Reports are filtering out that not only the Comcast Xfinity content for Xbox Live, but also HBO Go, and Major League Baseball, according to numerous reports on tech blogs, including USA Today’s “Game Hunters” blog. According to the USA Today report, all three of the apps will take full advantage of Kinect, including voice navigation, and an earlier report from a Comcast FAQ noted that it would make full use of Bing Search on the Xbox, too.
Xbox users will still need both Xbox Live Gold memberships and subscriptions to the services to make use of the new content, as these are not “cable killer” provisions, but a sort of “better together” strategy to get the benefits of full featured video content available on your Xbox, along with the advantages of Kinect and Bing Search.
Microsoft has been pleasantly surprised by the popularity of video content on the Xbox, according to Yusuf Mehdi, the Chief Marketing Officer for Microsoft’s IEB (Interactive Entertainment Businesss), according to USA Today:
Microsoft says the use of entertainment apps has doubled year over year and, for the first time ever, more Xbox 360 users were firing up their consoles for entertainment purposes than multiplayer gaming.
“We’ve really seen this amazing explosion at Xbox the last four months that’s honestly even surprised our own hopes and aspirations,” Mehdi says.
As of this writing there is no official announcement by Microsoft or the content providers, although we expect they’ll be making announcements soon.