During an interview at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Microsoft revealed that it’s Xbox Live service will be integrated into Windows 8 as an entertainment service.
As The Seattle Times reports, in an interview with Mike Delman, Vice President of Global Marketing at Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business group, it was revealed that Windows 8 will have ties to Xbox Live.
From what we gather, Xbox Live will be built into Windows 8 as a service. Microsoft aims to unify Xbox Live across all platforms such as mobile and desktop. As Microsoft puts it, “Xbox Live will the pervasive media service across devices.”
Here is the transcript:
Q: Speaking of phone, I was surprised we didn’t hear about connections between Xbox and Windows Phone here at E3.
A: Live has been successful on the Windows Phone. Live will be built into the PC. It will be the service where you get your entertainment. We were talking about it — you will not just see consoles and handhelds at this show next year, this show’s going to morph into other devices.
Q: Will Xbox offer games on certified phones, similar to what Sony’s PlayStation is doing with Android phones?
A: We think there’s a lot of potential on the Windows phones. With the Nokia relationship, we’re going to have a lot more distribution of phones and Live will be the primary entertainment service. I think that’s going to be a good play for us. If we have that and the PCs to leverage, that will be a big Live base. It’s our job to make “buy a movie in one place and play it everywhere, buy a game in one place and play it everywhere.” Making things portable will be a big focus of ours.
A: There will be a lot of similarities in design and service philosophy. Whether it’s us or Apple or anybody else, people want to be able to navigate through multiple devices in a certain ecosystem very seamlessly so we’re committed to that.
Q: Will Xbox Live be your cloud media service that works with your Windows PC as well as your phone and Xbox?
A: Xbox Live will the pervasive media service across devices.
Q: Right now it’s a little confusing — you’ve got Xbox Live, SkyDrive storage and other online places for media.
A: We have a ton of assets. Unifying the assets will be good for us and good for consumers.
You can read the rest of the interview here which talks about Skype on the Xbox and new Kinect capabilities.
