Microsoft's New Xbox Experience launches tomorrow

"A new dawn in home entertainment"

18 November 2008 10:24 GMT / By Verity Burns

The highly-anticipated New Xbox Live Experience finally launches tomorrow, which Microsoft says will "transform instantly" the 25 million Xbox consoles around the world sold in its 3 years on the shelves.

"The future of home entertainment is Xbox 360 - it's on demand, it's high definition, it's always social, it's all in one place", said Don Mattrick, senior vice president for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.

"With the New Xbox Experience we will reach the next generation of Xbox owners, 25 million and beyond. We are at a watershed moment, backed by the largest entertainment brands, with an incredible line up of entertainment unmatched in any industry."

The list of what Xboxers can expect from NXE is something gamers everywhere have been discussing for months.

Probably the most talked about feature since NXE was announced is the Mii-esque animated avatars that will allow you to create a mini-you to be your game-face across the world of Xbox Live.

Once that's done, you can then get to exploring. Hold an Xbox Live Party with up to seven of your online friends that allows you to voice chat and share photos in real time, or head over to your Personal Game Room where you'll be able to download games where your Avatar becomes the main character.

You'll also be able to access all of Xbox LIVE Marketplace from there, including Xbox LIVE Arcade, and even queue content to download straight from Xbox.com.

Another exciting new feature is The Community Games channel which will see games made by the community and uploaded to Xbox Live for other gamers to download and play, opening up the door for exciting new developers to get themselves noticed.

As well as games to download, Xbox Live now includes a large online library of more than 15,000 on-demand high-definition TV shows and movies for you to download, with partners on-board including Disney, MGM, NBC and Warner Bros, and new movies being added all the time.

If you own an Xbox, don't forget to log on tomorrow and download NXE (we're sure you don't need us to tell you twice) and let us know what you think. Does the NXE live up to its hype?

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