[Edit] Happy Birthday Xbox LIVE!
It's amazing to think about, but Xbox LIVE turns five this Thursday. Yep, the service officially launched almost five years ago on November 15th, 2002 - and somehow, it it really doesn't feel that long! I've mentioned it in the past, but I joined Microsoft specifically because I was excited about what LIVE could become. To quote myself...
After SSI I joined the Total Entertainment Network (TEN) where I helped build one of the first online gaming networks. In fact, TEN is one of the major reasons I joined Microsoft as Xbox Live is, in many ways, a modern version of what we tried to do with TEN (except that now we have a much larger audience, huge broadband penetration, and Daddy Warbucks backing us up.)
... and indeed, I feel as though we've delivered on much of what online gaming promises. I say "much" because I feel as though there are still plenty of new areas to go and innovate in. But it's safe to say that Xbox LIVE has set the new bar for what an online gaming community should look like... and there's plenty more coming.
I joined Microsoft back in 2002 thanks to my then (and often) manager Scott Henson. He was looking for someone to help pull together the LIVE story that the teams were building and get on the road to work with partners to support our platform. This was an amazing, crazed time to join the team. In my first days Scott gave me literally a foot-tall stack of specs, documentation, and presentations that had been created over the last year as a way to jumpstart my immersion into the Borg. ;) I'll always remember sitting outside Starbucks with my two dogs at the Redmond Town Center as I read through the tome. Several things struck me then: 1) half of the docs contradicted the other half (since things were moving so quickly), and 2) the Redmond Town Center was the cultural heart of Redmond (and there ain't much there!) I was able to resolve the cultural aspect by buying a house on the Westside in Seattle, but it took all of us months to ride herd on LIVE as it jelled and build out the external presentation for partners.
I was just reviewing some of those old presentations. Beyond the predominance of green throughout the decks, I was struck by just how closely we were able to deliver on our original vision. For example, here's our ambition statement, word-for-word:
To deliver the best games on the best platform
- Both on and offline
- Best customer experience
To create a unified service that allows Gamers to play with friends!
- New types of game experiences
- Expansion of online gaming beyond niche
To create an ecosystem produces revenue for everyone
- New revenue streams for all partners
It's great to look back and see that we delivered on every point. I'm particularly proud that we were able to deliver a service that's valuable to both end-users and development/publisher partners. It's a virtuous cycle that's healthy for everyone involved - and you can't have one without the other. Oh - and I love the oldschool "Gamers" with a capital "G." We're always looking out for you, baby. ;)
It's also interesting to see that our LIVE Anywhere vision (which I've discussed in the past a few times) was alive and well from the very first days of Xbox LIVE (although my early slide notes called it "Always Live".) Check out this slide from one of the decks:
It's funny how the green color and the original Xboxes make it feel a bit retro... brings me back. Anyway, this was a talking slide, where we'd highlight the different elements of the online service that fed the virtuous cycle we were hoping to build. People could play games on the box, yet stay connected with friends and community outside the box via Messenger and other Messenger-enabled mobile devices. We talked about how people could connect to the community on the box, even without a game in the drive (an interesting harbinger of the Xbox 360's guide, no?) And we even talked about how you'd be able to access that community on the web (as you can see here today). Sure, Penny Arcade made fun of us (warning: language may offend), but I think they'd agree that this constantly-connected community is a key element of LIVE today.
It's important to remember that when we first starting talking about Xbox LIVE there were many who were skeptical (to say the least!) Won't go into details as to whom, but some believed it was too early to launch a broadband service. PC gaming was the prevalent example, which lead to some people stating that a paid service would never fly; others insisted that gamers didn't want to talk when gaming, they wanted keyboards. I personally spent years evangelizing co-op support with many folks just not understanding the importance (but I must also give huge props to Ubisoft, especially Ubisoft Montreal for being right on top of it early on!)
The idea of creating downloadable content was also surprisingly hard to sell - it was a big leap of faith to believe people might actually pay to extend their game experience. (Interestingly, enabling downloadable demos was where people naturally gravitated... which obviously helped feed our Xbox 360 thinking.) Finally, don't even start me on the discussions around LIVE TCRs (or Technical Certification Requirements). TCRs are how we enforce those key areas that are required for a game to support to enable a consistent platform experience. Back then, if you created a LIVE title you needed to manually code features such as a Friends list, and how it sorted, and how presence was displayed, and how invites would be sent, and how they'd be received, and how you'd send a voice message... the list goes on and on. We were able to solve some of this with code modules a developer could drop in and skin, but man... there were some painful discussions when we were first out there selling the vision.
Today the world is completely different, and LIVE has set the bar for what online gaming and an online community should look like. What's fascinating to me is how long that bar has been in place - check out this snippet from a post by Penny Arcade's Tycho way back in May of 2004:
Online was the only thing that Microsoft could accomplish to a greater degree than any of their competitors, and they have spent more money than you or I will ever see in our lifetimes insuring that their solution for networked play is the jewel of this console generation. If you don't believe me, just go send a friend a voice message when you add him to your list on the Playstation 2. Oh, that's right - no universal list, no voice messages, no built-in panel for the management of contacts. I forgot. How about sending him a request to play a game while he is playing any other game on the service, let them pop the disc out, put in the other one and automatically join your s**t on the Cube? Oh right! Online play on the cube, save for one or two titles, doesn't exist. There's no service framework, and no service framework will ever materialize for the system. The Xbox has its own things to answer for when it comes to the support of Japanese developers, who hold the keys to the console kingdom. But where online is concerned, you literally cannot f**k with these.
Today broadband and in-game voice support is ubiquitous, and competitive console platforms are flattering us by absorbing our ideas (though reading above, not all of them... even today.) LIVE has extended to the PC via Games for Windows - LIVE (and we see other PC online gaming platforms absorbing "console" LIVE features as well.) The Xbox 360 has launched with the idea of the entire console being LIVE (not just the games), which meant we could absorb many of those TCRs that developers had to suffer through. And Marketplace has set a new bar for Electronic Software Distribution (or ESD). Today arcade games, playable demos, games videos, downloadable content, movies, TV shows, themes, and gamer pictures all flow through the service on demand, supported by a robust, worldwide microtransaction system. Don't underestimate the importance of this. It's very hard to do right, and that platform has enabled a lot of partners to bring you content that they might not have been able to otherwise.
To wrap up, do you remember that "Live Anywhere" vision slide from earlier that showed how the vision was in place from the very beginning? As I look ahead at our thinking for the next five years, I can honestly say you haven't seen anything yet. There are new visions being built as we speak, and I for one am looking forward to where we are on the tenth anniversary of LIVE.
Finally, I wanted to say a big thank you to the internal platform teams, account managers, developer account managers, game developers, publishers, and gamers who have all supported LIVE over the years. Between us all we've built something that's turned skeptics into believers, sets the bar for online gaming and community, and will continue to set the bar even higher going forward. Thank you, and good gaming!
Happy Birthday LIVE!
(No cake, sorry - it's a lie, after all.)
[Edit: couldn't talk about it before, but yes, Xbox original titles will be available this holiday for download. I can't talk about the Fall update beyond whatever our PR team has announced, but I can say that Psychonauts works and plays just fine. I never had the opportunity to finish this one on Xbox, but I can tell you I'm going to make a point of doing so this time around. It's one of those great games that just fell through the cracks when released - sort of like Beyond Good and Evil (another classic). Well worth your time.
In a totally non-related subject, finished Portal with a friend yesterday... no spoilers, but worth finishing if only for its originality and the final credit song!]