ESPN on Xbox Live receiving major summer update

Xbox 360 sports fans are set to receive a major update for ESPN on Xbox Live. In anticipation for the new college football season, the sports media juggernaut this week announced a new bundle of ESPN features, refinements and Kinect enhancements scheduled to launch on August 25th.

The update will introduce eight new sports watching options to the mix including My Sports, a way to dedicate specific channels to favorite teams; Mini Guide, an interactive preview window at the bottom of the screen; and Split Screen, the ability to watch and manipulate the playback of two different games on the same display.

Other enhancements include the inclusion of a live scoreboard, which will highlight results from games on other channels; reminders, to – well – remind you of other games; live alerts, which – again – will alert you in real time to other events; and ESPN BottomLine, an add-ondesignedto keep viewers constantly informed with real-time updates and breaking news.

Last but (arguably) not least, ESPN on Xbox Livewill receiveKinect voice control functionality, thus giving one the freedom to “focus on your team instead of looking for the remote” (or, more likely, avoid greasing up the remote with your sweatychip stained paws).

“The new ESPN on Xbox Live is going to the take the sports viewing experience to the next level,” said Raphael Poplock, Vice President, Games and Partnerships at ESPN in a recent statement. “By putting fans in control through better personalization and interactive features, we’re able to deliver live events, highlights and more from ESPN in unique and innovative ways.”

How about it you armchair coaches and, uh, living room cheerleaders? Are you making the most of ESPN's Xbox Live offerings - and if not, will this update do anything to woo you over?

Jul 28, 2011

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.