Behind The Controller: July 2009

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

360 Dashboard Update Coming on Aug. 11

There will be yet another dashboard update on August 11th. If you are not illiterate you probably noticed that in the headline. The best feature in my opinion will be "Games on Demand". This will allow you to download full Xbox 360 titles directly to your HDD. 30 games will be available at launch including Mass Effect, Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga and Sonic the Hedgehog. If you haven't already upgraded to the 120GB HDD, and you intend on using the service, now would be the time.

Group-based Netflix streaming has also been confirmed for this update, for the real MST3K experience, which is good considering this feature was supposed to launch with the NXE initially. Also, you will be able to update your queue from the 360 without the need for a PC.

There will also be Avatar clothing and accessories available for sale on the marketplace. Yes! You will now be able to waste your money on clothing. I am oh so excited. Though I do know a few douche-bags who will probably invest in HALO apparel. In fact, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find half my friends Avatars looking identical to one another.

This is the first step in all the updates announced at E3 with Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm coming this fall to Xbox360 along with full 1080p streaming video on the marketplace.

As with every update it brings with it the possibility of bricking your system, so be careful out there and use protection. If you do get the RRoD, some possible fixes can be found HERE.

EDIT: Joystiq lists all the new features HERE.

A Microsoft Handheld Gaming Device

Kikizo recently interviewed Microsoft's corporate VP Shane Kim wherein the prospect of a portable system was alluded to. This has raised rumors of a M$ handheld spreading like wildfire all over the internet yet again. This rumor has come up almost every six months since the launch of the original Xbox like clockwork. I personally can't see it even being remotely successful if they did decide to do so.

In a market completely dominated by Nintendo with the DS and the Sony PSP barely hanging on, I don't see it being a good business decision. Microsoft is not a company known for making bad (provided you discount BOB and Vista) business decisions. To date Nintendo has sold over 106 million units with the DS, and it still shows no signs of slowing down. Sony has sold a paltry 48 million PSP's by comparison. To put these numbers in perspective there have been 51 million Wii's sold, 31 million 360's and 22 million PS3's. Although there is a large market for portables, M$ would be quite the late comer and have to do something really special to stand out.

The only thing that I can see up Microsoft's sleeve is Live and it's associated services. Both of it's competitors are capable of wireless online gaming, but if the console world is any indication, nobody does it better than M$. That is about all I think that could potentially put them in the hunt should they decide to enter the fray. Though they would also be forced to skew to a younger clientele as that's the largest audience for these devices, which again, is dominated by Nintendo.