Xbox 360's ESPN app getting SmartGlass support later this month

The newest version of the Xbox 360 ESPN application will support SmartGlass integration for "second screen" control on compatible phones and tablets, Microsoft announced at a recent demo attended by Polygon sister site The Verge.

The application's entire interface has been moved to viewers' mobile devices, where they can use the device as a remote control to change the stream being watched. The ESPN app will receive the SmartGlass update later this month, and similar sports apps will receive SmartGlass soon after.

"We think the best sports experience is on the Xbox," said Microsoft software engineer Mark Budash at the event earlier today.

Regarding the future of SmartGlass and television, Budash, along with media strategy adviser Gerard Kunkel, expressed that the two are and will continue to be intimately connected.

"Someone who uses our product should intuitively reach for their phone or their tablet because they have better control of their Xbox," said Budash.

"It's almost connected via an umbilical cord," Kunkel added. "When you take concepts from gaming and apply them to television, magical things happen."