Xbox Live Update has arrived, everything is going to be alright
By Paul Miller 
posted Aug 11th 2009 12:32PM
posted Aug 11th 2009 12:32PM
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What? This wasn't free for everyone like the psn?
What makes you think that the update isn't free?
Wow just wow, The update was awesome and free....
No not the update, I'm talking about what ever dashboard live is, if it is like the psn where we have access to awards and the likes, all you have to do when you have a ps3 is connect online and create an account and you have whatever the other person who might of have there ps3 for over a year for nothing.
Thanks for the low rank, my first one. Not as bad as I thought.
Oh well.
You had to go and say "first" too.
Taste the wrath of minus ones.
There are two levels to Xbox Live:
'Silver' - this is the free online membership which gives you access to the marketplace, a friends list, etc.
'Gold' - this is the paid-for service that lets you play games online with other gold members. You also get previews for things (like this new update), extra offers in the marketplace, things like that.
So i was rigth regardless of the level of service you have(silver or gold) on the psn you get to have everything for free except for games and their update.
Guess I was low ranked by fan boys.
I could of been an ass and said something like "the psn experience is way better" but didn't, now you asking for it. FLAME ON!
Ps3 is better than Xcrop. Not even my opinion but a proven fact.
No, you're low ranked because a PSN/XBox Live flamewar is off topic. Dashboard updates are only tangentially related.
"No, don't update"
Good choice Engadget.
My ps3 sits there and gets turned only when i buy a new blu ray while my xbox gets turned off only while im at work. Show me your facts you fanboy.
Third comment was sarcasm, but...forget it Xbox fan boys wins.
See you is a ps3 post. 10box before you get it right your at 360.
"See you is a ps3 post. 10box before you get it right your at 360"
what the f*ck does that even mean? and you call people fan boys for downranking your dumb comments? let's see facts on how PSN is better than XBL, other than price, which hardly qualifies it as "better".
if anyone's a fanboy it would be you. time to take your blinders off and stop being a jackass
brothertim, I said my third comment was a joke, it was just to imitate those who says shit like that, it is not a fact an can not be proven and no i'm not a fan boy, if you read my comment history you'll see that i defend any product from dumb comments from fan boy who feel they have to defend their purchase but anyway, I was asking a logical question to begin with since i don't have an Xbox, but you people are just morons, nuff said.
Logical quiestion my ass.
It was a terrible and stupid ass question, though.
The PS3 is ok, but PSN sucks. XBL is 10x times better and more fun.
Dang, got a E74 error right after the update. Microsoft want money to fix it because its outside the year...
You may need to get your prescription checked.
Is Live that much better than PSN? Better than having a blue-ray player in the ps3.
Short answer: yes
Long answer: y e s
only if you want to pay for it every year
@Josh
It's still better even if you don't want to pay for it every year.. you just miss out on the good stuff.
50 dollars a year is totally worth the service. Unless you are strapped for cash. In which case you have only yourself to blame.
You can blame it on the amount of games, houses, expensive cars, vacations, children you have. But you can never say 50 dollars is TOO much after spending so much already on luxuries and getting a little to friendly with the misses.
What's in it for me if I update? Are they actually given anything away here, or is it just a bunch of hooks into my wallet? If that's the case, no thanks.
Netflix, don't need. I already have HBO, sCinemax, TMC and Showtime. PSN and Bluray's. Games on my XBOX, don't care. I already own all the games they plan on selling. Avatars and junk for my avatars, don't need.
OK, I'll skip the update.
If you are an Xbox 360 fanboy then yes. If you like to play on-line and compete/co-op with others and don't mind the juvenile (or raunchy) banter then the question comes down to what do all your friends you want to play on-line with already use. I have both and prefer the PS3 for its "perceived" sophistication but I really enjoy the 360 although I've never used LIVE since I can play on PSN for free. The group I play on-line with have the PS3 (we all got them at the same time when Wal-Mart was handing out the $100 gift card w/ purchase) so it works well for us. I've never experienced a time I wanted to get on-line and it wasn't available. Don't listen to the fanatics. Choose based on your preferences. Their both great systems. The only difference is one is from an evil company and the other is from Satan inc.
xcrunk you cant just pass on the update. If you dont download it then you cant go on live. Nobody is forcing you to buy anything they added to the dashboard.
@Chad: I'd argue that the level of "sophistication" is a wash between Xbox360 and PS3. If you play games online, period, you're going to run into a lot of 13 year olds that just discovered how to cuss and have decided to test it out during Halo/Call of Duty/Resistance game.
In terms of getting a system based on the level of online features, you have to go in favor of the Xbox360. It's a proven platform with a low barrier to entry, a slew of games, and now with Netflix on board (with Facebook and Twitter coming in the Fall), developers just seem to favor it more for whatever reason.
Until the new Final Fantasy games come out, until Blu-Ray becomes an absolute necessity (I wouldn't argue that it is, as of right now), and until PSN starts focusing on usability rather than fluff (Home is a good example), I'd advise anybody to go with an Xbox360.
I own both PS3 and 360, and hands down, Live is the far superior experience, and worth every penny I pay for it (and then some).
Sony fanboys like to trot out the fact that PSN is free - sure, but that's only because it would be a crime against humanity to *charge someone* to use that piece of turd. Well, okay, it's not as bad as I'm making it sound - but Live has set a bar for the online experience and Sony is nowhere near it.
There are several critical features that PSN is missing that would make it actually competitive against live if they were to fix it, but at this point it doesn't really look like Sony cares about fixing their broken system; they look like they just want to keep falling down this hole called Home until they hit rock bottom and gib themselves or something...
Here are some examples of how PSN fails (just so I'm not just randomly trashing PSN for no reason):
- No working invite system. Playing games with your online friends on PSN is *really, really hard*. Each game is responsible for its own matchmaking, so when you "invite" your friend to play, all it does is send him a PSN message, telling him to start the game. There's not even a shortcut to say "oh awesome, start the game for me", you have to navigate out of the messaging system, over to the games tab, and start the game yourself. And *after* the game starts, you STILL have to manually go and try to play with your friend. WTF? On Live it's just "oh hey, start the game for me and join my friend automatically'. This is a HUGE problem.
- No quick voice messages. Sorry, not all of us bought the crazy keyboard attachment, and typing on any on-screen keyboard is a bitch. On Live you can send a very quick one-off message in voice to someone. On PSN you have to start a full-scale Skype-style voice chat with someone just to get a simple message through.
- No party system. Zip. Nada. Zilch. It blows.
- Headsets don't work. Yeah, I've had this headset for a month now and I still can't figure out how it's supposed to work. On Xbox? Plug it in, go, and multiplayer voice chat *just works*. On PS3? Plug it in, figure out how it syncs to your PS3, go into your Settings and play around with your voice settings... Garrrrrrrrgh. The PS3 has a sexy as hell headset that is almost impossible to use.
- Extremely poor integration of social features. On Live if a friend comes online, the system notifies you, and if you hit the Xbox button it will bring up the user's profile and possible actions (e.g. "invite to my game"). On PS3 no such thing exists. Hitting the PS3 button at ANY point just throws you to the menu. Imagine now when someone messages you "Bob sez: Hey!", and you have to hit your PS3 button, surf all the way over to the Friends menu, dive THREE LEVELS DOWN to read your message... do this EVERY time you have to respond to a message...
These are such simple things. Adding context sensitivity to the PS3 button is trivial, yet Sony would rather keep pounding at this Home thing instead of building REAL, DESPERATELY missing features into PSN.
@Chad
The only reason why you don't run into a random 13 year-old screaming into the headset is because PS3 doesn't come with them. Instead half the time your run into random fanboys having conversations....
Guy1:"Man the Xbox360 sucks I can't believe they pay for live"
Guy2:"yeah man I love home"
Guy1:"Yeah Halo nerds suck at FPS"
Me: "I own an Xbox360 I have twice your kills and half you deaths"
Guy1: STFU Xbot GTFO!!!
Guy2: YEAH FUCK YOU GUY!!!
That's PSN in short. You have a 50% chance of getting a fanboy or someone that's worth talking too. Never a little kid because only 1/3 of people use their headsets on PSN and out of the ones that do. Only half are worth talking too...
Nice write up potato +1 for the info
"50 dollars a year is totally worth the service. Unless you are strapped for cash. In which case you have only yourself to blame.
You can blame it on the amount of games, houses, expensive cars, vacations, children you have. But you can never say 50 dollars is TOO much after spending so much already on luxuries and getting a little to friendly with the misses. "
What the heck? Considering all the flack the PS3 gets for costing too much, YES $50/year is a lot. MS was just smart for tricking idiots into thinking that over the course of 4 years, they were going to be saving money buying a cheaper X360 over a PS3, when really, if you keep the X360 for 4 years and pay $50/year, it evens out in the end. I'm a PC gamer by the way.
For the poor, cash strapped bastards, and/or those who don't enjoy paying to listen to 13 year olds curse in whiny voices, you could always snag a free Live Gold subscription offer. I was actually in both camps for a long time, then I got one from Sam's Club :P
@michaelportent
Perhaps your reading comprehension is a little rusty. The word perceived refers to the fact that the average person "thinks" (meaning it may not ACTUALLY be but I believe it is so as far as I'm concerned it is) the PS3 is more sophisticated due to it's glossy black home theater friendly aesthetics. That is likely why Microsoft introduced the Elite in black. The average kid could care less what the box looks like and many are gonna customize it with stickers and such. Which is why from the very beginning Microsoft designed in removable face-plates as an extra revenue stream.
As far as on-line features I can't speak to the features in Live as I haven't used them but I will say until the 360 has a feature rich (read FLASH support) browser that allows me to go directly to content outside of Microsoft's control the PS3 is at least on par with the 360.
@potato
Thank you for your informative input. Except for the headset issue I had not experienced the other items you elude to since our group always plan our on-line incursions at the bar beforehand. Those are very valid shortcomings and I hope Sony will eventually address them
@Platinum_Skeet
I actually eluded to the fact that you get pretty much the same level of delinquency on both networks. I have had the opportunity to play Live a few times (should have said I had never had a Gold Live account on my previous post) using a friends account and it's pretty much Southpark uncensored on either. "Respect My AUTHAORITY you mothr- etc. etc. and about as intelligent as a PC post about Apple.
To be honest I stopped almost all on-line gaming when it became virtually impossible to find a casual group that wasn't fanboy/delinquent infested and cheat filled. My last experience (this will date me) involved me playing as the Protoss and I was defeated in less than five minutes by a horde of Zerg that should have taken an hour to amass. I mostly just play with people I know now. It's simply more enjoyable than the trash talking nothing to back it up wannabe's that lurk on the interwebs.
I haven't started my xbox360/ps3 for months.
Haha ditto, I haven't touched my PS3 since I beat prototype, early in the summer...
And I haven't played my 360 since I threw it against the wall after it red ringed...hmm, maybe I should have went with the warranty :S
Anyway, the updates that the 360 are getting, have been significantly better in changes over the PS3. Fortunately, I'm very much content with my PS3's online gaming experience. I've never been a fan of befriending people as I play or talking to anyone unless they are standing right next to playing with me(which is why I love playing Resistance 2 online :) ), and would much rather play for the competition. I may be the minority but I'm ok with that :)
Umm. Isn't it called "Gamer Score" and not "Experience Points"? It's a disgrace to nerds all over.
Experience in COD4 not gamerscore dumbass.
COD has experience points...
Damn Sony, update your PS3!! I want mkv support!!
Does the 360 have mkv support now?
Now that you asked, they'll get right on it.
It ain't going to happen. MKV is the most popular format used when ripping and distributing blu-ray illegally.
I play MKV's on my 360 just fine. http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/
Now that you asked, they'll get right on it.
It ain't going to happen. MKV is the most popular format used when ripping and distributing blu-ray illegally.
I mean real mkv support. I don't want to stream and I don't want to spend time demuxing and muxing. People will do it anyway, so why don't Sony just make it a bit easier for their customers?
A) After the Xbox switched it's UI to the 3D'esk view where icons fly past the left side of the screen, I would ALWAYS get a headache on the left side of my head, so I stopped using Xbox. I'll check out this update, but I'll have to get the Advil ready first...
B) PS3 will get MKV support since PS3 is an official Divx playback device (whereas xbox is not), and Divx standard has officially accepted the MKV container. The container is basically just a holder for Divx/MP4/etc with multiple audio/subtitles inside. (or you can use "PS3 media server" on the PC where all your MKV files are and it will stream them to your PS3 right quick)
C) I think everyone knows but this is obviously Microsoft’s way to keep your money going into their pockets... I mean, Paypal integration and paid visual improvements? This is only being accepted because it was slowly introduced, everyone got used to handing over a few more dollars, and now its common practice.
LOL if SONY was in MS position this gen they would charge up the ass as well. MS realized it can make money so they do. I am sorry if a MAJOR CORPORATION does not have the gamers low cash flow in mind when devising things. I am not justifying them. But MS can pretty much do whatever they want to their own platform.
Also, incase it wasn't obvious MS does not care about blueray. They care only about digital distribution. They want every game to become digital distribution in the future. HENSE the dvd instead of HD DVD or BLUERAY!
I know they havent completely thought it out though given the lack of bigger HD's. But it is still their long term goal. get people used to downloading everything and then NEXT GEN make it a disc less machine.
I agree with this plan. Physical DISCS never lasted too long with me. I always get my games now through STEAM on PC. So might as well get everything by downloading on gaming consoles as well.
The Netflix update that came along with this improved my video streaming quality considerably.
Man I really hope they didn't release the same thing I got in the preview. I am reasonably certain it killed my 360's video feed and I haven't been able to use it for over a week.
I was in the 1st wave and it didnt kill my video. Along with all my other friends preview. Your xbox just died and the right moment.
Change your HDMI color space from AUTO to RBG
that should fix your video feed.
if that isn't the problem, then I don't what to tell you....
The xbox forums have a few scattered about. I know its not a wide spread issue but it is existent.
http://forums.xbox.com/9/ShowForum.aspx
Oh can't wait to update! btw I think the wording in this article is hilarious. Sitting all alone trying to squeeze gamer points out of call of duty lol.
experience points
gamer points?
Gamer point is the points system in Xbox Live. When you get an achievement you score gamerpoints.
In CoD you level up account by playing an receiving experience points.
@Ryan
Congrats you corrected somebody on the internet now go get a life.
anytime
still aint got my update :(
Living in Sweden, and the update still doesn't provide even 'live' movie downloads, never mind netflix. Back to itunes......
Got my update this morning. The in-game dash is still unusable due to its inane slowness. Why even have an in-game dash if it can't be used meaningfully in-game? Fix this already, Microsoft!
This post makes me really sad.. I was hoping the slowness issue would be resolved.
WOW cool, I can't wait to get home and update my PS3. But darn, my hard drive is full of movies, games, & music darn 180GB wasn't enough. Oh well I'll just stop by Fry's or something and pick up a 500GB hard drive and install it tonight. Another PS3 HOME update WOW......
OHHH WAIT this is for XBox scratch that, I don't feel like a yearly payout, oh and if I dare try to replace the hard drive I void the warranty, which I will need cause I know it's gonna die. But it's still advanced with it's fancy built-in DVD player and all. That's so nex-gen.
LOL
everybodys gonna get the update a one point this month. I replaced my harddrive with microsofts replacement drive, nothing voided.
GTFO fanboy
You sound like a complete tool. Pride in a gaming system is about as smart as marrying a girl who was once convicted of murder.
Lets move pass this "I have my gaming system of choice so I am going to be clever about kicking all its competitors in the nuts".
BTW I have a launch XBOX 360. Has yet to die.
Not sure what you're talking about, but I've had to update my PS3 more than a few times and the download / installation process also takes much longer.
actually the HD is 100% replaceable in 360, my friends and i all swap ours out all the time.
And if you can afford a ps3 then you can afford to have paid for a 360 and the 2 years of Live since the console came out. But go ahead and think you got some great deal because you dont have to pay for a service that lacks a player base and splitscreen support (cant log in to multiple accounts at the same time = fail)
I had been in the Preview since it went online for consumers, and it wasn't that different. But today, they've actually upgraded some of the features. Now there's more stuff in the Avatar Marketplace, more Games On Demand, and everything has been a bit more streamlined since the Preview update to my console. I do like the enhanced party re-connect feature and the more responsive Quick Guide, but aside from that, nothing else has been that important to me. I don't use Netflix, although from the sound of it, it wouldn't have been that much better even if I did. No search options? Pass. Anyway, glad it's out for everyone now. Can't wait for Facebook/Twitter/Zune integration.
-MD33
don't forget Last.fm integration
The last preview build they pushed out on friday must have been the final build since I didn't get an update prompt this morning.
All I care about is whether or not this is going to affect iXtreme custom fw... Such as making it more easy to detect.
afterdawn forum users have updated XBL dashboard w/ 1.6 ix w/ no problems. ill still wait a week to venture into those waters.
I was on the first wave of update and all has been great with the new stuff, except that I was hoping to see Facebook and Twitter integration on this, but no... Have to wait a bit longer I guess...
On and off the record, I hate Sony products... All my Sony products I've ever had, broke down just after warranty expiration. ALL OF THEM... (TV, Home Stereo, PS1, PS2, PSP, VCR, DVD, etc)
So wait, xbox asks you to pay for an avatar? Aren't there laws against such nonsense? and if not, why not?
I'm glad I'm not a console type if that's the experience.
No you dont pay for an avatar. You make and there are a ton of free things to put on it but you can also pay for other things. Its a waste of money, nobody is forcing you to buy them. And the update is free.
too bad my box decided to RRoD today... >_
Am I the only one who's having problems with this dash update? Everyone seems to be saying it's great and installed smoothly, but as soon as mine downloaded and installed, the 360 freezes on the XBOX360 logo screen every time. I can't get any farther than that! So far Microsoft tech support has not cared enough to respond to my support requests. Anyone else with the same problems?
Trying to play COD4 after the update installed was pretty bad. The signal levels were all over the place with everyone it seemed and I had nothing else using bandwidth. Everything was just fine yesterday. Maybe its all the people bombarding the downloads at once.
I was totally sure i was over reading 100's of I presumed "fake" RROD comments, but I have just sent my elite off to MS after red ringing on friday. it may be a coincedence, but it happened a few days after I installed the preview update. My console is still in the 3 years period, so all is good. I almost cried though. And yes MS doesn't give boxes away anymore, you have to provide your own, but hey my xbox will be fixed for free so I am ok.
Here's hoping they send you a refurb Jasper, man.
I sold my launch Xbox ages ago, had other models and sold them, and I recently bought the Jasper Arcade model, and it's awesome. Quiet, cool, and it has the storage memory card built-in on the mainboard.
someone mentioned that Blu-ray isn't a necessity for games yet. I'm not so sure that's true anymore. Take a look at rage. Developers are saying that they are having a hard time splitting it onto multiple DVDs for port ot the 360 and the PC. That tells me that Blu-Ray IS starting to come onto its own as a media for gaming. If both Microsoft and Sony have a 10 year olan for thier consoles.. Microsoft is going to have a hard time keeping up with Sony toward the end of that lifespan. I forsee Microsoft releasing their next generation Xbox before Sony replaces the PS3 just so it can stay relevant.
I love my 360, but I still don't see the point to the f$#king avatars. You make them. They stand there. They don't do anything, there's no space like Home or Second Life to use them in, there's no interaction between them, and there are only a few lame games that make any use of them whatsoever.
So what's the f%#king point of them? And why would I buy premium items for them when they're so f%#king useless?
As soon as it updated, after a vacation while it was unplugged, It totally broke my xbox. This is either the 4th or 5th time it's happened, and now it's out of warranty... Great. Do not update. You've been warned. 3RROD is great fun D:
Why don't they tell you what's new and fixed? Are they too shy to tell what they did wrong and what they forgot? With Steam, It tells me what's fixed. Steam sucks, but is better than the Xbox. I pay for service on the Xbox (gold), and this is the treatment I get. Thanks Microsoft.