Microsoft unveils new XboxLive features for 360 at Paradox Designs

e3 logo Today was the first day of E3, and microsoft kicked it off with a bang, revealing many things at their press conference. Things from innovative new games to xbox live features. The new games, while cool looking, don’t really pike my interest. However, the xbox live update looks like it will be amazing.

If any of you remember, I posted a post about some rumors of what the new features in the update will be. You can find that post here RumorWatch: Xbox360 Spring Update

All these statements are from myself only. They are all interpretations of the information Microsoft gave out at E3 2008. None of these should be taken as official, as they are only speculation.

New Dashboard interface

Well, the Xbox 360 Dash has changed completely. Instead of blades and backgrounds, everything has been replaced by a sleek new 3d view. From what I have seen, each view has multiple tiers. I will be referring to each view as a panel, and each tier as a pane (till Microsoft releases the official names, they keep mentioning Channels, but that was only one blog post on Major Nelsons site.) You select a main view (Eg games, Movies, Primetime), then select groups under that. The interface looks as if it will give you much more information than the other dash did, and this is quite nice.

The top right of all panels has a picture of your avatar, and pictures of the other avatars in your party. Your avatar has a yellow border around it. If your alone, it looks like it displays your name and gamerscore. The bottom right displays what controller is currently connected (that is, the X logo with the colored quadrant)
Each panel is accessed by moving up and down through a menu in the top left of the screen.

The default panel (My Xbox) displays a view showing you a gamercard like pane (with your avatar), and behind it are panes for the current disk in the drive, your game library, a photo library, a video library, and more, although I cant see any more than is mentioned.

Community Features

Microsoft claims that they have made it easier to keep groups of friends together, through a party system, much like that in Halo 3. From what i can see, players can form a party of up to 8 players, then go to most any area in the console with that group. They can share photos among each other, chat, watch netflix movies, etc. I cannot tell what the full extent of these features will be, but they look quite promising.

Other Panes

The other panes look like they show the top content, much the way the “Marketplace” blade does now. There is a pane for games, and a pane for movies. It looks like when one of these panes is selected, more options for sorting become avalible.

Netflix

One feature that is really going to be amazing is the integration of netflix into the Xbox360. Now, instead of having to stream from your laptop, or use a special TV box, you can just enque movies from any compuer, or browse for movies from the Xbox. The party system claims to be able to integrate into this, but is unclear how. I think that the party system will allow for one person to rent a movie, then for a group of people to be able to watch it together. If this is what happens, that will be huge. People across the country will be able to watch movies together, as if they were sitting in the same room.

PrimeTime

Microsoft also keeps mentioning this PrimeTime service, in which players can play games against large numbers of players. The demonstrations i have seen look like large game shows, eg 1 vs 100. This could bring casual gaming to a whole new level.

Browse marketplace from any web browser

Microsoft also claimed that people will be able to browse the live marketplace from any web browser. This could be quite handy, for say if you were away from your console, but wanted to download one day only pictures/videos/themes/content. Also, one could start up huge downloads while still at work or school, and when they get home, be ready to play. I am not sure about the execution of this, but I suspect it will use some sort of Wake on lan technology to turn the console on remotely.

Blades are not lost!

Do not worry, fans of the current Xbox360 blades. They are back in a sexier fashon than before. Now, instead of the fairly useless guide interface that sits on the current software, the new 360 guide will be the old blade layout, but in a sexier dress.