There Goes the Neighborhood

While this post is not directly related to machinima, it impacts a lot of people. Yesterday Microsoft announced that fall dashboard update for the xbox 360 would consist of a 'new' interface for the xbox 360. It will apparently sport a avatar system (strangely similar the the mii's) along with several games that will support the avatars. My impression is of disgust; The current dashboard is great, why fix something that isn't broken? The avatars are just a way for the xbox 360 to seem casual and friendly, and yet in the same keynote Microsoft showed off game play videos of gears of war and fallout 3. This gives the appearance to the average consumer that the xbox 360 is going through some kind of freakish identity crisis. They had some cool announcements like netflix movies on marketplace among others. I guess time will tell weather things will change for the better or worse for the xbox 360.