This afternoon, I visited the Microsoft press lounge for what was supposed to be a 30-minute presentation on Fable II...and ended up being a full playtime session of their various titles that lasted over two hours. Good times. Halo Wars, Fable II, Banjo, Lips...I got lots of time with them all. But one of the more interesting things I sat in on was a demo of The New Xbox Experience, Microsoft's revamp of the 360 UI coming this Fall via a new firmware update.

We saw the screens and brief looks at the interface's sections during the press conference, but sitting 3 feet from a development kit running the system on a TV is something different. According to the MS rep, the system is currently going through a lot of testing and feedback sessions, so things may or may not change in the coming months. A question that we all asked, almost at the same time, was "What happens to our Themes that we've payed all those Space Bucks for?"

If you've seen the new UI, it looks like the only place that they could fit in is on the new, and drastically smaller "blade" interface that replaces the "Xbox Guide" popup, since it's basically a reduced represenatation of the current dashboard. Not so. We were passed a laptop that displayed o concept image of what the reps say is likely what will be in the final UI. See that up there? Your themes will now be more or less wallpapers faded into the background, with each "level" of the menu system (Community, Primetime, etc.) displaying a different image in the Theme selection of choice. Cool! As well, remember how on the PS3's XMB how you can view clips of  videos on little thumbnails? Something like that is in the works here, too. Oh, and for the record: Yes, the Avatars are very cool. Necessary? Maybe not, but they're cool.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (4)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

mage626 said:

Am I the only one who is mad about this dashboard?!? It looks horrible, like a cross between a Wii and a mall information center. Now, if we are lucky, M$ will do us the "favor" of still using our themes that we paid money for, but we can only see a 1/4 of it anyway, because the giant clunkey goofball avatar's head is in the way...

July 17, 2008

Raining Light said:

Yea I can use my themes, but they are 1/2 blocked by the stupid boxes for everything. And there is the "floor" that takes up 1/2 the screen. This makes themes kinda pointless. The dashboard was fine, now they screwed it all up.

July 17, 2008

CooperativePeon said:

Meh, I really don't care if themes are shown or not. I change mine so often, that I'm not attached to the idea. Plus, I agree with Raining Light. Right now, themes are blocked by all the ads and links.

July 17, 2008

Raining Light said:

I was talking about the new dashboard, and all the boxes on it. The current dashboard is fine. Not hard to find things or anything that others are gripping about(atleast to me). And you can still see your themes. The nex way the theme is mostly blocked by all the junk on the screen. The "floor", and its ugly gray boriness. Instead of just the name of a game that have to put the game box up there, what a waste.

July 18, 2008