Xbox 360 dashboard update coming November 25?

By Tom Warren, on 10th Oct 11 3:25 pm with 19 Comments

New Xbox Dashboard

Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update may land on November 25, according to reports.

The software maker appears to be targeting a release in November according to two separate reports. Gaming site Kotaku pin pointed November 10 as the launch date but Gigaom believes Microsoft is targeting Black Friday as its big Xbox day. Microsoft has issued dashboard updates in 2008 and 2010 in the month of November. The software giant originally launched its original Xbox console on November 15 in 2001. The dashboard update is expected to mark 10 years of Xbox with a radical shift in user interface.

Codenamed “Madrid”, the dashboard will bring Microsoft’s Metro style interface to the Xbox. Microsoft is also preparing to include YouTube and Bing on the Xbox. Bing users will be able to use Kinect’s voice recognition feature to search for movies, music and other content on their consoles. Microsoft is also planning to include some type of Marketplace with applications for Xbox 360.

Microsoft will also introduce an Xbox LIVE TV service as part of its dashboard update. The company announced deals with nearly 40 content providers recently. Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO and Syfy are amongst a number of TV providers for U.S. Xbox owners. The BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are partnering with Microsoft in the UK to offer programming on the Xbox 360. Xbox users will need the latest dashboard update, due in November, to experience live TV with Xbox LIVE. Microsoft is planning to make the TV channels available to Xbox LIVE gold subscribers and some partners will integrate Kinect experiences with their TV channels. Microsoft’s TV service is powered by the company’s Silverlight software.

Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 dashboard will enter the beta testing phase in October. The company is planning a Preview Program for the new dashboard, similar to last years preview. Microsoft is expected to announce details of the preview program shortly.

  • http://twitter.com/Daniel_H_UK Daniel Hartshorn

    Super i cant wait Metro Xbox looka amazing and with Live TV Xbox Live hasnt looked so good

  • http://twitter.com/IRB IRB

    So originally rumoured for Nov 10th, and then Nov 15th, now Nov 25th?

    The moral of the story here is just to ignore it all until MS announce the offical date :)

    • Anonymous

      Its Crazy how much you got your avatar to look like you.

    • http://twitter.com/IRB IRB

      haha, I tried my best :)

  • GP007

    I’m ready for this update to hit.  It’s always good to get something that basically make it feel like you got a new console.

  • Anonymous

    I’ll be happy when they announce the preview program..  Keeping my eyes peeled on majornelson

  • Anonymous

    Off topic a little..but does anyone know if the HBOgo will work for anyone who has an HBO subscription (say with Dish) or just for people who have an HBO supscription with verizon or comcast?
    or am I misunderstanding how all this will work?

    • Seth_p

      You should be able to view HBOgo even if you’re with Dish. HBO is just one of the content providers, so if you’re a subscriber, you should be okay. That’s my understanding.

    • Anonymous

      So is the XBox TV interface just a pretty front-end on a very expensive cable subscription? How much do you end up paying for all that?

    • Seth_p

      All interfaces are front-end ;-) I’m sure more details from Microsoft will be announced so things are more clear.

    • Dwposer12

      its only if your telivision provider is participating i have brighthouse/time warner cable and they are not.

  • aSpicyTaco

    Cool. I hope they bring back 1 vs 100 some day!

    • Monkey D Black

      my girl loves trivia, this one was her favorite game. sometimes I was playing cod4 at the time, she would come in all excited, “lets play 1v100, can we please? please?” and its hard to resist that double please….sigh. her excitement was genuine though.

  • http://twitter.com/arnehelseth Arne Helseth

    @tom you keep saying “Microsoft is also planning to include some type of Marketplace with applications for Xbox 360.” in your posts regarding the new dashboard, but do you actually have any hard facts to back this up other than some of the screenies showing an “application marketplace”?

    Yeah, I know, I’ve heard the LakeView rumors, I’ve spoken to “officials” saying Silverlight is being brought over to the Xbox, but with no third-party developers having been clued in a month or so before release of this new dash I find it very hard to believe it will indeed be part of the rollout. Heck, Microsoft is still polishing (and that’s putting it mildly, what with features still being ripped out and/or put in) LakeView which is what [most] of XBLTV will run on.

    My guess is that app support, at least apps in the conventional term, will come to the Xbox 360, but it won’t be as part of the Fall 2011 dashboard update. Spring 2012 perhaps.

  • ninkendo

    No mention of cloud saves and easy account retrieval… I hope these features are still coming because I don’t really care too much about the xbtv; I mean it’ll be nice and everything, but not what I bought my Xbox for.

  • Joseph Valenti

    god i remember the first update i think this is the last

  • Joseph Valenti

    is com cast participating 

  • Anonymous

    The dashboard won’t be out next week. This is what it says when being accepted to the dashboard preview:

    CONGRATULATIONS YOU ARE IN — WELCOME TO THE XBOX LIVE UPDATE PREVIEW PROGRAM! If you are reading this message you have successfully completed your registration for the program and no further action is necessary at this time. Over the next few weeks we will complete the onboarding process to register participants into the Private Forums and provide details on Console Registration. Please be patient and check back on this site often for general program related updates.

    They haven’t even started releasing the dashboard preview there is no way they will release the update next week.

  • Anonymous

    just how or liek what im confused with all these dates plz someone respond i heard itll be coming nov 15 or 25 but i heard that the beta will be last month which never happened and i checked on my xbox for that and i didnt see no registrations or nothing?