A savvy reader over at Joystiq spotted a new announcement from Microsoft this morning: The New Xbox Experience, which will transform your console “through the magic of software,” is nearly upon us. Sneakily included in a new ad in the Xbox 360’s dashboard, which invites gamers to enter Rock Band 2’s “Rock the World” sweepstakes, is an announcement proudly saying, “Check out the New Xbox Experience coming in November!” See, that hardly seems fair. In order to get the latest announcements, we have to actually read the ads? Next you’ll be saying we have to actually read announcements to digest the information they contain! And that we have to learn to read to get that benefit in the first place! I don’t care for this new direction, where the curious and literate are rewarded with information. It’s clearly prejudiced against the blind and/or lazy.
The ad, if further explored, delivers a long list of features to be included in the New Xbox Experience. We don’t believe any of these features are ones we haven’t heard before through prior announcements, but just to recap, the ad promises:
- Buy Marketplace content via your PC and have it download automatically the next time you start your 360
- Stream 12,000+ movies and TV shows through the Netflix partnership
- New online “game shows” with Xbox LIVE Primetime
- Xbox LIVE Party lets you meet up for games and also share vacation photos
- Miis Avatars
- “Thousands” of community-developed games
- Download games directly to your hard drive for “quieter play”
Speaking personally, I’m most excited about the new Netflix deal. Microsoft promised the new service would be free if I had a Gold account and a Netflix account, and I have both of those. My household, sadly, contains inhabitants with disparate tastes and schedules, which makes movie night a difficult proposition, so the ability to get a movie going on the fly, when it suits our tastes, is a promise I sincerely hope MS can deliver on.
Most of all, though, I want to see how our currently-existing gamerpics, which MS has promised will work in the New Xbox Experience, will be implemented. Will we get custom avatars based on our gamerpics? I have to say, Microsoft, if I can’t have an avatar that looks like the free picture of Daniel Craig from The Golden Compass that I’m using for some reason, I’ll be sorely disappointed.
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