New Xbox 360 Experience hands-on and impressions
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted October 29th 2008 12:01AM
posted October 29th 2008 12:01AM
User interface
The first thing you'll notice is that this new interface looks nothing like what you've known. Gone are the EXTREEEEEEEEME GAMERRRRR "blades" from the previous iteration of software -- they're now replaced with sparse "channels" containing "slots" of live content. The look is sophisticated and spacious, with soft gradients, smooth fades, and classy design touches throughout. From a visual standpoint, the NXE is roughly ten million times more pleasant and accessible than the previous version. For families weighing this and the Wii come holiday season, a lot of this will be tremendously appealing... especially those avatars (more on that in a moment). There are a variety of swappable themes which skin the entire system -- nothing drastic, but a handful of handsome backdrops and color palettes that should please most users. You'll surely see a slew of this content hitting when the NXE is in wide availability.
Navigating the new Dash is simple. You jump up and down with the control stick through channels, and move side to side in slots. Slots contain all manner of content, though they tend towards animated promos and the occasional video (sound kicks on if you move over something in playback). Users can duck into and out of content with X and B buttons, as you'd expect. If you're a stickler for those blades, you can still get a mini version of them (quick access from wherever you are) by tapping the Xbox Guide button.
Beyond the look, what's notable is the speed of the system. There's no lag at all when moving from channel to channel or through the slot content -- and even hitting one of the bumpers, which flies through left-to-right slot data, is super speedy. If people complain you've got an instant gratification problem, you're going to love the NXE.
Avatars
The comparisons of the NXE's avatars and implementation to the Wii's Miis will be unavoidable. We'll just call it like we see it -- Microsoft is making a play for that moneyed "casual gamer" audience and hoping to stoke deeper user engagement by stealing a trick from Nintendo... and who can blame them? Like Miis, the avatars are adorable, cartoonish, huggable bundles of virtual joy that will have kids oooh'ing and mommies pocketbooks' hitting the counter. Like Miis, they can be customized with different facial features, heights and weights, though the NXE adds jewelry, clothing, and other accessories to the mix. While the characters don't give you exactly the same kind of customization you're used to on the Wii, they sport a pretty wide range of options, and most users should find something to like. Reps from Microsoft tell us they'll be adding avatar content as they go, as well, such as game-related clothing and accessories.
The avatars aren't just static, either -- they can be incorporated into games (like Scene It? Box Office Smash), feature animations that can be triggered with the controller, and are used to interact with friends in the dash. Bonus? You get to take driver's license-style snapshots of your character for your profile picture.
Netflix
This is one of the big daddy features as far as we're concerned, and the two companies have pulled off this integration to near-perfection. The Netflix slot is offered in the "Video Marketplace" channel, and takes you speedily to an app which allows you to shuffle through movies in your queue. Unfortunately for right now, you can only add selections on a computer -- we hope that they expand the service to allow for adding and deleting choices right from the console. Once you've made your selection, you get a screen of info about the movie or TV show where you can also change its star rating. Once you jump into the content, the service determines your play quality based on bandwidth and transports you to the player. The player boasts a "scene" rewind and fast forward which Netflix is using in its Silverlight player, a nice touch that skirts around the narrow pipeline.
Video quality was excellent on our end, with SD content looking terrifically watchable. A small perk -- but huge deal as far as we're concerned -- is the inclusion of a limited amount of HD content. We previewed Heroes in HD, and the quality was stunning. Right now there's only about 300 titles on offer, but we think after folks get a taste of this, they'll be begging for some expansion.
With the inclusion of the service for Gold members, it's clear the system is moving further outside of the straightforward gaming realm into a larger market. This combo has loads of appeal.
Friends channel
The NXE greatly expands on the interactivity between you and your Xbox LIVE friends. Now there's a channel dedicated to viewing their current activities and avatars which also gives you options to ping them with messages or invite them into a party, all in a glorious, quasi-3D setting.
The party mode is interesting because it allows you to join up with friends engaged in different activities or games, all the while keeping a conversation going. You can invite people into games or simply talk to them while you're in separate games (or not playing at all), and it endeavors to keep parties together even if you're logged out for an update. The system isn't quite perfect yet -- but there's loads of potential for it, and generally its implementation was solid. Where it succeeds most is limiting that break in flow when you want to change up titles, or someone needs to take a quick break, and it makes planning activities far easier.
Marketplace
The Marketplace for content and games hasn't drastically changed, but it's much easier to find what you're looking for and see how it connects to what you already have. You can now browse for titles alphabetically, by genre, or by more esoteric groupings like "most popular." Game titles now have virtual boxes with art, give you full screen sample pictures, and skin the background when you browse. Regardless of how they dress it up though, it's now a pleasure instead of a chore to find content, and it puts an end to the mess that was the Marketplace.
An emerging component of the Marketplace seems to be the Community Games slot, which allows XNA developers to distribute their games in an App Store-like environment. The inclusion of this as a feature in the NXE gives the impression that Microsoft hopes to stoke an all-in, user-created-content fire, and we're definitely for that. Right now there's not a load of games on offer, but we assume as they work up to the November 19th release, this slot will seriously flesh out.
The guts
When we spoke to Marc Whitten, general manager of LIVE and one of the driving forces behind this update, he made it clear that this wasn't just about surface -- this is an overhaul inside and out. The team has revamped this platform to not just look pretty, but has changed its core functionality. The NXE now operates more like an OS rather than a closed set of static panes -- developers can build off of it with apps like Netflix and Photo Party, and the long view is that what we see now is just the tip of the iceberg.
On top of the beautification and betterment of the Experience as a whole, the team has also continued to embrace its core gamer market by adding in new features like the ability to copy games to the hard drive -- which the company claims cuts down load times by 30 to 50 percent (and kills system noise by 7dB). In our experience (and the experience of other gamers we know), the load times weren't as noticeably cut as we'd like them to be, but there's a definite bump in speed for segues, and we're not exactly complaining.
Wrap-up
Overall we're highly impressed with what Microsoft has done. This isn't just PR-speak or phony praise -- the company has demonstrated a tremendous understanding of the needs of the market and its customers, both with this software update, and the recent price cuts on the low-end Xbox 360 packages. If this is "just the beginning" -- as the team claims it is -- we're going to see some pretty exciting stuff in the future. For now, however, the combo of rock-solid, next-gen game console, multi-tiered entertainment delivery system, and robust social networking engine leaves little to be desired. Let's just hope that developers can live up to the system's potential.
Further reading
Hit up Joystiq's massive video expose of the whole thing. Just follow these links to the multi-part feature:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
@brc
The reason I don't play multiplayer games is because I don't want to, I'd rather play for my own enjoyment and to my own times and deadlines not someone else's.
As to the "family appeal", I know its Microsoft who make the 360 and so it's their decision, but the larger user base on the Wii means large quantities of shovel-ware and I'd rather not see any more of that coming to the 360 than needed. What I'd like is the choice of whether to have this updates front end or not, if the blades are still in there, then why can't I have them as the primary dashboard gui instead of the cover-flow/avatar thing?
I know you wanted a Wii but after two holiday seasons they are still sold out so I bought you a 360 arcade instead. See it has little cartoon people and everything.
Does Microsoft actually think that is going to work?
Still no open networking or browser. guess they still don't trust the code/security. Will still use my ps3 for media center-like entertainment. No I don't use the browser plugin via win Media/ because it doesn't support 64bit.
so old purchased themes don't transfer over to the new menu system?
oh well.
good for xbox..
They're one step closer to catching up to the PS3.. Now if only they can add a blu ray player and stop charging for online gaming, and Bluetooth wireless controllers.
And then they could add backwards compatibility too! Oh, wait.
Backwards compatability causes more problems that it solves. When will it end? My biggest gripe with windows is that it still supports legacy *everything* just because some people can't be bothered to upgrade.
If I had my way, backwards compatability would be killed of lol.
Cheese and Bread
Your Theme's will work with the NXE.
"and robust social networking engine leaves little to be desired"...............Not sure you meant to say that....
I just wish to know if now you can set a storage device as a default value when checking for saved data. Cuz, you know, it sucks to select the HDD every single time you're about to play...
Can't wait for this update, Some of the biggest things that intrest me are the NetFlix and group chat. I know some people wont use the group chat but for me and my friends we have been waiting for this forever since we all go to different colleges we usually talk on there and it gets tiring after awhile switching between friends so you can talk to everyone. Also the NetFlix HD stuff, What I hope they do is work a agreement with Microsoft and basically have a Xbox NetFlix Channel that can only be accessed through the 360 and has all the current movies that Xbox has in there. I know many people who don't use the current market place video's just because of the user agrement once it starts you have 24 hours to finish it and after so many days it gets deleted, But add it in NetFlix cause they have probably a bigger HD selection of movies than NetFlix at the moment and that would be amazing. Also I noticed they didn't talk about it but im curious about the game backup that is suppose to be part of the update, Your suppose to be able to download the game to the harddrive (for faster loading) and only insert the game to verify you have the game, only thing im concernd about is the size per game and would be nice if they added basically like a Redeem Code that came with your game and while on live playing from your 360 not even have to enter the game, Cause then if your on live XBL can authinticate that the code hasn't already been used and keep it from multiple uses and then make it atleast evey week or month insert the game to insure you still own it and have not sold it and if you have the code becomes invalid and the game wouldn't launch.
What happens though when you get tired of a game and want to sell it? the next owner wont be able to use it, as the specific game is linked to a different account. Or even worse in a house where we have 2 xboxes, we will be limited in playing specific games to each individual console.
Well if you look at my before post I kinda talked about it....
The Jist:
1)Put game in to upload to hard drive
2)Use Redeem Code and insert the code you have
3)Leave game in for XBL to confirm you have it
4)Play without need for disc up to a determined amount of time; i.e. a week or a month
5)After said time period you must reinsert the game to confirm you own it
6)If after say a day or two you don't confirm then the game code is released; i.e. you sell it someone else can use it
7)The game download stays on there till you delete it so even if you don't confirm in the time if you need to reconfirm all you do is stick the
disk back in and reinsert code
8)The game would work as normal say you don't want to do that then it would play from the disc as this never existed even if sold or played on another console so as long as you own the disc you can play
I was also just thinking of something instead of making it a code you enter it's a code that's on the disc cause that kills two birds, cause if you used a disc to upload and play it has to be that exact one to confirm which means you can't just go rent one. I know that you say hey if you don't sign on to XBL then you could download all games and just never sign on which is how I was thinking of this using XBL to confirm the games.
Which here are a few security things to do if you try and download games and not sign into XBL to get around the confirm and do all the games you wanted:
1)Make a internal counter, say after the determined time you must sign onto XBL to play this game or you much play from the disc
2)To upload any game you must be signed into XBL (which if you had any games on there it would check)
3)Require that the use of the Game download feature is only available to any persons that are currently signed into XBL
So theres a few things they could do to stop people from just goin and renting games to play them. Also this would make more sense if i was actually discussing this with you in person
Also (I don't know how to edit posts), You could theortically then make all rental games have all the same code that makes it so they can't be uploaded and then when the store sells them they can go xbox web site and get a list of codes for there games that they insert in the cases, with the code being on the disc there are alot of things you could do like also making it say you sell it at the beginning of the week well it's bought the next day well as long as the codes on the disc that means I have that game in my possesion so I could upload it and transfer the code to my Xbox which means I can now play it but the second you sign online you won't be able to play from the harddrive.
Say that was a friend well no big deal cause the second he returns it and you put it back in, since the game doesn't get deleted just the code all you have to do is put the game back in and say minute or so later bam you can play your game again. If you think about it there's alot of stuff that could be done with this.
To the entire group of NAY!!!! Sayers out there Lighten Up!....I have never heard any other country complain about everything more than we do. Microsoft is a great company which has given us great products…Ok, sometimes they have problems, but tell me which company doesn’t. If this was Sony , Toshiba or some other Euro company would we bash them as hard. The answer is a BIG NO..we would just set and wait for an update if it ever comes. Take pride in your own country’s efforts to do well in the world market. Sorry for the rant….As for the Xbox which is a beautiful piece of hardware, it great that MS keeps thing moving with upgrades and add-ons. I believe an OS of any sort should be dynamic and grow as needed. Every time there is an OS upgrade It’s like getting a new OS for free. Think of it on Nov 18. I will get a NEW Xbox 360 just by haveing the OS upgraded. That’s a great investment on my original purchase.
Kudos to MS (waiting for Win 7) for keeping us going ahead and job well done.
Ernie49@gmail.com
I'm mostly just excited about the revamped group chat capabilities. Keeping parties together from game to game and such is really cool, and will make playing with friends a lot less frustrating. NetFlix would be great, but I'm in Canada so I don't think I can get in on it. Installing to hard drive is also neat, but with my 20 GB drive I don't think I'll be using it much.
I'm not really a fan of getting rid of the blades, but at least they're still accessible.
"The NXE now operates more like an OS rather than a closed set of static panes"
YES, thank you - this is exactly what I've been hoping for since 2005. The computer and console are slowly converging. I like the thought of soon, if I so choose, being able to get me a nice cheap eee box or other nettop, and sticking with my 360 (I won't, but this kind of choice and affordability has never been available before). Affordable computing, with pretty much zero loss in content or capabilities.
Im kinda new to knowing about copying games to the hard drive with this new update. But couldnt someone just technically goto Blockbuster or grab their friends games and save $60 and just copy it on without ever having to return it?
No, because the way it is currently set up the game must be in the harddrive as you play they only advantage it is suppose to have is theortically increase dvd drive life and increase load times which have increased only a few seconds
everthing besides the wiimiis is bad ass they failed to add a browser but i got a P.C. (not mac) and can you say this makes an ez way to get new games cheap-free can u say blockbuster?
Again the games uploaded to a hard drive must have the game you are playing in the dvd drive. Though this does open it up for modded consoles as put the game on the hard drive and could easily be dumped to a computer. So you must own/have the game in your possesion to play....
I just wanted to add that for everyone complainig about these avatars, if you are thinking like microsoft this is for marketing. The first phase was the drop in price there trying to make it more family friendly and be used as "Entertainment System" than a gaming system which netflix is the main part of that. Basically this is trying to tap a market that is straying away from the Xbox to the Wii and be sure that some more kid/family friendly games will start to pop up more. Also Sony is doing almost the exact same thing except it's suppose to be more of a world that you walk around in with your charcater and doesn't replace the whole XMB
And still no internet on the 360!!
What I'd give to have the internet on my TV via my big white box, (especially when my son's hogging the PC!).
Normally I'm not so nitpicky but I gotta call you out on that one, the 360 has "internet" permeating its very being, the term "internet" as you are using it actually pertains to web browsing, which, data wise is a relatively small chunk of what the internet stands for, I'd love to see a web browser on my xbox as much as the next geek, but once that happens you open the door for all sorts of security exploits, and from the standpoint of an excited techno-enthusiast that's great, but from a business standpoint that would be something akin to opening pandora's box, imagine, if you will, trying to provide tech support to "linuXbox 360" modding everywhere and when stuff breaks you're expected to fix it whether its your responsibility or not, obviously I'm exaggerating but you get my point here. the only way I can see for them to be able to manage a web browser would be through and extremely tight VPN type set up, and even that would have all sorts of security issues, never mind the bandwidth issues what with youtube and such being such prevalent forms of entertainment, I know I wouldnt appreciate my gears 2 game getting lagged out just because too many people want to watch charlie the unicorn, nor would I enjoy adding the risk of getting my 'box bricked by some smart-ass hacker with too much time on his hands, MS can't afford any more liabilities in their functionality.
Being one of the few (being few thousand) gamers lucky enough to share in the preview program i must say im really impressed with what MS has done!
I have had alot of fun having all my mate barge into my house to bathe in the glory that is and i admit they all own 360s and only 1 said that he didnt like it,,,,, this immediately changed when pressing the guide button revealed a 'cut-back' version of the old dash! it seems to be something that grows on some people and is perfectly fine and normal to others
the only thing i have found to be a bit of an imbuggerance is playing games from the HDD, since its all new and shiney im sure i got something wrong somewhere and it crashed whilst traveling through a level in DM:MME (old skool i know) and that you still have to have the game to play it, i assumed it meant i could get my hands on a copy of say 'sassins creed and put it on the HDD and give it back to my mate, but you have to have the disk to load it up with then it plays from the HDD,,, fair doos i guess as its a great way of stopping copies (im assuming here) but i thought it would have been better to be able to keep the game stuck on the HDD and play it whenever!
Im a fanboy so i hit other boys with fans! one thing is for sure im really suprised with how well its working out and cant wait for everyone else to catch up on the 19th and get some online gaming sorted
HUGE THUMBS UP!!!
Shouldn't they get the RRoD under control first? They have a whole freakin' apparatus to manage these failures, with support, shipping, etc, but are they fixing the problem proactively?
Amazing how many people like picking fights...
I'm really excited about Microsoft new upgrade to the xbox marketplace xbox live. I've been wishing for them to go outside the box because it more convenient if one could do everything that they would normally do on the pc for entertainment..play games then watch movies..then surf the web..buy games etc. - all in one sitting instead of leaving from the xbox to the pc backforth. I really look forward to this!
___________________
Cleona
http://www.dealio.com
I appreciate the upgrade but as an owner of all both main consoles, I find the current interface of the 360 too immature. In particular crayola colour choice, brash adverts for games in particular rubbish ones. The ps3 gains here as the XMB interface is free from such issues but on the downside is slower to navigate messaging etc.
I would have hoped that Microsoft would have used a more mature colour pallet. It is cleaner to look at but the inclusion of avatars then throws the lot out the window.
It seems they are intend on buddying up with Rare, with viva pinata style design which is by its nature surely orientated to children or 'a wider audience'. I'm all for attempts to make gaming more mainstream, away from the stereotypes of teenage bedroom gamers but I don't think this NXE aids this. It just makes a compromise for all parties involved.
Any word on whether the DivX support won't require you to be on Live to work? That is really annoying if you don't have a permanent broadband connection. Also, did they overhaul the music player? Can I save playlists from media not on the hard drive (ie, from a portable device) and have they added support for continuous play (looping)? Volume control in the video player for anything other than DVDs would be nice as well.
Finally, how does this look on SD displays, which still make up the bulk of the gaming market out there?
Will be curious to see how media streaming over my network will be displayed/sorted in the new interface. Hopefully the update does not kill connect360.
Does the new dashboard killl connect 360? anyone know?
Where is blu-ray!! LOL!!!!
If you don't have Xbox Live on the Xbox, is it possible to download this dashboard update on a computer, burn it onto a CD or something and then install it on the Xbox?
Thanks in advance :)
The Netflix feature is very sweet, but one thing that I didn't find so great was that although when I started watching it determined to give me the highest video quality, about 20 mins into viewing it said it had to readjust and it lowered my video quality. Not necessarily an issue if you have a poor connection, but i have Verizon FIOS with 20 mbps download speed. In other words...blistering fast. My router is hardwired into the Xbox with Ethernet cable, so no "wireless" issues exist either. I believe the issue is "bottle necking" on the Xbox side? It's happened twice already. It really sucks to start out with top video quality and watch it drop drastically.
What happened to 16:10 monitor support? I read in reviews that this will be included in the NXE, however I have heard no official take on this, and Microsoft customer support told me it isn't. I mean why cant Microsoft just do this already? Have they done some deal that prevents them from offering the support and in turn promoting the sales of HD televisions? I dont care about netflix, avatars, group chat etc etc etc, i got a pc and pirate bay for that, how about some monitor support already. Its making me weak this nonsense.
Can someone help me please and give me a definitive answer?
Wow. Where'd Microsoft get the idea for those original avatars?
Sometimes I'm going along through life, with tech far from my thoughts--not thinking about Microsoft and feeling no ill toward them, and I'll hear or see the latest thing from Microsoft, and the first thought through my mind is: "Holy sh*t! Holy ----ing sh*t! Can't they NOT copy every ----ing thing they do?" And I don't know why, but I'm suddenly so angry I can't form a clear sentence. And it takes me a couple minutes to shake it off.
There is something wholly offensive about the extent to which MS copies. Even when their product is good, they have copied so much that it takes some effort to put that out of my mind. It's a horrible, effective strategy: copy and leverage, copy and leverage.
Apple's strategy (innovate, then limit choices) is just as annoying, but MS's is also offensive.
Hmmmm!........Avatars?.........Errr!.......Crap!
I prefer more of a hardcore extreme style like PS3 XMB. No wonder that I'm drifting way from damn childish Microwave products. How many of us Xbox owners are child? huh! Errr........rubbush.....childish stuff......Microwave are not even botherd to simply implant the internet browser into their so-called dominating product xbox 360
Glad a lot of people got to even use the NEW XBOX EXPERIENCE. My 360 froze and died 5 minutes after the install of the new update just inside eb games 2 year warranty. EB games were giving new replacement consoles, but after change of policy I only get a refurbished unit. After spending AU$600-700 on the console, $240 on a now useless HD DVD drive, buying 30 odd games, genuine XBOX360 steering wheel, 20 HD DVD, probably $3000-$4000 in total down the drain. After spending this amount of money I expected alot more than just under 2 years of gaming enjoyment from my XBOX3shifty, and expected EB GAMES to honour their 2YEAR NEW REPLACEMENT WARRANTY. Why Microsoft is allowed to continue selling a defective product is beyond me.
it's a pretty interesting update
I'm giving my Box 360 to my friend. I hate it...