Some of you have taken issue with the slow speed of the New Xbox Experience, and Major Nelson and the rest of the Xbox Live team have taken notice. In his latest podcast, the Major promises that the next major dash update will see a much faster guide. Just don't call it a performance enhancement, whatever you do.

"The team has done some really good stuff around making performance enhancements. 'Performance enhancements' doesn't sound right because it sounds like we're going to give the guide a little blue pill, and we're not doing that. Whatever we call it (and it's not going to be called the NNXE), but whatever the next version of the dashboard is called, it's better with a lot of very cool new features. That update will be out later this year"

Thank goodness, because if the Xbox Live team had released a dashboard update that was worse in every way, they'd be Vista team, and they keep the two separate for a reason.

Show #323: E3 2009 and Iraq [Major Nelson via CVG]

New shirts, slacks, waistcoats and skirts are yours for the virtual closet raiding, provided you want your Avatar to look nice, but not too nice. For the new additions, read on.

Male
Blue Formal Shirt
Moleskin Pants
Waistcoat and Shirt
Suit and Tie

Female
Pencil Skirt
Slacks
Pinstripe Blazer
Twin Set

Least, we wish it did. Something Deadwood would have been nice. Some big moustaches, gun belts, maybe a poncho or two. Maybe Lee Van Cleef's hat. Something rustic, something 19th century. Instead, the "Western Wear" looks more like "Garth Brooks" wear. Bummer.

If the shot to the left hasn't turned you off the idea (hey, you could always just rock the hat), the new gear is easily available, as always, by finding the wardrobe options that have a gold star next to them in the avatar menu.

Up til now, those who didn't like the looks of the NXE could, in theory, keep their consoles off Xbox Live and keep rockin' the blades like it was 2005. But no longer. Beginning with HAWX and MLB2K9, 360 games will now come with the update on the disc, meaning if you don't have the NXE and then insert a new game, it'll be installed automatically, whether you like it or not.

Don't worry. There are plenty of ways to make your avatar look sad.

NXE now included as mandatory on-disc update [Darkzero]

Your New Xbox Experience Avatar now has the option to look one percent more bad-ass or—if your Avatar is female—twice as trashy, as new gear, said to be inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, can now be applied to your virtual Xbox self. Skull rings, top hats, pixie boots and leopard print leggings are all you'll need to give your Rare-designed thing that lawless rebel or strung out junkie look.

Or, if you want an outfit that simply says "leather daddy" you can have that too.

For the full list of new wardrobe options, read on.

For the guys:

• Rocker Jacket
• Pixie Boots
• Grunge Pants
• Metal Combats
• Top Hat
• Skull Ring
• Leather Biker Gloves
• Left Feather Earring
• Right Feather Earring

For the girls::

• Punk Tee
• Black 60's Boots
• Leopard Print Leggings
• Biker Jacket
• Biker Gloves
• Skull Wrist Band
• Left Feather Earring
• Right Feather Earring

According to the team behind the little guys, the answer is a resounding maybe. Rare's Dale Murchie says:

User-generated content is a huge area that would not have been done any justice if we had tried to cram it into the launch release of this project.

There may be features coming that open up the expressive potential of the Xbox community, but we're keeping quiet on that for now.

Murchie may be keeping "quiet", but Rare's Lee Musgrave saw fit to add "Creativity is going to play a big part in the development of the Avatars".

Completely custom outfits would be great, but you know, at this stage we'd just settle for changing the existing gears colour.

Rare: User-generated content likely for Avatars [VG247]

Following the NXE roll out in November 2008, a segment of the Xbox 360 population found their previously working audio cutting out. A hard drive swapping "fix" was the best the community could come up with. Not an ideal solution, nor the best way to fire up a C-grade Netflix stream.

According to Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, a new dashboard update will be issued in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, one that is said to fix the issue affecting those plugging in their Xbox 360 via HDMI. We've fortunately been spared the HDMI-induced aural famine at Kotaku Towers, but hope that those affected will chime in, loudly, when they get their patch on.

Dashboard Update (aka the HDMI Audio fix) [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

Pachter and his Wedbush Morgan crew of prophets thinks, in writing, that Netflix "subscriber growth will continue at super-normal levels for quite some time" thanks to Xbox Live Gold membership. We interpret "super-normal" to mean "like, pretty good" in non-analyst speak.

The analyst house estimates another five to six million Xbox 360s sold in the United States this year, with Pachter pegging Live Gold subscription rates at "around 35% of these owners."

Netflix announced yesterday that it ended the fourth quarter of 2008 with approximately 9,390,000 subscribers, showing 26% year-over-year growth from 7,479,000 subscribers at the end of the same quarter from 2007. Time to go buy some NFLX stock!

Xbox Live is 'Proverbial Gold Mine' for Netflix, says Pachter [GameDaily]

Fans of polos, cardigans, chinos and other yacht-appropriate casual wear will want to deck out their Avatars with the latest threads. You know, for Live Party clambakes and such. There are even Nantucket pants for when you're feeling virtually New England.

The full list of new togs is after this.

Boys

• Striped Polo Shirt
• Striped Jacket with Polo
• Checked Jacket with Polo
• Open Neck Cardigan
• Embroidered Pants
• Suspenders with Hi Pants (Dress Up)

Girls

• Hacking Jacket
• Chinos with Belt
• Rainy Day Boots
• Scarlet Pumps
• Lavender Polo Shirt

New Avatar clothes available [Major Nelson]

Keeping up with the latest trends, Microsoft is offering new, brightly colored gear like an all over print "Pixel Art Hoodie" and a pair of "Rave Baseball Caps." Sweat bands, zebra pumps and fingerless gloves can give you horrible electroclash flashbacks while browsing your Xbox Live friends list now too. Yes, more skinny fit jeans (read: Avatar leggings) because you demanded it!

The full list of new wearables is after this. Fire off your "Hey Microsoft, 2006 called and it wants its Bape knock-offs back!" e-mails afterward.

Gents
Pixel Art Hoodie
Rave Baseball Cap
Dark Purple Jeans
Green Skinny Fit Jeans
Pink Sweat Bands

Ladies
Green Chunky Ring
Red Chunky Ring
Yellow Fingerless Gloves
Blue Fingerless Gloves
Chunky Beaded Bracelet
Day-glo Zebra Print Pumps
Rave Baseball Cap

Located in the Spotlight section of your New Xbox Experience, the Holiday Snow Globe randomly populates itself with you and your friends, trapping them in a water-filled globe that you have the power to shake. The poor little virtual guys get so confused that every once in awhile they do the wave.

Adding to the torture, while the Snow Globe is on your screen, holiday greetings in various languages scroll across the top of your screen while the opening verse of "Jingle Bells" plays over and over and over again. I've had it playing in the background for about 30 minutes now, and I am ready to give someone a holly-jolly garroting.

Stir your friends up in the Xbox LIVE Snow Globe [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

Xbox LIVE Marketplace sales have been up week over week since the New Xbox Experience hit three weeks ago, with movie downloads increasing 49 percent and TV episode downloads up 30 percent the week after launch. And, Greenberg said, Xbox LIVE Arcade sales almost tripled in the first week after the New Xbox Experience launch.

"We are seeing it as a sustained increase," Greenberg said.

Some games saw a bigger impact to sales than others did. In particular, Arcade titles Uno and A Kingdom for Keflings, both of which support in-game avatar use, saw tremendous jumps in sales.

"I think we are bringing a much broader audience into the experience," Greenberg said. "We've made the Xbox easier to navigate and that's resulted in people buying new content."

"We'll see over time how that plays out."

The new Xbox interface, which was rolled out on Nov. 19, comes as Xbox Live membership hits an all time high, currently more than 14 million active members online.

Those members, Greenberg said, are also much more active than they used to be. The number of new friends added per Xbox LIVE member has risen by 33 percent, since Nov. 19, and over the past year the average number of unique visitors to Live every day has risen 66 percent.

They're purpose-built for your harsh, northern winters, not our harsh, southern summers. So no hats, no tiny shorts, no cheap flip-flops, just a range of snowboarding gear for your avatar's inner eXtrEme sportsman. They're already available, they're free, go try 'em on.

The online movie company issued a statement last week saying "we hope they’ll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly". When Netflix say "shortly", they mean "shortly", as (most of) Sony's movies are now up and available for download. Least, the important ones are. Go knock yourselves out.

Know before you start, however, that if you own a 20GB unit, Blue Dragon - at 19.9 GB - isn't going to fit. Nor is Lost Odyssey, at a whopping 23.2 GB. And if you own Crackdown or DoA Beach Volleyball 2, you won't be able to install them at all. The feature is "not supported" for those titles. Same goes for the Burger King titles Big Bumpin', Sneak King, and Pocketbike Racer, as well as the version of Quake II that came with Quake IV.

Everything else, though? You can install it. And here's how much they take up, courtesy of Sean & the kids @ NeoGAF:

Game - Install Size - Notes

- All Pro Football 2k8 (5.0 GB)
- Amped 3 (6.7 GB)
- Army of Two (5.7 GB)
- Assassin's Creed (6.7 GB) — Jerusalem load 39.5 seconds (DVD) vs 25 seconds (HDD)
- Battlefield: Bad Company (6.5 GB)
- Battlestations: Midway (5.5 GB)
- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (6.6 GB) — cuts 2-6 seconds off loads
- Beautiful Katamari (3.4 GB)
- BioShock (6.1 GB) — Point Prometheus level 35 seconds (DVD) vs 24.5 seconds (HDD)
- Blazing Angels (3.4 GB)
- Blue Dragon (19.9 GB for all disks - 6.6 GB, 6.5 GB, 6.8 GB)
- Brother's in Arms: Hell's Highway (5.2 GB)
- Bullet Witch (5.2 GB)
- Bully: Scholarship Edition (3.4 GB)
- Burnout Revenge (4.4 GB) — load/restart of Eastern Bay (a long forward race): DVD 26 seconds HDD 11 seconds
- Burnout Paradise (3.4 GB)
- C&C: Tiberium Wars (6.6 GB)
- Call of Duty 2 (6.0 GB) — saves 2-3 seconds each loadtime
- Call of Duty 3 (5.8 GB)
- Call of Duty 4 (6.7 GB)
- Call of Duty: World at War (6.5 GB)
- Cars (5.2 GB)
- Chromehounds (4.2 GB)
- Civilization Revolution (6.3 GB)
- Clive Barker's Jericho (5.6 GB)
- Colin McRae Dirt (6.4 GB)
- Command & Conquer 3 (3.6GB)
- Condemned (5.4 GB)
- Condemned 2: Bloodshot (6.8 GB)
- Dark Messiah: Might and Magic (6.1 GB) — "seems to fix the music cutting out issue. It loads a little faster too"
- Dark Sector (3.4 GB) — chapter 6 loaded 10-11 secs with install versus 15-16 normal
- Dead or Alive 4 (6.8GB)
- Dead Rising (6.6 GB)
- Dead Space — "shortens the initial load time and the load time when accessing save stations"
- Devil May Cry 4 (6.7 GB)
- Dynasty Warriors Gundam (5.6 GB)
- Earth Defense Force 2017 (3.4 GB)
- Eternal Sonata (6.8 GB)
- Fable 2 (6.8 GB) — the brief stutter when accessing inventory menus or expressions is gone
- Fallout 3 (5.9 GB)
- Far Cry 2 (4.5 GB)
- FIFA 09 (6.0 GB)
- Fight Night Round 3 (3.4 GB)
- Flatout Ultimate Carnage (4.9 GB)
- Forza 2 (5.3 GB)
- Full Auto (3.4 GB)
- Gears of War (6.5 GB)
- Gears of War 2 (6.7 GB) initial load 8 seconds shorter, causes stuttering at "saving game" checkpoints
- Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighter (5.2 GB)
- Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighter 2 (6.8 GB)
- Grand Theft Auto IV (6.7 GB) — decreases initial load time from 46.5 to 33 seconds
- GRID (6.6 GB)
- Guitar Hero 2 (3.4 GB)
- Guitar Hero: World Tour (6.5 GB)
- GUN (3.6 GB)
- Hitman: Blood Money (5.8 GB)
- Halo 3 (6.3 GB) — load times are apparently worse (10 seconds longer) when installed
- Idolm@ster (5.1 GB)
- Idolm@ster Live 4 U (5.9 GB)
- Infinite Undiscovery (12.5 GB for both discs, disc 1 6GB disc 2 6.5GB)
- Kameo (5.9 GB)
- King Kong (6.5 GB)
- Left 4 Dead (5.0 GB)
- Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga (5.8 GB)
- LIPS (4.7 GB)
- Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle Earth (4.4 GB)
- Lost Planet (6.8 GB)
- Lost: Via Domus (4.2 GB)
- Lost Odyssey (23.2 GB for all discs: 5.8, 5.2, 6.3, and 6.2) — 2 times faster playing off HDD (video)
- Madden 09 (6.7 GB) — "game doesn't hitch anymore when going in or coming out of an instant replay"
- Mass Effect (6.8 GB) — No more "Loading" pauses when moving too fast. Elevator load times are identical (hardcoded)
- Mercenaries 2 (6.7 GB)
- Midnight Club: LA (6.0 GB)
- Mirror's Edge (5.7 GB) — eliminates (or greatly reduces) the amount of brief "Now Loading" pauses that pop up mid-level
- Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe (6.4 GB) — not much difference, load times are only 1-2 seconds shorter
- Namco Museum Virtual Arcade (3.4 GB)
- NBA 2K9 (6.7GB) — helps framerate issues and previously frequent hanging
- NBA Live 09 (?? GB) — "now we're getting stutters inbetween baskets"
- Need for Speed Most Wanted (6.8 GB)
- NHL 09 (5.7 GB)
- Ninja Gaiden II (6.8 GB) — 125 seconds initial load on DVD, 45 seconds off HDD. No loading when selecting a weapon from quick switch menu
- Overlord (3.4 GB)
- Perfect Dark Zero (4.9 GB)
- Pure (4.4 GB)
- Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (3.4 GB)
- Project Gotham Racing 3 (6.2 GB)
- Project Gotham Racing 4 (6.0 GB) — average load is 6-10 seconds shorter, some users report occasional audio popping
- Quantum of Solace (6.8 GB)
- Raiden IV (3.4 GB)
- Raiden Fighters Aces (3.4 GB)
- Rainbow Six Vegas (6.7 GB)
- Ridge Racer 6 (6.5 GB)
- Rock Band (5.2 GB)
- Rock Band 2 (6.3GB)
- Rumble Roses XX (4.5GB) — seems like 1/3 taken off loading times
- Saints Row (6.8 GB)
- Saints Row 2 (6.8 GB)
- Scene It (6.8 GB)
- SEGA Rally (4.2 GB)
- Shadowrun (4.3 GB)
- Shikigami no Shiro 3 (3.4 GB)
- skate (6.5 GB) — "load times virtually the same, only exception: Clothes - they basically barely loaded at all before, now it's all smooth"
- Smackdown vs RAW 2009 (?? GB) — "is INSANE from the HD, almost instant loading. Fantastic."
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 ( GB) — "game loads about 15-20% faster"
- Soul Calibur IV (5.9 GB)
- Splinter Cell: Double Agent (6.8 GB)
- Star Trek Legacy (5.7 GB)
- Star Wars: Force Unleashed (6.6 GB)
- Stranglehold (6.7 GB)
- Stuntman Ignition (5.8 GB)
- Table Tennis (3.4 GB)
- Tales of Vesperia (5.9 GB) — "loads like it runs off of a cartridge at times"
- Tengai Makyou Ziria: Harukanaru Jipang (6.0 GB)
- The Club (5.2 GB)
- The Darkness (6.8 GB) — "loads noticeably faster. I didn't do any comparisons but it feels a lot quicker travelling between areas."
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (6.7 GB) — Great Forest loadtime 44.5 seconds (DVD) vs 31 seconds (HDD)
- The Orange Box (4.7 GB) — HL2 load time cut in half (44.5 vs 25.5 seconds), loading saved game 'We don't go there any more' shaved off 32 seconds
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 (6.0 GB)
- Tomb Raider Anniversary (6.4 GB)
- Tomb Raider Legend (6.7 GB)
- Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (5.0 GB)
- Too Human (6.2 GB)
- Two Worlds (3.4 GB)
- Unreal Tournament 3 (6.4 GB)
- Viking:Battle for Asgard (5.9 GB)
- Virtua Fighter 5 (4.7 GB)
- Virtua Tennis 3 (4.1 GB)
- Viva Piñata (5.0 GB)
- Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise (5.2 GB)
- Warriors Orochi (6.4 GB)
- Warriors Orochi 2 (6.8 GB)
- Wartech Senko no Ronde (3.4GB)
- WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007 (6.8 GB)
- WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008 (5.8 GB)
- WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 (6.6 GB)
- Xbox Live Arcade Compilation Disc (5.9 GB)
- Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Vol.1 (3.4 GB)

NXE Fragen und Antworten, Teil Eins [dreisechzig, via X3F]

Actually, Samuel, I think you don't need to do anything but let the My Features screen idle for a bit. After the Hairstyles menu item rotates, you'll have the new colors. Unfortunately, we can't seem to match the eyebrows to the hairstyles. Wonder if there's anything else tucked away in there...

The Official NXE PREMIUM THEME SHOWCASE [NeoGAF]

The theme comes bundled with wallpapers and the Avatar backgrounds seen above, all for just 250 Microsoft Points. Pricey? Maybe, but you really can't put a dollar figure on something this useless. Expect even more wallet whittling microtransactions for the next... forever.

Ninja Blade Pre-Launch Events [Impress Game Watch via Siliconera]

Wonder if those hair options were included in the NXE just for Jamzy? We'd like to think so.

NXE来ましたね！ついでに告知もしちゃう♪ [Famitsu]