MS will block NXE preview blaggers

By Tom Bramwell Published 30 October, 2008

Beta users can't upgrade mates' 360s.

Microsoft has now notified everyone who has been accepted into the New Xbox Experience preview programme ahead of the service launch on 19th November. Bad luck if you didn't make the cut.

However, if you know someone who did make the cut and are thinking about slyly upgrading your system using pulleys, levers and borrowed hard disks, think again: according to the email sent out to participants, you'll be frozen out for doing so.

That's according to the notification email, dug up by vg247, which states: "In participation with this programme, you should not move your storage device (hard drive, or memory unit if you do not have a hard drive) to any other console as it will also update that console.

"If an unregistered console is updated with the NXE update, that console will not be able to connect to Xbox LIVE until the NXE has been officially released on November 19th." Which would obviously be a bad thing, although presumably you would still be able to tool around offline.

Given that New Xbox Experience is built on a streaming content model, with images and other data fed to the various swishy menus via background downloads, though, the experience would be somewhat weaker for the disconnection. Plus of course you couldn't lord it over all your friends.

Look out for our thoughts on the New Xbox Experience, which we've been playing around with this week, sometime late tomorrow or over the weekend.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (19) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Doctor_What #1 3 years ago

    It's streaming the images? Does that mean we'll still have to wait for adverts to download before we can use the options we want to get at? That's one of my most hated aspects of the current dashboard on the 360.

  • kangarootoo #2 3 years ago

    "It's streaming the images? Does that mean we'll still have to wait for adverts to download before we can use the options we want to get at? That's one of my most hated aspects of the current dashboard on the 360."

    Seconded. That bloody feature is madness.

    I literally can't start playing a game because none of the OSD is present until it has finished downloading some waffle about Halloween or some kiddy band. Its a first for console gaming and no mistake.

    If this new update fixes that particular "feature" it will be worth it for that alone.

  • jolboy #3 3 years ago

    Im one of the lucky few who has been picked to preview the NXE and i can't wait to give the avater creator a go but my only question is if having it before the rest of my friends on xbox live will mean i won't be able to chat to them until they upgrade to NXE in a few weeks time?

  • Destrin #4 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 12:47:09 13-12-2011

  • systems #5 3 years ago

    ^What you guys are describing doesn't happen to me. I get a load of blank grey placeholders for all of the streaming content and can use the Blades as normal. I agree that it would be annoying to wait.

    Anyway, as long as it's not slower than the existing system I'll be happy. Don't care about the avatars but it would be nice to see an iTunes-style procession of Xbox game boxes in your "my games collection" screen I suppose.

  • Xerx3s #6 3 years ago

    I think that a lot of people are going to be very disappointed. This will give a nice interface in HD with some new options. Adverts will be reduced and they will move to a notification/interface flow guidance system. Things like images and such are on tabs behind the game load option, I don't think that delayed loading times in those panels will prevent you from accessing the primary things on the 1st game tab. Even so, they ported the blade system to the guide button, it has everything in a minimised layout (no adds), you should be able to do everything from there without load times.

    LOAD TIMES WILL NOT/BARELY IMPROVE! If there are problems in a game like texture pop in, it's not something that will magically go away. The only REAL improvement that you will notice is that the 360 is producing less noise because the dvd isn't spinning.

  • RazorD #7 3 years ago

    I dont think its that they're blocking, i'd imagine its just that the console ID's who got into the test will be connected to the test version of the live architecture, so if you upgrade another console by using the hard drive, it just won't have permission to connect.
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/08 @ 09:57

  • Tim #8 3 years ago

    "LOAD TIMES WILL NOT/BARELY IMPROVE! If there are problems in a game like texture pop in, it's not something that will magically go away. The only REAL improvement that you will notice is that the 360 is producing less noise because the dvd isn't spinning."

    It may be time for you to look up the performance characteristics of hard drives vs DVD drives.

    In particular, pay attention to the units used to measure seek times.

  • BobsUncle #9 3 years ago

    "LOAD TIMES WILL NOT/BARELY IMPROVE!"

    Any particular reason why you think this Xerx3s? Is there some technical reason you know about that we don't?

    I'd assume loading from the HDD will reduce the texture pop-in in Mass Effect simply because the textures are streaming in as you play. Nicky1015 is not talking about object pop-in like buildings suddenly appearing due to short draw distance.

  • Zomoniac #10 3 years ago

    Glad I didn't get picked then. I have 2 360s, one on the main TV and one in the spare bedroom, which I switch between depending on whether or not the Mrs is watching TV, just by moving my HDD about. Nobody ever touches them except me, so if they killed off my 360 for a couple of weeks because I'm stupid enough to buy two of them for my own convenience I'd have been very pissed off.

  • Marshall2008 #11 3 years ago

    I'm in the preview program and looking forward to the upgrade that the lucky few will get 3 weeks before everyone else.

    Also, for most games LOAD times will not be shortened by much but in-gameplay asset streaming will be improved.
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/08 @ 13:49

  • seasidebaz #12 3 years ago

    Any particular reason why you think this Xerx3s? Is there some technical reason you know about that we don't?

    I'd assume loading from the HDD will reduce the texture pop-in in Mass Effect simply because the textures are streaming in as you play.

    Nope. That pop-in is a "feature" of the Unreal Engine. It happens on the 360 when streaming from disc, PC when streaming from HDD, and PS3 when streaming from HDD.

    It can't be fixed, simple as that.

  • soviet_ #13 3 years ago

    "Congratulations on your acceptance into the Xbox 360 Fall Flash Preview Program. As a member of this program you will be receiving the New Xbox Experience (NXE) System Update.

    The update will be made available to you on or before November 1st. In order to receive the update, log in to Xbox LIVE with the Preview Program registered console."

    Horrah
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/08 @ 14:36

  • Darren #14 3 years ago

    So if NXE is constantly streaming images and stuff in the background while you're connected to LIVE, it must mean that the interface will look very bland for people who don't have their 360's online. I mean future games will contain the NXE so even they won't be able to avoid it for long as it is mandatory, presumably those games won't work at all unless the new dashboard is detected?

  • smelly #15 3 years ago

    The xbox is unstable enough as it is

    Who in THEIR RIGHT MIND would risk downloading a beta dashboard (basically OS) experience to it?

  • mendo #16 3 years ago

    I'm in :)
    Really looking forward stopping that noisy turbo DVD player :p

  • grandmaster Verified Director, Digital Foundry #17 3 years ago

    I have NXE. There is a noticeable speed improvement installing to HDD from DVD. Not surprisingly the gains are exponentially linked to loading time. A game with 10-11 second loading time (eg Call of Duty 2's levels) will come down to 8-9. A game like Assassin's Creed or BioShock can see 10-15 second speed increases (eg 45 seconds down to 30). Oblivion is another big winner.

    Combined with the more pleasant decibel level, it's an excellent feature and I can safely say that all my 'main games of the moment' will be installed to HDD rather than running from DVD.

  • Penguinzoot #18 3 years ago

    I have NXE.

    ORLY? o_O

    @smelly

    Although classed as beta (in the sense that it has not gone live yet), I would be surprised if the preview code were not release quality - especially this close to release. I'm sure MS have had this done and dusted for a while now ;).

    The NXE preview is exactly what it says on the tin: a preview of the NXE.
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/08 @ 23:48

  • soviet_ #19 3 years ago

    The NXE preview is now live, downloading :)