New Xbox Experience themes info

By Tom Bramwell Published 29 September, 2008

And how Avatars will show your status.

Microsoft has released new screenshots and information demonstrating how Xbox 360 themes and Friends will work in the New Xbox Experience dashboard revamp.

Themes will now be "subtly animated" and will affect graphics throughout each area of the dashboard, the platform holder explained in a Gamerscoreblog developer diary post.

As for Friends, you will be able to judge their online status by observing their Avatars. Those bouncing around smiling and so on are connected to the internet, while the ones having a nap are offline.

Microsoft also reiterated that you can still use existing Xbox 360 themes, which "look even better over the new UI, especially in high-definition", and illustrated this with some screenshots of a Gears of War effort.

You can see how all that looks in the 1080p New Xbox Experience screenshots we dug out of the Gamerscoreblog Flickr account.

Also be sure to check out our recent New Xbox Experience Avatars preview and Eurogamer TV Show where Rare talk us through them, and our New Xbox Experience preview from E3.

The New Xbox Experience is due out later this year, for free, and may launch in November - although the developer diary is mute on the subject of a release date.

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.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • bad09 #1 3 years ago

    "Those bouncing around smiling and so on are connected to the internet, while the ones having a nap are offline"

    / rips out his ethernet sits on the floor hugging his 360 weeping

  • onyxbox #2 3 years ago

    ^^^^

    I feel your pain... MS what have you done?


  • MonkeyMagik #3 3 years ago

    this is beginning to look good. Well done MS

  • andywilkie35 #4 3 years ago

    looks good to me

  • NegativeZero #5 3 years ago

    I hope there's still a way to just get a goddamn list of people. I want absolutely nothing to do with Avatars and I'm praying there's a 'hide this horrible crap from me' option somewhere. The whole thing is a solution looking desperately for a problem.

  • stevencole7 #6 3 years ago

    Maybe your Avaters start crying, just before you get the Ring Of Death!

  • Burkey #7 3 years ago

    @NegativeZero The whole original dashboard (the current system) is still available via the guide button as far as I know.

  • Moonprince #8 3 years ago

    Those bouncing around smiling and so on are connected to the internet, while the ones having a nap are offline.

    lol... ffs.

  • rotmm #9 3 years ago

    Not a fan of the avatars, but I'm really digging the new dash.

  • berelain #10 3 years ago

    I really don't get all the bitching, whining and moaning over the new dash. you don't *have* to spend any time on the dashboard if its that repulsive to you. Whack in a game, and bring up the guide to access everything that way if you really must.

    Personally, I think the new dash looks awesome, and the avatars add a bit of character and fun to liven things up a little so you're not just staring at the same old screens with nothing going on.

  • Thunderbolt #11 3 years ago

    The Avatars remind of the paperclip/wizard etc that comes loaded in Microsoft Office thats cute at first but gets to be hugely annoying in the long run.

    "Those bouncing around smiling and so on are connected to the internet, while the ones having a nap are offline"

    Case in point.

  • DB2k #12 3 years ago

    I get the feeling this is being pimped and sold with lots of media attention but delivers little to no actual content. Bug fixes, silly avatars and the ability to store a game on the hard drive to save your DVD drive are about it right? Seriously - thats not really any new content? No new codec supported, no real new features - jsut seems a lot of hype with little content really. I don't give a crap if I can push a button and make mini me burp.

  • asphaltcowboy #13 3 years ago

    Can't wait for this!

  • rotmm #14 3 years ago

    @DB2k,

    I think the main focus is to make it more "friendly", but more importantly an attempt to streamline the ability to find content on your console and on the marketplace. At the moment, with so much on there in movies, xbla, updates, map packs, etc it can be a nightmare to find anything.... especially if you don't know exactly what you're looking for.

    But I think the truly massive addition is Primetime. In a world that seems to be addicted to watching quiz games, playing online poker, playing Bingo, et all being able to get involved in realtime online quizzes such as 100-1 has the potential to be massive for MS. And for this, Avatars are a must to really allow the players to get involved.

    Now, it's not something that I can see myself getting involved in, and there's a chance that the whole thing could fail massively. However, there's also the chance that MS has hit on something huge here and will end up being a system seller to those same families who make up the viewing figures for such programmes.

  • Munkey_Boy #15 3 years ago

    Bunch of Victor Meldrews posting in here. If you don't like some bits, don't use them. Myself, I think it adds a nice touch of movement and personality.

  • Madafunkola #16 3 years ago

    All this is starting to sound like when people complain about BBC idents. It is a change to, what, 2% of your gaming time? It's not that big a deal!

  • Monkey_Puncher #17 3 years ago

    There's a hell of a lot more to this update than the Miitoos, people just seem to be focusing on them.

  • LittleBigDog #18 3 years ago

    Geez people the Avatars are optional so take a chill pill. I wasn't too keen on them but now my fiancee and I are quite looking forward to this small part of hte update. Although i have to make sure she doesn't create an avatar that's TOO girlie!

  • penhalion #19 3 years ago

    Now to make this perfect. There needs to be a slap the bouncing idiot button! I can see hours of fun from that option. Some ready to rumble face deformation would be good to go along with that.

  • LittleBigDog #20 3 years ago

    they're optional MEM, the key word being optional. what part of the word optional do you not understand??

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #21 3 years ago

    I never liked the original dash so I'm looking forward to this.

    As for the avatar hate I suspect this is a careful mix of:

    Internet tough guys who don't like anything so 'girly'

    and

    jumping on the bandwagon.


    I do agree that there are other things that need changing as well though. Give us some decent codec support like h264 mkvs ;)
    Maybe with subtitle support! MS have an opportunity to make this an awesome media centre/extender.... but they won't.

    You've got mp3 and mp4 support so it's not like you're forcing everyone to use MS codecs like wma and wmv anymore. May as well open it right up.

  • Thunderbolt #22 3 years ago

    True they are optional but MS has decided to focus on Avatars to the detriment of other more neccesary areas like DB2k stated.

    My biggest problem is that they are so bland with very little modification available, where's the GOW avatar, Master Chief Avatar and Pinata Avatar for example?

    I want my Avatar to be as weird as I am. LOL

  • SUNDANSS #23 3 years ago

    Bergeron said "I need the 8 player party chat so I can play with my friends without having to sit in another post/pre game lobby and listen to sore losers or abusive winners anymore. "

    You can already set something similar up to this anyway. If you only want to hear your mates, even 20 of them and cut out the few idiots in the background just change your privacy settings in your profile to only let you hear people from your friends list. You never have to hear abuse or stupid people ever again.

    The new dash will generally be an improvement, so don't worry about the little things you don't like. At least it is not Sony's Home!


  • The-Bodybuilder #24 3 years ago

    Like someone said, gamers (or internet folks in general) are just a bunch of victor meldrews. Get a clue, a life and some perspective. Thier avatars, a new dash, big deal. What effect does it have on your life?

  • bad09 #25 3 years ago

    "Get a clue, a life and some perspective. Thier avatars, a new dash, big deal. What effect does it have on your life?"

    You could say the same to people who are so bothered by others not liking something, what effect does people not liking the update have on your life......

    Some like it, some hate and some are waiting for judgement, but ALL are free to express their views whether you like it or not ;)

  • miiiguel #26 3 years ago

    "As for the avatar hate I suspect this is a careful mix of:
    Internet tough guys who don't like anything so 'girly'
    and
    jumping on the bandwagon "

    Fact! I mean, how can anyone be so verbal about something we know so little ?

  • KreyAtiv #27 3 years ago

    Why do they feel we need avatars anyway? Surely just concentrate on bringing out games for the console to keep us amused rather than what our avatar will be wearing. The whole "bouncing around smiling" thing is just a bit silly.
    Surely just have a blackened out shape if you are offline, then be able to see your avatar when you are online. No need for them to be bounding around the place with grins on their faces.

  • Arwin #28 3 years ago

    What's the point of releasing 1080p shots if they're bloody upscaled? I thought one of the big advantages of the new UI would be that they could do native 1080p support, but apparently that's not going to happen? Weird! Kinda lessens the value of all of this for the whole media aspect of the machine ...
    Edited by 1 at 29/09/08 @ 12:11

  • Dodgymat #29 3 years ago

    "Microsoft also reiterated that you can still use existing Xbox 360 themes, which "look even better over the new UI, especially in high-definition", and illustrated this with some screenshots of a Gears of War effort"

    Looks even better ? What are they smoking at Microsoft ? I'm currently using that theme, it's the free Gears 2 theme, and you can barely see 25% of it judging by that screenshot. Totally pointless to try and retain 'some' of it in the way they have even though the re-design clearly makes them unusable. Glad the only theme I ever bought was courtesy of some free MS Points *cough* dreamcarchallenge *cough*

  • aphexstwin #30 3 years ago

    meh to the avvys, if i dont like them i wont use them. i just hope this isnt a shit excuse to charge us for modifying our avatars, ie. a hat for 50credits or trousers for 75. i already find it shady they charge us for themes and gamer pics, especially when the themes are free on psn, or you can make your own etc.

    as others have stated, this update seems to be fixing things that weren't broken in the first place, so why couldnt microfatfuck have added new codecs or something? because my ps3 replaced my 360 for media as soon as it got unwrapped, what with upgradeable hdd and quiet drive etc. im really hoping they address a problem (for me) thats existed since the xbox 1, by adding fastforward/rewind buttons to the music player.

  • miiiguel #31 3 years ago

    " already find it shady they charge us for themes and gamer pics, especially when the themes are free on psn, or you can make your own etc"
    There are literaly hundreds of free gamerpics in Live.

  • Xerx3s #32 3 years ago

    True. I've never bought a theme or gamerpic but I think that I own well over a 100 pics and 50-70 themes. I'm not even actively looking either.

    Still the Rare white theme is imo the best. Nice and clean.

  • Scimarad #33 3 years ago

    I quite like the new dash but those avatars can feck right off!!

  • CARL05 #34 3 years ago

    I wonder if we can use the Avatars in-game at some point (real games I mean, not mini-games!)

    ... If so GoW could be made Avatar Slaughter House, chainsawing your mates avatar in the face, it would be awesome and everyone would buy it! (if over 18 of course)


    But the dash is looking awesome, if only the Avatars weren't there to pull people's gaze away. I'm still reserving judgement though.

  • aphexstwin #35 3 years ago

    miiiiguel/xerxes, you didnt get my point. im aware of free pics and themes but theres many more that arent free and thats my beef. i play a lot of bf2 and tdu still and their themes and pics cost. i know theres games that will give them away - my point was they sometimes cost on xbl, theyre always free on psn.