When will Xbox Live be available?
Originally scheduled for the Summer of 2002, Xbox Live is now expected to launch in Fall of 2002. A more precise date is hard to come by, but conventional wisdom points to a September release since NFL Fever 2003, one of the first Xbox Live compatible games, is scheduled to release in time for the kickoff of the NFL's 2002 season.
How much will Xbox Live cost?
For $49.99 gamers will receive the Xbox Live Starter Kit. The Starter Kit includes 12 months of Xbox Live service (NOT broadband service), a Voice Communicator Headset and a starter disc. This disc will allow users to register for the service through their Xboxes and will come with at least one demo/minigame (Acclaim's Re-Volt is the early favorite) that users will be able to play online. This disc will also contain the software that will unlock all of the, to this point, dormant online gaming capabilities of the Xbox.
Pricing plans beyond the $49.99 for 12 months hasn't been revealed yet by Microsoft. The company is comfortable with a 9.95/month value for the service, but this hasn't been translated into any long term pricing.
What is the disc in the Starter Kit going to give me?
In essence the starter disc is going to unlock all of the online gaming potential of your Xbox. In a strange way, connecting consoles to actually play games online is actually one of the easier things to do, as evidenced by the Sega Dreamcast. It's the handful of features that have sprung up around connecting gamers that make Xbox Live unique.
Single User Identity - The user ID you create for your Xbox Live is the ultimate tracking, security and gaming key for the system. It will identify you and to some extent your Xbox to the Xbox Live system and grant you access to any and all games, services and future services that Microsoft might come up with. Basic applications for the user ID will be stat tracking and gaming profiles where you favorite character or car is automatically selected when you load up a game. The gaming profile will also be used to pit similarly skilled players against each other, but more on that later.
This username and ID are permanent but there's still the potential for specific in-game "handles" and nicknames if a company makes a game that supports it. You can sign up for another user ID but that means opening another Xbox Live account to go with it. If you have four Xbox gamers in the house and they each want their own XBL ID then somebody is going to have to spend that $49.99 for each of them.
Buddy Tracking - A type of "Buddy List" will allow players to keep track of friends that they've identified whenever any of them are online. The most practical application, as it is with most instant messaging services, is to send invites to your buddies to join you in whatever game you're playing and vice versa. You will have to swap discs to go from, say Midtown Madness 3 to Unreal Championship. Game developers will determine how the invites across different games are presented. Microsoft has mentioned such wild ideas as TV timeout being called during a football game so that an invite from a buddy might be presented without breaking his/her concentration during a play
Content Downloads - Microsoft may have just missed doing it in the 20th century but it's through Xbox Live that we'll finally have downloadable, interactive content through a set-top box. That's what those 50,000 blocks of hard drive space will be used for, even though Microsoft has announced no specific plans for the first downloadable pieces of content. Roster updates for sports games, fresh outfits and brand new sponsored racetracks, skateparks or even stadiums are all bright ideas that we could see soon thanks to Xbox Live. The key here is that Microsoft will host the downloadable content at no charge to the game publishers. This means that companies like EA or Ubi Soft, freed from the burden of bandwidth costs might compelled to offer new content for cheap and/or free. Episodic content and uploadable content from Xbox users are also possibilities where the logistics simply have to be worked out
Xbox Live Faq!!
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