<![CDATA[Kotaku: the new xbox experience]]> http://tags.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png <![CDATA[Kotaku: the new xbox experience]]> http://kotaku.com/tag/thenewxboxexperience http://kotaku.com/tag/thenewxboxexperience <![CDATA[Free Your Avatar - Custom Avatar Pics For The Photoshop Illiterate]]> For those of you who just couldn't get the hang of creating your own Photoshopped images, Microsoft has launched Free Your Avatar, a web-based service that allows you to create custom avatar pictures.

Free Your Avatar is a tool that allows you to load the avatars of yourself and your friends into a frame, reposition them, add a background and some text, and then export them in several popular formats, from messenger icons to Facebook pictures. Using the tool, I was able to create this picture of my avatar and Crecente's, shown at true-to-life scale. It's pretty limited, but for those of you who can't open a PNG file in an image editing program, it's pretty much all you've got.

Free Your Avatar [Xbox.com via Edge]

]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5110132&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Netflix Offering Free 48-Hour Trials For Xbox 360]]> The streaming Netflix service that McWhertor was so very fond of will soon be available to Xbox 360 owners across the country, and Netflix wants to make sure gamers are ready when the New Xbox Experience officially launches. To that end, they've begun slipping in cards for 48-hour trials of the service into newly released 360 game titles, beginning with James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace.

This is the first game we've seen with the card inside, but knowing Netflix's penchant for stuffing free trial flyers into every possible orifice of every potential customer they can get their hands on, it won't be the last.

Netflix Giving Away 48 Hour Streaming Trials With New XBOX 360 Games [The Business of Online Video]

]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5077571&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[New Xbox Experience - Themes And Friends]]>
Over at the Gamerscore Blog they're continuing their weekly series on The New Xbox Experience, this week taking a look at how the changes will effect themes and your friends list, or more precisely, how the two will interact. In the screenshot above (click for a closer look) you can see the friends in the example are hanging out next to various items reflecting the theme you have in the background. A nifty idea, though it is sure to cause some problems for third-party themes. What kind of objects you you place behind avatars hanging out on a scantily clad Gemma Atkinson? Bikini wax? An airbrush? All will be revealed in due time.

NXE – What You Want to Know: Themes 2.0 and Friends Channel [Gamerscore Blog]

]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5055427&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Xbox Live Going Down September 29th]]> Xbox Live is going down! On Monday, September 29th at 12:01 AM, the Xbox Live service will be coming down for maintenance that could last up to 24 hours, according to Microsoft's Larry Hryb. The outage will affect the Xbox Live and My Xbox sections of the of Xbox.com as well, and forums will be set to read only for the duration. It's all in preparation for the impending launch of The New Xbox Experience, but only in preparation for it, so don't expect to hop back online when the service goes up and get to work crafting your shiny new avatar. Enjoy the old Xbox experience while you still can!

Xbox Live Service Maintenance [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5053658&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Fall Dash Update: Games Played]]> Microsoft's Gamerscore Blog has just kicked off a new series of articles aimed at teaching Xbox 360 owners the ins and outs of The New Xbox Experience. For the first installment they take a look at the changes made to the Games Played section of Xbox Live. While the information remains largely the same, the way it is presented changes. It starts with a summary, then an all games played page, and then one page for every game you've ever stuck into your Xbox 360 or downloaded off of Xbox Live Arcade.

I'm just dreading seeing the "Out of" portion of my gamerscore very time I log in. Sure, 11K is respectable, but when it's 11K out of nearly 200K, not so much. Couldn't we just tuck that number away behind something? I don't want to have to use masking tape on my LCD TV but they might just be forcing my hand.

The New Xbox Experience - What You Want to Know [Gamerscore Blog]

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