Microsoft opened a new front in its war to control consumers' living rooms on Monday, announcing that it is developing a dozen original television programs that will be broadcast exclusively to owners of its devices.
The programs, collectively referred to as Xbox Originals, include documentaries, reality shows, and scripted dramas and comedies. The're being developed by Xbox Entertainment Studios, a
"What we're interested in is giving subscribers a reason to stay on our platform," says Nancy Tellem, president of Xbox Entertainment Studios, a TV industry veteran who formerly ran CBS Television Studios. "We're really focused on the fans of the Xbox, the millennials ...many of whom are not subscribing to cable, and use a console as their entertainment device."
The Fight For The Future Of Video Games is a warts-and-all look at the clashes between the video game business and its passionate fans.
The new programming is primarily targeted at young male consumers who might buy video game consoles from rivals
The Xbox Originals are commissioned by Microsoft and produced by outside companies exclusively for distribution on Microsoft platforms, much like the original programming developed by other upstart content networks like
Highlights of the programming include a six film documentary series tentatively called "Signal to Noise," which is produced by two-time Academy Award winning producer Simon Chinn ("Searching for Sugar Man” and "Man on Wire") and Emmy winning producer Jonathan Chinn (FX's "30 Days” and PBS's "American High"). The series will consist of six distinct documentaries about technology, and each will be helmed by a high-profile director: The first in the series, directed by Zak Penn, explores the collapse of Atari Inc. after it released the disastrous 1982 video game flop E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. The production made headlines just this weekend when it successfully unearthed a giant cache of unsold copies of the game that had been dumped in the new Mexico desert.
Leading its new slate of content with a documentary series signals that Microsoft is "going to talk up to its audience, not down to it," says Jordan Levin, executive vice president of Xbox Entertainment Studios. "We view ourselves as a premium service." Signal to Noise will air exclusively on Xbox One and Xbox 360 in 2014, he says.
Another new program, the reality series "Every Street United," will follow soccer legends Thierry Henry and Edgar Davids as they search for the world's best amateur players, and have them compete in a four-on-four street game outside of the 2014 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The program will premiere in June 2014, and all episodes will be available through Xbox Video for Xbox One, Xbox 360, Windows 8 (PC and Surface) and Windows Phone 8.
"Humans," a scripted drama that's an adaptation of a Swedish science-fiction program about robot servants that develop free will, consists of eight hour-long episodes, and will share a premiere broadcast window on the Xbox platform and Channel 4 in the UK in 2015.
A new series produced by Steven Spielberg based on the the Halo video game franchise was announced last year, and is still in the works, though it's not clear when it will debut and where.
Xbox Originals will also include coverage of live events, starting with a simulcast of the 13th annual Bonnaroo music and arts festival, which will be available via Xbox Live on Friday, June 13 through Sunday, June 15, 2014. A special free app available to all Xbox Live customers will allow users to watch all performances on two of the festival's stages, switch between multiple camera views, and join in backstage Skype conversations participating artists.
Microsoft has also commissioned a number of pilots for programs which may or may not go into full production, including "Extraordinary Believers," created by Robot Chicken producers Seth Green and Matt Senreich, which mixes live action and stop-motion animation into a Borat-like unscripted comedy; "Fearless," an action-packed reality series starring an Australian Navy bomb clearance diver and shark attack survivor Paul de Gelder; "Gun Machine", a detective thriller based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Warren Ellis; "Winterworld," a limited event live-action series based on Chuck Dixon and artist Jorge Zaffino’s seminal graphic novel series; an untitled comedy/variety program made by JASH, the comedy collective founded by Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera, Tim and Eric and Reggie Watts; and "Deadlands," based on the successful pen-and-paper role playing game created by Shane Lacy Hensley, described as "a genre-bending alternative history of the Weird West, filled with undead gunfighters, card-slinging sorcerers, mad scientists, secret societies, and fearsome abominations."
In this video recorded last May at the E3 video game convention, Xbox Entertainment Studios head Nancy Tellem talks about Microsoft's approach to original programming and announces the Halo TV series:
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