While most gamers were blowing their loads over Metroid: Other M, debating the merits of the PSPgo or getting creeped out by Milo, industry analyst and crazy soothsayer Michael Pachter has held up the long-forgotten announcement of Last.fm and Twitter on Xbox Live as E3’s biggest announcement.
“The announcement that I thought was missed was the opening of the Xbox Live Dashboard interface to the Internet,” says Pachter. “Admittedly, the selection is limited to these four sites [Twitter, Last.fm, Facebook & Netflix], but it’s a start, and is a glimpse into the future of the Xbox 360 as a home media/Internet hub.
“I think that this announcement was far and away the most important one of the show, and think that the media completely missed its importance.”
Pachter believes that Microsoft is hoping to turn the Xbox 360 into a “functioning computer that just happens to be located in the living room and connected to the television,” giving it a “huge start” over rival Apple and its AppleTV plans.
It actually was a pretty big announcement, especially with regards to how big Twitter and Facebook are. Microsoft now gets to boast about having access to two of the most popular sites online, even though the Wii and PS3 can access every single site in existence thanks to a built-in browser. It’s funny how Microsoft can pull that off convincingly.
