New Xbox 360 Dashboard Interface Is Called Twist Control, Arrives Later This Year

Microsoft has detailed its new and improved Xbox 360 dashboard interface, called 'Twist Control', which is set to arrive as an update for the home console later this year, making full use of the Kinect motion and voice sensor, as well as highlighting, in a simpler way, the variety of things offered by the Xbox Live online service.

Microsoft is keen on making the most out of the sales surge experienced by its Xbox 360 console, alongside the Kinect sensor, so the company announced back at E3 2011, in June, that a new dashboard interface will be deployed for the console later this year.

Now, after last week's Gamescom 2011 conference, the company has released new details, via Eurogamer, about the revised interface, called Twist Control.

Robin Burrows, Xbox Live product marketing manager for EMEA, presented the new dashboard, which borrows heavily from other Microsoft products like the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system or the Bing search engine.

According to the executive, the new interface can be browsed in a traditional way, through the Xbox 360 controller, but also with the help of the Kinect, by waving your arms, or by speaking to the sensor.

"Hopefully it's easy to browse," Burrows said. "It's intuitive in terms of the way the surfing experience will actually work."

The dashboard will integrate more with social networks like Facebook, allowing users to Like games and share achievements with their friends.

"Hopefully the new dash will show this service proposition goes beyond gaming," he said. "We'll never lose our focus on that gaming audience. In fact, developing the investment infrastructure to develop programs like cloud storage and Facebook posting and the beacons, are three examples of continuing to invest in that space."

Seeing as how the Xbox Live service has on sale more than 20,000 products, the Marketplace will also be optimized to allow people to search and browse through all of them.

"Our games Marketplace environment is really beginning to get optimized. We're now selling more with new transaction space than we are with subscription space for the first, which is showing to us our core audience is staying with us and spending more time, money and effort within games as well as entertainment."