Joystiq

Microsoft Japan recently held a small press briefing detailing some of the new features bundled into the Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard Update. With the help of Engadget Japanese's Ittousai we've been able to pinpoint a few relevant changes that are in store for next Tuesday's update. The most significant addition is the reorganization of the "games" blade (pictured above), which now features the "Games Library" (in place of "Xbox Live Arcade"), in addition to the old "Achievements" and "Played Games" sections.

When opened, the Games Library is nearly identical to the current XBLA menu, with a vertically-scrolling games list and an info box appearing for the highlighted game [Famitsu image]. New, however, is a horizontal sorting menu, broken down by filters like "All Games," "Arcade," "Demos," and "Recent Downloads." (This new horizontal and vertical organization is not unlike Sony's XMB design -- Microsoft calls it "twist" navigation, the same UI used for Zune.)

Additional Fall Update features:

• Top level of "marketplace" has been reorganized and reduced to four categories: "Featured Content," "What's New," "Game Store," and "Video Store" (below top level, categories will be navigated by twist, just like the Games Library)
  
• "Personal Profile" added to Gamer Profile; text field allowing approx. 500-1000 characters, providing space to publish name, nationality, region, and self introduction. (Further social networking tools to accompany 'Friends of Friends' functionality)
• XBLA demos deleted from "Played Games" and Gamercard lists
  

Note: This feature set is by no means complete, and we should expect to see variations in and additions to the North American update, which will be made available on Dec. 4th.

Read - Game Watch (Impress)
Read - Famitsu