Xbox 360 Allows Streaming Music
In a conversation with IGN, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and XNA Chief Architect J Allard spoke about the gamer's ability to plug in his portable electronic devices. Such devices would include an iPod or a digital camera. The idea is that consumers already invest a serious amount of time and energy amassing their media libraries, and expecting them to purchase new products that are only compatible with the Xbox 360 is unfair.
While Allard touts a lot of pro-consumer rhetoric, those of us who are much more cynical see this as an important step in Microsoft's attempt to take over our living rooms as well as our offices. Allowing portable media to be connected to Xbox creates an overwhelming media environment with Xbox 360 at the center. Gamers may actually start associating different media products with Xbox and thus, Microsoft because of the support function those media serve in this context.
This strategy embodies the notion of media convergence much more readily as opposed to a company that tries to buy its way in across several different platforms. In this sense, media convergence is much less about some kind of bonafide agreement between media companies and more about an unofficial alliance between the products they offer. Microsoft did not strike a deal with Apple to enable connectivity between Xbox 360 and iPod. Instead, Microsoft catered to the consumers, using convergence as the sell.
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