The Xbox Live Swagfest is a way to get a free custom Xbox 360 for playing a multiplayer match – but it also illustrates how important non-game entertainment has become to the console. In order to enter the Swagfest, you have to download a special gamer pic and use it on your profile, then play a multiplayer round of Halo 4, Tomb Raider, or Gears of War 3 between now and March 11. Or, you can download HBO Go.
At the end of the period, five winners will be chosen to receive a special 4GB Xbox – bearing art from either Tomb Raider, BioShock Infinite, Gears of War: Judgment, Splinter Cell Blacklist ... or Game of Thrones on HBO. In other words, "watching HBO" is presented as equally representative of the Xbox experience as any of these AAA video games. Which is probably fairly true to life for most of us.