We’re less than a week away from Microsoft’s New Xbox Experience (NXE) update that drops on Nov. 19th and as much as I’m looking forward to it (as some one that hates the blade interface), the closer it gets and the more impressions I read from folks that got into it early, I have to wonder…  is the update mostly fixes to problems and non-gaming features?  But wait, isn’t gaming Microsoft’s primary focus?  I could have sworn that’s what they told us all last year…

Let’s summarize the key points to the upgrade very briefly.  Netflix streaming, replacing the blade interface with something more glitzy, hard drive installs for games, 3D avatars, and the party system.  Of those features, honestly, only the party system should really be of big interest to gamers.  You know, those gamers that shouldn’t worry about non-gaming functions.  The gamers Microsoft targeted so strongly last year when Blu-ray beat HD-DVD and the PS3 had the undisputed upper hand in terms of physical media movie playback.

Let’s continue with the media playback topic since we’re already there.  Does anyone else find it ironic how much buzz the Netflix streaming functionality is getting?  I halfway wonder if someone, somewhere within Microsoft, is panicking right now; concerned they may have just slit the throat of their movie sales on Xbox Live Video Marketplace.  You can buy a movie or two per month via XBLVM or you can subscribe to Netflix and stream unlimited movies for the same amount of money.  Also take into account the number of deals Netflix has been signing with other companies.  Microsoft may have a contract that keeps Sony from signing on, but clearly it’s not a Microsoft exclusive deal because a TON of other hardware devices can do what the 360 will be able to do and they don’t require Xbox Live Gold memberships to do it. LG has announced Blu-ray players with Netflix streaming and Tivo recently announced a deal regarding its HD DVRs having a Netflix streaming option.  Not to mention Netflix supporting Macs in addition to Windows PCs.  Rather than the Xbox 360 getting this really cool new feature, I think the public is being exposed to this really neat new feature and our impression of its relatively close relationship to Microsoft and the 360 will soon fade as Netflix streaming becomes much more common on non-360 devices.

Replacing the dated blade interface is something that I’ve been anxiously awaiting since I knew they were working on it.  I make to attempt to hide the fact I’ve never cared for the blade interface from an aesthetic standpoint and as they piled more and more content into the marketplace, from a functionality aspect the blade interface’s limitations were made very clear.  I always was irritated by the fact that the blades are animated but not animated smoothly. It looks “janky” to see them stutter in and I never understood why they left them animated at all, I’d rather see a static overlay just “pop” up.  I really do like the look of the new interface and even the “mini-blades” seem to be an improvement over the traditional blades.  I could do without the avatars being right there in the interface, but I’ll give it a chance before I outright hate on it.

The hard drive installs seem almost laughable and points out several problems with the system.  In theory, sure, I’d love hard drive installs.  I love buying the downloadable versions of PS3 games to have easy access to the game from a menu rather than getting up to swap discs.  The 360′s plan doesn’t address that problem because you still need to put the game disc in for validation purposes.  On top of that, you’re reliant on the 360′s relatively small and extremely expensive hard drive space.  Even the 120GB drive isn’t big enough to just go installing all your games on.  Add to that the fact that hard drive installs don’t make an enormous difference in loading times and you might find yourself wondering why you’d install games to the HD at all.

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