New Xbox dashboard now has a name: Twist Control

by Griffin McElroy on Aug 19th 2011 1:30PM

Update: It sounds like "Twist Control" is a generic name for the panel-scrolling UI element which has appeared in various Microsoft products, such as the Zune HD, and not the proper name for the Dashboard. We thought it was a little fishy -- in an interview with Joystiq earlier this month, Microsoft's David Dennis said the company was calling the updated interface the "new dash," because "we didn't want it to stick like NXE did." We apologize for the confusion.

During floor demos at Gamescom, Microsoft revealed the moniker of its new, Kinect-centric Xbox 360 Dashboard: "Twist Control." We think we can all agree that this is the best name that the platform's navigation tools have had thus far. Well, okay, "Blades" might give it a run for its money, but it'd be a pretty close race.

Then again, we haven't seen much twisting from the interface -- isn't there a more context appropriate title out there? Something like "Space Windows" or "Wizard Buttons" or "The Telekinesis Engine" or "Intangible Frames" or "The Even Newer Xbox Experience" or "Minority Report" or "Bark Commands at Your Xbox Until Your Neighbors Think That You Are a Legit Crazy Person."

Source: Gamasutra

Tags: dashboard, fall-update, fall-update-2011, kinect, microsoft, navigation, twist-control, xbox, xbox-360-dashboard

Reader Comments (50)

Now all they need is voice recognition.

They can call it Twist and Shout control.

@zaxis01

They have it.

and they should call it that :)

@zaxis01
So what is... "Xbox Bing Batman"?

@zaxis01

(Shout) a little bit softer now
(Shout) a little bit softer now

(Shout) a little bit louder now
(Shout) a little bit louder now

Calibration complete

@SmokemeaKipper

Now waaaaaiiiiiitt a minute!

@Dance Mofo; It's the new way you can use the Xbox to search for content.

First you say "Xbox", so the console knows you're talking to it.
Then you say, "Bing", so it knows you want to search.
Finally you say what you want to search (In this case, Batman).

Then the console will search for any content you can use on your Xbox relating to Batman. For example, it will find games, movies, music, and probably a bit of anything else that's about Batman.

Comon baby! Let's do the twist!

"Twist Control" is what Microsoft called the interface on the Zune, which is pretty much what this is.

@Snake Robot Podium It's definitely inspired by that, but is more reminiscent of a more recent descendant of Zune: Windows Phone 7, which has *bar none* the best UI of any mobile OS. Now they're bringing that UI (Metro) to Xbox 360, and next year, to Windows itself. By 2015 it'll be ubiquitous.

@JasonGW Metro UI is an awesome interface - probably the best that I have seen anywhere on anything. By rights, it should be ubiquitous

@Snake Robot Podium

Twist control was actually experimented with during the blades era as well. I believe it was used in the XBL Arcade section to switch between game categories.

My fiance gets angry because I talk to my xbox more than I talk to her =\ ... once this rolls out she's gonna be hella pissed.

@tonyh750 LOL

@tonyh750
Intervention time.

@tonyh750 This was so full of win!

@tonyh750

You still have a chance.

RUN!

I am in favor of the last name. We can shorten it to BCYXUYNTTYALCP! Rolls right off the tongue.

I still miss the original Blades system. I wish they had stuck with it and just polished it up.

@Notme2

I always use the guide button and navigate with the mini-blades.

@Notme2

You can not remember how to find stuff? Really? That's either a personal issue or you just wanted to say you prefer the PS3.

How about 'handy'?

I wonder what next years new dashboard will look like.

i like all the open space. a good wallpaper/theme would look good on this. not like this current dashboard. i remember back during the "blades" dash when i finally broke down and bought a theme and then the next month they changed to the new dashboard which only supports 1 picture of the old themes and only shows about 20% of it as a header. chances are this new dashboard wont support any themes you are using now. not too big a deal for me since i only bought the ATHF one.

"Control your Xbox 360's dashboard just using gestures with the brand new interface we at Microsoft like to call... TWAT. Get upgraded features like online play and early access to demos for just £2.80 a month with MASSIVE TWAT, the new name for Xblox Live Gold."

@Dick Socrates I hope you know, your name fits you perfectly >.

@Dick Socrates

They're not going to rename Xbox Gold after you no matter HOW much you like it, Dick

I'm just gonna call me him Richard.

I just want my blades back

@Jawmuncher

X-BLADES.....no wait, that game sucked. :(

I don't get it.

That "Collection" number is totally gonna make me pop in each of the games in the huge stack of ones I bought over the past year but haven't got around to playing yet, just to register them as part of my collection.

Let's hope you can actually use Kinect to properly navigate ALL of the 360's menu sections, and not the small useless amount it currently controls.

I want to navigate the various stores, Avatar section, etc with my Kinect. I want to be able to leave voice messages or video message to my friends with Kinect.

Side note - should be interesting to see how current Premium themes and the old themes mesh with this new dashboard...

@Axcalibur

Amen.

And on a similar note, why the heck did MS "flatten" the dashboard for Kinect, and then not allow you to control that dashboard with Kinect anyway?

Twist and Pull?

I like that.

Could someone tell me when it gets released and will we have to update our Xbox I hate doing that It takes so long. But Still this Is great news for me as I have been getting lots of comments from my friends saying that you can never change the theme of Kinect. www.newlyreleasedgamesreview.com

@eselinks Sometime in fall, like usual

@eselinks Should we hold your hand aswell?

@eselinks

Fall most likely. It's never taken me more than a minute or two to update to the new dashboard changes. Not an issue. Perhaps it's a bandwidth issue for you.

It's an annually/bi-annually update man.

I dig the new UI but it seems vaguely similar to XMB on Playstation. A list of menus on the top, and suboptions when you are on the active menu "tab" thingy.

@Raquor

I don't find that to be such a bad thing.

@Raquor

It's just tabbed UI, it's been around for ages. XMB is very different, the navigation switches to a vertical aspect within each horizontal menu option. It's actually sort of bizarre when I think about it. People are playing on widescreens so it makes more sense to use horizontal menus for everythnig.

It's good to finally see a themed dashboard instead of the shadowy light grey and green affair that we've seen exclusively until now. Assuming that is a theme and not a giant, ubiquitous advert. I get bored very easily with interfaces (and I'm a professional interface designer!) and I was worried they had abandoned this aspect. I guess the new themes simply constitute a background and a custom "panel" colour, eschewing the friends list backgrounds etc. Hopefully that means they'll be cheaper. 160msp seems fair. At least to me.

It just looks like an updated version of the KINECT dashboard.... which isn't too bad... I'm going to like to "TWIST"......

So the 360 is now the Facebook of Consoles, changing their UI every 10 minutes...

@Awetopsy

This is only the second major redesign since the 360 came to market. I personally like the way they are willing to update and change things. And so far each change has been for the better. I'm not a Kinect owner and I have no plans to get one anytime soon, so I hope this new dashboard does not focus on it so hard it feels forced. Time will tell.

The U, the Vita, Twist Control (can't believe it's not spelled Kontrol). All three publishers come up with the most obnoxious names imaginable. I'd like to sit-in on some of the meeting when the goofballs come up with some of these titles. In what world are these "cool"?

Silly name for a dash, doesn't have the same ring to it as Blades or NXE.

I suppose just "Twist" works, but it's a bit Bejeweled-y.

So, does this work with a controller?
Or has the Kinect become mandatory at this point?

so in other words:

MOVE ALONG FOLKS! Nothing to see here.

Voice for Australia please dammit!

New Xbox dashboard now has a name: Twist Control

Reader Comments (50)

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:37PM zaxis01 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:47PM Ordeith said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:51PM Dance Mofo said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:22PM SmokemeaKipper said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:09PM TheEman28 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 5:54PM Mouthsmasher said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:40PM Cap Morgan said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:40PM Snake Robot Podium said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:18PM JasonGW said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:53PM Tachyonic Cargo said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 6:30PM Xcrucio said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:40PM tonyh750 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:43PM psnshe69mee said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:46PM The Cole Train said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:49PM trickybuz93 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:33PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:41PM Mach2 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:41PM Dragod said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:01PM Ordeith said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:47PM HaVoK308 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:43PM Reigh said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:43PM The 7th Number said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:45PM The Soft Machine said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:46PM Dick Socrates said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:50PM trickybuz93 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:16PM The Tim said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:27PM Bubbameister33 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:49PM Jawmuncher said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:11PM TheEman28 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 1:52PM eat it said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:14PM jrr said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:17PM Axcalibur said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:37PM Vcize said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:32PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 2:46PM eselinks said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:14PM trickybuz93 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:17PM KillerC said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:44PM HaVoK308 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:08PM Raquor said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:12PM TheEman28 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:29PM Raffi256 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:17PM Ozzpot said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:25PM misterAKA said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:29PM Awetopsy said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:40PM HaVoK308 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:36PM HaVoK308 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:36PM Exu said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 3:56PM Seasick Pirate said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 5:18PM Protege420 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2011 5:25PM viperthejedi said

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