Gizmodo Australia » xbox experience

Sign Up Now to Get the New Xbox Experience Early

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:02:47 +0000

Major Nelson has just dropped the details on how to get into the New Xbox Experience early. They’re looking for a “few thousand” participants. All you’ve gotta do is sign up and answer a few questions (click here) to be considered for the Preview Update. Gold and Silver Xbox Live members can apply, but Gold gets first priority. If you’re accepted, you’ll hear from them in about a week, meaning the preview should be within the next 10-14 days.

AU: Haven’t had a chance to see if it’s available to Aussies… Anyone know? Share the knowledge in comments.

[Sign Up via Major Nelson]

Play With the New Xbox Experience As Soon As Next Week

Matt Buchanan — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:30:00 +0000

The New Xbox Experience is, in a word, fantastic—I got to check it myself out last week, and was amazed by its totally smooth re-imagining of the Xbox UI. If you’re jealous, you won’t have to be for long. On his podcast, Major Nelson not-so-subtly hinted you’ll be able play with it early, maybe as soon as next week:

“In fact, if you want to get your hands on it, let me just say this: keep an eye on my blog next week. If you want to get your hands on it early, that’s all I’m going to say.” If we’re really lucky that means getting our New Xbox Experience (beta) on later that week, though it might be the week or two after that (since three weeks would be a little late for an early taste).

Even if you do wait until Nov. 19, you probably won’t be disappointed, unless you know, you’re a miserable person and just hate everything. [Destructoid]

Movie Parties and Photo Sharing Might Be Coming to New Xbox Experience

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Besides just looking a lot snazzier, the New Xbox Experience uses a whole new foundation that’s server-based rather than sitting on your hard drive, so it’s easy for Microsoft to add on features and apps. One possibility is basically movie parties—you and your friends could all watch Indiana Jones on Netflix at the same time—or more likely, photo sharing. Update: A reader reminded us that movie sharing was actually supposed to be in the NXE in the first place, so you can probably count on it. But uh, where’d it go in the meantime?

All Microsoft has to do is “build that app, drop it in, party enable it and we’re good to go” says Xbox senior strategist Rob Gruhl. So while the movie party feature isn’t specifically planned on, since “those types of things are certainly the aspiration,” according to Xbox marketing head Albert Penello and they’ve discussed photo sharing, it looks like we can definitely expect to see some social app action like that in the future. [MTV Multiplayer]

The New Xbox Experience Requires 256MB Storage Card, Minimum

Mark Wilson — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:45:00 +0000

It’s no surprise that The New Xbox Experience will squeeze within a memory card—Microsoft wants to make the software upgrade fit on removable flash storage for Xbox 360 Arcade users who lack hard drives. But the company has made it clear that Arcade users looking to upgrade will need a 256MB storage card, not the smaller 64MB model. So in other words, not every user will find themselves able to make the upgrade free. But this sort of situation is exactly why you shouldn’t buy a 360 without a hard drive. [Xbox360Fanboy]

Hands On With The New Xbox Experience

Adrian Covert — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:00:00 +0000

The New Xbox Experience is ready to go live soon as part of the Xbox fall update, and after getting some quality face time with the UI and it’s new features, I’m pretty impressed. The update addresses the core Xbox software on two levels: most notable is that the design of the UI received a complete overhaul, (mostly) eschewing the blades for a more immersive, intuitive, Media Center-like experience. Secondly, it adds new functionality, allowing for Netflix streaming, group-based gaming, heavily customised avatars, ripping games straight to HDD and an all new quick menu that comes up when you hit the home button.

The New Xbox Experience Cometh on November 19

Gizmodo US Edition — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:47:37 +0000

Microsoft’s New Xbox Experience, the upcoming dashboard system that’ll let you create avatars and social network, now has a set date for its worldwide launch–November 19. The guys from Redmond showed a completed version of the NXE at the Tokyo Game Show, and included a little Xbox-avatar Bill Gates announcing that he’s “a PC.” Cute.

In about six weeks, you’ll get the ability to create your Xbox mini-you, as well as get access to themes and a new games channel that lets you browse visually and includes new games details pages. Also up, a Spotlight channel that’ll focus on popular and new content—games, movies, demos etc. [Kotaku]

Xbox 360 DVD Vs. Hard Drive

Mark Wilson — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:45:00 +0000

The New Xbox Experience will provide 360 gamers with the option to preload entire games onto the system’s hard drive. Because of its faster data transfer rate, this should translate to faster load times, especially for earlier generation titles. In this clip, we see a side-by-side of GTAIV loaded on DVD vs. the hard drive. The result? The game loads, according to our unscientific counting, about 12 seconds faster from the hard drive. If you’ve got the space, we’re guessing it’s worthwhile. But our 20GB model only has about 3GB free at a time. [via Maxconsole]

Experience the New Xbox, Uh, Experience

Matt Buchanan — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:00:00 +0000

Microsoft has launched a site all about the New Xbox Experience which gives you a feel for what it’ll be like in motion by simulating the new dashboard. It also has some videos of new features in addition to the avatar creation one we already saw, like Parties, deeper social networking and more community content. I’m pretty excited about it. Too bad the site doesn’t mention a date, though Major Nelson swears it won’t be right after that massive outage on Monday. [New Xbox Experience via Kotaku]