Journal 4, June 7

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0132449820090601

Microsoft Corporation once again plans on increasing the capability of its Xbox 360 console. This time they have begun preparations to integrate social networks Facebook and Twitter into its Xbox Live community. I believe this new feature is just another way to incorporate many of today's technological devices with the most popular social networking sites. With applications for Facebook on the IPhone and Blackberry, it seems inevitable that such would soon be available on gaming consoles. This combination of today's popular devices and services seems to be the new trend in technology. I believe the thriving gaming community in today's society is the prime place to test this trend. Implementing these onto to the Xbox Live community will eliminate the need for gamers to use their normal PC. They will soon be able to communicate between gaming friends as well as friends on Facebook and Twitter all on the Xbox console. Gamers will also be able to share their current gaming activities with others on Facebook profiles. While chatting with Xbox Live friends you will also be able to communicate with Facebook friends in the same type window. If the user feels the need, they will also be able to upload screen shots to share with others. I believe this has all in part come about after Microsoft's $240 million investment into Facebook in 2007. The 200+ million active users of the Facebook community will possibly bring Microsoft more business in the near future. At the introduction of this Shane Kim, Microsoft's vice president of strategy and business development for video games said, "This expands the reach of Xbox live. We have had an effort of making Xbox live a next-generation social and entertainment network." I can definitely see many advantages to this new feature. It will bring together alot more people in the gaming community and those outside. At the same time I can see possible negative affects. Being old fashioned like I am, this is just another reason for today's youth to become more dependant on video game consoles. With the current addiction to both video games and social networks, this new combination will take away from peoples time to get out. To me this online social networking also takes away from peoples face to face social skills; in fact I believe many have lost valuable communications skills due to this. Whether it is right or wrong, the success of this new combination of gaming and social networking is bound to be a success.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10253486-235.html
http://game.blogdig.net/archives/articles/June2009/01/Facebook__Twitter_on_Xbox_Live_this_fall.html