Tag Archives: new xbox experience

Logic-Sunrise has posted what appear to be leaked shots of a new Xbox 360 dashboard built around Kinect.

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Rare’s told VG247 that the Xbox community “may” receive features allowing them to create their own Avatar kit, saying that user-generation was simply too big a deal to force into NXE’s launch last year.

“User-generated content is a huge area that would not have been done any justice if we had tried to cram it into the launch release of this project,” said Avatars designer, Dale Murchie.

“There may be features coming that open up the expressive potential of the Xbox community, but we’re keeping quiet on that for now.”

Head of art Lee Musgrave added: “Creativity is going to play a big part in the development of the Avatars.”

Currently, users’ Avatars can only be kitted out with supplied items, of which several packs have been released since launch.

Avatars became an integral part of Xbox 360 last year with the release of New Xbox Experience.

The HDMI audio bug that hit some Xbox 360 owners with the launch of New Xbox Experience can breathe easy: Microsoft’s about to release a fix.

“Starting Tuesday morning at 0200 Pacific when you sign into Xbox Live you’ll be prompted for a mandatory dashboard update,” said the Major this evening.

“The update addresses the issue that a few folks were having with audio and their HDMI connection.

“This update will be rolled out to all Xbox LIVE members around the world over the space of a few hours, so you may not get prompted for the update immediately. Thanks for your patience.”

Xbox production head Aaron Greenberg’s released a ton of stats on post-NXE Live, and it all makes for cheery reading. If you’re Microsoft. And you’re prepared to gloss over the fact that none of these benchmarks t have real numbers attached to them.

Bullets, all taken from Joystiq an Nelson:

• Marketplace downloads of TV episodes were up 30% and movie downloads up 49% the week after the NXE launch.
• No Netflix data was released.
• Xbox LIVE Arcade sales almost tripled in the first week after the New Xbox Experience launched.
• Post-NXE “the number of new friends added per Xbox LIVE member has risen by 33%” across both Gold and Silver Xbox Live memberships.
• UNO which was updated to include Avatar support, saw a 650% sales spike “in just one day.” No actually sales figures were released.
• A Kingdom for Keflings was the second-largest XBLA launch game ever. No sales figures were released.

  More through there.

According to this X3F post, the first pack of Avatar clothing has been added to NXE, and it’s all free.

The clothes are winter-themed, including gloves, ski-wear, and whatnot. For those of you that were simply gagging to put new hat on your Avatar, today is a great day.

Through the link.

X3F’s put together a list of commands to change New Xbox Experience’s Avatars’ expressions, make them burp, make them dizzy, and whatnot. It’s Monday morning, so we thought you may appreciate it. Maybe not, obviously.

Take a look.

The X3F story, quoting German site dreisechzig.net brings word that promised Avatar clothing for NXE will be free… for now.

From the piece:

Boris Schneider-Johne (Microsoft’s Xbox product manager in Germany) confirmed that the first few weeks of new Avatar clothes will be available for free, but doesn’t go as far to say that all Avatar clothing in the future will be available for no charge. “More costumes will be made available for free in the next weeks” says Schneider-Johne, adding “what’s going to happen as of spring is yet to be announced.”

The AVForums are currently awash with people complaining about a sudden loss of sound through HDMI after they installed the New Xbox Experience this week.

If you’re one of these people then don’t worry: apparently all you have to do is turn off the 360, take out the HDD, turn in on again, and while NXE boots up whack the hard drive back in again. It’s worth pointing out that this is a temporary fix only, as once you switch the machine off again, you’ll have to repeat the process next time you switch it on.

Although there were a few minor errors at launch, the mass implementation of NXE has gone rather smoothly, all things been told.

Microsoft has told X3F that it’s aware of the sound problem, and is currently looking into it.

By Mike Bowden

TombRadar’s posted some shots of the Sugababes singing in Lips and NXE in London last night, and it all looked very sparkly.

Apparently the trio sang Duffy’s Mercy at the event. You had to be there, clearly.

Take a look.

NXE’s XNA community games don’t appear to be available in all European regions.

Reports on the Eurogamer forums suggest that both Denmark and Norway simply don’t have the Community Games menu option in the new dash. Which means we can’t play them either. Catastrophic.

Perhaps it’s just Scandinavia that has been left out? We’re contacting Microsoft to get official word on the subject.

Update: Finland, Sweden and now Ireland can add themselves to the list of regions without a Community Games section, so we’re told, and it appears the title, Weapon of Choice, is not available in France. Thanks to Paavi, netsabes and Michael O’Connor.

By Mike Bowden

The Major’s posted up links to a bunch of premium themes in NXE, just in case you thought the theme boat had saled from Microsoft console user interfaces.

There’s lots of stuff there from Gears 2, Halo 3, and so on. Go ahead and brighten up your life.

Nelson’s posted to say the NXE team is aware that Xbox Live Marketplace is experiencing some “issues” – as in, it’s not working properly – but that in general, yesterday’s release of the New Xbox Experience was “incredible”.

“As you can imagine, it’s been an incredible day so far for the New Xbox Experience,” said the exec.

“It’s great to see so much enthusiasm… it sounds like you are having fun exploring NXE. With an update of this magnitude, reaching more than 14 million people around the globe, we are aware some of you may be experiencing a few hiccups along the way.

“The LIVE team is closely monitoring the LIVE service and Xbox.com and are aware of a few issues including what’s happening with Marketplace. The team is actively working on the issues, so thanks for bearing with us.”

Some problems did pop up yesterday, but all told the release went remarkably smoothly.

More throughout the day.

Sony’s played down the fact it’s stopped Columbia movies being streamed onto Xbox 360′s via Netflix by saying it’s an issue not specific to the platform. Happens all the time, apparently.

“This issue is not specific to Xbox or any other individual platform,” a Sony Pictures spokesperson told MTV.

“Sony Pictures is currently in discussions with the relevant parties to resolve certain licensing matters related to the distribution of its motion pictures.

“Given the ongoing nature of these discussions, we don’t think it is appropriate to comment further at this time.”

More through there.

There’s a lengthy explanation from Bungie here as to why Halo 3′s load times are increased by installing the game the an NXE-enabled 360′s hard drive.

For the time-pressed reader: the game caches maps to the HD whether it’s loading from the disc or the drive. Hence, if it’s running from the HD, it’s reading and writing from the same source. Which means it’s slower than if it’s running from the disc. That’s the main reason, anyway.

Got it? No? Read the full thing through the link, thicko.

We’ve been hearing plenty of reports throughout the day of patchy access to the new Xbox Live marketplace following this morning’s launch of NXE, as has Kotaku.

The problems have been occurring for both the website and 360 interfaces.

The UI update his another snag in the form of US users not being able to access Netflix, one of the upgrade’s main features, but, according to this Nelson post, the problem’s been resolved.

Aside from that, there doesn’t appear to be any other major hiccup with the NXE roll-out. So big hugs all round.

It couldn’t all be good. OXM’s posted up some shots of old 360 dashboard themes not working very well in NXE. Looks as though one thing didn’t make a smooth transition, at least.

See for yourself.

UK band the Sugababes are to launch NXE in Britain tomorrow night, “with a very special performance in central London as they’ve never been seen before,” according to Microsoft. The mind boggles.

Apparently the “girls” are going to have a bit of a go on Lips and meet their Avatars, all in the aid of the now-launched New Xbox Experience.

“We’re all really excited about tomorrow night,” said one of the group. “As massive music and movie fans, we were keen to get involved when we heard about the New Xbox Experience, and when we first tried out Lips last week you couldn’t get us off it!”

Press release after the link.

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The Major’s just confirmed the release of A Kingdom for Keflings, the first 360 game to supports Avatars.

The title’s a world-building thing, with the main characters your lovely new Avatars.

Blurb:

[ESRB: E (EVERYONE) MILD CARTOON VIOLENCE] Xbox LIVE Multiplayer 2-4, HD (High Definition). Unlock the full version of A Kingdom for Keflings for even more homes, buildings, and workshops to build! Join up to three of your friends via Xbox LIVE to cooperatively construct the kingdom of your dreams. The full version of A Kingdom for Keflings includes achievements to earn, more Keflings to attract and many more opportunities to fill your kingdom full of love! This game requires the Xbox 360 hard drive or the 512MB Memory Unit for storage. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

It costs 800 points.

Major Nelson’s just posted up a top ten list of things to do with your brand spanking, now-launched, New Xbox Experience.

First iff is to create an Avatar, apparently. Then to take a GamerPic of it. Then loads of other stuff. Get it all after the break.

Thanks, Roybott!

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Rare knocked up an Avatar of me a while back, but we’ve had to sit on the images until NXE launched. So here they are, after the break. That’s me, there, laughing and smiling. This is something I very rarely do, but this ably shows the cartoon nature of NXE’s Avatar stuff.

As you should know by now, NXE’s just gone live, meaning you can make your own persona for the service and stop looking at mine. Go!

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