Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, Xbox LIVE’s Director of Programming, has announced on his blog that the content broadcasted on Xbox LIVE under the moniker of “Inside Xbox” will no longer be produced. This includes shows such as Featured Video, Insider Moves, Xbox 101, and Major’s Minute.
This change evidently only applies to Inside Xbox content for the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Hryb stated that Xbox LIVE for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa is currently “looking at its operating model for Inside Xbox,” but no news has been released as to whether it will continue there. Mexico and Japan will continue receiving Xbox LIVE first-party content produced in those countries, but they will not be released under the Inside Xbox banner.
Hryb’s blog post seemed very sincere and a bit sad:
We want to express our sincere appreciation to all of our viewers and fans of Inside Xbox, and remain committed to providing our members with access to high-quality news and information via the console, social media channels and Xbox.com. We will be leveraging third-party news and video content available through a variety of existing and future partners, and supplementing this content with select first-party offerings. However, day-to-day news content and weekly programming currently offered though Inside Xbox will cease production in the United States. This includes shows like Major’s Minute, Featured Videos and Insider Moves packaged under the Inside Xbox brand.
Some of that third-party content Hryb mentioned will come from a new video game content app that IGN launched on Xbox LIVE just this week. It seems that both Microsoft and Sony don’t see much value in producing content for their consoles other than video games. The Inside Xbox cancellation comes just weeks after Sony made a similar announcement, canceling the first-party PlayStation Network show Qore.
Microsoft seems to be shifting things around quite a bit lately, yet this news comes as a bit of a surprise. Much of the Inside Xbox content was made up of short clips from video games. I suppose the content simply wasn’t popular enough. What do you think? Will you miss Insider Moves and Major’s Minute? Check out what may be one of the last Major’s Minute episodes and then Leave a comment below and let us know how you feel.