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So I read in another thread that:

...the Xbox is a closed system. Forget any direct TCP/IP interaction, you can only communicate with other consoles present in the Xbox Live! network, and you can't do raw HTTP connections.

This makes me curious as to how an app like Last.fm for Xbox LIVE works. I would think it would require network communications with Last.fm servers, for user identification and for receiving audio streams.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

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2 Answers

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Either MS or CBS are running an XLSP farm and proxying all the traffic to the Last API.

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Which would explain why we are being charged a premium for this content now. – Noctrine♦ Nov 25 '10 at 2:16
Ditto on Netflix, I shudder to think of how complex that system must be on the server end. – coderanger Nov 25 '10 at 5:32
Where do I find my information on XLSP ... APIs, architecture, etc.? Is it necessary to join a developer program to get full documenation? Thanks. – Dave Nov 25 '10 at 15:23
You need to have an Xbox contract to get any of the XDK docs, but you can sign up for the XNA CC which uses the same underlying system (does cost $99/year if you want to deploy to an Xbox though). – coderanger Nov 25 '10 at 18:29
Sorry, I'm still a little unclear as to what's required. If I sign up for the XNA CC, would I be able to build a prototype Xbox app which could communicate with my own server code running on XLSP? Thanks. – Dave Nov 29 '10 at 17:16
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The Xbox 360 is certainly capable of making connections to any remote host just as your personal computer does, however, as a security measure, it is likely that Microsoft requires you to be an official Xbox licensed developer to do this. In addition to this, official Xbox titles are required to go through stringent validation to ensure a secure system.

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This is actually incorrect. A production Xbox can only connect through XLSP gateway servers. A devkit can open arbitrary sockets, not sure if that is what you were getting at. – coderanger Nov 25 '10 at 1:20
The system is technically capable of connecting to any remote location (think of homebrew applications), but official licensed titles are likely required to use secure connections to Microsoft servers. – reverbb Nov 25 '10 at 2:29
They don't need to be MS servers, anyone (well, any licensed Xbox developer) can run their own XLSP gateway. It is exceedingly painful though, so fewer and fewer people are going that route. – coderanger Nov 25 '10 at 5:31
Does MS have any requirements regarding the networking protocol or security between the XLSP server and the developer's own content server? – Dave Nov 25 '10 at 14:13
Also (somewhat unrelated), is it possible to prototype an Xbox app on Windows, communicating with an XLSP server? – Dave Nov 25 '10 at 14:14
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