Microsoft Randomly Announces Cloud Saving and 'Beacons'

It's E3. You're a major console manufacturer and publisher. You have your very own press conference in which to dictate to the world your vision of your product for the next 12 months. You have games to announce, you have new technology to pimp, and you've got a fancy new firmware update that's gonna provide all kinds of cool stuff to your userbase. But, you're also pressed for time. You're broadcasting on live television, and thus have to make sure your presentations fit within a narrow 90-minute space. If there's chaff to be cut, you've gotta cut it.

Apparently, that chaff this year included what probably would have amounted to 60-seconds of actual on-camera time, yet would have made that New New New Xbox Experience sound a bunch cooler. Tossed out unceremoniously as part of Major Nelson's latest blog were two interesting tidbits about the NNNXE.

The biggest by far is cloud saving, a bit of functionality many have wanted on Xbox Live for some time. Using this new functionality, you'll be able to access your game saves on any console you sign into via Xbox Live. As Larry put it, "gone are the days of gamertag recovery."

Also, "beacons" are being introduced as well. These beacons are designed to signal to your Xbox Live friends list that you're online and want to play a game with anyone who happens to be around. Ideally, this would prevent you from having to send out a million game requests whenever you want to play online with your friends, since they'll just be able to see that you're interested in playing a game.

While these aren't quite as sexy as live TV on your Xbox or some woman saying the words "Kinect...BING" over and over again, it still really feels like this stuff ought to have made it into the conference. But lord knows, we needed that extra couple of minutes of child actors screeching flatly at one another about collecting coins and how awesome Disney everything is.

I really hope to one day see those kids grow up and find careers that require them to deliver such meaningful lines of dialogue as "Would you like some more coffee, hon?" and "Hey buddy, got some change? I need heroin."

cool 

Nice

So they ripped cool stuff out of a quite bad press conference? Nice.

Didn't MS have a press conference or something? Apparently not.

Yay, clouds!

Sweet! finally something to back up to other than flash mem.

This could be a very good thing. 

Good features!

I won't be satisfied until I can have my saves laser-inscribed onto my bones.

Only then will they be with me forever.

Wow, Alex really has it in for those kids who were on stage at the MS press conference :/

Fuck yes.

@Alex: So much snark. You are my idol! :-)

Wait... How does this signal the 'end of gamertag recovery'.. If i save a game to the cloud and go to my friends house, how do i get said save and use it under my own profile name?

oh cool

Gosh way to be mean to those poor kids Alex, sheesh.
 
Beacons and cloud saves seem built to help the Giant Bomb crew, so I'm sure they're super stoked about them.

I'm guessing both require xbox live gold?

The real question is: will I be able to access American TV shows if I go overseas?

So, still no friends list cap increase? Not that it's an issue for me, I'm just sick of hearing people complain about something that Microsoft should have addressed a long time ago.

@SamFo said:

Wait... How does this signal the 'end of gamertag recovery'.. If i save a game to the cloud and go to my friends house, how do i get said save and use it under my own profile name?

Presumably, your gamertag would be saved to the cloud too. You could just enter a password and log in to it to use it, rather than downloading it. It would be like signing into Facebook or something, rather than redownloading all the information.

Oh Alex, you're such a loveable curmudgeon sometimes.  
 
The cloud thing sounds really interesting to me and I'd like to see some of that introduced as soon as possible.  When's that going up?  When's the next big scheduled update? 

@MjHealy said:

So they ripped cool stuff out of a quite bad press conference? Nice.

This news would have changed an excruciatingly bad press conference into just a bad press conference.

I already have live TV on my xbox :/

nothing would have saved that presser. Nothing.

@kmg90 said:

I'm guessing both require xbox live gold?

if you think about it for a minute, maybe not for the cloud saving, but definitely for the beacons feature because you know why would you want people inviting you to games when you can't play online with them?

I've got Live TV on my TV.

Expand the goddamn friends list past 100.

Still no word about increasing or improving the friends list on XBL, sad.

More reason for people to get Xbox Live Gold, I guess. I'm not one of those people who ever wanted to take my saves with me, but the beacon feature will come handy.

@HotSando said:

I love snark as much as the next man, but that last line is just uncomfortable. I hope you get a role one day Alex Navarro where you'll have someone in your life that loves you enough to shave off the sad neckerchief goatee and get the shit-filled bags under your eyes vaccumed out.

You see how out of place the hostility is? You can do better Alex.

(But seriously, combined with the early balding, your facial hair is awful)

Yeah because that wasn't "uncomfortable" or hostile in the least

Wow! Internet rage how novel...

OH fuck a reason to pay for xbox live because they now cloud saves? 
 
ITs about fucking time  hell  Steam gives me fucking cloud saves for free  paying for xbox live you don't get jack.  
 
Hell i get fucking cloud game download  for free too.

This is clearly all those child actors fault.

@Wrighteous86: thanks for clearing that up :)

I appreciate Alex's dedication to making Patrick Klepek look even more awesome by comparison.

I actually like Navarro but his news posts have been garbage lately.

Can you elaborate please?  This is a terrible article

It's about time! I can't wait

as a reader all I ask is to not have to stumble upon diary rants after reading a bit of news.

That was a disturbing way to end an interesting article.

The new UI looks nice, but games are only one little tab among many others now.

I really want to see how this will remove the need for gamertag recovers.  

Well that's going to be a huge relief. Cloud savings means one less thing to pack whenever I visit my parents.