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Xbox Game Room Officially Announced
It was previously leaked via a video published earlier than it was supposed to be this afternoon, and now it has been confirmed: At their CES keynote tonight, Microsoft announced a new service coming to Xbox Live named "Game Room."
Though Microsoft was light on details on the service (and video showing it off was blocked for those streaming the keynote online), it sounds like Game Room will be a personal virtual arcade where you can purchase and play classic arcade titles from the '70s and '80s. Unlike traditional Xbox Live Arcade games, you'll actually be able to walk around a virtual space that contains art and sounds from the original arcade cabinets for each game you purchase.
In addition to playing games yourself, you'll be able to invite friends into your Game Room to check out your collection and try out the games. It's unclear if they'll be able to play full versions or demos or how this service will work exactly.
We're still waiting on a list of specific titles available for Game Room, but Microsoft promises that the service will launch with 30 games from Activision, Atari, Konami, and others. The service will receive new games every week after launch just like Xbox Live Arcade, with a whopping 1,000-plus titles already planned.
Game Room will launch on both Xbox 360 and Windows PCs this spring. As an added bonus, a single Game Room purchase will allow you to play the game on both your 360 and your PC. Each game will cost 240 Microsoft points ($3.00) or 400 Microsoft points ($5.00). Alternatively, you can pay 40 Microsoft points ($0.50) for a single play, just like in a real arcade. How quaint.
Microsoft touted the social aspect of the Game Room announcement as part of their "ever-growing repertoire of non-gaming experiences to make the Xbox platform enjoyable to everyone." In line with that dedication to non-gamers and gamers alike, they mentioned these interesting statistics on Xbox Live:
-One-third of all time spent on Xbox Live is devoted to non-gaming activities
-10 million people have logged into Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, or Zune on their Xbox 360 since the services were launched
-100 million songs have been downloaded for music games such as Guitar Hero 5 and Rock Band 2
-200 million Avatar outfits have been created
That's an awful lot of numbers that seem to cement in Microsoft's increasing focus on opening up the Xbox 360 to all sorts of entertainment outside of gaming. Then again, Game Room is still rooted in the medium we all love the most. Are you excited about a future of showing of your virtual arcade collection to buddies on Xbox Live?
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[Image via Kombo]
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