188w ago - Today Joystiq (linked above) received some interesting info from a reader, who claimed to have taken part in a survey run by Microsoft which featured avatars playing classic arcade games in a virtual arcade setting.

If that sounds familiar, you probably played PlayStation Home before.

To quote: If a consumer survey sent over to us by a tipster is to be believed, Microsoft is looking to bring a virtual Avatar arcade to the Xbox 360. Some of the potential names listed in the survey are "Game Room," "RetroCade," "Tower of ROM," and "Classics LIVE." Yeah, we're partial to "Tower of ROM" also.

If the proposed service sounds familiar, that's because it's nearly identical to PlayStation Home's arcade spaces - like Namco's virtual arcade - just replace the dead-eyed dopplegangers of Home with the scrunchable avatars of Xbox 360.

The second survey question sent to us asks, "Which of the following names would most compel you to purchase the product?" indicating that the "Tower of ROM" might not be a free space but could instead have a fee associated with it.

226w ago - Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg proclaimed the New XBox Experience as a fresh start for the XBox 360, and claims that it reinvented the system for the older users and making it more attractive to others.

He added that owners should be prepared for lots of new things to roll out over the duration of this year.

To quote: Aaron Greenberg, the group product manager for the Xbox 360 at Microsoft, talked about the NXE at the recent CES convention. He went on to say that the update was devised as a fresh start for the Xbox 360 and that it reinvented the console for its old users, making it more attractive and friendly to new ones, who would purchase the console in the future.

He then mentioned that a lot of things could be added to this new interface and that Xbox 360 users needed to prepare for new things in the coming year.

"When we approached the NXE, we really thought about it as if we were launching an entirely new console. When we started thinking about all the changes and possibilities, at first we thought 'Well, we'll update this, change that.'

Then we thought, well, 'What if we just completely wiped the slate clean and completely reinvent the console From The ground up?' It was a pretty massive undertaking, a massive amount of work and we've been very happy...

229w ago - Per XBox Live's Major Nelson via the official blog (linked above):

It's almost New Years, and that means some new Avatar clothes! As always, all clothing choices are free, and will remain available:

For the guys, we now have:

- Pixel Art Hoodie
- Rave Baseball Cap
- Dark Purple Jeans
- Green Skinny Fit Jeans
- Pink Sweat Bands

The ladies have these new items available:

- Green Chunky Ring
- Red Chunky Ring
- Yellow Fingerless Gloves
- Blue Fingerless Gloves
- Chunky Beaded Bracelet
- Day-glo Zebra Print Pumps
- Rave Baseball Cap

Remember: It is easy to tell what is new when you are in the avatar editor, just look for the gold star. Any item of clothing with a gold star is new since the last time you signed in.

234w ago - According to a thread at the AVForums, several Xbox 360 users are losing all sound after upgrading to the New Xbox Experience.

Evidently the problem only appears in HDMI-connected systems, but there has been one report of someone having the same problem using a SCART connector. Fortunately, there seems to be a fix.

• Turn off the Xbox 360.
• Remove the hard drive.
• Turn on the Xbox 360.
• When the Dashboard loads, put the hard drive back.

Apparently, the fix is only temporary. If you turn of the Xbox, you will have to receive the process.

235w ago - Looks like the New Xbox Experience dashboard update is experiencing some not-so-new Xbox woes. November 19: launch day for the NXE update. Not 24 hours after it went live, complaints
are already piling up.

Various forums online (such as the one linked above) have threads and threads of people reporting anything from connection freezes, slow downs, lock ups, broken TV connections, and so many other different numerical errors that, if all of them were strung together, could potentially measure all the way from Earth to the moon (and back).

There are even reports of brickage - yes, the famed red ring of death is back. Some say it's limited to modded consoles only (no surprise there) but other untainted units seem to be affected by the same problem too.

We've yet to hear any official response from Major Nelson or any of the Microsoft staff. Some say the slow downs are caused by the simple fact of surging traffic accessing XBL, but the other problems are still unaccounted for.

If you are experiencing any problems with the NXE update, you might want to contact customer service (good luck!) or check forums to ask around if anyone's getting the same problem as you.