Rumor: Fall Update adds new family timer
by Dustin Burg 
{ Nov 3rd 2007 at 1:30PM }
According to a post made by JasonX1 over on the Xbox.com forums, he spotted some potential Fall Update facts on the back of his recently purchased Guitar Hero III keychain. More specifically, the keychain text hints at a new family timer and reads ...
Family Timer
- A simple tool that lets you manage how much time your kids spend on their Xbox 360.
- Manage time in daily or weekly increments. Easy for parent to suspend or add time.
- Available in December 2007 only through Xbox Live.
As you can see, the text doesn't solely mention family timer options for GHIII and instead uses the broad "Xbox 360" label. Interesting stuff. Oh, and don't count your Fall Update releasing in November chickens just yet, we have a feeling our update eggs will hatch this December.
[Thanks, Hector]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SoxFan13 @ Nov 3rd 2007 1:45PM
As a gamer: How dare they limit my 360 time!
As a parent: Genius!
E-Rock @ Nov 3rd 2007 2:11PM
If you can go in and easily add time credit to their accounts, I see a lot more homework getting done when kids come home from school.
Measure @ Nov 3rd 2007 2:19PM
I don't even want to think about the headaches necessary for this to work.
I would have to turn off auto sign in on my main account, and set it up so the xbox doesn't remember my password so that my kid can't just log into my account and give himself more time.
This would require a memory card with my profile on it... that i remember to take out of the box and hide somewhere.
Given that my son is only 10 days old, no big deal right now.... just thinking about the implications here.
Also... didn't the spring update launch the first week of spring? and last fall update came out well before the holiday shopping season began? hmm...
okänd @ Nov 3rd 2007 2:21PM
2# The parents have to find out about the feature first. My parents don't care about videogames and don't know how they work so I don't have to worry. I don't have any homework that I can't do in School anyway.
KiraXD @ Nov 3rd 2007 2:43PM
so they actually just screwed us on a fall update. Its a "Winter" Update. eh?
Insomnious @ Nov 3rd 2007 2:50PM
#5;
No-one said Microsoft were obliged to make dashboard updates every season, so we're not being screwed out of anything.
I wish they'd just make it more streamlined and faster - I'm sick of the pauses and slow reactions of the dashboard as a whole.
Edge @ Nov 3rd 2007 3:12PM
I think that is great. It is a very socially responsible move on the part of Microsoft.
In fact, I'm sure more than parents will be using it. I might use it to limit MY time on the box. No more 3 hour Puzzle Quest sessions.
the awesome @ Nov 3rd 2007 3:02PM
Winter doesn't start until December 21st, so any update coming out before then would still be a fall update.
Moorio @ Nov 3rd 2007 3:04PM
@ KiraXD
"so they actually just screwed us on a fall update. Its a "Winter" Update. eh?"
December 1-21 is still Fall.
TORO @ Nov 3rd 2007 3:29PM
Another reason Xbox is better than PS3, they actually think outside the box (or Xbox?). They can easily use this feature to sell more Consoles, and assure parents that their kids can have the #1 wanted videogame system, but not at the cost of their grades.
EmptyEnergy @ Nov 3rd 2007 3:32PM
Wow a timer that limits time on the Xbox. I know how hard it is for parents to walk into the next room and tell their precious snow flakes to turn off the console. Great Job, Microsoft, for thinking of the children.
maniac0201 @ Nov 3rd 2007 4:02PM
I felt a great disturbance in the force...as if millions of 12 year olds suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Retz @ Nov 3rd 2007 4:08PM
The best thing they could add in the fall update is the ability to remove games from your gamertag/gamerscore or at least the arcade demos. Its such a simple thing that would bring such great happiness.
topperx2 @ Nov 3rd 2007 4:36PM
props to MS. can u imagine how hard it is for a company to limit the use of its own product? now we know for sure that we are in their hearts. maybe even moreso than money.... well I can dream can't I?
Maestro @ Nov 3rd 2007 4:57PM
How about having kids that listen to their parents and don't need this to limit their xbox time? When the parent says you have 30 minutes, you have 30 minutes...
schiavonir @ Nov 4th 2007 1:37AM
To those of you trashing this feature - you obviously have no kids. Being able to reward your kids for chores, good behavior, etc. with XBOX time is a wonderful thing. Most lIttle kids have no concept of time, so telling them "time's up!" after their allotment usually doesn't do much other than elicit a bad reaction. If they are able to see their minutes ticking away, they'll have a better sense of when time is up.
(And don't tell me I could just use an egg timer. You could also be playing solitaire or Monopoly.)
SoxFan13 @ Nov 3rd 2007 5:26PM
@#11-
Obviously you didn't see the story about the kid punching his mom for stopping his Halo 3 time. It wasn't that easy for her!
http://www.gamer.tm/news.asp?id=1674
Grendel Pr1me @ Nov 3rd 2007 5:34PM
@ Anyone who will complain about the lateness of said fall update.
You need to keep in mind that this is the first real time that we've ever had an evolving platform like this. Don't become so jaded and cynical that because the company that provided your machine to you, continues to improve it, you feel like it's a right if they're late.
Think of all the years we wiled away with our NES, SNES, N64 and Playstations without nary an update to that software because they didn't have that chance.
Suck it up, and thank your console manufacturer, whoever they may be, that they continue to make your horrible case of undiagnosed ADD even worse.
dynamik123 @ Nov 3rd 2007 6:24PM
That is fascism, how could they limit their kids 360 times.
MDJ2010 @ Nov 3rd 2007 7:36PM
@ SoxFan13 - Thank you so much for that link, what a story! Some times women will just overstep the mark! (JOKE!!!)
Platinum_Skeet @ Nov 3rd 2007 8:59PM
This should cut down the kids with high pitched voices on my Halo 3 time...
Thank you MS.... Thank you.
Gemini Ace @ Nov 3rd 2007 10:52PM
The Wii keeps track of how much time you play each game and leaves a report. You can't limit the time, but it's good to be able to see at a glance. And you can't turn it off.
BananaBoat @ Nov 3rd 2007 11:10PM
Great, yet another feature that parents won't use to keep their 10 year old little brats off of Halo 3 at 3am in the morning (Setting it to block M should have done the job nicely. But not only do parents not know how, they buy their kid the game anyway.)
When I was a kid, I was against keeping kids off of violent video games. When I was a kid though, I couldn't get online with Mortal Kombat (for instance) and ruin the experience for the older, mature gamers that should actually be allowed to play.
I hope the fall update replaces the stupid "star" system of peer ranking, with a maturity meter, that would then allow me to filter out anybody that feels the need to shout the N word over and over again during the course of a 10 minute Halo 3 match (that you can't get out of without losing points).
/end runon sentence/rant
Philip @ Nov 4th 2007 3:32AM
To really make this feature work well they need to make it so parents can control it from their PC's. This way they don't have to mess with setting up accounts on the console. Also every thing they set up for parental controls on there Vista PC's will transfer over to their child's 360 account.
kastonie @ Nov 4th 2007 11:39AM
I would like to see zune marketplace on my 360. Also the ability to download songs to the zune without going to my pc would be nice. or better yet, wireless music sync from the xbox 360.... I don't have a zune yet, but im getting one when the new version comes out in a few weeks...it looks pretty sweet. I spent hours comparing it to ipod touch, and hands down zune beats it except in the web browser department...im getting off topic sorry guys..heh
Grant @ Nov 4th 2007 12:01PM
The timer won't work simply because in todays day and age, children are generally more tech savvy than their parents.
Odog4ever @ Nov 5th 2007 1:12AM
@ 15 - Your assuming the parents are actually at home the whole time there kids are playing.
If you a single parent and you don't get off work till 8pm and you kid gets home from school at 3pm this is a good feature.
Jomolungma @ Nov 5th 2007 8:34AM
@ 26 - You're probably right, for now. But these kids will be parents some day. I'm pretty damn tech-savvy and I'll be a parent (hopefully) in the next two years. It's important that this kind of feature be out there simply to set precedent. It might not get used very much right now, but MS will certainly market it, and over time it will become more accepted and more utilized as kids grow up and parents become more aware. It seems like a great tool for parents to have available to them and I'm sure it will sell some consoles, so it appears like a win-win to me.
jriley @ Nov 7th 2007 10:57PM
what i would really like to know is when they are going to come out with a download that we really want. don't get me wrong everything that Microsoft has done so far with the 360 has been spectacular but i want a multi chat feature. instead of a one on one chat maybe the could have a 4 person chat or something like that. please Microsoft please
Justin @ Nov 13th 2007 1:04PM
Just stumbled across this. I have a little difficulty believing this will be part of the fall/winter dashboard update. The last line up there says, "Available in December 2007 only through Xbox Live." It's always been my understaning that the spring and fall updates have been available as a download from the Xbox.com website, so you could burn them to CD and update your system if you didn't have XBL.
Or it could be in the update, but only work when connected to XBL, which would be stupid. Kid: "My time on the 360 just ran out for the day. I'll just unplug the network cable and play offline."
Itachi-san @ Dec 1st 2007 7:12AM
Lol If The Kids are Smart they Could Always just Press Initial Setup & Create Their Own Parental Accounts & set some random password & Lock it and retrieve Their Gamertag & just Play Again, hehe. >_>