"Jeff Henshaw, the executive producer of Xbox Digital Entertainment, talked about how Microsoft had him assigned to make the Xbox 360 appeal to much broader audiences. He himself is a casual gamer, so he fits well with his job. He headed the group that had to do the hardware and software to make the Xbox 360 good at handling music, photos, and recorded TV. Because Microsoft paid attention to these matters with greater intensity this time, they're integrated into the Xbox 360's basic capabilities.

Henshaw is one of the old dogs in the group. He worked on the original Xbox software development work. And he's been doing digital entertainment for three years. Things like the Xbox Music Mixer (a karaoke system) and Xbox Live Arcade (for casual games) had limited appeal last time because they weren't built into the experience. This time, they are. So are a bunch of other functions. He said that it would have been nice to add wireless WiFi connectivity but it's still too expensive. I asked him if it made sense to put all of Windows or the Windows Media Player into it this time, but he said only those things relevant to entertainment were considered. "If it was productivity, it stays on the PC," he said." [more]