Tag Archives: nxe

Rare are having to redesign the Xbox 360′s avatars for Kinect, because of problems when using their cartoony proportions.

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

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Microsoft’s confirmed to EG that Xbox Live will be down for maintenance tomorrow.

Why? For the summer update, silly.

The update goes live tomorrow to the public after being beta trialed by selective members of Live who filled in a survey a while back.

Get the full lowdown on the update here.

Microsoft has released loads of avatar clothing pics for the NXE update, which is expected to arrive on 360′s August 11.

CVG has 136 of em for you to look through.

It’s gonna be hard to choose which to get , we reckon.

Engadget’s posted a huge amount of information on the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard summer update, as seen here.

The download will include updates to account management, video display options, user ratings and tons more.

There’s too much to post here. Hit the link. The first official shots of the update – premium Avatar clothing included – were released overnight.

Microsoft’s released some official shots of the rumoured upcoming 360 dashboard update, confirming that premium Avatar clothing is soon to be with us. Get them all from Gamersyde.

You’ll soon be able to buy a jacket for 160MSP. Cool. We think.

Other additions include content rating, Friends list sorting, and an ‘overall Achievements/Gamerscore’ tab.

Take a look. There’s no date on it yet. Thanks, Blerk.

Rare animation head Louise Ridgeway told VG247 at Develop this week that the developer’s work on 360′s Avatar system had altered consumers perception of the machine as something for “hardcore gamers”.

“I really think that we’ve kind of changed the face of the Xbox,” she said.

“It’s gone from something that was always perceived as a hardcore gamer’s console. I mean, I really like games. I like Resident Evil, I like Street Fighter, I like the typical boys games, but when I boot up the Xbox 360 and my daughter gets on there to play Street Fighter – she’s really good as Ken – I’m feel really proud of the fact that she can join in.

“It’s just that little bit more inviting, you know, and I think it broadens it to a whole new demographic of people.”

Ridgeway added that 360′s exeperience is inclusive, and should be viewed as such.

“It’s a really great console, and there’s so many great things on it to play that everybody should be involved,” she said.

You can listen to the full interview with Louise, recorded at Develop this week, in our latest podcast.

SCEA’s director of network operations, Eric Lempel, has said that there isn’t a NXE-like overhaul in PSN’s future.

“What we find is that people really like our current interface,” he told CVG. “We did redesign the PlayStation Store last April to make some improvements, make it faster, make it better, and we’re always listening to consumers. But right now the XMB is an Emmy Award-winning interface and people like it.

“They’re very comfortable with it. So we’re not looking to do anything radical. We’ll still do some research behind the scenes and see what can we do to make things better, or how can we make it so consumers find content faster, but right now we’re pretty happy with it.

“No plans right now to do anything like what the competitor has done.”

There ya go.

Xbox Live is currently experiencing “technical issues.”

Here’s the notice Microsoft has put up for customers on the status page:

“Users may experience difficulties when attempting to use Marketplace and/or making purchases. We are aware of the problem and working to resolve the technical issues. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience.”

Hopefully it’ll be fixed soon.

Thanks, Shack.

The My Xbox portion of Xbox.com was updated during yesterday’s downtime.

Users will notice that the layout has changed, shows your Avatar and friends’ Avatars and status on the main page, and pop-up windows allow you interact with your gaming pals.

If they are online or off, it gives you options like sending messages and checking gamerscores.

Not a massive change, but it looks a bit better and seems more user friendly.

Via Joystiq.

The Microsoft event yesterday mentioned loads of stuff coming to Xbox Live, and we touched on that briefly here. However, we have been handed more details this morning.

• Avatar Marketplace: Coming this summer, in-game Avatar Awardables, animated Props, full costumes, premium clothing for purchase all through the Avatar editor.

• User Ratings: A five star rating system is being added that lets you rate any content in the Games Marketplace and will allow users to organize by rating and find the community’s favorite content.

• Performance Updates: Xbox Live service will be upgraded for improved performance including better guide and friends access, revamping the friends sorting list, Achievement views and improved matchmaking support.

Expect all three improvements to land sometime this summer.

Via CVG.

Twitter and Facebook integration are coming to Xbox Live this Fall. Your living rooms will never be the same.

Mixing with the NXE interface, users will be able to view photos, friends, updates, and add people from the application.

D’Toid has loads of screens for it.

Expect it to launch sometime this fall.

A new Xbox 360 ad showing Avatars how to deal with their “Reals” has popped up on Xbox.com. Watch it below.

It also explains how to find movie downloads and other stuff, all from the perspective of New Xbox Experience being the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Go watch.

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OXM will include the New Xbox Experience dashboard update in it’s next issue.

Now, those without internet access with be able to obtain the new UI with the included disc. You will need this eventually: soon it’ll be a non-negotiable update to play new games.

The bright side to being forced into the 21st Century is that you along with the rest of us will have a goofy avatar.

Progress is a wonderful thing.

Microsoft is to include the NXE update in all new game discs.

The first titles to get this mandatory update will be HAWX and MLB: 2K9.

You won’t be able to play them unless you accept the dashboard update that pops up when you insert the disc.

There’s no escape. Welcome to Avatars, unconnected people.

Design studio Gridplane has revealed one of the many mock-ups it developed for Microsoft’s NXE.

The company was tasked with creating new ways for users to interact with multimedia.

Gridplane also mentioned that it came up with an “immersive 3D environment” for users to explore games and events within the Xbox Live Community which also never made it (obv.).

Everything’s over at Joystiq.

By Mike Bowden

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has told GameDaily that he believes Xbox Live and the Netflix service is a “proverbial goldmine” for Microsoft.

Pachter reckons “as many as 1 million [XBL Gold members] will join as Netflix members in the next year,” and predicts 35 percent of new 360 owners in 2009 will also purchase a Gold membership.

Netflix saw 200,000 new subscribers after the service made its début on NXE and 1 million Xbox Live Gold subscribers are already signed up, says Pachter.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

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.

Rare has said the Xbox 360 avatars were a feature originally intended to launch long ago.

“The concept of avatars is something that we came up with about four years ago now,” Mark Betteridge, studio boss, told GamesIndustry.biz.

“We were thinking about how hardcore and spiky the previous Xbox was, and everybody was of a view that the new one was going to be more smooth and friendly. Everybody was in agreement that was the right thing.

“So we pitched avatars as something out of the box with an interface where you build a character that looks like yourself, or whoever you want it to look like, and can play mini-games and things like that – but it represents you on the Live system, that’s all it was based around,” he added.

Plenty more through there.