What would another year of Xbox gaming be without a yet another dashboard update. Love or hate them, they’re mandatory, and there’s no getting around them. The latest update is clearly designed to make full use of the Kinect system, but don’t think that those of us who prefer digital menu navigation with a regular Xbox controller are going to be left out as well.
According to Xbox Live’s Senior Director Jose Pinero, the new update will also improve navigation experiences for those users who prefer the Xbox controller. In an interview with CVG, Pinero explained how the new dashboard was easier to use now.
"Anecdotally, 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 brandâ€.
“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 aroundâ€.
I’m not really certain how the Xbox dashboard can be made any simpler, its basically scroll left or right, up or down and select. But it will be interesting to see the response to the Kinect functionality that will be added in, so that we can finally pretend that relive our favourite Minority Report moments.
Source: CVG
Last Updated: September 1, 2011