Xbox 360 will use iPod to provide game soundtracks

If you play Project Gotham Racing 3 on an Xbox 360 after the console hits shops early next month, Microsoft invites you to use tunes straight off your iPod as an alternative to the game's soundtrack.

Officially, the company says the new console can stream music from just about any MP3 player. But during a preview of the next-generation console in San Francisco last month, Microsoft execs talked up the interoperability between iPods and the Xbox 360.

"When you plug your iPod in," Xbox digital-entertainment executive producer Jeff Henshaw told CNET.co.uk's sister site News.com, "the Xbox 360 automatically detects that it's there. You can browse by artist or album or genre or by custom playlist."

However, because of the iPod's digital-rights-management software, the Xbox 360 cannot stream songs purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store, Henshaw said.

There's a reason for that: Microsoft built its iPod connection without the support of Steve Jobs and co.

"We do not have an official relationship with Apple for the iPod connectivity," said Scott Henson, product unit manager in Microsoft's advanced technology group. He maintains that "Xbox 360 leverages standard protocols such as USB mass storage to enable iPod support".

Henshaw said Microsoft tried to "engage" Apple in a partnership that would have officially made the iPod interoperable with Xbox, but Apple rejected the overture.

"So we went in and built all of the support we could," Henshaw said. Microsoft plans to release the new Xbox in the UK and the rest of Europe on 2 December.

Apple has been pitching a very different approach for those who want to connect to its popular music player. Through its 'Made for iPod' programme, the company is attempting to collect royalties from the maker of any accessory device that interfaces with an iPod through its dock connector.

Apple would not comment for this story.

iPod owners will be able to connect their digital music devices through one of the Xbox 360's three high-speed USB ports. They'll be able to access an Xbox menu that will let them scroll through songs, artists, genres and the like and select songs to play in games' backgrounds. Users will also be able to stream photos off their iPods for playback of slide shows on the Xbox.

Henshaw said the Xbox 360 would be able to stream any standard MP3 file or AAC file from an iPod, but not protected songs purchased through the iTunes Music Store. Those songs, he said, will appear greyed out in menus on the Xbox.

He also said that Microsoft was working around Apple's assertion of control over the iPod's dock connector by making the "Xbox 360 use a very standard USB port for connectivity. We just rely on the USB cable that Apple ships with iPods".

Henshaw wouldn't comment when asked if Microsoft had had to perform any reverse engineering in order to get songs to stream onto the Xbox 360 from an iPod.