MS Exec Hints at Dashboard UI Refresh?

[Queasy]

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Microsoft knows Xbox Live?s design isn?t perfect. They admit Xbox Live?s interface was never designed to service the amount of content it currently holds.

?I think that we are not, I would say?happy with the ability to find and discover content as easily as we?d like for consumers to be able to do that,? said Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft?s product management director for Xbox 360 and XBL, to MTV Multiplayer last week.

That problem gets worse every week; forcing Microsoft to start introducing guidelines to remove underperforming, poorly reviewed XBL Arcade titles.

?I think a lot of that is we built Xbox Live Marketplace for a few hundred items and now we have 17,000 items,? said Greenberg. ?We built a small store and we filled it with lots of lots of stuff. We?re feeling some of these growing pains and [the new policy] is one of those tradeoffs we?ve had to make.?

Microsoft had traditionally updated the XBL interface twice a year with annual spring and fall updates. Last fall?s upgrade included store re-design still featured. But Greenberg seems to admit that wasn?t enough.

Earlier this year, Microsoft was searching for a program manager to become ?part of the Xbox LIVE team that?s responsible for creating a completely new way for mainstream audiences to enjoy the Xbox and LIVE.? Speculation pointed to Microsoft designing a revamped interface for XBL.

While Greenberg wouldn?t admit such a XBL revamp is in the works, he said there are changes coming to reconcile some of the interface issues.

?Longer term, we?re looking to make the ability to find content and organize the 17,000 pieces of content we have a lot better,? he said.

yay

 

[erwos]

I'm predicting they go with some variant of the Zune interface. They've already taken baby steps there, and the results were quite good.

Sony already standardized on XMB across their CE line, and it really helped them. I have a KDS-55A3000, and there's this instant familiarity with the interface now that I've used the PS3. If only it would support HDMI-CEC...

 

[AstroManLuca]

It would be cool if they introduced a rating system for games, movies, etc. and let you sort stuff by rating. At the very least, it would be cool if you could sort by popularity. For now, whenever I browse through the Xbox Live Arcade games, I never know what to go for. The genres are virtually meaningless and many games appear in several genres at once. A search feature would be good too.

I agree with them that Xbox Live is simply not designed to hold as much content as it currently does, so I'm really happy they're working on it.