LADYDRAGON.COM - Microsoft Whips Up A Party with "Xbox Music Mixer"

Monday May 12, 2003

Xbox Music Mixer

Microsoft Whips Up A Party with "Xbox Music Mixer"

With lights flashing, music blaring and the room jumping, J Allard, amateur DJ and Xbox vice president, kicked off a week of E3 activities tonight with an intense music and visual set that rocked the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Utilizing "Xbox Music Mixer," a new Xbox title scheduled for release this fall, Allard transformed the Xbox press briefing into a house party with killer soundtracks and tantalizing visuals.

With Music Mixer, Xbox players can now bring the club experience home by unlocking the digital entertainment capabilities of Xbox.

Players can share digital photos and music stored on the PC, sing Karaoke, view digital slide shows set to music, experience CD playback, store music, enhance a party with 2-D and 3-D visualizers, and more.

"Xbox Music Mixer," which will hit retail shelves with a microphone, offers a Karaoke feature allowing players to sing several of today’s popular Karaoke songs, such as the B-52’s "Love Shack" or Jimmy Eats World’s "The Middle". In addition, you can insert your favorite CD and sing along when Mixer strips out the vocals. And the brave at heart can actually record their performance and play back for friends, or include it in their Xbox game soundtracks.

"Xbox Music Mixer" can help set the tone for any party by providing 2-D and 3-D background visuals of rave scenes, or interactive electronic visuals. Players can even use an hour of stock video footage to create their own compelling visuals.

"Xbox Music Mixer "allows you to download photos, movies and music from the PC to the Xbox and set the slide shows to your favorite tunes.

In addition to playing groundbreaking games, with Xbox Music Mixer, players can now bask in the light of today’s digital entertainment lifestyle from the comfort and convenience of their own living room.

WildTangent is Microsoft’s development partner for Xbox Music Mixer.

For more information, visit www.xbox.com/musicmixer.

Xbox Music Mixer Fact Sheet

Publisher: Microsoft

Developer: WildTangent

Format: DVD and Microphone for Xbox^® Video Game System

Pricing: $39.99 ERP

Availability: Holiday 2003

Product

Overview: Take the party to the next level with Xbox Music Mixer. With the first alternative entertainment title for Xbox, aspiring singers, VJs and party hosts have the opportunity to personalize their music experience with pc media sharing, customized soundtracks and visual accompaniments; bring down the house with the only console Karaoke engine that lets players sing to nearly any song; digitally enhance favorite music with various audio features; and create custom photo slide shows enhanced with unique soundtracks.

Features

Karaoke – R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Everyone will now find out what it means to Xbox users across the land … Thanks to the included microphone, players can showcase their vocal talents (or lack thereof) by singing along to more than a dozen of the most requested Karaoke songs. And if players want to freeform and take it to the next level, Xbox Music Mixer’s digital lyric stripping technology allows players to remove the vocals from their favorite CDs and audio files– making nearly any Karaoke request possible.

Xbox Media Player – Bring the club experience home with the interactive media player, allowing anyone to mix, match, shuffle, and customize soundtracks, setting the mood for any situation, from creating the right tone for an off-the-hook house party to generating the perfect atmosphere for a romantic dinner. No longer is music a solo sensory experience. Players can now enhance the experience with the addition of interactive 2D and 3D on-screen visualizers.

PC Media Sharing & Xbox Live Support – Take the multimedia experience from the den to the living room. With PC media sharing, Xbox players can easily transfer digital music and digital photos to their Xbox, creating the ultimate music and video library. And if that’s not enough, feel free to download new music, visualizers and Karaoke songs via Xbox Live.

Mixer Mode – With Xbox Music Mixer, players can take their party to the limit by adding cool real time audio effects and transitions.

Photo Album Viewer – Snap the life back into slide shows with Xbox Music Mixer. Using the enhanced photo viewer, players can create the ultimate slide show by transferring photos from their PC to the Xbox hard drive – all of which can be synched to customized soundtracks, special visual effects and even narratives. Who would have thought Mom and Dad’s pictures would flow so well with the 8 Mile soundtrack?

Developer

Information: WildTangent, based in Redmond, WA, is the leading online game publisher. Founded in 1998, the company's Web Driver platform leverages DirectX technology to enable the development of high-quality games that can be delivered and played over the Internet. With more than 38 million downloads, Web Driver is the most ubiquitous online gaming platform on the market today.