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If you have been all gitty on the Netflix feature coming to the NXE on your XBOX 360 this November 19th. Then check out these links with indepth testing of the new service. The most important thing is the fact that the 360 will be the only place to begin with the new Neflix HD content. More information after the links.
Head on over to our NXE page for the link. This videos are great and give you a more current feel of what to excpect from the update this November 19th. Remember to scroll to the bottom of post for all updates.
Over at Gamestop.com there is a new product available for pre order online. They will be selling a special Hard Drive XBL bundle…!
The easiest entry into Xbox LIVE for Arcade
“The November issue of Qore contains a beta key for Home, which means a public beta is finally approaching.”
November is right around the corner..remember SONY PS3 owner if you want to get into the HOME Beta this upcoming month you will have to buy either the one month Qore or the annual Qore to get the Key to the HOME Beta.
“Where you’ll be able to buy branded items for your Avatar.”
Microsoft is planning to launch an ‘Avatar Store’ next spring, which will allow gamers to buy branded items for their Avatars, a new feature coming with the release of the New Xbox Experience update on November 19.
Gamers will be able to buy game related items from publishers, like T-shirts, as well as non-game related items, perhaps related to football, Microsoft has revealed.
Robin Burrowes, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) product manager for Xbox LIVE, told VideoGamer.com at a recent hands-on preview event for NXE that it believes the potential is there for fashion brands to launch new clothing ranges through the store, and that gamers will be able to dress their Avatar like a character from a game.
The New Xbox Experience update will allow gamers to create an Avatar, which will become the virtual representation of their 360 gaming self. For launch there will be a raft of free accessories and clothing items, but Microsoft said it has plans for gamers to be able to buy new items, like game-branded T-shirts, and unlock accessories that are related to in-game Achievements, like Guitar Hero guitars.
Burrowes said: “The plan of record will be to launch a more extensive Avatar Store from spring time onwards next year, and that store in theory would have branded content in there, game publisher IP stuff in there as well.”
When asked what might be sold through the Avatar Store, Burrowes replied: “There’s a whole creative canvas for these things. Due to tight time lines there’s nothing at launch as such but our vision for these in the future is well and truly tied to game releases and us working with publishers very closely to encourage rewards from those games to be tied to your Avatar.
Updated video on NXE page. The video is located at bottom of page. After we get the NXE update we will have the option to install full games onto the HDD for faster load times less pop ups in the background and over all quiteness to the 360 while playing games.
Head of Xbox Live says console service eases pressure on High Street space.
Xbox Live boss John Schappert has told MCV that Xbox Live’s role as an ‘online retailer’ is taking the pressure off the battle for High Street shelf space.
Speaking in the build-up to the ‘revolutionary’ Xbox Live Dashboard update next month, Schappert said:
“There are games coming that would not get the space at retail, and that’s a big part of why we’re refreshing the system.”
“We want to widen the content to make it more accessible for different users. It’s pretty hard to get retail distribution these days, and shelf space continues to be a challenge and people are opting for that – Penny Arcade is a great example of that.”
Over at the Gamerscore Blog they just posted a great update on the upcoming NXE update for the XBOX 360.
More information on Netflix with a little bit more details on the entire update. Check it out by clicking below.
Hackers, like life, will find a way. Sony knows that all too well thanks to the PSP, but so far the PlayStation 3 has stood strong in the face of legions of nerds trying to find a way to exploit it. A potentially major breakthrough may have been made, though, as well-known PS3 hacker StreetskaterFU (we’ve no idea what he’s going for with that name — really) has managed to decrypt the beta client for Sony’s PlayStation Home service. Curious devs can now poke around in the files looking for a way to exploit the newish in-game XMB functionality, potentially allowing homebrew apps and game backups without hard drive swapping. There’s no guarantee it will lead anywhere in the end, but you don’t care either way, right? Our upstanding readership would never participate in such heinously illegal activities.
There were two main reasons Microsoft decided to totally redo the Xbox 360 interface: 1) to make everything easier to find and 2) making it easier for the Xbox team to make changes to the system on the fly (instead of having to wait for semi-annual updates).
After spending a little hands on time with NXE, I’m pretty convinced they’ve succeeded with that first goal (time will tell with the second). A whole slew of navigation options make it easier to locate anything from a recently downloaded demo to a group of friends playing Call of Duty 4 that you can party with. The Spotlight channel highlights whatever’s new in any channel (movie trailers, content packs, demos, etc.) and the actual game library (gasp!) has a details page that will display all the stuff you’ve downloaded for it. You can even see stuff you haven’t downloaded, like if there’s a new map pack, and jump from the detail page directly to Marketplace to buy the content.
So no more frantically scrolling this way and that, trying to find the Alpha Protocol demo I just downloaded or figure out where they put the Fable 2 trailer. Even better, the game detail page displays box art, screen shots, streaming videos – the kind of stuff you normally have to go to a website to find. So maybe we won’t need a web browser with NXE (and if we do, they can apparently add one with a quick updated that we don’t have to wait half a year for).
The big ticket item for me is the avatar system. It’s the only part of NXE that I’m skeptical about. I don’t mind that they were replacing the left-to-right scrolling “blades” with up-and-down scrolling “channels” (that are populated with “slots” – gotta love that 360 vocabulary). I also don’t care one way or the other that the visual style of the interface is more “casual-friendly” with a simple (if dull) layout and punched up movie/Netflix features.
I do mind that they’re spending money to make a total rip off of the Nintendo Miis. I mean, really, does capturing the casual audience really mean you’ve gotta have chunky people with big, bright eyes that wander around, doing nothing but sneezing, winking and waving?
As soon as I started making my NXE avatar, I had to stop comparing it to Nintendo. The system Rare came up with has more in common with the Sims than it does with anything else. There were more options for facial and body structure, color and decoration. I could have freckles, vampire fangs, or a mullet. There were ear piercings, soul patches and whacky skin colors (e.g. green). There are idle animations (my favorite is the guy one where he picks lint off his arm, grimaces and flicks it away), and hidden “treats” that the avatars react to (like when you zoom in too fast – you might bump your avatar in the head and knock him senseless).
It’s all very cute and accessible – the kind of thing I’d give to my grandma to get her to even go near the 360. But there’s also a larger goal that the avatars accomplish for seasoned 360 users: they give you a sense of personality.
“We wanted gamers to be able to express themselves,” says demo expert Albert Penello, Director of Global Marketing for Microsoft’s Xbox 360. “Like when you’re going into Friends to party with [strangers]… we wanted you to be able to look at a group of avatars and [automatically] know whether or not you’d like to party with them.”
We put up a dedicated Xbox Experience page to detail the functions and features that all connected Xbox 360’s will get come this November 19th. Information will be added as more become available. Please feel free to comment and leave any suggestions you may have. You can find the link to the NXE Page on the left under the Pages section.
Have a great day…!
This morning I was looking over the usual major blogs and to my surprise I ran into this little bit of news on the Forbes website game shows for the NXE. I was really looking forward to this offering as well as the Netflix party stream mode but look like the only functional feature other than the ability to install me games is, creating a cool avatar. Why oh Why are we losing Xbox 360 losing all of the main functions stated throughout the entire marketing campaign?
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