)? If so, how many consoles?The process is really easy. The Xbox.com DRM tool lets you consolidate all of your downloaded content licenses to one console. So let's say you downloaded UNO from Xbox LIVE Marketplace and an episode of South Park from the Video Store on your Xbox 360, and then upgraded to an Elite down the line and downloaded more games and videos on the new console. In this scenario your content would be licensed to two consoles, and by using the DRM tool you could then download your older content licenses to your new console. With this tool you can transfer licenses from multiple consoles to a single console.
Fix your XBLA DRM mess! Microsoft DRM tool now available
In lieu of your regularly scheduled "Spring" Dashboard update, Microsoft promised to release a DRM tool that would "allow you to better consolidate your licenses for downloaded content to a single Xbox and allow you the freedom to be able to play your content both online and offline." In other words, this is for the sad saps whose Xbox 360 red-ringed, only to have it returned with Xbox Live Arcade titles that required you to be signed into Live to play. Now instead of jumping through a series of customer-service related hoops, this new tool – available immediately at Xbox.com – will allow you to quickly manage that content. If you're looking for some more info on how the DRM tool works, check out our exclusive Q&A with Microsoft's Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox Live.
Xbox.com 'tool' to fix XBLA DRM fiasco next month
After literally years of skirting around the problem, Microsoft is finally ready to properly address the DRM-issues that have plagued their Xbox Live Arcade service since 2005, and were only exacerbated by the RROD epidemic. In a jam-packed interview with Next-Gen, Microsoft's Marc Whitten says that, while there won't be a traditional "Spring" Dashboard update, "the team will be releasing a new digital rights management (DRM) tool next month that will allow you to better consolidate your licenses for downloaded content to a single Xbox and allow you the freedom to be able to play your content both online and offline." Well, that's all well and good, but what's that mean for Joe Gamer?If you've had your Xbox 360 replaced, or if you've upgraded to an Elite and used the inelegant Xbox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Kit, you may have found yourself with a handful of XBLA games that were tied solely to your gamertag and not to your console. That meant you couldn't play them offline or on another account tied to your system. This new tool purportedly solves this dilemma by giving consumers much finer control over the content they've purchased (go figure!).
