14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's getting ready to deploy a brand new dashboard for its Xbox 360 console, drastically overhauling the user interface of the device and making it much easier to use it through the Kinect sensor, although the company is quite adamant that serious gamers who always want to use controllers will still feel great when experiencing it.
Microsoft presented at E3 2011 back in June a brand new Xbox 360 dashboard, with a refreshed interface that borrowed heavily from its Metro UI from the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system, as well as from the upcoming Windows 8 PC OS.
The interface demonstration emphasized just how easy navigating was with the help of the Kinect sensor, fact which made quite a few longtime Xbox 360 owners think that the regular controller was being forgotten, in favor of the new device.
That's not so, at least according to Xbox Live's senior director Jose Pinero, who talked with CVG and emphasized that the new interface handles great with just a controller, if users don't want to use the Kinect.
"Before I came here I was showing it to my wife and she was like, 'oh, that's a lot easier'. We can't make it too easy for people, so we made it easier for someone who's not a gamer or a tech enthusiast and then it'll be easier for the gamer too."
"I think it's a pretty happy medium and that's been our goal since the launch of Kinect, to make sure we're creating great content like Star Wars, Sports and great family content, but also making sure we're not losing the Gears of War, Halo and Call of Duty fans that really built the Xbox brand," he added. "So making sure we've got great content for both audiences in a combined platform is a big challenge. I think the new dashboard is still super-fast to navigate around."
The new Xbox 360 dashboard, according to Microsoft itself, wants to bring "all the entertainment you want, with the people you care about, made easy," and definitely feels a bit sci-fi, largely because you need to wave your hands at the Kinect, or speak out loud things you want to search for via the new Bing voice search feature that will be incorporated in the new interface.
The dashboard update will be included in the traditional Xbox Live Fall Update that's out later this year.