E32011: New Features Coming to Xbox Live

See what new features are coming to everyone’s favorite dashboard.

In between all the new games talked about at Microsoft’s E3 press conference, they managed to squeeze in some cool new features coming to Xbox Live.

YouTube – The worlds favorite video site is now coming to your Xbox. You’ll be able to search for and watch your favorite videos right on the dashboard. No word yet on if you can upload to your channel via the Xbox.

bing+Kinect - With the search power of bing and the voice control of Kinect you can now browse the marketplace, controller free. Basically using voice commands you say whatever keywords you want and bing will find items available on the market place from movies, games, to gamer pictures related to your keywords.

UFC - The biggest MMA promotion is now joining up with Microsoft to bring Live and classic PPV’s, fighter information, exclusive interviews, and behind the scenes videos. There was also a neat demo we saw where during a live fight you could bring up a menu and vote on who you thought was going to win. You could also bring up info on one of the fighters before the fight to see info on their fight record, watch their previous fights and an overall bio. Some pretty cool interactive features that may make getting the PPV on the Xbox worth checking out.

Game Beacons – Beasons are a new way to tell your friends that you want to play. You setup a beacon that you want to play a specific game and then no matter what your doing (say watching a movie on NetFlix), they know you want to play and you are waiting for them.

Cloud Storage – This may be the coolest new feature. Cloud storage lets you save your profile, MS points and save files to a secure storage area on Xbox Live and then no matter what console you are on, you can access your files. No more saving to memory cards or gamertag recoveries. This will help save time and effort when getting a new Xbox, or when your go over to a friends house, you can jump right into your profile. Nice.

Summer of Arcade 2011 – We learned the lineup for this years Summer of Arcade. The games being released are:

• Toy Soldiers: Cold War (MS Studios)- A follow-up of last years game brings all new toys to life and lets you play online co-op with a friend.
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  • Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (MS Studios)- A side scrolling 2D adventure game that takes you through a journey to Shadow Planets and fight swarms of enemies, solve twisted puzzles and explore the unique world.
   
  • Fruit Ninja Kinect (HalfBrick)-  The popular smartphone game goes Kinect. You use your arms as the blades and chop that fruit.
  
  • Bastion (Warner Bros) - A new action RPG with an innovative narrator who reacts to your moves and choices. Unlock the secrets of a catastrophe that has devastated the world.
  
  • From Dust (Ubisoft) -  A new God game where you control a tribe struggling to survive new threats from nature.
  
  
  
  
  No dates for when these new features will be released. The Summer of Arcade starts on July 20th