360 Dashboard update in a week?

by Kevin Kelly { Oct 24th 2006 at 9:58AM }

Xbox Live's Major Nelson discussed in his latest podcast that he has been playing around with the upcoming Xbox 360 Wireless Communicator on his development kit, which of course has "excellent" sound quality. Be sure and listen to the entire podcast. Near the end "e" from Microsoft gets a jab in on the PS3 by way of an article he read here on Joystiq.

However, Major Nelson goes on to say that "even if you went to the store today and bought it, you couldn't use it until you have the fall upgrade to the dashboard." This is an extremely interesting little tidbit, because every online retail site that lists this for sale has a release date of October 31st -- which is also a Tuesday, the day new retail items are typically released.

So, does this mean that the dashboard update is less than a week away? It is entirely possible that Microsoft could change the release date for the communicator to whenever they wish, but with two major consoles launching less than three weeks after the 31st it seems doubtful that they'd want to do that. What's more likely is that the fall dashboard update will probably appear sometime before the 31st, or possibly even that day. Microsoft is going to want to have every oar in the water pulling for the finish line through the rest of the year, and not dropping updates after the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii launches.

Our prediction is -- drumroll please -- big dashboard update early next week. Mark your calendars ... in pencil.

[Thanks, Josh and Thomas]

Listen -- Major Nelson's "Show #199: The one about Gears and the maintenance" (around 1:16:30 in)

Tags: 360, Communicator, dashboard, Fall update, launch, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, podcast, PS3, update, Wii, Wireless, Xbox

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

HotShotX @ Oct 24th 2006 10:03AM

DAMNIT JOYSTIQ! FIX YOUR NEWS SUBMISSION FORM!

NEWS FLASH:
TAKE-TWO TO HAVE JACK THOMPSON THROWN IN JAIL!

http://kotaku.com/gaming/bully/jack-faces-jail-over-bully-209583.php

~HotShotX

Edge of Blade @ Oct 24th 2006 10:08AM

Sorry, your flash has already been flushed.

I predict Xobx 360 will step it up with two competitors, instead of the lollygagging being the only one in the market can lead to. As such, I expect MS will start rolling out dash upgrades every quarter.

BklynKid @ Oct 24th 2006 10:17AM

I used the same logic on the release of the HD DVD drive. Dashboard upgrade is required to use it, and when is the drive coming out? Mid novemember? So I figured out before then. Didn't realize the wireless headset was coming out so soon. Good work.

Anonymous @ Oct 24th 2006 10:18AM

Early next week? The update is only on day six of its nine day compatibility test run. If there are no (major) bugs then maybe you'll see an update early next week.

Rask @ Oct 24th 2006 10:32AM

We all know MS won't release a hardware product that won't work on release day. Odds are we're gonna see the Dash update late this week or at the latest monday evening.

BB @ Oct 24th 2006 10:33AM

Very interesting hypothesis. I heard the podcast, but never pieced the two together. Maybe they already are going to support the headsets with the server upgrades that occured on the 17th

Greg @ Oct 24th 2006 10:52AM

@5- They won't? I'll ask again when Vista comes out.

Scott @ Oct 24th 2006 10:58AM

From Gamerscore Blog (MS Xbox Employees' Blog) posted on Oct 19th - http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2006/10/19/538075.aspx

"The servers and software were upgraded to prepare for updates that will go live later this month. You shouldn't see any noticeable changes right now. We're preparing details about the updates going into Xbox.com and Xbox Live, that we'll share with you next week."

Filthy68 @ Oct 24th 2006 11:12AM

The Microsoft Wireless Racing Wheel is listed as November 7. It will also require the dashboard update before it will work. So, MS is releasing hardware on October 31, November 7 and November 14. All will require a dashboard update. Didn't they give more lead time with the spring dashboard update?

007craft @ Oct 24th 2006 11:13AM

At a toshiba training event where I got to see the HD-DVD drive in action, the rep told me that the fall update was going to come the day before the HD-DVD drive was released, of which he saod would be around mid-november. This also makes sense to release it a week before the ps3 and wii hit.

On a side note, he said he couldent show us the last 2 tabs on the 360 because the one with the hd-dvd drive already had the update (or most of it) on the console, and he said he would be giving away stuff hes not allowed to show past the 2nd tab. My guess is a web browesr was there, or divx support added.

They had an entire second 360 set up there just so they could switch to it, and show the rest of the tabs without the update.

copa @ Oct 24th 2006 11:14AM

HotShotX, stop spamming multiple threads with your offtopic crap. J--- T------- is not going to jail, he might face some sanctions, you are overhyping this stuff to draw attention to yourself.

I don't want to read any more stories about J--- T-------, he doesn't deserve the coverage he begs for.