Between the 27th and the 29th, Microsoft celebrate their Xtival online festival by offering a weekend of free Xbox Live Gold membership to all. Alongside the option to experience Live play in all compatible multiplayer games, the real draw surely comes from the ability to become a socially networked powerhouse for three days, able to navigate the clunky Xbox 360 Facebook client for 72 glorious hours.
Excusing the fact that while functional, Twitter and Last.fm are both feature-crippled shadows of their browser counterparts, Facebook’s Live integration takes the proverbial biscuit. Silver members can expect the joys of hopelessly navigating a live feed which is happy to spew unnecessary updates on quizzes and applications (content inaccessible through the dashboard); stripped features running at an absolute crawl; and the indescribable pleasure of joining your friend’s conversations equipped with a disgustingly wonky system of textual input.
Of course, Xtival also boasts fantastic, cutting-edge video content from the unlikely musical alliance of DJ Tiesto, Metallica, The Prodigy, Run DMC and ZZ Top in a selection of live, pre-recorded and classic archived footage. A Ridge Racer cheer is heard from the ranks as the duo of avid “Top” followers wait patiently to catch something already broadcasting on countless flash video providers.
While complaints levelled at Microsoft’s paid subscription service are numerous, especially in the light of the currently free Playstation Network, the fact that the recent dashboard update was to hold back its main E3 clamoured draw to Silver members was a shocking revelation. The three flagship services, presented under subscription lock and key, hold Live up not as forward thinking in convergent media, but as outdated and out of touch. The horrible realisation that these three chunks of “paid content” are then mere husks compared to working editions fully operable on laptop, personal computer and even the majority of mobile phones is a kick in the teeth. Not least to the legions who sat twiddling thumbs in anticipation for the NXE’s traditionally explosive Fall update.
Ignoring its admittedly solid and difficult to criticise online service, Xtival’s Xbox Live frivolity is somehow an erect middle finger directed at both money-bags Gold and moth-eaten Silver.
Via: Spong
