New Xbox Experience Launched To Battle Sony's Offering

Microsoft launched its New Xbox Experience on Wednesday, expanding the existing service to compete with Sony in turning the video-game console into an entertainment hub.

Don Mattrick, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, said the New Xbox Experience is the future for home entertainment. “It’s on-demand, it’s high-definition, it’s always social, it’s all in one place,” he said.

A ‘Personal Game Room’

The Xbox experience includes the instant-streaming availability of Netflix movies and TV episodes in high definition from such studios as Disney, MGM, NBC Universal, and Warner Bros. To use the Netflix service, Xbox LIVE Gold members also need to be Netflix subscribers.

Live Party will allow a user to create a virtual party with up to seven friends. Users can employ voice chat while playing games and share photos in real time. “Personality plus” is a feature in which an animated avatar can be created, becoming a user’s “face” for games, parties or other interaction.

There’s also a “personal game room” where users can play classics like Pac-Man Championship Edition, Galaga Legions, and Portal: Still Alive. Other games, such as A Kingdom for Keflings, UNO, Hardwood Hearts, and Hardwood Spades — which are only available for downloading from the Xbox Live arcade — allow the user to put his or her avatar into the game action.

The Xbox is also opening to community-created games. A Community Games channel on Xbox Live will offer titles from third-party creators.

Lips and You’re in the Movies

Microsoft is also touting its relationships with a variety of major studios that will offer feature films on the Xbox in the U.S., Canada, Italy and Spain. The company said this will transform “Xbox 360 into the world’s largest online entertainment center.”

The New Xbox Experience is also launching two new games.

One is Lips, which the company said “is the only singing…