More Details on 360 Fall Update Uncovered
By Chris on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 5:38 PM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Microsoft, Microsoft
At a Microsoft Japan press conference, more of the features have been revealed for the upcoming dashboard update. While the information was all in Japanese, Engadget was able to make sense of it all.
The update, which will be rolled out next Tuesday, December 4, will include a new way to navigate the dashboard. The ‘Games’ blade will now contain a “Games Library” option which will contain your Xbox Live Arcade games, demos, and recently played games. The navigation for this section will be “twist” navigation, which is apparently the name for the way you move around the Video Marketplace.
The Xbox Live Marketplace will also be redone with twist navigation, with the top level categories including “Recommended Content,” “Game Store,” “Video Store,” and “What’s New.” Hopefully this will allow for better organization, because navigating the Rock Band DLC is going to be a real hassle once there are dozens of albums and hundreds of individual songs to browse through.
The personal profile will be another new feature, and will allow for you to include more details about yourself in your Xbox Live profile. A biography, favorite links and colors – do with it whatever you would like.
Lastly, the ability to remove Xbox Live Arcade trials from your games played list will be provided. Apparently Xbox 360 Fanboy thinks it’s a bigger thing than I do, as I certainly don’t care if my Live profile says I played Joust back in March 2006.
Considering that this is a semi-annual update, I must say that I’m pretty disappointed with the lack of any big features. The friends-of-friends feature seems nice, but much of it has to do with better organizing things, which really isn’t particularly exciting.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the dashboard needed upgrading in that department, but when those are some of the main features in the update – while the PS3 gets regular updates as necessary – I can’t help but feel disappointed.
I agree it is a disappointment. I like how the ps3 is updated regularly with actual good and exciting things, where the xbox, which we pay monthly to pay online gets pretty lame updates like twice a year
I am happy about the deletable game history, I would like to rid my self of you played beautiful kumari; you are gay and lame.
I am like c’mon it is so funny
While i do agree with the frequency of the updates being to few and far between, I don’t think we should be complaining about what is included in the updates.
A few of the updates early on, such as those bricking consoles, and just small updates here and there were disappointing.
But lately, how can you complain about getting the video marketplace added? The new feature to be able to download original xbox games? Or the service being flooded with tons of new game demos constantly?
While i agree alot of the little updates such as “boot xbox to dashboard or dvd” is not worth waiting a year for, i do think that there are some great updates that have already come and our on their way.
Comparing to the ps3 on the update platform i don’t think is a fair comparison. They are almost completely different styles of service. Each with their own pro’s and con’s.
Indeed, this is about a months worth of coding at best.
Pretty pathetic really for Microsoft which has more coders than it realistically knows what to do with, and, of course, a limitless operational budget.
When are we going to see some of the basic functionality addressed: opening up file formats / optional drive speeds / IPTV / proper video marketplace in EMEA / things that actually make the unit more ‘valuable’ and useful.
They want it to be at the centre of peoples home entertainment, GREAT, then give it the functionality to do that!
Sort it out!
Updates are usualy all good. Hoever what about some new features? no one cares for the litte tweaks and patches. How about adding Divx/Xvid support that will add to the 360’s features. How about adding more real features instead of the ability to browse a friends list. thats lame, anyone who is adding a friend knows them from word of mouth or have played against someone already and simply add them.
I am paying for this service and its time to get some features instead of patches to keep hackers out. and usless quirks. The PSN even though its usless is looking better all the time. its free so what can i say? Moneysoft give us some new features. stop bogarting the online media for USA, give us IPTV, Internet browser, Flash and shockwave plugins etc. Being a center of media, its pretty limited i have to say.
And dont any fanboys compare PSN to Live, Live is still better, any paid service should be superior. and it is. I just want more features.