Another NXE in a few years if there's demand, says Xbox Live manager

"We can do it again"

3 November 2008 11:49 GMT / By Verity Burns

We could see another New Xbox Experience in a few years if there's enough demand, according to Xbox Live product unit manager Jerry Johnson.

"If our customers want it, and the market wants it, we can do it again. There's no date set on it though," said Johnson.

And while Xbox Live had some serious server downtime issues last Christmas, he is sure that there will be no such problems when NXE launches on 19th November.

"I can tell you that when Robbie Bach is on the phone on Christmas Day calling people asking what the hell is going on, and that's coming down from Steve Ballmer... that's the kind of attention it got last holiday.

"Many things have changed since then, and we realised the kind of growth trajectory we were on and had to prepare for it," he said.

He's also advised gamers with 360 Arcade machines that they should expand their memory if they want to enjoy Xbox Live to the fullest.

"I think the clear message is that if you want to get on Live then you should go out and buy a hard drive to actually enjoy that entire experience," he said.

The NXE in itself takes up half of the Arcade's 256MB internal memory, but to compensate for this Microsoft has announced free memory upgrades and reduced prices on refurbished hard drives to help Arcaders get online.