Tag Archives: new xbox experience

Speaking to VG247, Xbox Live product unit manager Jerry Johnson has confirmed that Avatar clothing will be constantly streaming onto the New Xbox Experience for the next half a year.

“We’re going to be continually releasing and unlocking clothes for the next six months,” he said. “They’ll be coming out in theme packs.”

There’s no word right now on whether or not you’re going to have to pay for this stuff, but don’t be hugely shocked if you will.

NXE is now live! Go get it!

The New Xbox Experience is now live and available to download. You are now living the “biggest moment in the history of the internet.”

The UI’s release marks the end of an epic journey of hyping and media bombardment since E3 this year, and heralds, according to Microsoft, a “new era of entertainment.”

Xbox boss Shane Kim said yesterday that NXE is “a big part of [Live’s] transformation from a multiplayer matchmaking service to a social and entertainment network.”

For all the official information on what NXE means for you and your 360, hit this for details on Parties, Netflix HD streaming (if you’re American), Avatars, the UI’s functional structure and tons more.

We’re still waiting for direct confirmation from Microsoft, but it seems official: New Xbox Experience will launch at 10.00am GMT this morning.

The plan is to deliver the new 360 user interface to 14 million people in an orderly fashion. We’re still disbelieving that the internet won’t melt.

We’ll bring you confirmation as soon as the update goes live. There’s a video explaining how to install NXE here.

According to Joystiq, NXE will launch this morning with a service devoid of “hundreds” of Columbia films. Why? Because they’re owned by Sony, silly.

MTV clarified the removal of a swathe of movies from the service is indeed a licensing issue, carrying the following quote from Netflix comms boss Steve Swasey:

“As watching instantly becomes a more prominent part of the Netflix service, our goal is to have all of our streaming content licensed for all of our partner devices. We’re doing well in this area, but it will take some time before we fully achieve that goal.

Today, titles regularly come in and out of license and there is a natural ebb and flow to what we have on license at any given point in time. In the case of Xbox 360, a few hundred titles are temporarily unavailable to be streamed via the Xbox game console. Those titles are still available to be watched on subscribers’ computers and on TVs via other partner devices, and we hope they’ll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly.”

This X3F story claims that New Xbox Experience will launched today at 5.00am EST – that’s 10.00am GMT, or 11.00am CET if you’re on the mainland.

We’re chalking this up as rumour because we’ve asked Microsoft about this twice this week, to be told both times that the specific launch time of the UI update hasn’t been made available internally yet.

That doesn’t mean this isn’t true. In fact, it almost certainly is. We’ll try to get a confirmation of this UK time this morning.

Xbox boss Shane Kim’s told Forbes that tomorrow’s NXE launch heralds a major step in a journey from Xbox Live as was to a Facebook-esque networking tool.

New Xbox Experience is “a big part of [Live's] transformation from a multiplayer matchmaking service to a social and entertainment network,” he said, adding that “Microsoft will be “investing more in social networking capabilities.”

Kim also claimed that NXE is a signal that Microsoft is trying to “tap into is the growth of social networking and the disruption in the media industry.”

NXE, the major Xbox 360 UI revamp, is about to kick off. Ready?

Xbox.com went down for maintenance earlier today, and came back with the promised web-based Marketplace – complete with “coming soon” graphic.

The new feature will allow people to buy stuff from Live then download it to their 360s later on, which is probably pretty cool.

Also, as you can see here if you’re logged in to Xbox.com, Avatars are now being included on profile pages for those who already have NXE.

And if you haven’t, the wait’s almost over: it launches tomorrow.

With the launch of New Xbox Experience tomorrow, Microsoft’s press released what it claims to be a “new era of entertainment” akin to the launch of the colour television.

We’re about to enter a “bold new future,” apparently, one in which people can stream HD movies and “every experience is shared with friends and families, in the same room or around the world.”

“The future of home entertainment is Xbox 360 – it’s on demand, it’s high definition, it’s always social, it’s all in one place,” said Xbox boss Don Mattrick.

“With the New Xbox Experience we will reach the next generation of Xbox owners, 25 million and beyond. We are at a watershed moment, backed by the largest entertainment brands, with an incredible line up of entertainment unmatched in any industry.”

We’re not making it up. Press release after the link.

More »

Here we go. Microsoft confirmed today that anyone who signed up for the NXE preview program will now receive the UI update when they switch on their 360s.

The move signals the first proper phase of the software’s roll-out, which will go Live-wide tomorrow.

NXE was given to 10,000 people as a preview last week.

No figures have been given on how many people signed up for the preview, but it’ll obvious pale into insignificance compared to the 14 million users that’ll be eligible to receive the new system tomorrow.

Just in case every single minute detail of Microsoft’s New Xbox Experience, launching Wednesday, hasn’t yet been made public, a new video has been released showing what you’ll see after the update has been installed.

The launch video shows black cars driving around a world full of colour and floaty, bubbly things presumably intented to reflect the kind of Xbox you’ll have when you switch on your box.

Excited? Head over to Kotaku to ensure absolutely no surprises will be in wait on November 19.

By Mike Bowden

Nelson’s posted up a video of NXE being installed, which is probably about the only aspect of the new 360 UI that hasn’t yet been covered in excruciating detail by Microsoft in the run up to its November 19 launch.

The lid’s pretty much off now: “If you’re in the preview program, feel free to let others know what to expect,” said the exec.

After the link.

More »

According to this Nelson post, Microsoft has now sent out the last 10,000 preview access emails to people wanting an early look at New Xbox Experience.

If you weren’t selected, never fear: the update fully launches on November 19, or “next Wednesday.”

Microsoft’s released a trailer for New Xbox Experience that make it look as though it’s made good on Xbox 360′s promise to get into the “lifestyle” space.

You wife/girlfriend/rentboy may well be interested. No word of a lie. Look and see.

NXE releases on November 19.

More »

After the break. It’s the full process of creating an Avatar in the New Xbox Experience, as filmed by IGN. Looks very snazzy, so it does.

NXE launches on November 19. Thanks, Kotaku.

More »

Another week, another Gamerscoreblog NXE update, this time on the subject of Parties and photo-sharing on the new 360 UI.

As ever, there’s plenty of detail through there and grabs of how it’s all going to work. New Xbox Experience releases on November 19.

According to this Businessofvideo.com post, US gamers are to get free trials to Netflix streaming access in 360 games.

The service itself doesn’t go live until the release of New Xbox Experience on November 19, but it doesn’t look as though ayone cares about such minor details: the trial cards have popped up in the 360 version of Quantum of Solace, apparently.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Speaking to CVG, Microsoft’s said that a ton of stuff was dropped from New Xbox Experience. Hardly a shock, but there we are.

“There’s still a lot of stuff we want to do,” said Xbox Live’s Jerry Johnson.

“Half the things we wanted to do [in NXE] we cut out of the service.

“One of the nice things we did was this architectural change to make things more published and driven from the service. All of a sudden we opened up the platform to say ‘I don’t have to wait until once or twice a year to release something onto the dashboard’.”

NXE releases on November 19. What’s left of it, anyway.

Epic head Mike Capps reckons Microsoft’s upcoming additions to Live with NXE mean the firm’s winning in the console online space. He said so to GI.

“The way they’re expanding the Live presence – you know, they’re leading right now, they’re winning,” he said.

“And the way you continue to do that is to keep adding cool stuff that everybody wants. Netflix is a great example – making me watch my movies on my Xbox.”

Capps added that even relatively minor changes to Live, such as forcing users to boot through the dash, were indicative of ‘the win’.

“I love the fact that you boot through the dashboard now – I understand how some gamers might not like it so much, but that’s how you join into the Xbox Live experience – your dashboard comes up, you get to see what’s new, hey, there’s some free stuff you didn’t know about – instead of just booting into your game and missing the community,” he said.

More through there.

Microsoft’s confirmed that New Xbox Experience isn’t yet finished, but has assured that the 360 UI update will be completely done and dusted in time for its release on November 19.

“It’s not,” said Major Nelson podcast regular “e” when asked why Microsoft doesn’t just ship NXE now seeing as it’s “obviously ready”.

“It’s really, really close, but there are a lot of things that surround the NXE, that are part of the experience, that aren’t necessarily in the code that lives in your console, and all of those need to be 100 percent done as well, not just the console code.

“So, we’re still just buttoning up all those loose ends, making sure everything works just right. The public preview is a chance for some people to get a taste of it. They’ll probably notice a few things moving around during the preview, but we’re almost done, and on the 19th we’ll be ready for everybody.”

The New Xbox Experience is a full UI revamp for Xbox 360, who’s launch on November 19 will be the “the biggest moment in the history of the internet” according to Xbox product boss Aaron Greenberg. That quote will never be old.

X3F reports that Microsoft’s New Xbox Experience has been leaked onto the internet.

However, those of you wishing to partake in piracy and risking the wrath of MS’s 9th-ranked assassins better be warned that installing the update means Xbox Live is disabled until November 19. So look before you leap. Or probably don’t leap at all.

By Mike Bowden