* Play from hard drive. Copy your games from the game disc and play directly from the hard drive. Not only will the drive not spin, but load times are quicker, as well. Of course, you will still need the disc in the tray to prove you own the game. * Access Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web. Browse and purchase Marketplace content whenever you want from Xbox.com and it downloads automatically to your console. Purchase that new map, television episode, the latest Xbox LIVE Arcade game or set up a movie to watch when you get home from work. * Dashboard built into the new Xbox Guide. For everyone who loves the blades interface, it’s not going away; they are now built directly in to the new Xbox guide. Every feature and option is available right from the guide. You can even access your full games library at all times. No matter where you are (in dash or in game), immediately call up your games played list and directly launch a game. * LIVE Party system. Create a party of up to eight friends, and stay with them from one game to another, or watch a Netflix movie together, or share a slideshow of your personal photos. It works with all Xbox 360 titles, not just upcoming games. LIVE Party allows up to eight people to chat in the dashboard, so you can meet up before playing. * Xbox LIVE Primetime. This whole new category of games is going to give you more reasons to get online with your friends. Games will support everything you’d expect, like Achievements and leader boards, but many of these games will include real prizes. You can invite your friends, and even set a reminder for an upcoming show. Each game is broadcast simultaneously, so everyone is answering the same questions. Many events will have a live host, calling the shots as they happen. * Avatars. Your online identity started as a Gamertag - it then grew into a personalized Gamercard. Now, it has evolved even further into avatars. You can express your style, check out new outfits and share this with the community. Avatars will also be integrated into Xbox LIVE Arcade games, LIVE Party, as well as retail games. * New display support. Because you asked for it, we are adding 16X10 over VGA or HDMI, and support for 1440x900 or 1680x1050. Xbox Lives Major Nelson
+rep for finding this and bringing it here. All of this looks so great, hopefully they will include all of this.
Damn! That means I will have to go out and get a larger HD. But still, that very cool that Microsoft decided to give us more features (not like we have a lot anyway). Also, this seems to be one hell of an update. Do you think that Microsoft will break up the update into smaller portions, so it's easier to handle? But, to go into more detail about the Netflix feature, Netflix on X-BOX Live will be absolutely free. You can read up on it here. Netflix coming exclusively to Xbox 360 'at no additional cost' - Joystiq
what concerns me most is how much HD space all this new **** is going to take up. Rockband songs + halo maps =/= an empty harddrive. I'm afraid I might just have to get a new harddrive for this and then switching between harddrives for different games would just be crazy.
Just like a video game rental thing through the mail its cool if you don't want to buy a game and you just want to try it out.
It's like a way for movie bootleggers to get movies cheaply and sell the resulting copies for $5 each. I think that the new 'save to HDD' feature might be useful. But the most awesome would probably be buying stuff off the Marketplace from the Web.
Really I thought it was like game fly I might have to check it out now thanks for clearing thaty up I was completely off lol. ; ]
all of this stuff is coming out in the fall? thats definatly not to far away. i think im really going to like the "save to harddrive" feature. because with my half broken xbox i cant open my disc tray from the dashboard. something i think i probally not going to like is the user avatar because it seems a little childish, i think? thanks for telling me whats going to be in the update it seems really cool.
I agree with the 'play from HDD' option. I keep moaning at my bro for leaving the discs out. This should cut out this hastle lol. They better actually do this though, cus you know what microsoft's like...
The saving to the hard drive will still require the disc, just like what the PS3 does. This will only be used to lower loading times, not to remove the need for discs. What I do not like the "new" avatar system that they are making. It is a complete ripoff of Miis and will only be used by about 5 minigame collections for casual gamers, then be completely ignored or forgotten. The rest I like, though I will miss the old dashboard. Watching the same movies at the same time with friends online will be interesting, but I'm not sure it will be used much.