Their next generation user interface has come to Xbox 720 Features and it changes everything - but unless you're paying attention it could be years before you notice.
"First, we had the blades," says Microsoft's Live Growth Exec Robin Burrowes, "and it was great. But as more and more content was added to the Marketplace it got harder and harder to find what you wanted.
Then in 2008 we moved to what we called the 'New Xbox 720 Features Experience' which - in theory - made things easier to discover. But now we're expanding our content beyond gaming into entertainment services - services we're only beginning to realise in the UK. We're building this new dashboard to future proof for the next few years of Live services." "Future proof" is the point.
When the next generation rolls around it will be powered by a Metro-styled UI, just like 2012's Windows 8 and every mobile phone Microsoft make with HTC and Nokia. The first principles of Microsoft's new UI were introduced back in 2006 in the Zune media player, just one year after the release of 360.
The first generation of Zunes used large, bold, screen-filling text in a clean and modern font. Elements of the new design gradually trickled down into other Microsoft products - most notably, MSN Messenger - before getting the Metro name and becoming its own "design language" for Windows Phone 7 with the same "live tiles" you're using in your new Xbox 720 Features dashboard.In the original design book for Windows Phone 7, Metro's designers define Metro by saying:
"We think content should be elevated, and everything else should be minimised. Content is UI and users should be able to interact directly. Simple as that." It took them an entire book to make their point, but it's this one idea that made Metro perfect for 360
"I think it's about the ease of finding a greater breadth of content quicker," says Burrowes, "that's been it for us. The content within the Live Marketplace and the content available On Demand is fairly limitless. With the new interface the most important channels and slots can bubble to the top, but if you want to... discover, we're making that easy, too."
In its transition to 360 the Metro interface has dropped touch controls in favour of full Kinect support - voice and gestures can operate every page of the new interface without switching to a separate Kinect mode. It's an obvious move.
The next Xbox 720 Features - we'll call it Xbox 720 Features 720 for lack of a better name - will come bundled with Kinect and be sold on day one as a console for the hardcore and a media device that can power your entire life. The next version of Kinect - certainly smaller and better than the current model, running with the processing grunt to let it track multiple users right down to their fingers - will be at the very centre of the next console, as will some version of the Metro UI.
The new interface is built to turn 360 into a media hub and the next console is unlikely to be anything but a sleek black box through which everything on your telly flows. Like existing home theatre PCs, it'll connect to your Sky+ or Tivo box, stream video from the internet, and support every On Demand service Microsoft can sign contracts on.
On Demand video is a front-and-centre feature for the new dashboard, with UFC and ESPN already up and running in the US, and the BBC and Channel 4 over here. Offering YouTube and free OD TV is how Microsoft will snare new buyers, but their Zune On Demand service - another in-your-face feature - is how they'll make money from them and steal control of the living room from Apple and Sony.
The new Metro dashboard makes one thing very clear - Microsoft still want you to buy stuff, and if you're not buying stuff then you'd better be prepared to watch advertisements for stuff you don't want to buy.
The Xbox 720 Features could have been given a fully-customisable dashboard long ago if Microsoft wanted it, but both the NXE and Metro dashboards thrust paid advertising and promotions in your face and that's only set to continue on 720.
Microsoft also know that day one console buyers are the hardest of hardcore, which is why the Metro dashboard is already designed for core players - even if it's still hamstrung by the original Xbox 720 Features's Friends List.
The 360 had to support original Xbox 720 Features games on Live so the Friends List stayed capped at 100, but those Live servers closed in 2010 and yet the cap still remains. Microsoft seem attached to the 100-name limit, but with Facebook and Twitter right there on the front page don't be surprised when the next Xbox 720 Features ties your Facebook login, Gamertag, and Twitter account together. When that happens, the 100-name limit has to go.
For now, says Burrowes, the Xbox 720 Features's Metro-styled dashboard is as good as a user interface can be. "We've learned a lot from the Windows phone services in terms of user's ability to discover content through the hubs. That's something that we're bringing into the console, and yes we expect this version of the dash to be like this for a while."
For a while, sure, but the Xbox 720 Features is always evolving and always changing to meet the needs of an unpredictable future. When the Kinect-powered Holodesk and Omnitouch prototypes evolve you'll see an interface which can spring from the TV - an Augmented Reality HUD in a pair of 3D specs and virtual controls laid out on your coffee table.
This isn't ten years away. The technology exists today. And when it arrives, the Xbox 720 Features will adapt - again.
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