Xbox Live Snow Globe lets you torture your friends
by Dustin Burg 
{ Dec 12th 2008 at 9:00AM }
Behold the official Xbox Live Snow Globe! It's a digital snow globe where you plop your Xbox Live friends' Avatars inside and lets you shake, shake, shake 'em up! How fun, right?
This random lil' Live application is being rolled out to all Xbox Live territories and is accessible through the dashboard's Spotlight area. Best part, there's no download required! Your globe shaking can be done as fast or as slow as you choose and, as an extra special added bonus, you're able to swap out your globe's mix of Avatar friends. We're sure the snow globe shaking anticipation is just eating you alive, so we figured we'd record some intensely hot Xbox Live Snow Globe shaking video for you to drool over.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gnik eltrut @ Dec 12th 2008 9:24AM
It's sad that you can't download this.
JW @ Dec 12th 2008 9:49AM
No. Its sad that they made this.
El Capitaine @ Dec 12th 2008 9:53AM
I honestly agree with JW...
sure its funny, but why don't they work on something a bit more worthwhile?
gnik eltrut @ Dec 12th 2008 9:56AM
agreed, but they took it this far, why not make it a gift you can send around, maybe of your closest Live Friends? Right?
tabicat @ Dec 12th 2008 10:23AM
I'm hoping this was made by some interns who didn't have anything better to do.
Dralthi @ Dec 12th 2008 9:58AM
Is this for real?
*pinch*
Ow! Yes...yes it is.
Brian @ Dec 12th 2008 10:12AM
So Pointless
MDJ2010 @ Dec 12th 2008 10:21AM
Well that'll come in handy.
RockerAnimeFreak @ Dec 12th 2008 10:24AM
Its mindless fun! enjoy it! don't think about it! =) Merry Christmas MS! ;)
ryan @ Dec 12th 2008 10:31AM
The lack of rag doll totally breaks the illusion for me. Yes, this is meant to be mindless fun. All 3 seconds of it.
Loban @ Dec 12th 2008 10:57AM
Agreed, I was expecting some realistic physics with bodies bouncing all over the place. But it seems no matter how hard you shake it, the avatars just fly up into the air a little and then gently settle back to the ground each time.
Alex @ Dec 12th 2008 11:12AM
And the snow will keep falling even if the globe hasn't moved.
This makes me hate Avatars even more than I did...
...And the sound effects!
elmersglue @ Dec 13th 2008 2:28PM
I don't expect them to implement rag doll physics, but its really disappointing to see the same animations being recycled in different situations, whether be in the globe or games like Uno...same animations over and over again... should have fleshed out the engine a little more and made them capable of doing some not so conventional movements. The limited animations is really starting to show
SadisticHam @ Dec 12th 2008 10:33AM
Man the amount of people bitching, bunch of scrooges.
Talus @ Dec 12th 2008 10:59AM
They could have paid me $5 to make a better audio loop than that ...
Chad @ Dec 12th 2008 11:03AM
I saw this last night before going to bed...
Perhaps this is their answer to home. A free, although pointless, place to hang out with other avatars.
xFenixKnightx @ Dec 12th 2008 11:05AM
Physics, ragdoll? Are you fucking kidding me? SHUT! THE!! FUCK!!! UP!!!!
Seriously, its a funny little Christmas thing MS came up with.
Go look on PSN, there ain't shit! Well, actually, there is shit. It's called PSN. :P
Anyway....yeah, quit whining.
HazyCloud @ Dec 12th 2008 11:08AM
Yep. This.
MDJ2010 @ Dec 12th 2008 11:14AM
Mr Angry.
deaftly @ Dec 12th 2008 11:37AM
Ironically enough this stupid little snow globe is better then Home in general.
ryan @ Dec 12th 2008 12:59PM
Ain't nothing wrong with suggesting how to make it better. I understand they were under time constraints to get this out and didn't want to spend much time on it.
But would you have disliked it if it did have ragdoll physics? No. You would have most likely enjoyed it even more to see your friends tossing and turning in zero gravity only to get up and do it all over again.
But nobody listens to constructive criticism anymore I guess.
LegendaryRedas @ Dec 12th 2008 11:45AM
This goes to show that no matter how mundane something is, some people will always find something to complain about. Those people will always be miserable, and won't stop until everyone is as miserable as they are.
Demolition Elmo @ Dec 12th 2008 12:12PM
Yay! I think I saw me in there!
Xav de Matos @ Dec 12th 2008 12:39PM
It's a Snow Globe. I think people should chill out.
brian @ Dec 12th 2008 12:45PM
I agree, quit complaining because your vaginas hurt.
This probably took a programmer 10 minutes. Waste of time? Call it what you want, I like the fact that they do random things like that.
OmegaRed @ Dec 12th 2008 5:06PM
Lol, it was kind of funny for a minute but I don't think I'll use it again. Hopefully they didn't spend too long making it.
skin.bintin @ Dec 13th 2008 10:47AM
I can't even use it. It's there under the spotlight tab, but if I click the A button to open it, nothing happens. Stupid.
Anyone know how I can get it to work?
xtremesniper @ Dec 12th 2008 10:29PM
You know you can make them do the wave by hitting the shoulder buttons?
OrionnoirO @ Dec 13th 2008 8:10AM
I like that Microsoft is trying to do extra little things to make our experiences more enjoyable and fun. If they continue, it would be cool to have like a little Christmas tree where your friends could put little gifts under it for you (See who has most gifts, etc)... Pointless little distractions arent meant to entertain for hours, they are just meant to be fun little extras. And honestly, isnt that one of the things that made some of the previous generation Nintendo games so much fun? I seem to remember Mario Paint, and the fly-swatting mini-game as a good example. Pointless, but fun. And I used it more probably than the actual Mario Paint itself. Same for the music composer that is still being used. (Albeit in different forms now).
splintersag @ Dec 13th 2008 5:44PM
I immediately thought of that Pixar short "Knick Knack" when I saw this. It's the one with the snowman who's stuck inside his globe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jI6WOzdzdY
ZapVegas71 @ Dec 16th 2008 1:23PM
Once I used the snowglobe my interface started screwing up. The images on my dashboard were missing vertical lines. They were replaced by Black bars. Everything else seemed fine. I turned off my system and waited a few mins. Turned it back on and I have lower Right Red light flashing and E74 error. WTF?