Looking to set up all the details for the upcoming holiday season, the companies involved in the video game industry have announced several releases meant to ensure a more attractive offer.

Microsoft’s efforts over the past few years provided many new features to its Xbox console and also to its Xbox Live online service, significantly expanding their potential way beyond video games. The company announced for this Wednesday the release of a major software update, which will ensure an easier access for console users to certain features such as downloadable movies and TV shows, online "parties," photo sharing and other social content.

Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox Live, explained that thanks to its updates "This is a social-media hub, not just a social-gaming hub." The move, combined with the price cut made last month, is expected to help widen the console user base by attracting the people who up until recently considered the domain of very little interest. Another area that the company will focus on is the one for subscriptions and content downloads, which will bring considerable revenue over the upcoming months. The New Xbox Experience service, presented earlier this year during a major game-industry event, will become available for download on Wednesday for all Xbox 360 console users.

The NXE will incorporate new avatars, allowing users to customize them with millions of combinations of clothes, body types, hairstyles and many other attributes. The friends’ lists will include a visual representation of each individual and other features will also be present, such as online chats, details about attended events and played games.

Billy Pidgeon, games-industry analyst for IDC, explained that the focus will be set on the development of Xbox Live. "It's a recognition that Xbox Live is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, aspects of Microsoft's console. It's the real differentiator," Pidgeon said. "So they've tried to make that less of an insider, gamer thing and ... more open to people who aren't as familiar with gaming." He also added that the revenue brought by game consoles is expected to reach $10.5 billion by 2011, which represents more than 18 percent of the total video game industry revenue.

At this point, Microsoft has more than 14 million Xbox Live users and the company hopes to attract subscribers from the mainstream segment, aside from its success with hardcore gamers.

Sony is also preparing its offence and as a direct response to Xbox Live, the company is enhancing its PlayStation Network.

Nintendo, the market’s leader, is looking to secure its position by making sure that all its supplies are sufficient. The company, thanks to its Wii console, managed to outsell Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 for the past eight months and keeps going strong.

Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Kirkland-based independent research firm Directions on Microsoft, explained that the selection process for a new console will be significantly influenced by its price in the upcoming months. "Given the way the economy is right now, a game console is a pretty luxurious item for a lot of families who two years ago wouldn't have considered it that big a deal, and so price is definitely going to be a huge factor."