New Xbox 360 update tinkers behind the scenes

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 23 February, 2012

UPDATE: Fixes voice recognition issues.

UPDATE: Today's Xbox 360 update fixes voice recognition issues, Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has confirmed.

"Today the team released an Xbox 360 system update to quickly fix some voice recognition issues affecting our non-English speaking members," he tweeted.

ORIGINAL STORY: Microsoft has pushed out a new update to the Xbox 360.

This is in addition to the update released last week that fixed the colour problems caused by last December's dashboard redesign.

Today's update takes your dashboard to version 2.0.14719.0, eagle-eyed gamers on NeoGAF have spotted. According to Xbox social marketing manager Graeme "Aceybongos" Boyd, you won't notice any changes.

"Nothing visible, just behind the scenes stuff to keep Xbox Live the best experience possible," he tweeted.

Last week's dashboard update gave the Xbox Live Indie Games channel added prominence - in the US only. UK gamers are still waiting for this Marketplace change.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (50) Latest comment 3 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Heitzu #1 3 months ago

    That's exactly what I like to see, constant updates for all my devices.;)
    Edited by Heitzu at 23/02/12 @ 13:28

  • Progguitarist #2 3 months ago

    MOAR ADVERTISEMENTS PLZ

  • Kill_Crazy #3 3 months ago

    Getting as bad as Sony ;)

  • TechnicPuppet #4 3 months ago

    Hopefully they have made it so that when you have a disc in the drive, pressing A doesn't make the game start. It would mean that all the little girls moaning that "OMG this is a games console why is it so hard to play games" would have a point.

  • MattEdWithCheese #5 3 months ago

    @Heitzu Yeah, I really enjoyed the 2 minutes downloading 1 minute contemplation and 2 minutes of installing my Vita did yesterday :D

  • kirinnokoshin #6 3 months ago

    I hope it doesn't make my 360 take even longer to shut down like after the last update.

  • oceanmotion #7 3 months ago

    I wish they would change back signing in offline then pressing A takes you to the wireless selection troubleshooter. Before it just took you straight to the dashboard so the lazy ones could just just press A then A, games loads up without even looking at the TV. Now it's one step more as usual. Gits.

  • Baihu1983 #8 3 months ago

    Now if only they put as much effort into games as they did the dash...

  • LiamK #9 3 months ago

    Why are you sitting around waiting for your 360 to shut down, rather than doing anything else in the world?

  • Skith666 #10 3 months ago

    I don't want to get into trouble or anything (I genuinely don't) but I'm currently running a petition to ask Microsoft to change the layout of the Dashboard on Live to give the Indie games more exposure.

    I realise that this may or may not happen anyway but I'm thinking a few extra signatures can't hurt:

    Sooooo, I'll just leave this here:

    XBLIA Petition

    And if anybody wants to sign it, that would be amazing and if I have overstepped any boundaries please feel to remove it. Like I said, the last thing I want to do is actually cause any trouble - especially on here.

    Thank you in advance to anyone who signs it.
    Edited by Skith666 at 23/02/12 @ 13:44

  • cheeky-sod #11 3 months ago

    @Heitzu yeah but you dont need to update something thats not broke.

  • Colin8703 #12 3 months ago

    @Kill_Crazy Hardly as bad as Sony. At least the updates are done in a few seconds and don't intrude unlike the yawnfest of a Sony update.

    I have a PS3 as well and am just stating facts.

  • kirinnokoshin #13 3 months ago

    @LiamK

    Did I say I was 'sitting around waiting' - No

    Is a longer shut down time and whirring noise desirable? - No

    Are you jumping to conclusions - yes

  • fongy #14 3 months ago

    I've hated XB since they completely redesigned it, it's running slower than ever, everything hidden in boxes, I have both a PS3 and XB - and the XMB on PS3 is pretty boring / rubbish - but at least it's a piece of cake to find everything...

    And what's with the adverts in boxes?!? so we're paying M$ an annual fee so that they can get even more $$$ from advertising? No no no...

    It took me ages to find arcade / indie / etc. section...

    Confusing and too much stuff buried / hidden...

    And a bit sterile if I'm honest...

  • Doctor_What #15 3 months ago

    Is the story icon on the main page deliberately a blue screen?

  • RoOhDaMite #16 3 months ago

    Just made me look hard at my dashboard once again. Jep, it is the same confusing mess as ever.

  • Toothball #17 3 months ago

    @fongy

    Once you found all the sections you're interested in, surely you can just head straight to them next time? I just spent an hour exploring the new dash when it landed until I knew where everything was.

    It's a bit like moving house. At first you don't know where the nearest shops or short cuts are, or find yourself bumping into walls when you try to find the bathroom in the middle of the night. But after a while you're tearing around the neighbourhood or landing without a second thought.

  • Bulbatron #18 3 months ago

    Still not a fan of the new Dashboard. The old one was much better. However, once I finally found where everything was, it was easy enough to get to. It just isn't as intuitive or nice-looking as the old dash, that's all.

    By the old dash, I mean NXE.

  • spekkeh #19 3 months ago

    I'm getting a bit annoyed by all these updates, especially because I don't have gold and always boot directly to disc. There's a reason I'm gaming on a console and not a pc; so that I don't have to spend all that time in system screens and not gaming.

  • -cerberus- #20 3 months ago

    I thought the update would finally install game patches onto the harddrive instead of the system cache. Alas, DLC will remain corrupted and unplayable offline until they fix this issue.

  • rudedudejude #21 3 months ago

    It includes remote Kinect recording to watch what you are up to!

  • asharkman #22 3 months ago

    @kirinnokoshin what are you waiting to do after it shuts down?

  • levitate #23 3 months ago

    Updates for a console? Oh yes, I remember when I had one for my Wii. The year was 1864 and my dear wife, may her soul rest in peace, was bearing our first child. The times were exciting indeed. Not because of me having a son, but because I would finally be able to have an updated GUI.

  • seeafish #24 3 months ago

    @fongy Yup! Companies that charge a subscription and still give you ads are a no-go for me. Same reason I don't have sky sports... £35/m for 3 ad breaks in a single half time? No thanks!

  • kirinnokoshin #25 3 months ago

    @asharkman

    Not be interrupted by the sound of a pocket hoover under my television

  • Raptaur #26 3 months ago

    @Skith666
    *signed*

  • Robroylivi #27 3 months ago

    Great these,s updates .. But Microsoft need sort game play cheats, and cheater.... On Xbox live !!! Only thing that makes u think twice about buying a live pass.... Time to get tougher . . . And less sales... Less people = less sales ....

  • Skith666 #28 3 months ago

    @Raptaur Thank you! :-)

  • Remy #29 3 months ago

    Still no sign of actual UI improvements or ending the 100 friends limit then...!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE :-(

  • Remy #30 3 months ago

    @Skith666 Signed too!

  • Collymilad #31 3 months ago

    So I STILL won't be able to get on live 90% of the time, and I'll still get disconnected within 20 minutes even when I do?

    Thanks MS *Thumbs up*

  • Toothball #32 3 months ago

    @Remy

    Do you actually have more than 100 friends that you game with regularly? I've never had more than 40 people on my list.

    I'd rather see them do more than just change the limit. After using Google+ for a while, I'd be much more interested in seeing something like circles added, which differing levels of privacy and notification settings. I'd like to be able to distinguish my actual friends from people who send me an invite after one or two games, as at the moment I just reject invites from the latter group. That seems to make some of them sad, but them's the breaks.

  • Remy #33 3 months ago

    @Toothball Check my link, it's all covered there & I completely agree with you re: Notification settings etc - that's exactly what I wrote about :) Your point about circles and levels of connection is a great addition to that though, I'd love that too.

    I admit I maybe a specialist case, but yep I regularly play with well over 100 friends when I'm playing Street Fighter hardcore, and it leaves no room for me to keep my actual FRIENDS on there.

    Conversely I would probably be close to the 100 XBL friends just from all my real-life friends with XBL accounts but then leave no room left for people I actually regularly game with!
    Edited by Remy at 23/02/12 @ 17:33

  • Collymilad #34 3 months ago

    @Astro-Creature Yeah except there's been TWO this year and there probably won't be any more for a while.

    Also, they don't take 3 hours to download and then another 3 hours to install.

    So yea.

  • Skith666 #35 3 months ago

    @Remy Thank you! :-)

  • StooMonster #36 3 months ago

    "Today the team released an Xbox 360 system update to quickly fix some voice recognition issues affecting our non-English speaking members," said Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb.

    When I read "UPDATE: Fixes voice recognition issues" I hoping that Kinect would stop recognising words like "grenade" from sound effects of the Xbox games.

    Ho hum.

  • asho #37 3 months ago

    Bloody updates thats every day with microsoft on the computer, now the xbox 360. Its messing up the system. At the mo I cant install some xbox 360 games to my hard drive unless I sign out of xbox live. That never happened before the last update.

  • traviscotty #38 3 months ago

    What I want to know is the location of the Inside Xbox archive - Sent U A Message videos, the IGN tips and Insider Moves, all that stuff. Really annoys me that the archive seems to have vanished!

  • DirectAim #39 3 months ago

    Archives and indie games have been removed from my xbox since the new dashboard came out last year!

  • DirectAim #40 3 months ago

    Signed

  • Toothball #41 3 months ago

    @Remy

    Fair enough. As much as I get along with the new Dash, I did find Beacons a bit of a let down. It seems to act as if you are playing the game in question, and sends loads of notifications to anyone that happens to play that game. All the complaints I got for having them were about a game people played. No one mentioned the one I set for a game I'd not played in a while.

  • DilutedDante #42 3 months ago

    "Today the team released an Xbox 360 system update to quickly fix some voice recognition issues affecting our non-English speaking members,"

    Would be nice to get an update so that Kinect interprets what English speaking members say as something at least vaguely similar.

  • Spudnuts #43 3 months ago

    Anyone elses XB getting RRoD after the updates recently? I have to unplug everything then put it back in and it works fine again. :S

  • Jay-ITFC #44 3 months ago

    @asho You have to give it about 30 seconds before the install option appears.

  • oupe #45 3 months ago

    Coincidentally my WP7 phone got an update for the xbox companion app.

  • barnard666 #46 3 months ago

    Hide the games even further away, that's what I want. Surely the layout has killed XBLA sales dead...I'd love to see a comparison, before / after. Quite disgusted to see that game trailers / logos appearing on the front page are now advertisements. Surely MS should give away this space to promote games they believe in (seeing as they get money from sales, they are now getting it from adverts too...clever thinking hey)

  • Alex_976 #47 3 months ago

    @traviscotty I know what you mean. The yanks have all the previous episodes so why don't we?

  • Mellissa #48 3 months ago

    Will they ever be able to fix voice recognition for Scotland though?
    .

  • Toothball #49 3 months ago

    @mensar

    Good tip, I'd been wondering where those had gone too. I knew there was a YouTube channel, but hadn't got round to looking it up.

  • DilutedDante #50 3 months ago

    @Mellissa

    http://newsthump.com/2011/10/28/apple-urges-scotland-to-learn-english/