The Avatars have landed: exploring the New Xbox Experience

Rolling out an ambitious interface revamp several years into a console's lifecycle isn't a typical decision; at this point, hardware vendors often prefer to concentrate resources on the launch of a new console.

Rolling out an ambitious interface revamp several years into a console's lifecycle isn't a typical decision; at this point, hardware vendors often prefer to concentrate resources on the launch of a new console. Shouldn't Microsoft be thinking about the Xbox 720? But the company has invested over a year of work into something that it calls (accurately enough) the New Xbox Experience (NXE). More than a reskinning, it's a rethinking of the console's interface and functionality from the ground up.

It will be pushed out to gamers on November 19, but we've had the new system running on consoles here in the Orbiting HQ for a week now and wanted the chance to show our readers around.

We've also gone straight to Microsoft to get answers to your most pressing questions about the update, which are included at the end.

Removing "points of frustration"This is first holiday season that an Xbox 360 can be had for $200, and Microsoft knows that most hardware sales in previous console generations have come at or below this magical $200 price. With the company clearly hoping to move units by the truckload this Christmas, problems in the current 360 blade interface could hamper the 360's appeal.

For instance, the video and games marketplace sections of the existing interface were built to handle only hundreds of titles; with the 360 now offering thousands upon thousands of movies, TV shows, games, theme packs, and other content, the Marketplace needed a serious facelift before millions of new users signed on. And of course there's the lagginess of the current interface, which downloads content anew from the web far too often. And there's the sheer "density" of every screen. And the ubiquitous ads.

The entire interface had to get easier to use—much easier. Internal Microsoft testing had shown that many users weren't even aware of key console features, such as the existence of video content for download. The overriding design goal of the new interface was to expose all of the 360's functionality in such a way that even those new to the console could get up to speed quickly.

In addition, Microsoft wanted to offer new features that could be key selling points for the console, chief among them integration with Netflix and access to its streaming movies and TV shows. The 360 team also wanted to beef up party features and other social facets of the service (including the use of avatars), and this was simply not going to work without a major overhaul.

Thus, several years into the 360's lifecycle, comes a complete revamp of the interface. It was a "pretty ambitious undertaking," Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg told us when we sat down with him on a recent visit to Chicago. Internally, Microsoft thinks of this as a major step forward, akin to moving from the Xbox to the Xbox 360 interface.

The New Xbox Experience will be a success if it opens up the platform for new users and removes the "points of frustration" that current owners experience. Many of the small fixes came from community complaints (Greenberg hears about these endlessly at community events), but if Microsoft botches anything about the new design, "I'm sure your readers will let us know," he says with a grin.