One of Microsoft's big selling features with the Xbox One is the entertainment it will offer beyond video games. Attempting to merge television watching with video game playing, Microsoft is teaming with a number of partners — including the national Football League — to offer alternative forms of entertainment on the console.
The biggest announcement regarding sports so far has been how the Xbox One will enhance your football watching experience. Earlier this month, Microsoft released a brief 30-second trailer that shows just some of the ways the Xbox One will revolutionize the way you ingest football — through highlights, fantasy football updates, Skyping while watching the game, and things of that nature. While this certainly appeals to me, as a football fan, Microsoft would be ignorant to think that this is what will help sell the Xbox One around the world. You have to remember, football isn't as prevalent in many other countries as it is here in America.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Microsoft Studios corporate VP Phil Spencer briefly touched on Microsoft's vision of expanding its sports programming. "We believe sports is a very interesting category globally," he said. "We'll be expanding what we do in sports to bring more international sports into the mix."
The first sport that pops into my mind is obviously soccer — the world's sport. You can't really get a much bigger audience than that sport provides. Granted, I'm sure there's a lot that goes into these sort of deals and while the NFL is a great start, Microsoft is going to need to think beyond the borders of the United States.
