It’s no surprise, but Microsoft is working hard to make Xbox the go-to device for living room entertainment. The company has a pretty good head start in this department (no question), when compared to a rival like Google or Apple.
The Xbox 360 is enormously popular, already, and consistently performs very well for the company, come earnings report day. Now, they’re set to launch a slew of TV/video entertainment-related apps that should go a long way in solidifying Xbox as the premier way to connect to online video content for many users.
And they’re doing it with Kinect and voice search as a nice bonus.
“A new era in entertainment begins where all your entertainment is together in one place — your games, movies, TV shows, music and sports,” said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “With this update, Xbox 360 system owners will experience Kinect voice control integrated with Bing search, making your TV and entertainment experiences more social and personal than ever.”
The company put out this infographic with its announcement:
Here’s the schedule of the apps that will be rolling out:
Dec. 6:
| • | EPIX. United States |
| • | ESPN on Xbox LIVE (ESPN). United States |
| • | Hulu. Japan |
| • | Hulu Plus. United States |
| • | LOVEFiLM. United Kingdom |
| • | Netflix. Canada, United States |
| • | Premium Play by (MediaSet). Italy |
| • | Sky Go (SkyDE). Germany |
| • | Telefónica España – Movistar Imagenio. Spain |
| • | TODAY (MSNBC). United States |
Later in December:
| • | 4 on Demand (C4). United Kingdom |
| • | ABC iView (Australian Broadcasting Corp.). Australia |
| • | AlloCiné. France (AlloCiné), Germany (Filmstarts), Spain (Sensacine), United Kingdom (Screenrush) |
| • | Astral Media’s Disney XD (Astral Media). Canada |
| • | blinkbox (Blinkbox). United Kingdom |
| • | Crackle (Sony Pictures). Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States |
| • | Dailymotion. Available in 32 countries globally |
| • | Demand 5 (Five). United Kingdom |
| • | DIGI+ (CANAL+). Spain |
| • | GolTV (Mediapro). Spain |
| • | iHeartRadio (Clear Channel). United States |
| • | Mediathek/ZDF (ZDF). Germany |
| • | MSN. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom |
| • | MSNBC.com. United States |
| • | MUZU.TV. Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom |
| • | ninemsn. Australia |
| • | Real Sports (Maple Leaf Sports). Canada |
| • | Rogers On Demand Online (Rogers Media). Canada |
| • | SBS ON DEMAND.Australia |
| • | Sky Go (SkyDE). Austria |
| • | TMZ (Warner Bros.). Canada, United States |
| • | TVE (RTVE.es). Spain |
| • | UFC on Xbox LIVE (UFC). Canada, United States |
| • | Verizon FiOS TV. United States |
| • | VEVO. Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States |
| • | Vudu (Wal-Mart). United States |
| • | YouTube. Available in 24 countries globally |
Early 2012:
| • | Antena 3 (Antena 3 de Televisión). Spain |
| • | BBC (BBC). United Kingdom |
| • | CinemaNow (Best Buy). United States |
| • | HBO GO (HBO). United States |
| • | MLB.TV (MLB Advanced Media). Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States |
| • | Telenovelas/Sports (Televisa). Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom |
| • | Xfinity On Demand (Comcast). United States |
With Xbox obviously being much more than a gaming console now, this can’t hurt holiday sales either.