DMW Vlog: Albert Penello Guides You Through The New Xbox Experience

Authored by Jay Baage on October 29, 2008 - 10:00am.

Los Angeles - It has been almost three years since Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) came out with the Xbox 360 game console. Now the company is about to release a total make-over of the look and feel of the interface. In fact, it looks a lot like Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Cover Flow (in the video above you can take a look at a preview of it). The new bladed 3D dashboard will be available automatically as a free operating upgrade for every single Xbox 360 owner on November 19^th. So what is new? Well, for example, you will be able to customize an avatar to go with your gamer tag. The avatars are cute and seemingly a move to position the Xbox as a viable alternative to buying a Nintendo Wii for families and casual gamers (along with the price cut to $199 for the cheapest version of the Xbox as compared to $250 for the Wii). Now the question is when the Xbox will also come with motion-sensitive controllers? No news on that yet.

For anyone used to a Mac and Apple's three-dimensional graphical user interface included with iTunes, the new look will feel familiar. It is stylish, but foremost, the new interface makes it much easier to access and navigate through all the content that is now available on the Xbox platform. This is something that will appeal to both hard-core and casual gamers. The idea is make it as easy as possible to get to what you want, whether it is to play a game, go online or watch a movie. The many options you have to connect and chat with other gamers and play multiplayer games such as Halo is also of course one of the most appealing and popular features of the Xbox. Now the question is, will Microsoft be able to establish the game console as an entertainment hub of the living room? Industry insiders Alex St. John, President, CEO and Co-founder of WildTangent, is arguing that the game console is dead and that gaming in the future will be browser-based and accessible without a console. That would also be in line with Microsoft's big push into cloud computing. But it will take long before we get there and until then, I'm playing Xbox. Hit me up - gamer tag is DMWMedia.