Next Tuesday sees the launch of Facebook, Last.fm and Twitter onto the XBox 360’s dashboard which would make the first time two big social networks have gone onto a major games console.
It isn’t a new thing, though. Playstation 3 and 360 users already take advantage of the fact they have Netflix on their consoles, the Playstation version recently launching, which makes it much easier for the highly successful movie renting site to get into more homes.
Along with all that, UK Xbox 360 owners last month got the ability to get Sky TV streamed onto their console if they already have a Sky TV account.
This has further pushed the case that these consoles are no longer just consoles. They are multimedia machines, designed primarily to play games but there are many more things that they are capable of.
But some have questioned the need for these services on consoles in the first place. Critics have also questioned what would attract people to do these when they can already do it on their computers for nothing. On the 360, you have to pay to access the gold account which is how you get access to these new features including Netflix. On the PS3, you have to wait for a disk to arrive to let you know that you can use it and along with that, if you don’t have Netflix already you have to pay money to use it even though the internet access is free on the console.
Time will tell how people will react to these services, especially Facebook and Twitter who already have a strong online presence. For now, though, there is no doubt about how gaming’s ever shifting image towards being for everyone will be helped by these services being useable on the the big consoles.
