New Xbox Experience to be mandatory soon

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 5th March 2009
Comments (18) Stumble
New Xbox Experience to be mandatory soon

Microsoft will soon be saying goodbye to the blades interface for good, making NXE compulsory.

Microsoft has confirmed that the probationary period for the New Xbox Experience will soon be coming to an end and that the old-fashioned blades interface will soon be gone for good.

In the coming months, Microsoft will be making the New Xbox Experience, or NXE, a requirement to play games on the Xbox 360.

Up until now the update has been mostly voluntary, though many users updated their interface immediately in order to get their hands on the new features, such as avatars. The update will slowly become compulsory for anyone who wants to play online or play the newest games however, meaning that the blades interface is now officially on the way out.

In order to make sure that offline Xbox 360 players update their firmware Microsoft will be include the NXE update on a series of upcoming games, including Tom Clancy's HAWX according to DarkTwoZero. You'll need to install the update in order to play these games, be it on or offline.

The New Xbox Experience seems to have gone down well with gamers and is a definite improvement in both usability and features for the Xbox 360. Microsoft has occasionally earned some ire however for claiming that it invented the idea of avatars, which many believe to be ludicrous.

What do you think to the New Xbox Experience? Have you updated yet? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Quote mclean007 5th March 2009, 14:34
I don't have an Xbox 360 - I presume NXE is installed as standard on new boxes?
Quote MajorTom 5th March 2009, 14:40
I updated to NXE a couple of days after it was out. Not through wanting the new stuff but wanting to have up to date software. At first it struck me that the interface was certainly more snazzy than the old but then I realised just how many adverts there were. Even the default selected row when you turn your box on is a bar of adverts rather than the bar to launch your game or edit your console settings.

I quickly found myself pressing the xbox button in the middle of the pad to bring up the old style menu where everything I needed was still there and not covered with adverts.

I hope that menu remains as that's all I need. If they get rid of that I'll be a bit cheesed off.
Quote Gremlin 5th March 2009, 15:03
When i picked up a new 360 (falcon model in a 60gb pro bundle) at christmas before i could even get on Xbox Live i was forced to upgrade to NXE so this isnt exactly news to me, i just figured it forced it on everyone already
Quote speedfreek 5th March 2009, 15:57
Its probably to look for all the hacked consoles out there, what other reason would they have to force it. I just hope it wont mess up my repaired 360, the guy I got it from was throwing it out and said it broke and I could have it.
Quote Hex 5th March 2009, 16:39
I thought it was mandatory for XBL as soon as it was released as I could only play offline without installing it. It wouldn't let me sign in to Live at all without the update.

I'd imagine this will make it mandatory for all the offline players and that all new games will need you to update before they will run. So technically you could get away with not updating if you stay offline and play old games.
Quote mikeuk2004 5th March 2009, 17:57
Quote:
The New Xbox Experience seems to have gone down well with gamers and is a definite improvement in both usability and features for the Xbox 360.

i disagree, its horrible and slow. I wish i could go back but no, im forced with this update. I woner how long it will be before we are forced to upgrade windows, oh wait they do be removing support.
Quote tranc3 5th March 2009, 20:26
This is gonna be fun for my younger cousins who don't have access to xbox live. at all because of dial up.
Quote MiNiMaL_FuSS 5th March 2009, 20:34
i got this update, hate it. I dont use xbox live (never got my router to work with it) and because of this everything offline (DVDS, games, music, movies) is all on a single sub menu now, making my exprience cluttered and awful.
Quote quake1-rules 5th March 2009, 23:11
LOL! Convenience at the cost of flexibility = consoles.
Quote Zero_UK 6th March 2009, 07:21
lol Im still one of those with blades.. cba with paying for gold membership when I enjoy PC gaming so much more.
Quote yakyb 6th March 2009, 08:15
Quote:
This is gonna be fun for my younger cousins who don't have access to xbox live. at all because of dial up.

doesnt the update come with the game there fore no online required you need to install the patch in order to play offline.
Quote Blademrk 6th March 2009, 10:28
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeuk2004
i disagree, its horrible and slow. I wish i could go back but no, im forced with this update. I woner how long it will be before we are forced to upgrade windows, oh wait they do be removing support.

Agreed. I've found I don't look at the XBL marketplace anymore whereas on the old system I used to look quite regularly to see what had been updated.

I'd also prefer the first tab that shows to be the My X-box Tab instead of the ad based tab.
Quote mikeuk2004 6th March 2009, 12:31
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blademrk


I'd also prefer the first tab that shows to be the My X-box Tab instead of the ad based tab.

I agree to that also. There are far to many adverts for something im paying for. I dont get any adverts on PSN which is free.

Work that one out.

I find I use the xbox button more, in order to find anythng i want to do, because that brings up a mini version of the old blades system. So much easier to find stuff.

Only thing I like about the new systems is that they added party support, allowing you to voice chat with more than one person.
Quote Joeymac 6th March 2009, 12:46
Crucial bit of information missing from this news item.. that the NXE requires some local storage, 128MB. That means all those people out there with a 256MB memory card who didn't update because they didn't have the space on their arcade console will have to go and buy a another memory card. Though I seem to remember Microsoft doing a reduced price scheme for those people.
Quote Gareth Halfacree 6th March 2009, 12:57
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joeymac
Crucial bit of information missing from this news item.. that the NXE requires some local storage, 128MB. That means all those people out there with a 256MB memory card who didn't update because they didn't have the space on their arcade console will have to go and buy a another memory card. Though I seem to remember Microsoft doing a reduced price scheme for those people.
For values of 'reduced price' that equal 'free'. As I recall, MS offer a 512MB card for free or a discount on a 20GB HDD.
Quote UrbanMarine 6th March 2009, 13:07
The best part about the new UI is the insta-popup of the menu when you push the XBOX globe on the controller. The rest is a cluster **** and everything seems thrown together.
Quote War-Rasta 6th March 2009, 13:55
Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanMarine
The best part about the new UI is the insta-popup of the menu when you push the XBOX globe on the controller. The rest is a cluster **** and everything seems thrown together.

x2
Quote naokaji 6th March 2009, 14:26
Quote:
Originally Posted by speedfreek
Its probably to look for all the hacked consoles out there, what other reason would they have to force it. I just hope it wont mess up my repaired 360, the guy I got it from was throwing it out and said it broke and I could have it.

I doubt that is the main reason, the whole idea of consoles is having only one kind of everything, just like with the hardware that counts for the software as well, it is cheaper for them if they only have to maintain one software.
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