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New Xbox Live Nearly Here!

Published By: Aaron Scott On: 19/11/2008 12:00

Today a new era of entertainment begins. Millions of Xbox 360 consoles worldwide will be transformed through the power of software, offering a bold new future for the Xbox 360, where experiences are shared with friends and families, in the same room or around the world.

By the end of this month, Xbox 360 is scheduled to reach another industry defining milestone; 25 million Xbox 360 consoles sold worldwide. It has taken the leading next generation game and entertainment console just three years to eclipse the total lifetime number of original Xbox (version 1) consoles sold.

“Xbox 360 is getting a whole new look,” said Tom Hunt, Xbox 360 product marketing manager, Microsoft New Zealand. “On November 19 Xbox owners will be able to download a new user interface for their consoles, effectively updating their Xbox through Xbox LIVE. Xbox 360 now boasts a more user-friendly look and allows users to create online parties, chat with friends, share pictures, create avatars of themselves and much more,” added Hunt.

Entertain friends and enjoy your favourite entertainment

With the November 19th update Xbox 360 owners will enjoy a highly interactive world ready to share with friends across the globe through Xbox LIVE:

·Xbox LIVE Party: Allows you to create a virtual party on your TV with up to seven friends. With Xbox LIVE Party, finding and interacting with friends via voice chat while you play games, as well as sharing photos in real time and entertaining friends all over the world has never been easier.

·Personality plus: Create a customisable virtual representation of yourself (avatar) and literally jump into the world of Xbox LIVE. Your avatar is your game-face and represents your personality — whether you are a LIVE Party host, playing a game of “Scene It? Box Office Smash”* or chatting with a friend.

·Your Personal Games Room: Revive gaming classics like “PAC-MAN Championship Edition” and “Galaga Legions” alongside games that literally put your avatars in the action like “Bomberman LIVE,” “Hardwood Hearts” and ”UNO,” exclusively for download from Xbox LIVE Arcade. Xbox LIVE members will also be able to access all of Xbox LIVE Marketplace, including Xbox LIVE Arcade, and even queue content to download straight from Xbox.com.

*Available in New Zealand March 2009

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COMMENTS (49)

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ReplyPosted by Ron on 19 November 2008, 12:07PM

Should be exciting!

ReplyPosted by KravenMore on 19 November 2008, 12:33PM

Nearly here? That's over 4 months away! <sigh>
That's like saying Easter is Nearly here!

Still, it promises to be pretty cool and add a lot to the online experience. That and the falling price of the xbox, they're looking better and better these days

ReplyPosted by SmurfWorks on 19 November 2008, 12:42PM

Is the new dashboard out? Cause I might go jump online for a bit...

ReplyPosted by primeelfkilla on 19 November 2008, 12:51PM

I am looking forward to the new but am a little concerned that I might get reduced to dial up speed because I have gone over my allocation for the month after the download oh well i wonder i could ring xtra to go to the 10gig for 1 month then go back to the 3gig

ReplyPosted by Desolator_live on 19 November 2008, 12:53PM

It's not the new dashboard is coming out in NZ in march its saying the next scene it game comes out in march, the dashboard will be released on the 19th, but for us over here in NZ it will probably be more like the 20th.

ReplyPosted by tiamat1990 on 19 November 2008, 01:13PM

And the Wii effect begins...

ReplyPosted by xSHADOWx on 19 November 2008, 01:13PM

Reply to post by KravenMore on 19 November 2008, 12:33PM
Nearly here? That's over 4 months away! <sigh> That's like saying Easter is Nearly here! Still, it promises to be pretty cool and add a lot to the online experience. That and the falling price of the xbox, they're looking better and better these days

No actually it's today well maybe tomorrow that we can actually use it.

Can't wait for the weekend so I can take it for a test drive.

ReplyPosted by Parsnipzilla on 19 November 2008, 01:32PM

We get it at 11PM tonight.
And seriously, Scene It2 isn't out here yet!?
I was gonna pick that up for when the family come over for Christmas...

ReplyPosted by Paddy123 on 19 November 2008, 02:00PM

Hopefully it doesnt make the connection any slower than it allready is.

ReplyPosted by Grunt of God on 19 November 2008, 02:23PM

Lol, the first paragraph is some sort of Red Revolution speech!

ReplyPosted by Ron on 19 November 2008, 02:49PM

It's Scene It? Box Office Smash that's delayed till next year. Not the Xbox Box Live silly.

ReplyPosted by marbig on 19 November 2008, 04:10PM

Looking forward to it.

ReplyPosted by tim705 on 19 November 2008, 04:32PM

I almost cried when I saw "*Available in New Zealand March 2009".

ReplyPosted by Koopa18 on 19 November 2008, 04:55PM

A virtual party on your TV.

Let the good times roll.

ReplyPosted by Koopa18 on 19 November 2008, 04:59PM

Wait wait how is 25 million an "Industry defining milestone"

ReplyPosted by cute_maori on 19 November 2008, 05:04PM

Yeah.

ReplyPosted by Munkah on 19 November 2008, 05:20PM

Reply to post by cute_maori on 19 November 2008, 05:04PM
Yeah.

Yeah.

ReplyPosted by KravenMore on 19 November 2008, 05:59PM

Reply to post by xSHADOWx on 19 November 2008, 01:13PM
No actually it's today well maybe tomorrow that we can actually use it. Can't wait for the weekend so I can take it for a test drive.

Ah, that's much more like it then :D
I stand corrected!

ReplyPosted by Genocide on 19 November 2008, 06:08PM

Reply to post by Munkah on 19 November 2008, 05:20PM
Yeah.

Nah.

But really, I thought this was coming out today :( So was a bit disappointed.

ReplyPosted by Mach1_9pants on 19 November 2008, 06:59PM

Reply to post by tim705 on 19 November 2008, 04:32PM
I almost cried when I saw "*Available in New Zealand March 2009".

Ouch that sucks. A 360ing mate of mine thought it was out this year, if not this month! He'll be disappointed :-(

ReplyPosted by tkd_matt on 19 November 2008, 07:44PM

Can't wait to try it out.

ReplyPosted by tim705 on 19 November 2008, 07:55PM

Reply to post by Mach1_9pants on 19 November 2008, 06:59PM
Ouch that sucks. A 360ing mate of mine thought it was out this year, if not this month! He'll be disappointed :-(

It's coming out within the next two days. I just got a fright that's all.

ReplyPosted by Daniel1987 on 19 November 2008, 08:38PM

Reply to post by Genocide on 19 November 2008, 06:08PM
Nah. But really, I thought this was coming out today :( So was a bit disappointed.

So did I for some reason... Must have got the dates muddled.

ReplyPosted by Xyttik on 19 November 2008, 09:03PM

Its funny the number of people who didn't read the article properly, or the responses to the article. At least 3 times now people have thought the "available in NZ March 2009" was referring to the new live, when it actually referred to scene it.

ReplyPosted by Genocide on 19 November 2008, 09:50PM

Yeah, and if you're disappointed Scene It didn't come out today theres something wrong with you.

ReplyPosted by Flaminice-cream on 19 November 2008, 10:42PM

should be great

ReplyPosted by djkicks on 20 November 2008, 01:19AM

Stupid update won't let me play on XBL until it' updated, and it's taking ages! Stupid internet and XBL update >.>

ReplyPosted by Grunt of God on 20 November 2008, 08:10AM

It's here! Run! Well, that's an...interesting? starting video...

ReplyPosted by Grunt of God on 20 November 2008, 08:25AM

Hmmm, pretty sexy, not the most sexy I've ever seen, but still...sexy.

ReplyPosted by primeelfkilla on 20 November 2008, 11:57AM

the new xbox experience is pretty cool I was rather amused to find out that you can make your avatar burp I wonder what else these little guys can do

ReplyPosted by BathTub on 20 November 2008, 02:29PM

Yeah looking good, it's certainly a speed improvement.

ReplyPosted by marbig on 20 November 2008, 02:46PM

It's okay, but the Marketplace is terrible.

ReplyPosted by djkicks on 20 November 2008, 03:03PM

I like the old dashboard. It was so much simpler. Now it's full of extra crap. However the avatars are kind of cool. Some people have tried to make ones that looks like themselves, while others have made crazy ones which are pretty funny.

ReplyPosted by Ruptunex on 20 November 2008, 03:41PM

So people think it's good? I see Kicks think the old one was better but what are your thoughts?

ReplyPosted by tkd_matt on 20 November 2008, 04:17PM

Its clear a lot of people missed the point of the marketplace change. What appeared to be simpler before, was a bunch of links that when clicked led to massive long lists of items, now they have added more categories which breaks this up while also holding up for future expansion.

Though with the bigger emphasis on the marketplace I'm thinking that's kind of unnecessary for offline users.

Overall it's slick, and much faster. The new guide is a massive improvement and the game installs are painless.

ReplyPosted by djkicks on 20 November 2008, 05:39PM

Heh when I put in my Halo 3 disc, I got a message from Bungie telling me not to install it, because it's designed to run off the disc. It will make the games loading/matchmaking etc longer lol.

ReplyPosted by Grunt of God on 20 November 2008, 06:59PM

Well, it was thoughtfull of them wasn't it? And I don't think offline users would be amused...of course they wouldn't have the update would they? :p

ReplyPosted by The Host of Chaos on 20 November 2008, 07:08PM

The marketplace update is great, makes things a lot easier, and the visual representation of the games is easier than reading through a list. But apart from that not the huge improvement M$ have been trying to shill.

ReplyPosted by Genocide on 20 November 2008, 07:08PM

I don't like how it automatically goes to the adfest I mean spotlight channel when you go to the dash. And the new guide is low res, and the marketplace is way more complicated now, and the avatars are dumb, and I dont like the backgrounds on the friends channel, and Mirrors Edge didnt seem to load much faster than normal after installing it. Maybe I should blog this.

ReplyPosted by tkd_matt on 20 November 2008, 08:05PM

Reply to post by The Host of Chaos on 20 November 2008, 07:08PM
The marketplace update is great, makes things a lot easier, and the visual representation of the games is easier than reading through a list. But apart from that not the huge improvement M$ have been trying to shill.

Theres a lot you don't know about that changed on their backend. Before they had to do a major update to add a new feature, this version allows them to add new features easily as well as dynamically add more content to features.

@Geno, the guide looks high res on my TV, you sure you have got a weird resolution or aspect ratio compared to your TV?

ReplyPosted by arnies on 20 November 2008, 10:10PM

so what's better? PSN or this?

ReplyPosted by Genocide on 20 November 2008, 11:51PM

It automatically detecting 1080i on my 32" bravia. So I don't think I should change any settings on it?

ReplyPosted by rider211 on 21 November 2008, 07:58AM

cant wait

ReplyPosted by tkd_matt on 21 November 2008, 10:04AM

Reply to post by Genocide on 20 November 2008, 11:51PM
It automatically detecting 1080i on my 32" bravia. So I don't think I should change any settings on it?

Generally 720p would be much better than 1080i on a 32 inch screen.

ReplyPosted by Genocide on 21 November 2008, 10:54AM

Reply to post by tkd_matt on 21 November 2008, 10:04AM
Generally 720p would be much better than 1080i on a 32 inch screen.

Hmm, I'll try it out, thanks.

ReplyPosted by cute_maori on 21 November 2008, 04:00PM

Heh! Heard that there making it free soon.

ReplyPosted by cute_maori on 21 November 2008, 08:28PM

Xbox Live is so slow. It is slower than my old computer when downloading things. It takes 6hours just to download a 200mb download.

ReplyPosted by Genocide on 21 November 2008, 09:17PM

Reply to post by cute_maori on 21 November 2008, 08:28PM
Xbox Live is so slow. It is slower than my old computer when downloading things. It takes 6hours just to download a 200mb download.

That would be your internet not Xbox Live.

ReplyPosted by xSHADOWx on 21 November 2008, 09:39PM

Yay I can download it or update it whateveer as soon as I finish writing this message and get off the internet, and set up my 360 and plug the adsl cable into the 360 and turn on the 360.

which I am going to do right now...

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