Major Nelson continues to clear up New Xbox Experience

by Justin McElroy on Jul 21st 2008 9:00AM

Considering how much time we spend looking at Xbox Live waiting for someone, anyone to accept our Cloning Clyde game invite, it's understandable that we'd be pretty trepidatious about some of the planned big changes coming to the service. Thankfully, Xbox's Major Nelson is there to hold our heads to his audio bosom, stroke our hair and promise us that everything's going to be OK.

His new podcast features all kinds of reassurances, chief among them: We won't have to create an avatar and transferring Xbox 360 games to the hard drive will never be required, something we were paranoid about. What other comforts will you discover inside? Only after a click here will you know for sure.

New Xbox Experience

Source

Tags: e3-2008, major-nelson, new-xbox-experience, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (80)

nice

XBOX LIVE = Internet with bells and whistles and YOU pay for the privilege!?!?!

bigsofty give it a rest.

bigsofty, ya, and? Are you going to make a point or do you like to point out the obvious and pawn it off as witty criticism? You're an ass. It's those bells and whistles that people are paying for. Just like the iPhone is just a phone with bells and whistles... Just like a Lexus is a car with bells and whistles... People like bells and whistles and they're willing to pay. Get over it. Or are you just a ps3 fanboy that's upset that the xbox is getting an update?

BigS is just mad that nobody likes him...

I pay for:

- All games have the ability to have online games, big AAA titles, small indie studios, or even XNA Developers who only pay $100 a year.

- All my games are supported and will be supported.

- A great system of matchmaking and abillity to play with friends quickly and easily with invites and party systems

- The ability to know what my friend has and what he likes to play.

- Availability of having a gamercard which easily lists this data to the community.

- Microsoft's well shown indication that they know that the community counts by allowing that same community access to an api that allows to poll all this data together.

- And beyond.... (New features, (Party System, Avatars, Netflix))

And seriously warn each time you repost the same screenshots, I keep looking at them to see if there is anything new, but there is, there never is.

I don't mind the idea of having to create an avatar. It gives the whole thing a more personal feel, particularly when you're talking with others online. But I guess it's good that you can just stick with the gamer pics, if you prefer.

I'm completely uninterested in the avatars. I already have a gamertag, gamercard, and profile. The gamerpics are great and the ability to use your own picture from the vision cam is more than adequate. The avatars just seem like a "me too" kind of feature.

You mean, a "Mii too" feature.

I'm glad avatars aren't required. My gamerpic shall suffice.

except for winning clothing article and accessories from games etc. Fallout hazmat suit avatar ftw!!!

@Snowblind: But the new "Get Neflix Service Now" themes are going to be all the rage!

Oops.

I like it clean and simple without unnecessary clutter to complicate things. While I think this new interface is clean, there is so much dead space that I'm worried that it will be filled with ads. I guess we'll see if good usable space was sacrificed for the sake of ads... ads for a service that I already pay for.

Why is everyone all worried about Ads filling up the empty space? I would bet that they are just added into the lists of things... and right now the ads are not just about random stuff... many of the ads are about upcoming additions to games like map packs, etc...

Look at the pics of the game boxes in the screenshot... I would be that to add ads to the system they would just put them into that list of boxes... you CAN see every box on the screen so an ad a few slots back would still be very visible.

I would think that more ads would go into the marketplace area than the dash itself.

To me the ads on Live aren't even a problem. The ads are usually relevant to the service or a car or movie ad that is offering free gamer pics and themes.

Have you ever tried a service like Tivo? I pay $100+ for the Tivo service yearly and they have ads all over and they very rarely are relevant to the service I am using.

Clean? For now...Major Nelson happily confirmed that ads will be in the final version.

GODDAMMIT!

Get off the ads thing already.

Seriously, it's ads for content that is available (often free) on the marketplace. New demos available, new themes/trailers available. Half the time stuff you would have missed otherwise unless you diligently scroll through the "New Releases" tab in every section every few hours (no one does this).

The "ads" are there to help. They're not even really ads. It's not like they're telling you to go buy Sprite or eat Burger King.

Thank you Vcize. I actually want them to stay. They're indeed very helpful to A LOT of people out there. I'm sure they'll find the appropriate place to put them so they wont ruin the new look. MS wants this to be clean and sleek so I think we'll find these so called "ads" is a sub category and not on the main pages.

@Vcize

No...I am a paying customer, and if I do not wish to see
ad garbage I should have the option to opt out.

Just because YOU are a complacent sheep, doesn't mean I want to be.

Obie, you are dodging his comment though. The "ads" are generally just teasers for new content on the marketplace that is often free. Lets not act like its "The Man" trying to sell us Mt. Dew constantly.

Oh wait....Mt. Dew....Halo....Nah!

@Duke
By turning on my xbox this moment I see ads for Netflix, Doube D dodgeball, Halo wars.

None of the stuff I am interested in.

Why do people get mad when I ask for the "option" to opt out? Shouldn't people have the right to choose?
By simply giving people more choices, everyone wins.

Obie, they're not even really "ads". Ads implies they are something that a third party is paying them to bring to sell their product. Since they're putting up a part of their own product, I doubt MS is getting paid to put those ads up, so this "I'm a paying customer" crap is not a real argument.

Essentially, saying you want the option to not have new info displayed is the same thing as saying "I'm a paying customer, so I don't want there to be an icon on the screen that says 'B = back' " or "I'm a paying customer, so I don't want the word 'Featured' on my screen".

Vcize: Seeing your posts makes me wish Joystiq had a "ignore" button too. ;)

Translation: "Oh I really have a poor argument here so I'm just going to go after the person instead of the point"

That's funny, obie, I was just thinking the same thing about you.

Alright Vcize, you argued that asking to remove ads is the same same as asking to remove basic functionality?

Seriously? When I see such an enormous wall of stupidity I just walk away, instead of chipping away at it with a tiny spoon of logic.

I stand by my right to opt out of spam, peroid.

I'm agree with automag partially. In my opinion, the ads make the blade system way too busy and not very appealing. I do appreciate knowing the new stuff on the marketplace however, but isn't that what the spotlight section of the marketplace is for? Personally, I just think it could be implemented much better. Hopefully it'll be better in the new UI, because I like it a lot. (though I'm not crazy about the avatars)

Hey, I also pay for cable and I get a whole series of ads about 3 times every half hour. Why can't I opt out of those?

@Automag: But the new "Get Neflix Service Now" themes are going to be all the rage!

I wouldn't mind Joystiq, you know, summarizing the revelations from the podcast instead of just telling me there's a podcast.

truDAT! :P

i can tell you they mention joystiq

I was thinking the same thing. We cant all listen to these when at work.

Yep, stuck at work. Anyone that's listened to this care to summarize it for the rest of us poor saps?

Also at work. It's bad enough I am always on Joystiq while here anyway.

Perhaps he words it well, but listening to it makes me want this update.

Ultimately, they're giving people options. You can't complain about having more options to do different things. Knowing that you're not forced to create an avatar, install a game on hard disk, etc. is a great thing. No gamer is completely alike. Good move on their part IMO.

Yea, but PS3 Home is so terrrible! You 360 fanboys are a joke...

I want my gamercard to have all these things.

Avatar
Motto
Gamerscore
Gamerpic
Last 4 achievements
Xbox LIVE status on/offline

Basically everything they currently have on there right now in that pic, with the addition of our gamerpic in the top right corner. That would be just swell.

what if you avatar is wearing a shirt with your gamerpic on it?

Interesting idea. I like the sound of it.

They are giving people options? How about the option to keep the old interface and bypass this abomination of navigation all together?

Mmmmmm how bout no, Scott...

In what way is it an "abomination". It's clean, smooth and easy to navigate. The old one is clunky, slow, filled with adds and very disorganised.

I really can't see any possible reason to why you'd want to keep the old one, the only excuse that really held up, was for those who were against avatars, but since they're optional, you can just ignore them.

If you still don't see why this new one is so much better, listen to the podcast.

i wasn't paying close attention but i think the blades will be part of the guide and you won't have to go to the new space.

I'm with you.

Thanks Major! I was wondering if ads will be back...and the podcast confirmed they will. Greaaaaat.

I wonder, all that open white space at the bottom will be perfect for Kung Fu Panda spam!

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Major Nelson continues to clear up New Xbox Experience

New Xbox Experience

Reader Comments (80)

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 9:06AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 9:37AM bigsofty said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 9:52AM Duke said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 11:32AM SugarDaddy said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 11:53AM Rocketboy said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 12:49PM Tiptup300 said

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Posted: Jul 21st 2008 9:41AM KingJD said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 9:52AM Obienator said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 10:41AM Vcize said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 10:48AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 10:52AM Obienator said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 10:56AM Duke said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 11:06AM Obienator said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 11:11AM Vcize said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 11:30AM Obienator said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 11:44AM Vcize said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 11:50AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 11:51AM Obienator said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 11:55AM AwesomeTown said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 12:23PM 343 Guilty Fart said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 4:22PM Saria the Cat said

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Posted: Jul 21st 2008 10:42AM Vcize said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 4:17PM Saria the Cat said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 9:26AM Premature ejaculation man said

Posted: Jul 21st 2008 9:37AM (Unverified) said

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