Social Networking on the Xbox 360: How to Do It Right
Earlier today, Director of Programming for Xbox Live, Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb asked his sizable twitter audience the following:
Months ago, Microsoft was first to take a step into the social networking space, adding apps for Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm to Xbox Live, the pay-to-play online network of the Xbox 360 gaming console. The Twitter app was essentially a simplified client to view and send tweets, with support for twitter search and trending topics as well. Though it worked just fine, there was hardly any value to tweet on the Xbox, for without a keyboard, the process of posting and responding to tweets proved to be quite laborious.
The Facebook app took the integration further, allowing users to post status updates along with the ability to edit their profile, and view photo albums. Arguably the most useful feature though was the ability to find facebook friends that also have Xbox Live. This Facebook app was a refreshing step in the right direction of integrating social media with gaming platforms in a truly useful way,
While I gave each app a fair shake, there wasn’t much substance to them, and little incentive to use them again (with the one exception noted above). I had all but forgotten about the whole affair until I saw Major Nelson’s tweet this afternoon, and that got me thinking.
Allow me to look up the gamertags of people I follow on Twitter, along with those who follow me.
Just like the Facebook friend lookup, why wasn’t a similar feature for twitter rolled out as well? Though I’m sure there’s a solid argument that the average Xbox Live user who is on Facebook is also likely on Twitter too, your friend/follower audience does not necessarily overlap completely. For me at least, plenty of my Facebook friends have 360s, but most of them are not followers of my gaming blog’s twitter account. It seems like a fairly no-brainer, simple feature to implement, yet here we are without it.
Make Xbox.com more public, and integrate social streams from Facebook and Twitter as well.
Xbox, being a Microsoft product, has benefited from some of the natural synergies of other MS brands, such as the Windows Live ID. Xbox.com allows the player to log in with their Windows Live ID, view their friends, check achievements, etc. While a pretty cool idea on paper, the reality is a somewhat half-baked social network that is completly invisible to non xbox-live users, and has a frankly ugly interface.
But what if Xbox.com functioned almost like the World of Warcraft Armory, where you could look up anyone who had live (or by email address), check out their games, achievements, etc, all without necessarily needing to log in first. What if you could integrate your Facebook and Twitter streams? To me, Xbox.com is such a missed opportunity, one that sites like Raptr and GamerDNA have managed to fill in the interim.
There is a missing link. People like to share the networks that they are on. Look at all the social media icons on the sidebar of this blog, or any blog for that matter. Notice anything missing? Why can’t I link to my Gamertag profile? Xbox Live is heavily reliant on network externalities, the idea that the value of a network grows as the number of people using it increases. So shouldn’t Microsoft want for me to promote to everyone and their dog that I am on Xbox Live, and they should join too? It sure seems like a no-brainer to me.
Get these features out of the submenus, and put them front and center.
Probably what has hamstrung the Twitter application most is the fact that it was not readily available on the dashboard, you have to first go down to the community section, find the twitter icon, and then enter it. Its not available from the main xbox menu. And you know something? It needs to be. I need to be able to hit the xbox button on my controller, and in fewer steps than I can count on a hand, be able to post a status update. That update needs to be visible as my avatar’s “motto”, the small chat bubble that appears over Xbox Live member’s avatar when their profile is viewed. I need to be able to view any of my friends profiles and instantly be able to see their Twitter handle, if applicable, along with their linked Facebook account (should they choose to display it).
Stop hiding these applications if you expect people to use them regularly. Make it easier to update your status. Perhaps its offering the word predicting feature that the PS3 has. Perhaps its allowing you to tweet out your achievement the moment you receive it (I personally think status updates full of achievement notifications are annoying, but I know there are people that love this, so there is definitely a market). Offer the ability to tweet the group you are in and the game you are playing, so that other friends that may not be logged on, but are watching their twitter feed will see it, and be able to hop on and join the party.
I doubt I am sparking any epiphanies for Major Nelson and the Xbox Live team with these ideas, but you asked, so I answered.
Jeff is a social media specialist and online marketing professional in Seattle, Washington. He currently works on a fast paced team specialized in social networking and search engine optimization.
