It’s hard to believe that the Xbox 360 was launched way back in 2005. It was pushed out a full year ahead of the system’s HD gaming competitor, the Sony PlayStation 3 which was followed shortly by the Nintendo Wii. For this reason, the Xbox 360 is also the one that is experiencing a midlife crisis sooner than its counterparts. In an effort to breathe new life into the reigning hardcore gaming console of choice, Microsoft recently unleashed a new interface known as the New Xbox Experience or NXE for short.
The NXE is a massive overhaul of not only the visual appearance of the Xbox 360 dashboard, but it’s also an overhaul of some of the core functionality that we’ve grown to love or loathe. Purists and hardcore gamers scoffed at some these upgrades, mainly because they seem to diminish the image of their beloved console as the choice of hardcore gamers. Although the update seems to be an overall success with most Xbox 360 users, it isn’t without its little quirks. However, by and large these upgrades are for the better.
Today we say goodbye to the “Blades” style interface of old, because the New Xbox Experience is here and it’s bringing all sorts of goodies to the proverbial yard. Here are some of our favourites.
Say Hello to my Xbox Avatar
Easily the most notable feature to be added to the NXE is the introduction of Xbox Avatars, which have been sometimes been called “Xii’s”. These function in much the same way as the Mii characters on the Nintendo Wii, but no one at Microsoft is going to fully acknowledge that. They say that the Avatars are so much more, offering more personality, more customization, and more integration.
Facial customizations range from eye color to nose size, even chin shapes and everything in between. You also have control of hairdos, skin color, even the shape of your Avatar’s ears. In addition, you can dress them up in all kinds of different clothing from hats to jeans to t-shirts and suits. On that note, you can even “fill out” your character’s clothing by making them skinnier or stockier.
Moving forward, Microsoft plans on selling additional outfits and other Avatar customizations through the Xbox Marketplace, much in the same way that they sell Gamer Pictures and Themes. It’s like a more Haute Couture version of Nintendo’s Mii’s.
With all the customizations available to users, we expect to see some really cool looking “Xii’s” appear in time. Most people though, like myself, have ones that eerily resemble our real life personas. We expect to see more avatar integration in some future games as well, much like what you can do with your Mii in Wii games like Mario Kart Wii. Their cartoony appearance, Microsoft hopes, will attract more casual gamers to the Xbox 360.
Much like how Nintendo is hoping to get “hardcore” gamers on the Wii by introducing more hardcore titles, Microsoft is reaching out in the opposite direction to attract more casual users with this cute new feature. All this while still appealing to “hardcore” fans of Call of Duty, Halo, and Gears of War. Not to mention, the possible immaturity of the Xbox Avatars gives them a little more personality too.
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A More Contemporary Appearance
Although I never really had a problem with the original Xbox 360 dashboard, it did start to look a little dated when you compared it to the more fluid interfaces that you found on devices like the Apple iPhone. With the refreshed NXE, the Xbox 360 has received a whole new look and as a result, you’ll find it much more pleasing to the eye.
Instead of the distinct “blades” of old, the NXE consists of a series of flowing sections, almost like what you saw in The Minority Report with Tom Cruise. The main navigation near the top-left looks a lot like what you get on the Microsoft Zune and then each of these vertical sections consist of a series of horizontally-flowing subsections.
This is much more fluid and flipping through these subsections is similar to what you get with CoverFlow on the Apple iPod. It looks great and this aesthetic style is much more in tune with the prevailing design winds of 2008. We like fluid. We like flow.
Even when looking at your own profile, the Xbox 360 gives you a series of sliding pages. This is much easier to read and navigate than the tired “list” format that it replaces. Further still, you are now able to remove games from your library for which you do not have any GamerScore points. We’ve all tried a few trials and borrowed a couple of games, so it’s great to clear the clutter. You can also see all the achievements that you have yet to earn.
Quick Launch, Media Player, Netflix Streaming…
Previously, when you hit the Xbox button on your controller, you’d bring up a rather simple overlay that let you see how many friends were online and that kind of thing. The new Quick Launch menu is much more robust than that.
From this quick launch menu, which is similar in layout to the old “blades” Xbox interface, you can access almost everything that you could from the main Xbox dashboard. You can flip through to the marketplace, jump into your video library, adjust your settings, and even directly launch into another game.
This last function is utterly fantastic because you no longer need to exit your current game, enter the dashboard, find your game, and then launch it. Instead, just hit the Xbox button, find your game in the quick launch menu, and off you go. This is much faster and more efficient. It’s perfect for those times when your friends are starting to jump on Xbox Live for a session of RockBand and start messaging you to get in the game.
The media player itself has undergone a few upgrades too and I like how the downloaded videos section is now displayed in the dashboard. Even surfing through the files that you have on an external device (e.g., USB flash drive) is a much more pleasing experience. If you’ve got an American Netflix account, you can stream movies directly from that service as well.
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Improved Marketplace Interface
In continuing with the fluidity offered by the new Xbox dashboard, the interface with the Xbox Marketplace is also vastly improved. Shifting your way through the various sections, like Game Add-ons and Xbox Classics, is much more pleasing to the eye, but it’s also more user-friendly as well.
The CoverFlow-style interface makes it really easy to see what’s new in the Xbox Live Arcade, because you can see the box art at a glance. In the screenshot above, you can immediately recognize the imagery associated with Portal, Castle Crashers, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 fading in the distance.
Even when you get beyond the game content to look at videos, the interface makes it a lot easier for you to get all sorts of “at a glance” information, because you can see several “pages” all at the same time.
For example, looking at how much it would cost you to rent Iron Man above, you can see a bit of the details page and the description page, as well as the main purchase page. You’ll also notice that the background automatically changes to suit the content, so you see Iron Man as your backdrop.
This is simpler, yet more robust than the previous system that consisted of a series of “windows” on a single page. Casual users could easily be overwhelmed by that kind of interface, because it could remind them more of a PC-style interaction. The flipping pages provided by NXE still provide the same amount of information, but in a much more pleasing and user-friendly way.
But the improvements to the Xbox Marketplace don’t stop at just your gaming console itself. The improvements expand well beyond your console and into your digital lifestyle. How so? Read on.
Stronger Integration with Xbox.com
I love how NXE is so tightly integrated with the Xbox.com website. While your Xbox 360 and your computer were reasonably separate under the old configuration, they gain a much deeper relationship with the New Xbox Experience. You’re not always at home with your 360, but you still want to see what’s new and exciting, right?
Well, you can now hop onto the Xbox.com website, log in with your Gamertag as you would on your 360, and peruse through the Xbox Marketplace. Not only can you see what’s new, but you can actually make the purchases right there from your Internet browser. This includes both free and paid content.
Got a few spare moments on your lunch hour? Bored out of your mind at your Sociology 101 class? Hop onto Xbox.com, surf the Marketplace, and buy new stuff just as you would from the comfort of your living room. Going forward, it’s very possible that Microsoft could start dishing out bonus offers through the website instead of issuing those convoluted 25-character redemption codes.
Regardless of whether you’re grabbing the free stuff or buying the latest games on the Xbox Live Arcade, you can see all the items that are in your download queue through the Xbox website. The next time that you boot up your Xbox 360 and log into Xbox Live, the downloads will immediately commence. Not surprisingly, you can also purchase additional Microsoft Points from the website as well.
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The Final Word on the New Xbox 360 Experience
The New Xbox Experience (NXE) really is remarkable, because it is able to almost transform the Xbox 360 into a whole new console three years after its initial launch. The hardware is fundamentally the same, but the refreshed interface and updated features bring it in the present. The Xbox Avatars are fun and looking at your friends list (above) is much more interesting than a simple list.
Naturally, it was not at all possible for me to discuss all the upgrades that came along with the introduction of the New Xbox Experience, but even those that didn’t get a section of their own on this article are worth mentioning. For example, if you enjoy streaming videos from your Media Center PC or from a network-attached storage device, you will find that the Xbox media player is substantially faster than before. The experience with USB storage didn’t get the same shot of pep, but the USB connection can only be so fast.
The new Install to Hard Drive feature is also very appealing, particularly to owners of the 120GB Xbox 360 Elite. This feature allows you to install your disc-based games onto the Xbox hard drive, reducing wear and tear on the optical drive, and improving overall performance. You still need to have the disc in there, but the game will run from the hard drive rather than the game disc. Each installation is about 6GB in size.
Microsoft has done a great job with NXE. Now we just need to see if they can bring the same fervor and enthusiasm to Windows Mobile, Windows 7, and the Zune.
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