Emergency Messages To Come Through Your Xbox [New York State Planning To Send Emergency Messages Through Xbox Live]

Imagine you’re playing your favorite level from Call of Duty, shooting terrorists and saving the day, when suddenly, you get an alert about an incoming tornado. Except this tornado isn’t in the game, it’s right outside your window. The State of New York is planning to send ‘emergency messages’ to New York games through Xbox Live, and eventually, other systems as well.

The New York Emergency Management Office is now planning a system that would let them issue alerts to games over the Xbox Live network, and later on, other gaming systems. The alerts would include things like severe storm warnings and that sort of thing.

Rico Singleton, the Chief Information Officer of New York, said the goal of the plan is to reach the 25 and younger crowd that are spending more time on video games than TV and radio. Information Week reported that little details are out about the system yet, and Singleton reported that right now they’re in the testing phase.

The State of New York recently launched an state-wide program called ‘Empire 2.0′ that has uses various technological advancements. Some of them include State Senators using a Wiki to markup proposed bills, state employees using Linked In and the state’s Department of Mental Health monitoring Facebook for suicide warning signs. Emergency responders are even being trained by the state in the virtual world Second Life. Right, because if you can give CPR and put out fires in Second Life you’re completly ready to do it in real life.

This the second story in a short time involving governments using Xbox Live to their advantage. A few days ago, we reported that British Intelligence was trying to recruit employees through Microsoft’s gaming service.