When the Xbox Dashboard update went live for users of Microsoft"s Xbox 360 console earlier this month, one of the promised new features, YouTube, was missing from the initial lineup. Microsoft said that YouTube support for Xbox Live would be released later in December. Now it appears that Xbox 360 beta testers can check out an early version of the YouTube feature, according to a report on The Verge.
As you can see from the above screenshot, the YouTube user interface on Xbox Live shares the same Metro-style tile design that the rest of the new Xbox Dashboard update has. It will let users access familiar YouTube features such as Playlists, Subscriptions, Favorites and more. You can also check out videos on YouTube via Xbox Live by the ones that are currently trending, those that have top ratings and more.
While you can apparently access some community features such as liking or disliking a video, there"s no support for showing or posting any comments of a video like there is when you watch it on the web. Watching a YouTube video that"s made for HD resolutions is possible in Xbox Live but The Verge reports that the beta version had some issues with viewing HD content.
Expanding YouTube video to the tens of millions of Xbox 360 owners should result in a whole new audience for goofy videos featuring off-key singers, cute cats and more. Hopefully Microsoft will get YouTube Xbox Live support to everyone else in the near future.
Image via The Verge