Xbox 360 Fall 2008 update list (post #23)

Damn, slightly more than World of Warcraft active subscribers.. Seriously though, it sounds kinda weak that ONE PC game has almost as many active, paying users than the Live as whole

 

It's not just ANY PC game, it's THE PC game. There's WoW, and then there's PC gaming.

 

re: Xbox Live 2008 Fall Update List

OK, so we didn't get a Spring update, but a DRM tool was cool. Anyway, it looks like this thread should be renamed to "Xbox Live 2008 Fall Update List". Kotaku says this original list of updates intended for Spring is legit and those will be included in the next update. However, (and this is where it gets interesting) Microsoft is supposedly offering a "second interface option" that can be navigated via the "yet-to-be-announced motion controller." Kotaku goes onto to explain...

Sounds kinda out there, but not entirely out of the question. One would hope that something of that magnitude would be the reason why they skipped the Spring update.

Anybody find any US patents (filed or granted) from Microsoft that could point to something like this?

http://kotaku.com/5021196/xbox-360-getting-a-3d-dashboard-make+over

Tommy McClain

 

Since Kotaku doesn't mention a single source, I'd take this with a grain of salt. Neogaf is at a slow frenzy over this, but after pages and pages there hasn't been a single confirmation. Don't forget that what Kotaku really wants are unique hits.

 

Ok, this all sounds well and good - now where's the announcement about a decent sized hard drive that doesn't cost one of my testicles!

JaCK

 

I agree that it is Kotaku, but I'm really sure that they would go to the trouble of making up the news either. Somebody else might though. Anyway, it looks like they got some confirmation on the matter from more sources saying that the UI parts of the rumor are about 95% correct. In fact, they state that Schematic is the agency working with Microsoft to do it. Sounds neat.

http://kotaku.com/5021326/minority-report-designer-behind-new-motion+controlled-360-gui

Tommy McClain

 

Not saying they made it up, but that they wouldn't really exercise due diligence when it comes to big rumors like this. I find it very, very suspicious that they haven't listed a single source for something that seems so certain. Are these MS insiders? Game developers? Someone in the mainstream press?

When the Newton stuff came out, MTV Multiplayer didn't mention their sources specifically, but they mentioned that their sources had been partially developers.

 

If I had info like this, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't say where I got it either. Especially if by doing so would lead to me not getting the story or much worse, my source getting fired.

Tommy McClain

 

Is that the case? I don't know anything of the sort; they haven't mentioned ANYTHING about their sources. I mean, for all we know it could be gamestop managers. It could be other 'games journalists'. I mean, track this back: the original false spring update list hit Kotaku from someone claiming to be an internal source. They were wrong.

Now Kotaku says that no, they were right (just off by an update), and that someone is saying that some 3d, motion-controlled interface is showing up. Maybe it's the same person, maybe it's not -- the biggest confirmation we have is that MAYBE it's someone who MAY be an internal source at MS.

 

Accept the good. At least it's better than no information at all.

I'm sure you could probably find a few people who've been burned in the past for giving out info that they were sworn not to. I was lucky enough to get into a public beta for a game. Do I want to talk about it? Hell yes! Do I want to be listed as a source after signing NDA's? Hell no!

 

Sounds like you're a little upset about something. Just let it roll dude. Life's a lot more enjoyable if you do. LOL

Tommy McClain

 

Was that necessary? Kotaku (not just Kotaku, but gawker media's per-hit payment mechanism is pretty bad) epeatedly blows stuff out of proportion, we're on the verge of E3 so rumors are sprouting from everywhere and there's absolutely no corroborating evidence that this is legit. So I'm saying: take it with a grain of salt.

 

LOL at that Photoshop. That would be great.

Anyway, a new interface for me would need to be faster and snappier. Time how long it takes me to do various simple tasks - say, buy the latest XBLA game, or launch my Originals version of Psychonauts, or download a new trailer for Ninja Gaiden or something. If the new UI takes longer, what's the point?

I'm a little disappointed at how the dashboard hasn't been too good at scaling as the number of games in the various lists has grown. I'd love to be able to create my own dashboard, or at least let others share their own, a la themes on Windows, with shortcuts and whatnot to my common places - my XBLA games, new XBLA games, new trailers, etc.

Granted, there are so many games on the service now - XBLA, plus of course the retail marketplace has hundreds and hundreds of titles. But if you've got the biggest library, you need to have the most intuitive UI to deal with it, otherwise you'll look clunky by comparison, even if it's just because you have a better range of titles *shrug*

 

Cool. Just don't complicate it and give people an option to use the current one and no issues here.

 

Not revealing sources is a standard practice in jouranlism so I don't know how you find that problematic or a sign for disbelief. How are you going to get someone to tell you anything if you going to reveal their identity or provide info that may allow someone to determine who the source is?

They might have a good source or a bad source. Who knows? Sources aren't always reliable and thats a given.

Kotaku may not always be right on the money but this is the site that published the "Home" leak and got almost got blackballed by Sony for doing so.

Furthermore, Kotaku doesn't present items as indisputable facts and generally we all as readers understand that, so whats the problem?

 

Found this great article on how the current dashboard needs an overhaul. Even went to the trouble to explain how much of the screen real estate is being used. Then gives a protoype interface as a better replacement...





http://www.platformnation.com/2008/07/01/dreaming-of-dashboard-20/

Tommy McClain

 

1) Kotaku stories try to get the most unique visits possible.
2) Interesting rumors may not be appropriately scrutinized before being posted the main page because of 1, because such stories will get a lot of visitors.
3) Kotaku was was very wrong on the supposedly related Spring update news. Is this the same source?
4) There has been no corroboration of this. Not a word on neogaf, every single story links back to Kotaku.
5) We don't even know where the source comes from. I'm guessing it's the same source as the Spring update story, but it's not that they're not naming sources (I'm not asking for that), they're not mentioning them at all. They mentioned the origin source on the Spring update story, but on both '3d dashboard' stories they omit even hints as to the nature of their sources.

I don't hate Kotaku: I subscribe to their RSS feed and I check their main page every night. But I'm well aware of their shortcomings. An alternate 3D dashboard that uses a motion sensing peripheral for minority report-style controls is far-fetched enough that I'm not buying it just because Kotaku said so.

 

I don't about the rest of you guys, but 5 message discussing the merits(or lack thereof) of Kotaku sources is a little too much for me. Let's hope obonicus is done so we can get back on topic.

Tommy McClain

 

I'm not sure how discussing the merits of a rumor's source in a rumor thread is off-topic.

 

That looks nice, but imagine the complaining of all those that bought themes if they changed this