Early NXE access slots go in minutes

Blink and you probably missed it

27 October 2008 11:45 GMT / By Verity Burns

You may remember we reported last week that Xbox would be opening up the New Xbox Experience early for a few on-the-ball gamers.

Well that opportunity came up on Friday evening when Xbox Live's Major Nelson announced on his blog that the soors were open for applications from a few thousand gamers. You simply had to fill in a survey and provide some information about yourself and your console, after which the "Live Science team" would choose a few thousand applicant for early access.

For anyone that wasn't watching the Major's blog closely, there was no chance. An update was made quickly after the message was posted informing everyone that the programme was full.

"Now it's time to go through the thousands of applicants," said the Major. He's said that if you managed to get your application in before the doors were closed, you should expect to hear from Microsoft in "about a week". However he did stress that just completing the survey does not guarantee you access, and that final selections will be handpicked from those who entered their details. Gold members should be happy though, it seems you'll get priority in the selection process.

NXE is due to launch on 19th November, so if you were one of the lucky ones you'll have plenty of time to play around with everything before the official release.