Live Anywhere is an initiative by Microsoft to bring the

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...

online networking service to a wide variety of platforms and devices including

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design la ...

Zune Zune is a discontinued line of digital media products and services marketed by Microsoft from November 2006 until its discontinuation in June 2012. Zune consisted of a line of portable media players, digital media player software for Windows Per ...

, and more.

LIVE-enabled platforms

The mobile device side of the service has been shown in concept at events such as E3 and CES on devices like a

Motorola Q The Motorola Q is a Windows Mobile smartphone first announced in the Summer of 2005 as a thin device with similar styling to Motorola's immensely popular RAZR. Motorola in a partnership with Verizon Wireless released the Q on May 31, 2006. A versi ...

mobile phone, but specific details have not been released. Since then, Microsoft has unveiled its next generation mobile platform,

. Microsoft plans on being more aggressive with mobile Xbox Live-connected games by strictly controlling the phone hardware that Windows Phone runs on, and enabling

DirectX Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direct", ...

9 graphics for Windows Phone, the same version of DirectX that the Xbox 360 uses. Live Gamertags are also used for the XNA Creator's Club service. On April 15, 2010, Xbox Live was shutdown for the original Xbox Console. In October 2011, Xbox Live was shutdown for the Zune.

Features

*Single identity (

Gamertag The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...

/Zune Tag) across all platforms (tied to

Windows Live ID A Microsoft account or MSA (previously known as Microsoft Passport, .NET Passport, and Windows Live ID) is a single sign-on Microsoft user account for Microsoft customers to log in to Microsoft services (like Outlook.com), devices running on on ...

) *Cross-platform chat, with text, voice, and video *Unified friends list and message system *Single, worldwide currency for purchasing virtual games, music, videos and content (

Microsoft Points Microsoft Points, introduced in November 2005 as Xbox Live Points, were a digital currency issued by Microsoft for use on its Xbox and Zune product lines. Points could be used to purchase video games and downloadable content from Xbox Live Mark ...

) *Cross-platform multiplayer online gaming, including game invites

Pricing

Live is available in two tiers: Silver and Gold. Anybody who signs up to Live is given a Silver account, which offers a basic set of features that differ with each platform. Gold accounts require a subscription, but offer a greater variety of features. The original

does not recognize Silver accounts, requiring Gold for all Live features (discontinued on April 15, 2010). Zune Social does not have two tiers, the service is free to all users, though there is a Zune Pass "all-you-can-eat"-style music subscription service that costs $9.99.

Availability

Live is currently available in 220 countries, with more being brought online over time.

External links

Zune SocialExtremeTech article describing Live Anywhere conceptVideo of a Live client running on a mobile device

Original Xbox Live To Shut Down

References