Xbox One's Focus on Social - The UpStream

One of the big things to come out of the Microsoft press conference was Xbox One's focus on social. At the initial reveal event we learned that Microsoft would be integrating Skype into their next generation of Xbox, making up for the loss of Windows Live Messenger. Many people have found conversing through Xbox Live to be a convenient way to keep up with family, so bringing that feature back is important.

In switching to games, which was the focus of their event, Microsoft looked at the way people use their consoles and attempted to make those things as easy as possible. One thing that has gotten more popular is sharing video of gameplay. Currently you have to get a capture card and hook your Xbox or PlayStation through the box and into a computer to record your gameplay.

Microsoft is making this process easier by incorporating the ability right into the console. Now, using your Xbox One and Xbox SmartGlass, you can record, edit and publish your videos without even hooking up a single extra cable. Do you want to add commentary as well? No problem - use your headset or Kinect microphone and record everything happening around you right into the video.

Now, what if you want to share your gameplay live? Well, Microsoft has you covered there as well. Through a partnership with Twitch TV, you can use your Xbox One to connect to Twitch LIVE to broadcast whatever is happening on your console. From the docked dashboard you can see your viewership, invite friends and even see the chatroom. If you have your headset or Kinect, everything you say can be broadcast as well, giving commentary or game chat. Again, this really simplifies a process that more and more gamers are doing: broadcasting their games.

The last major social enhancement made for Xbox One is something I predicted several weeks ago. People were unhappy that the Xbox One was not going to have any backwards compatibility, but I decrypted the code. Xbox Live has been completely rebuilt, preventing older games from being available on the new console. Why block old games? Well, the old Xbox Live platform had a limit of 100 friends which was engrained into the fabric of the network. By replacing the infrastructure of Xbox Live, we can now have as many friends as we want. Take that, Facebook!