Microsoft says no Spring Xbox 360 Dashboard update coming this year

We'd been getting pretty used to getting an Xbox 360 Dashboard updates every other season or so, but it looks like it's going to be a barren spring: there's no update coming this spring, according to Xbox Live manager Marc Whitten. In an interview with Next Generation, Whitten said that Redmond's focusing resources on "building the proper infrastructure and scale for the service" -- which hopefully means those Live outages will soon be a thing of the past. Whitten also said that the Live team is working on a Live DRM update that'll allow XBLA games to be re-licensed and played offline if you swap consoles, and that underperforming XBLA titles with Metacritic scores under 65 percent will be eligible for delisting. Sure, sure -- just make with that wacky motion-sensing controller soon, okay?

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

[Slug @ May 23rd 2008 6:05AM]

F-F-F-F-Furious!

[Blaine Oliver @ May 23rd 2008 6:09AM]

Fail!

So they are trying to take on the wii in the motion sensing arena, with better graphics, wifi accelerometer i assume.

They sell their console cheaper than the Wii, with better graphics, HDMI, and HD sound, this actually sounds like a winner to me, they just need games, and a cheap controller.

[Raheem @ May 23rd 2008 6:14AM]

They need games?! I do believe the 360 has the most credible catalogue of decent games of this generation. I would have loved an update though. I want multi-person chat!

[Blaine Oliver @ May 23rd 2008 6:34AM]

Of course I don't mean they need more FPS, and their amazing catalogue of games, I mean motion sensing games. The only thing that sways me from pc gaming is the 360 for games like gears of war, halo 3, and all of that.

[Andir3.0 @ May 23rd 2008 7:54AM]

"sways me from pc gaming is the 360 for games like gears of war, halo 3" ... You know one of those is, and the other is strongly rumored to be coming on the PC as well? Oh, you're one of those people that thinks you have to be the first? You have to see/play/feel something RIGHT when it hits the market and can't wait?

[Tehseen @ May 23rd 2008 8:53AM]

^^ Wow someones in a bad mood

[Raheem @ May 24th 2008 11:48AM]

I guess Andir likes to be last! Buying a 1st gen iPhone this week, then?

[Andir3.0 @ May 24th 2008 7:31PM]

What the hell does an iPhone have to do with being last? For the record, I don't have an iPhone, nor any Apple products in my home, car, or work. Try again.

It's about the stupid motivation for people to go all gaga stupid over cutting edge crap and paying out the ass for it.

[Sam Zebian @ May 23rd 2008 6:18AM]

I was really looking forward to the new update :(

[Jon @ May 23rd 2008 6:27AM]

Shouldn't they be doing that other stuff year round anyway ? You know making sure the servers are up to par .. Wow right when the Battle heats up 360 takes a step back , odd ...

[teej @ May 23rd 2008 12:30PM]

genius, read beyond the first sentence.

[Olivier @ May 23rd 2008 6:46AM]

the XBox is really looking poor in functionality compared to the PS£ which does games, Bluray and a host of other cool functions if you want to record tv, upload to youube, browse web etc.
I'm just sad that the XBOX is not fighting aymore.

[SteveM @ May 23rd 2008 7:41AM]

Of course if what you want is a games console then the 360 is leading the PS3 by a fair distance at the moment, partialy because of its catalogue and partialy because it's over a third cheaper! 'Cool' features are only really useful if they're, umm, well, useful. Why would, for example, you record tv onto your PS3 when the target audience for such functionality probably alread has a PVR of some sort?

[tcc3 @ May 23rd 2008 8:30AM]

Tell me Olivier, does Sony have a dental plan?

[Tehseen @ May 23rd 2008 8:55AM]

Fanboy who does not know what hes talking about

[ReggieXuk @ May 23rd 2008 6:47AM]

Peripheral prices need to be lowered. Greedy bastards.

[teej @ May 23rd 2008 12:33PM]

that's the only way they make money from the xbox family (outside of a few popular, homegrown titles and XBL content). that's business.

[DiscoCat5 @ May 23rd 2008 8:29AM]

the reason i think, is that they dont have anything left to introduce.
there console has almost reched its full potential.....
the ps3 on the other hand... lololol

[SilverFireshot @ May 23rd 2008 9:17AM]

I wish developers and Sony would use the PS3 to its full potential, but I'm not holding my breath.

Maybe Home will do it, since it's supposed to revolutionize gaming as we know it.


When it's released in 2029.

[DiscoCat5 @ May 24th 2008 5:37AM]

yeha but it at least has the potential that the 360 doesnt.

[jntaylor @ May 23rd 2008 8:30AM]

Crap. I was holding out for some more media updates for the XBOX 360:

1.) 5.1 AAC audio support. (Would love to download and watch the Apple HD Trailers on my HDTV)

2.) Direct MPEG playback via Disc or USB

3.) Blu-Ray Add-On support

To me the XBOX is falling way behind as a media player compared to the PS3. I enjoy using my 360 as a media player; DVDS and Video looks great via VGA to my LCD. Bill stated that this is a game machine 1st but keeps forgetting to provide that great media system when compared to his biggest rival.

I have been saving up my nickels for more media players for the house. My 360 just became a game machine only.

[superklye @ May 23rd 2008 10:34AM]

Wow. Your GAMING CONSOLE became a game-machine only?

Never saw that one coming...

[Tony @ May 23rd 2008 11:00AM]

It already does the first two. I downloaded the HD trailers for The Clone Wars and Wall-E for my son yesterday and WMP11 streams them to the 360 for playback.

You just have to trick it by renaming it with an extension that WMP11 streams.

The support varies depending on the codec and container. There's a really good "Q&A" here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/11/30/december-2007-video-playback-faq.aspx

[Olivier @ May 23rd 2008 9:03AM]

tcc3 and tehseen, you are really barking up the wrong tree.
I have a xbox, and no PS3. I love my xbox for the games it has. That being said the machine could be a little nicer without the loud noise it makes and also some extra features like the PS3 keeps getting. What's wrong with that?
I think we are all a little disspointed that microsoft is dropping the ball on this one, especially after the xbox lost any legitmacy in the HD video arena as the HD DVD camp pulled back. It sure would be nice to get 5.1 AAC audio and a few other features.

Re SteveM's comment, I live in Europe and living space is at a premium here, (and tivos aren't sold anymore). So PS3 is a strong contender in the living room with the juke box functionnality, web browsing, tv recording etc all in one box.

I love my xbox and wouldn't swap it now as I have so many games for it, but if I were starting today I'd probably get the PS3 given the "other" features it has.

just saying guys. No fanboyism as you suggest

[Blueace @ May 23rd 2008 7:30PM]

Same here, space is limited and I already have too much stuff connected to the TV and AV receiver so any additional functions that the Xbox adds that replaces one of the other boxes would be welcomed.

I was hopping for direct access to network drives. Going trough the PC makes it extremely due to WiFi.

[Alexander @ May 24th 2008 2:44PM]

I agree, in my opinion the first console that supports triple play (Internet, TV, phone) is the big winner.
The PS3 already supports a web browser and in Europe at least TV and DVR functions. The chatting is currently limited from PS3 to PS3, but as the PSP is already supporting Skype, who knows, maybe Sony decides to support it on the PS3, too.
The XBox is rumored to support IPTV for quite some time now, but either it is MS secrecy or it takes alot longer to accomplish. From the rumored feature list, the Email integration and real Live Messenger support would have been a great step.

[stromm @ May 23rd 2008 9:15AM]

Not a fanboy of any type but I am disappointed with this news. Even though I really only play games on my 360. I have a nice home theater setup but most of the time the 360 is connected to my 24" PC LCD. If I want to watch movies, I put the disk in my PC, not the 360. Much better picture.

Only thing I can think I might want on the 360 is a web broswer. I just don't understand why Microsoft of all companies didn't put a browser on it. Except maybe not wanting to take marketshare from Windows.

Oh yea, and FULL mouse/keyboard support for gaming. Not just messaging. Let me reconfigure controls to match what I use on PC games. If they did that, I'd buy more games for the 360 instead of hoping and waiting that they are released on the PC sometime a year or more later.

[AMM @ May 23rd 2008 9:58AM]

"...allow XBLA games to be re-licensed and played offline if you swap consoles..."

I am happy they're working on this. I was forced to "swap consoles" (thank you for failing on me but not giving me the RRoD so I couldn't get my repair paid for, Mr. XBox360), and the games I had purchased all went away since the license was only good for the first console they were downloaded to, so I had to re-buy them. It wasn't worth it to me to fight with their Customer Service, but I know a lot of folks on the forums had that fight - it's a legitimate issue. Glad they're looking into fixing it.

[superklye @ May 23rd 2008 10:48AM]

It never made sense to me why XBLA games weren't just tied to your gamertag. Less secure? Maybe...but if I take my tag to a friend's house, we download an XBLA game I bought onto his machine and play and then I leave, he can't play the full version since I wouldn't be logged in.

Why the need for extra, pain in the ass "security" MS?

[TravisO @ May 23rd 2008 11:10AM]

If you had simply kept your HD, you could still be playing the games. I don't it's not a perfect solution, but it's the reason behind the lack of support initially.

But I agree, adding DRM it disabled games on an old Xbox and re-enable them on a new box sounds like a great thing. But should assume we this is only going to work for new purchases, not old ones?

[TravisO @ May 23rd 2008 11:12AM]

>> Why the need for extra, pain in the ass "security" MS?

Because you know somebody would get a Xbox Live trial code, purchase a game, then publish his username & pass online so everybody else could re-download the game on their Xbox, the damage on sales would be pretty big. I have $20 on if they went this way, you'd be the first guy to say "wtg can't MS make a secure system?".

[AMM @ May 23rd 2008 11:15AM]

@TravisO:

"If you had simply kept your HD, you could still be playing the games. I don't it's not a perfect solution, but it's the reason behind the lack of support initially."

Not true - we did keep our HD. It still had the games downloaded, but we could only play the trial versions until we actually paid for them again.

[superklye @ May 23rd 2008 12:10PM]

@ TravisO

Yeah, except that wouldn't work...a gamertag can only be active on one 360 at a time and getting it on another system requires the painful recovery process.

So unless the people using this "village gamertag" never wanted their 360 to go online again, they'd be able to play it until they signed out and someone else recovered the tag.

They could also download and unplug the 360 from the 'net so it would just sign in locally and never know that the tag had been recovered elsewhere, but as soon as it was connected to the internet again, that "village tag" would be deactivated and the game would be unplayable.

There really is no reason for this console-specific DRM. Tying it to the tag is more than enough security.

[EdgeOne @ May 23rd 2008 10:39AM]

If thats what it takes for them to let me play XBLA games that I PAID FOR without being online then DO IT (cause that is annoying, to say the least)

[Michael VanDyk @ May 23rd 2008 11:00AM]

So the PS3 is far superior due to the media funcionality? I have both consoles and the ONLY advantage the PS3 has over the 360 is Blu-Ray playback. Running linux on it is utterly worlthless, the built in web browser is clunky and also worthless, and streaming media is right on par with the 360. The six-axxis controller obviously was a rediculous idea and the console is almost twice the size of the 360. Im not even going to get into the technical aspects comparing the two consoles, but both have there advantages and disadvantages and neither is superior to the other. Streaming media to the 360 works perfect from the dashboard or the media center (with the exception of divx in media center...).
For the kicker xbox live is undoubtedly the winner when it comes to online gaming and has a seamless streamlined interface that works perfectly with all live enabled titles where as the ps3's online functions work at ONLY the most basic level, the menu system is complete shit and while it may be free, I would rather have a perfectly enjoyable online experiance for the tiny annual fee that microsoft offers. So in the end, to me the xbox 360 is a more enjoyable experiance in both media functionality and gaming than my PS3 and when looking at the pro's and con's of each at this moment in time I am sure most people would feel the same way.

[St.Selvin007 @ Jun 18th 2008 6:04PM]

I STRONGLY AGREE !.....................

[daniel @ May 23rd 2008 11:25AM]

Hi, I am not crying over this.. I think the 360 is now workig really good, group chat could be a good idea, and that XBLA looks like it's coming, spring update or not, I had that fight with costumer service and 2 weeks after that, i got my things back, my xbox died again and well the time spent isn't worth it.. I always play with my gamertag.. If anyone is going to say things about how crappy the console is, spare me.. For gaming is by far the best and I don't mind that the hardware sucks or doesn't have bluray, I want to play in it.. good games and have an awesome experience.. besides with a 3 year warranty i have no worries.. It is totally worth it..

[Sean @ May 23rd 2008 1:33PM]

Just to let you know... it's only three years for RROD. Eveyrthing else is the standard warranty. Unless of course you've had several broken consoles. I'm on number 5. The CD player broke on the last one and at first they were not going to fix it (without a fee). Once they learned I was on Xbox #4, I was givin special treatment and had a refurb console in three days.
Their customer service is drastically better than it was even one year ago.

[DoomGaZer @ May 23rd 2008 12:45PM]

They need to work on Back Compat. then since they have all this extra time on their hands now ;). Seriously, the only things I play on my 360 are the old Xbox games that they DO support. I played and beat the "new" titles I'm interested in so now I'm left with the original Xbox games I haven't beat yet (not to mention how much cheaper the used/old games are right now). Come on MS!. Quit disappointing and maybe you'll gain/keep the console gaming crown.

[Sean @ May 23rd 2008 1:27PM]

I thoguht MS said the last back compatabilty update was their last. I could be wrong but I seem to remeber they were at a point were more resources toward that effort was giving them dramtically less return for their investment.

Which games would you play that is not on the list?

[alexhrose71 @ May 23rd 2008 1:54PM]

Ummm since when did everyone agree that metacritic represents everyones taste in games ? Robotron would be cut based on this metric, as would alot of classic arcade games that current reviewers in their early 20s can't appreciate spendingt $5 on.

Games like Space Giraffe that take a creative risk would probably never last more than 3 months due to the slow sales curve for titles like this, they are nuanced. This was the strength of XBLA, something for everyone. I don't want 100 budget mass market games, I want a space for retro classics, indie dev originality and room for those mass market Uno titles.

Bad call MS, you should be IMPROVING THE INTERFACE so games are easy to find, not reducing the games available. Poorly thought out move....

[Alexander @ May 23rd 2008 4:56PM]

I would have bought an XBox for Forza2, as a media center extender and for the Live video messenger chat with other Windows computers (as in the rumored list). I do already own a PS3 and after the rumored list of new features for the XBox came out I was browsing if there were any specials this Memorial Day to get one... but now.

Also I do not understand how anyone in the US can say that the XBox is "cheaper" than the PS3? As I bought a console beginning of the year, I considered them both and in my opinion the XBox is the most expensive console on the market currently.

Just to compare the costs of the hardware (Amazon prices) and not the software features:

PS3 with 40GB and Blu-Ray drive = $399
WLAN = $0
access to PSN = $0
= $399

XBox 360 with 20GB = $349
WLAN $79
XBox Live Gold 1yr $49
= $477
(half HDD capacity and still no Blu-Ray or HD-DVD-Player for that price)

In my initial decision for the PS3 I was also a little bit biased towards the PS3 because of the Blu-Ray drive. I do not play that often and getting an HD media player for free with a gaming console I would have bought anyway was a factor.

[yet another Matt @ May 23rd 2008 6:58PM]

So this partnership with BT in the UK to allow streaming IPTV content (which was slated for June and would imply it was bundled in the Spring update) is not happening?

I think BT would be really disapointed, and Microsoft missing out on a great opportunity.

I for one, are not impressed.

[Chris Macdonald @ May 23rd 2008 11:36PM]

well seeing how its already perfect what could they possibly do to make it any better?