marc whitten
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Amazon loses its head of Fire TV, Kindle and Luna to Unity
After a five-year stint, Marc Whitten — the man in charge of Fire TV, the Kindle and more — has stepped down as Amazon's VP of entertainment devices and services.
Xbox One update: Battery life and storage space are mysteries no more
Microsoft has scheduled an Xbox One system update for February 11, harnessing the computational power of its next-generation system to display real-time data on electrochemical energy expenditure within tethered input devices. So, yes, the controller battery life indicator is coming back, as seen above. Though the controller's electrical endurance is one of the Xbox One's more successful features, it's also one of two oddly obfuscated bits of information. The other is also being addressed in the Xbox One's space-age update, which allows you to see how much room your games and apps are taking up on the 500GB hard drive. The lack of direct management options was one of the criticisms in our review of the Xbox One. Microsoft says apps (like Netflix) and games (like Tomb Raider) will now be split into separate lists, queues, and restrooms. You'll also be able to better manage download and installation queues, and use a USB keyboard if you want a mechanical sound to go with the beeps and boops of text entry. Xbox's Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten says the update has "lots of behind-the-scenes updates for developers," along with improvements to stability and Kinect voice command recognition. Whitten teases more information to come on "several new features we believe Xbox fans will love," including a hypnotic suggestion module. The February 11 update will be followed by another on March 4, meant to prepare the system for Titanfall. [Image: Microsoft]
Xbox's Marc Whitten 'not sweating' Steam Machines
Xbox Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten isn't worried about Steam Machines taking up precious Xbox real estate in the living room. During an interview with Engadget at CES, Whitten said he's "not sweating" Valve's new initiative. He thinks "there's space for both." Whitten admitted, "I personally don't know how to think about Steam Machines yet," which is becoming an increasingly more popular sentiment. "I'm not knocking it or whatever. I continue to think that PC gaming – the sort of uber configuration and I can change everything and I can mod – that's an important thing and there's a lot of people that wanna do that." Whitten elaborated when a product is in the living room, however, players want to be instantly entertained – they don't want to spend time doing anything else. "When you get into that living room environment, you don't want to spend any of your brain cells doing anything but being entertained. I don't want to work on it; I don't want to feel like I have to know how it works. I would like to be blowing things up now, or watching a thing now. That's the fundamental thing that you want to do." A total of 13 Steam Machines, from various manufacturers, have been revealed so far. The cheapest machines come in at $500, while the more expensive configurations can top out at $6,000. Each Steam Machine ships with SteamOS and Valve's new Steam Controller.
Major Xbox One update with Live fixes in the works, says Whitten
Microsoft is working on a big Xbox One update to address user criticisms and complaints over Live, according to Marc Whitten. The Xbox Corporate VP told our Engadget chums that "the Live experience" - which isn't a Saturday night TV show - is something the company intends to "really push on." "The feedback we've gotten is pretty valid," Whitten told Engadget. "Some of the social stuff is hidden or harder to use than it was on the Xbox 360. So you're gonna see us come out with an update where, well, we're going to fix those things. "As a person who's been pretty involved in building Xbox Live for the last decade, I take it pretty seriously when people say it's harder to get into a party, and the defaults aren't right, and I don't like the model. So what I'm trying to do with the team is kind of theme some stuff up. Let's take an update and really go through a big list of what we're hearing from customers, what we know is broken with the architecture, areas that we want to improve or complete." So, when will see that update? Whitten didn't exactly say, although Engadget notes that based on its chat, "it sounds like those Live fixes are coming sooner [rather] than later." Another element's in the works is game stream broadcasting, which last we heard was targeted for "the first part of 2014." Don't expect that anytime too soon, though. Whitten's vagaries to Engadget suggest we'll see it before the next E3, while a more clear-cut Twitch tweet says, "There's no ETA from Microsoft. Expect a few more months."
Xbox One dashboard impressions: Finding Forza 5
The Xbox One has eyes and ears in the living room, more observant and more attuned to the human voice than ever before. Its Kinect camera can track multiple skeletons (usually inside people) and study your face for a post-workout pulse. It will understand you when you talk to it, and stop listening if you wish. And yes, you can unplug it. The new Kinect camera is not so sophisticated, however, as to detect the tinge of awkwardness that comes with press demos – this one in a San Francisco loft reserved for demonstrating the Xbox One as a platform. I sit on a couch between Xbox's Corporate VP, Marc Whitten, and Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Yusuf Mehdi, who will show me a product intended for a living room, quite unlike the cold approximation we find ourselves in. I face a giant television as they walk me through the system's standout features, never wavering in politeness and concision. They probably wince invisibly the few times a vocal command fails to register, because goddammit that's probably going into the article, isn't it? The Kinect quickly recognizes Whitten by his face and signs him into his Xbox profile. It does the same for Mehdi, and now they're both signed in on the system. Either one can summon their personal content by speaking, and the Xbox One will know which items to roll out without having to ask, "Sorry, which one of you said that?"
Xbox One's achievements are color-coded
While we've been aware that the Xbox One's achievement system will have some fluidity to it since the system was revealed in May, it turns out that it has color-coding options as well. As Xbox Corporate VP Marc Whitten explained via Twitter, the system's achievements are in a player's "chosen color," which is more evident in a recent Microsoft Studios livestream on Twitch of Powerstar Golf. At the 11:15 mark in the video, a blue achievement pops up indicating which of the two players earned the "Valuable Commodity" award. When players earned achievements during multiplayer sessions on Xbox 360 games, the color was always grey, while the circular controller indicator showed who earned it. Now we wonder just how fancy our achievements can look on Xbox One; perhaps Microsoft has included gold trim options or patterns such as a gorgeous, chatoyant finish?
Xbox 360 reputation scores will not carry over to Xbox One
Xbox Corporate VP Marc Whitten recently clarified the Xbox One's reputation-based matchmaking system, which was first announced in July. Reputation scores from Xbox 360 accounts will not carry over to Xbox One, though Whitten told IGN that the Xbox Live enforcement team will set a "small subset of members that have recently had enforcement actions taken against them" to a "Needs Work" reputation level. "This will give those members a chance to prove they can participate on Live fairly, and are not automatically placed in the 'Avoid Me' classification where things like SmartMatch filtering will affect them," he said. Additionally, while every XBLA game on Xbox 360 was accompanied by a demo, that will not be the case for digital games on Xbox One. Whitten said the company is "going to work on lots of ways to make it easy for you to find and try new games on the service," without clarifying how Microsoft will accomplish that.
Xbox One won't require plugged-in Kinect, Whitten says
Xbox One does not need the Kinect sensor in order to function normally, Xbox Corporate VP Marc Whitten tells IGN. This runs contrary to previous statements: In May, Microsoft Studios Corporate VP Phil Spencer said the Xbox One would require the Kinect to be plugged in. It's unclear whether this is a shift in policy or phrasing, but Whitten says that while ditching Kinect may limit the console's capabilities, the sensor isn't a necessary piece of equipment at all times. Instead, you'll only need it for voice- and motion-based navigation features, or to play games like Fantasia: Music Evolved, which rely on the sensor. "Games use Kinect in a variety of amazing ways, from adding voice to control your squad mates, to adding lean and other simple controls beyond the controller, to full immersive gameplay," he says. "That said, like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn't plugged in, although you won't be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor." Clean out some extra space on the entertainment center or in the closet: it depends on what you play.
Family Sharing could return to Xbox One, says Microsoft's Whitten
Xbox corporate VP Marc Whitten wishes that Microsoft had done a better job explaining the features of the Xbox One, many of which were removed when the company reversed the console's "always-online" connection policy. Speaking to IGN, Whitten responded to a recent online petition asking Microsoft to re-reverse its decision and re-implement features like Family Sharing, which would have allowed users to share their digital games with other Xbox One owners via Xbox Live. "The thing that's really gratifying is that people are excited about the types of features that are possible," he said, "and it's sort of shame on us that we haven't done as good of a job as we can to make people feel like that's where we're headed." "We need to do more work to talk about what we're doing because I think that we did something different than maybe how people are perceiving it." For one thing, he said, Family Sharing isn't necessarily gone for good. "If [Family Sharing] is something that people are really excited about and want, we're going to make sure that we find the right way to bring it back." It would require additional engineering to enable Family Sharing after always-online was dropped, so the feature was removed from the Xbox One launch window. Whitten said Microsoft "learned a lot of lessons" over the course of the Xbox One's reveal, and the company will be "engaging more with the community" going forward. "I think it's the number one thing I'd want to do if I went back, was have the conversation more open and more complete."
Xbox One's Kinect can read QR codes in place of download codes
Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox One can scan QR codes to save players the hassle of typing in download codes, Xbox Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten confirmed via Twitter. Whitten was responding to a picture posted to Reddit that demanded players be given the option, given the notion that Kinect will be required for the new system. Whether QR codes will be made widely available in place of download codes on Xbox One is unknown, but the possibility has existed for some time, as Kinectimals even used QR codes on the current iteration of Kinect.
Xbox One sticking with $499 price, Kinect still 'core part' of experience
We had a chance to speak with Xbox Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten this evening, following the company's DRM policy changes on Xbox One, and figured if we're already talking about changes, how about that $499 price? "We really believe deeply in the value that we're delivering. Not just for the first day of launch, which we think is going to be amazing, with amazing games and entertainment experiences, but what this architecture can deliver over the long term." said Whitten. "We feel good about our price." What about changing the price by removing the Kinect? "We still absolutely believe in Kinect. It's a core part of the architecture. Frankly, it's really critical that you build it as something that's always there, always part of the platform. So that game creators, experience creators can know they can rely on it. And you, the user, that there's always a consistent experience. That it's not just an accessory." Consumers aren't the only ones happy with today's changes. Both GameStop and rental service GameFly have applauded Microsoft for today's Xbox One policy shift.
A conversation with Microsoft's Marc Whitten on SmartGlass and the quest for a better living room
Microsoft SmartGlass hands-on Xbox SmartGlass: did Microsoft just render the Wii U controller obsolete? Microsoft's Marc Whitten: SmartGlass is the 'enabling technology' of IE on Xbox 360 What good is a surprise if you already saw it coming? When I mention to Microsoft's Marc Whitten, corporate vice president of Xbox Live and the man who has shepherded SmartGlass to its debut, that we kind-of-sort-of knew that his baby was set to be announced at E3 before the company got a chance to do so, he lets out a frustrated laugh. "Yeah..." He'd hoped the unveiling at the company's pre-show keynote would be the first time we, and everyone else in the industry, got eyes on the fruit of his and his team's labors. But, when I tell him we were still genuinely surprised at the scope of SmartGlass, and genuinely impressed at the potential, he seems genuinely pleased and reminds us that what we've seen is "all just the beginning." Join us after the break for an exploration of what comes next for Microsoft SmartGlass.
Microsoft's Marc Whitten: SmartGlass is the 'enabling technology' of IE on Xbox 360
We just had an opportunity to sit and chat with Microsoft's Marc Whitten, corporate vice president of Xbox Live, about the history and future of Microsoft's SmartGlass. It's one of the highlights of the show for us and so we were curious about its origin. Namely: was SmartGlass created to allow easy text entry into the upcoming Xbox 360 version of Internet Explorer? It's the opposite, says Marc. Microsoft has toyed with ways to bring IE to the Xbox for years now but always shelved the project due to control issues. It was only when they came up with the idea of SmartGlass 12 months ago -- being able to connect your phone or tablet to your Xbox and use it as a controller, among other things -- that a browser on an Xbox started to make sense. Great controls, he said, were the key to building the "great web experience" they were looking for.
Microsoft announces game invite tool for XBL, dubbed 'Beacons'
Rather than taking a queue from Hothead Games and going with a bacon-themed title, Microsoft instead chose to name its new Xbox Live notification tool "Beacons." So close! General manager of Xbox Live Marc Whitten detailed the new service in a post-E3 conference letter to the gaming press, explaining that the service will act as an alert system, pinging users with information about friends playing/watching a specific piece of content. Confused? We are too. From what we can decipher in the brief blurb provided, it's essentially a more direct way of knowing who's playing what and being able to tell when they're playing it. A more serious way of stalking your XBL friends list, if you will. We'll be sure to grill Microsoft about Beacons at our first chance.
Rumor: Kinect beta testers can keep sensor, get free Kinect Adventures
According to an image sent to Joystiq by an anonymous tipster, it looks like Microsoft is rewarding all the participants of the Kinect beta program. A letter, purportedly written by Xbox Live VP Marc Whitten, is offering to let testers to keep their Kinect sensor now that the beta program is over. In addition, testers will also receive a code to redeem a free download of Kinect Adventures. We're attempting to verify with Microsoft, but it certainly makes sense. After all, it stands to reason that some testers won't want to part with their sensor and be reticent to send it back to Microsoft. It wouldn't be a stretch for people to suddenly "lose" their sensor either. We'll update this post if we receive word from Microsoft. %Gallery-106278%
Xbox Live Code of Conduct updated: sexual orientation terms now permitted in Gamertags and profiles
The times, they are a-changin'. In an open letter to Xbox Live members, Microsoft's Marc Whitten has announced that the Xbox Live Code of Conduct has been altered to allow members to "more freely express their race, nationality, religion and sexual orientation in Gamertags and profiles." Looking over the updated code, it appears that the major change directly affects references to sexual orientation. Specifically, the terms "lesbian," "gay," "bi," "transgender" and "straight" are now allowed in both Gamertags and user profiles. According to Whitten, the change has been made as the result of customer feedback. Early last year, something of a controversy erupted when an Xbox Live user was allegedly banned from Xbox Live for identifying herself as a lesbian in her Xbox Live profile. The report brought to light an ongoing conversation on the matter between the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and Microsoft. At the time, Microsoft claimed that it didn't allow users to express any form of sexual orientation -- including heterosexuality -- in an effort to prevent player harassment. Obviously, Microsoft's stance on the matter has changed, though the company is still wary of possible harassment. Whitten states as much in his letter, noting that the new Code of Conduct also includes "increased stringency and enforcement to prevent misuse" of the newly allowed terms. Whitten concludes his letter by stating, "I truly believe that our diversity is what makes us strong: diversity in gaming and entertainment options, and diversity in the people that make up this amazing community."
Xbox Live service for Xbox 1 games to be discontinued on Apr. 15
[Image: Bungie] Microsoft is pulling the plug on the Xbox Live services that still cater to the original Xbox. As of April 15th, all Xbox 1 games -- including those playable on Xbox 360 or via the Xbox Originals service -- will be severed from the online realm. "I want to start by saying this isn't a decision we made lightly," Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten said at the start of a letter to Xbox Live members, "but after careful consideration, it is clear that this will provide the greatest benefit to the Xbox Live community." Whitten added that in continuing to "evolve the service," Microsoft requires changes that are "incompatible" with the previous console's games. "We will contact the Xbox LIVE members directly impacted by this change and if this includes you, I encourage you to check your LIVE messages and associated e-mail account over the coming weeks for more details and opportunities." According to Major Nelson's most recent list of top Xbox 1 Live titles, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and Counter-Strike players will be hardest hit. Well, sure, Halo 2 is still the most widely played game, but at least those guys will have some consolation when they leave the house and discover that two three more Halo games have come out since 2004. By the way, if you have anything terribly important to say to your clan mates, we suggest you say it now.
Xbox v1 games, systems no longer Live; Microsoft's pulling the plug April 15
It's been no secret that original Xbox games and systems have been the vestigial limb holding back much wanted XBL features including raising the limit on our friends list to over 100 or mobile tie-ins, and on April 15 Live access for all of them comes to an end. Even those Xbox Originals downloaded to the 360 or played via backwards compatibility will be cut off from online play, so we'd suggest getting those last few rounds of Halo 2 in now or at least look into an alternative solution like XBConnect. Affected users should keep an eye on their inbox, Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten has promised "details and opportunities" to come for you as partners in this process -- we're figuring a coupon or two or an extended XBL subscription as the lights are turned out is the least they can do. For the rest of us already living in the future? The timing of this announcement mere days before the X10 event in San Francisco February 11 can't be coincidental, we should find out what comes next by then.
Microsoft's Marc Whitten sees Natal replacing television remote controls
Speaking to a room full of executives focused on "the business of online video" at this year's Streaming Media West trade show, it's easy to understand how Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten could fall into hyperbole regarding the implications of Project Natal. "I believe that this will be the largest leap of TV experience since the remote control," Whitten said on the subject, reports Yahoo Tech. "With the flick of my wrist I can change a channel ... with the power of my voice I can start a movie." Aside from the more obvious implications to television using technology that can interpret voice and motion, he sees a future where Natal will recognize individual voices in a room and allow for a variety of human input – from "laughter" to "the number of people in a room" and everything in between. "Watching a movie is a passive input, but a TV should understand what you're trying to do." We don't know about you, Marc, but we're a bit worried about the implications of our television understanding what some of us are trying to do. [Via Edge]
Whitten: Xbox Live banning 'a cat and mouse game'
Speaking to VentureBeat, Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten discussed the recent round of Xbox Live bans. According to Whitten, banning users from Xbox Live is "a cat and mouse game." Said Whitten, "These were people that were pirating software." He added that Microsoft looks at banning users "from a safety and anti-cheating perspective" and that the company looks out for its partners. Responding to the widely reported story that Microsoft banned over a million Xbox Live users, Whitten said that the figure is inaccurate. "I cannot explain to you why people would think it was a million people," said Whitten, then adding quite succinctly, "It wasn't a million people." Whitten went on to state his belief that Microsoft does "a really good job" of monitoring the activity on Xbox Live, specifically in terms of piracy and online harassment. He concluded that the company is "committed to making [Xbox Live] better and better." The interview also covers the recent integration of Facebook on Xbox, the effect Modern Warfare 2 had on Live activity (hint: a big one) and whether or not we'll be playing Facebook games on our consoles anytime soon. Don't expect a straight answer on that last one though, as the closes Whitten gets is, "In the future, they will move much closer together."
