Is it safe to say that this will be a US only feature?

I would love to have something like this, but I would not be surprised if it wasn't available elsewhere.

That's not to say that they don't try, I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why it happens that way.

Put simply, I am more likely to buy an Xbox than those other services, but making everything cheaper makes me more willing to buy it.

I'm not a "pay for television" kind of guy. I'm a dinosaur who remembers the old days of "broadcasting", back when TV and even radio were completely free to the consumer, and I tend to think passive entertainment ought to be free.

-_-

Everyone's making a big fuss over something I already troubleshoot daily at work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzFgSWFdyXs

For the record, it's the most stable set top box we have available in my opinion... But I think everyone's blowing it way out of proportion. It's something that was long due, and really, all of the boxes under your TV are little computers... do you have 3 computers next to your monitor? One for surfing the net, one for watching videos, and one for playing games?

No, 'cuz that's ridiculous.

How has this been missed so many times?

Microsoft does seem to get some cool stuff going that Sony can't seem to manage. Xbox is just an all-round better experience because of the superior interface, controller, and the so many better things it has going on online from downloadable last gen games, to cross game/party chat.

On the other hand, I do use my PS3 more because of certain undeniable strong points like the better peripherals (read: G27), certain exclusives (and cool things like the Portal 2 cross-play with PC), and cross functionality with Sony's portable systems.

Bottom line is I have a love/hate relationship with both I guess. But anyway, this is kewl news.

I have uverse tv and internet.

If it aint free I do not want it. When they first annouonced the iptv for uverse I assumed it would qither be free or just be charged like an additional receiver. $99 plus $55 installation fee. Fuck off AT&T.

@Corvak said:

More stuff I can't take advantage of, that americans can, but I still pay the same for Gold. Why do you hate canada so much? You already charge us more for points.

Maybe it has something to do with it being over 300 million people vs. 35 million...might not be worth the effort to negotiate with the cable companies in Canada for a much smaller market.

My question is: What happens when my lady friend wants to watch a 'Real Housewives of...' variant at the same time that I want to play Skyrim? What then, Microsoft? What. Then!?

Verizon and Comcast. They wouldn't have tried to partner with two worse companies (well, maybe if they tried to get AT&T involved in some manner). Seriously though, when is Microsoft going to stop this crap? It's a game console, not a TIVO.

Lets face it, there are no good cable or satellite companies. They are probably willing to make these deals because they are losing so many people to netflix and hulu and pretty much everything out there. My two reasons for staying with cable are gone, ESPN is now online and so is the WWE, even their PPVs are viewable online. And its less of a bitch to order them that way too, directly through them instead of the cable company.

@Grilledcheez said:

@Corvak said:

More stuff I can't take advantage of, that americans can, but I still pay the same for Gold. Why do you hate canada so much? You already charge us more for points.

Maybe it has something to do with it being over 300 million people vs. 35 million...might not be worth the effort to negotiate with the cable companies in Canada for a much smaller market.

Exactly. The Canadian market is smaller than the Californian market.

I don't watch TV via freeview any more anyway. XBMC for me!

Lol, that guy was still talking about HD-DVD.

Good! I'm committed to internet television. I cut the cables so to speak, and had my DTV shut down a long time ago. I'm not going back. I've subscribed to Hulu and I'm sticking with it, content or not. Overpriced Satellite and Cable companies have been far too expensive for far too long. Networks have been creating poor quality shows that become cheaper and less interesting for a long time. The suits controlling creativity are losing their battle.

TV on demand is the way to go!

No thanks. My roommates already overuse my Xbox for Netflix and I hate watching TV so...heck no.

Much more likely that this service/project will end up on whatever the next console Microsoft has coming down the line.

@Kordesh: Oh man the idea of trying to store any recorded media on an XBOX sized HDD. Ugh. Maybe MS will sell me a 2TB drive for $1000?

Not their biggest fan, but have to credit Sony for offering some rather useful European video services. Sort of makes me wish Microsoft did a little more, especially to justify the sub costs. That said, more services the better right?

@iAmJohn said:

@DarthOrange said:

i have never understood how Microsoft wants the 360 to be the media center device when it can never truly be that until they get blu ray.

Blue username.

TROLOLO

Time to switch from Cablevision to Verizon.

I love the internet, i love globalization and i really really could love IPTV!

If they would actually make use of it... but just like Netflix this is even more "XBL Stuff!" that's only usefull for US residents.

But why? IPTV cries to be streamed world wide, instead it's all region locked. You know what? If my 360 would give me the option to watch US TV (I'm from europe) i would even pay for XBL Gold just so i could pay a subscription for the IPTV.

But no.. all the streaming services are regionaly locked and if i want to watch US TV i'm forced to pirate the show's i wanna see.

I doubt this will be any different, great news for US residents maybe, non-news for everybody else even tho we have internet that's far better suited for streaming HD content at least compared to the US internet :D

HBO in Europe. All my money!

My wife works for comcast and says microsoft just gave them a bunch of new xboxs to give away to their employees

@GUTBOMB said:

Quit watching TV 4 years ago, but hey great

Bet you still "watch" TV shows, though right?

It's pretty late in the console cycle though isn't it? Not that I want new consoles already but I've feel like Xbox and PS are 2 years away from revealing the next stuff.

As funny as it was to see blades again in that video, it was even funnier to hear that dude talk about HD-DVDs like they were definitely going to be the future. Hilarz!

@a5ehren: Ah, that's a good point. I didn't consider that. You're probably right though, they'll have a $10 not-using-our-equipment fee or something.

@Diablos1125 said:

It's pretty late in the console cycle though isn't it? Not that I want new consoles already but I've feel like Xbox and PS are 2 years away from revealing the next stuff.

It'd be a great time to break ground with the tech and find the right pricing model. Then they can take it primetime with the new consoles.

Foxtel on Xbox in Australia works great and it's fairly cheap

Hope they make a deal with Cox or I am pretty much out of luck.