Not that this story is completely relevant to us here in SA but I do think it’s an interesting one. Joystiq is reporting that Netflix streaming won’t have quite as many films available as may have been planned. Its seems a number of films are now no longer available to be streamed on the Xbox 360, including both Ghostbusters and …

Just a quick update, the NXE is officially up and runnning. I turned on the console at around 12:10 and it was downloaded and installed by around 12:20 (on a 4mb line) so the whole process was fairly quicker than I initially thought it was going to be, although I can see download times increasing when a lot of people get home. Creating the Avatar was pretty simple and the length you take all depends on how fussy you are going to be with your settings. I have just installed Gears of War 2 to my HDD and it looks like the install took around about 10 minutes or so. So there you have it, it's up and you can get it as soon as you get home. If you have any questions you can pop them into the comments and I will try and answer them for you.

Just a reminder to anyone who may have actually forgotten, today is the day that the New Xbox Dashboard Experience arrives. When you get home and switch on your Xbox 360, you will be asked to update. Once the update is downloaded and complete, you can start creating your avatar and messing around with the new layout. I am really looking forward to the new party chat that will allow 8 players to hook up and chat as well as move into game lobbies. All in all the new dashboard might not be as impressive as what Sony has planned for Home but I am really excited at the idea of never having to look at another dashboard blade go "whoosh" across my screen ever again.

Microsoft believe that with the New Xbox Live Experience will turn Xbox Live into more of a Social networking system. Shades of this intent have been visible since the last large update for the current system where Bio’s and such where introduced. But just how far do Microsoft want to go with this? Last Updated: November 18, 2008

Have you spotted those articles floating around about how the NXE that is coming in the next couple of days is going to be brick another huge chunk of the existing Xbox 360’s in the marketplace? Well the rumour goes that everytime a new dashboard is released the older Xbox 360 models go into distress and RROD on everyone and …

I am totally unconvinced by the Xbox 360 avatars coming in the NXE however I have it under good authority that they are actually quite cool. Either way I guess we are going to have to wait for the NXE to be officially released to see what all the fuss is about. However not all of us have had to …

There is currently a popular story doing the rounds about how Epic Games think that Microsoft is winning the online battle due to their added content. In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Epic's Mike Capps says that it's due to Microsoft's policy of adding of constantly "adding cool stuff". That's all good and well but it's the next part of the interview that got my interest. More after the jump. He goes on to say the that: "But I love the fact that you boot through the dashboard now - I understand how some gamers might not like it so much, but that's how you join into the Xbox Live experience - your dashboard comes up, you get to see what's new, hey, there's some free stuff you didn't know about - instead of just booting into your game and missing the community." It never ceases to amaze me how people can so easily soften words to try and make something hugely profitable look like it is something that has been done as a favour to us, the gamers. He speaks about missing the community and seeing that there is free stuff available, when in truth, it's actually just all about pushing as much money-making DLC down our throats as possible. This reminds me of the famous quote, "out of sight, out of mind".

In other New Xbox Experience news today, Microsoft’s Gamerscore Blog has announced that five previously released Xbox Live Arcade titles will be getting updated to include support for Microsoft Avatars when the new features launch on November 19. Last Updated: November 3, 2008