Microsoft not committed to biannual 360 dashboard releases

For the first two and a half years of the Xbox 360's lifespan, owners eagerly looked forward to regular "spring" and "fall" updates, packing more functionality into their consoles through (what Microsoft marketing would later call) the "magic of software." With the absence of a spring update this year and the subsequent announcement of the New Xbox Experience we wanted to know if Microsoft would return to the biannual updates ...

So we asked John Schappert during our sitdown earlier this week in Tokyo. He said, "I don't know if we're going to tie ourselves to a spring fall release schedule" and continued, "I like staying focused on bigger, more impactful releases ... maybe it'll be twice a year, maybe less frequently, to-be-determined." Speaking of what those future updates could consist of, Schappert said that Microsoft is asking itself, "What's the next big launch? What do we bring? When can we bring it? And how can we do it in a big way?"

The NXE is certainly a bigger, more impactful release. We're assuming, however, that Microsoft doesn't plan on reinventing the wheel every couple years in which case what "big" functionality should we expect in future Dashboard updates, regardless of when they're released? No, really, we're asking you.