This morning, I read a great post at the UW MCDM blog, Flip the Media. The post was titled, Social Networks and Video Games by Brian Johnson. The post went on to tell how game companies are just starting to work social networking into their systems and how useful social media integration could be.
When I read the post, it got me to thinking, why has it taken consoles this long to integrate social networking into the systems? Why didn’t PC games jump on the bandwagon a long time ago…and why haven’t they yet? Is they Wii going to jump on at all?
Yesterday, came the release of an Xbox update that added Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, and Zune support. Here’s a few of the features (accessible with an Xbox LIVE Gold Membership), as listed on Xbox.com:
- Facebook: The usual, plus invite friends to play over Xbox LIVE and see your friends up close with full screen photos
- Twitter: Read, reply, and post updates to your Twitter feed and keep up to date in real time
- Last.fm: Explore radio stations, skip, ban and love tracks as you listen
- Zune: Instant-on 1080p HD streaming video, share experiences through Video Party
Today, comes the PlayStation 3 Firmware update which will enable people to:
- Update your Facebook News Feed with Trophy and PlayStation store activity. It also enables developers to set specific criteria to publish additional game information to your feed.
No Twitter, or Last.fm support just yet. I seriously hope that they continue to add social networking features to all of the systems. It is a great way for people to share a common interest. You should be able to link to friends and share what’s going on as you play. As Johnson said, it would be great if players could connect and share tips and strategies for certain games as they came across certain areas in games. The Xbox update gives the ability to see which of your Facebook friends use Xbox LIVE and add them to your Xbox friends list. I really hope this is a feature that also gets added to PlayStation eventually.
The gaming consoles are just starting to dip their toes in the water on this one. I hope they decide to jump right in because it it would be great to see everyone connect while doing something that they enjoy.
Tags: facebook, gaming, information, media, playstation, social media, social networking, twitter, xbox 360
