When I came home with my shiny new Xbox 360 waaaaaay back in 2005, one of my favorite features of the console was the dashboard. The blades were an amazing leap from the clumsy interface of the original Xbox, offering all sorts of expanded control, options, and content that I didn’t even imagine in the previous generation’s hardware.

But nothing lasts forever, and after a few years of noble service, the Xbox 360 dashboard is really starting to show its age and, worse, its limitations. You can find hints of these shortcomings in Microsoft’s recent actions. The back-to-back May announcements of no Spring update and the delisting of selected Xbox Live Arcade titles suggested larger issues. Even the comments made by Microsoft executives on the topic were telling—like when Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten said of the decision not to offer a Spring dashboard update that they were instead:

“building the proper infrastructure and scale for the service.”

Or when Aaron Greenberg commented on the delisting of Xbox Live Arcade games:

“I think that we are not, I would say…happy with the ability to find and discover content as easily as we’d like for consumers to be able to do that.”

So, Microsoft acknowledges the problem. Is there a solution? I think so. Lots of them, actually. We’ve spent some time on our recent podcasts talking about the need for a dashboard 2.0. I decided to take it a step further, look at what exists currently, and suggest some ways to improve things—yes, for Microsoft—but primarily for Xbox 360 users.

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Looking to dip your toe into the shark-infested waters of 360 hardware? Already have a 360, but you want to roll, Sooch-style, with a console for every room of the house? Well, here’s your chance to win one in what has to be the easiest contest on the ‘net. (more…)

Anyone who’s played World of Warcraft knows the feeling of fascination—and embarrassment—that comes from typing the /played command to see just how much time you’ve frittered away slaying murlocs. Well, Xbox 360 owners have a similar source to see their shame laid bare.

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At long last, Microsoft has revealed the über-secret rationale behind eschewing an HDMI connection for both their forthcoming HD-DVD player and their Fall, 1080p update. Are you ready to hear why?

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Not content with his cameo appearance in EA’s Fight Night Round 3, The King (Burger King’s masked psychopath-cum-mascot) has made the transition into games of his own. As reported earlier this week, in November Burger King will be offering up a trio of King-themed 360 games at their restaurants for the curiously-cheaper-than-an-XBLA-game price of $3.99 apiece.

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In the first year of a console’s release, every game gets a measure of attention that it would not normally enjoy later in that machine’s lifecycle. Even so, a dollop of controversy can’t help but bolster a game’s buzz, right? Case in point, Enchanted Arms—a by-the-numbers, turn-based, Japanese RPG that has increased its profile (at least in cyberspace) by the inclusion of a player-controlled character with a fairly uncommon twist. See, Makoto, a member of your initial party in Enchanted Arms, is unabashedly homosexual and has a thing for one of the other members of your party, Toya.

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With the average age of a video game player on the rise, and with Microsoft’s pending plan for pushing Live Anywhere to every digital device from your cell phone to your UltraVibe Pleasure 2000™, the corporate board room is about to get a whole lot more entertaining.

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An executive sits at the head of a rich mahogany table, his bald pate softly reflecting fluorescent light from above. His eyes twitch back and forth across the bright young faces before him–each one so eager to make a difference. His mouth slowly curves into a smile as his hands rise above the wood and move toward each other. He bites his lower lip and inhales through clenched teeth as his fingers interlace. “Convergence,” he says.

In the distance a plaintive moan is heard as a consumer falls to the ground in confusion.

Now Xbox gamers and PC gamers and Cell Phone gamers (WTF?) can finally come together. Live Anywhere is an integral part of the upcoming Windows Vista and, one can only assume, Windows Mobile. So what does this mean to you?
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