A lot of gaming news had been announced for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Kinect, Xbox LIVE, and Windows Phone, and it’s almost too hard to catch them all.

 

New Xbox Dashboard

 

The new Xbox Dashboard, coming holiday season this year, features the metro-look that we’ve seen on the recent Windows 8 immersive UI demo, including Live Tiles. According to Major Nelson’s blog post, the new Xbox Dashboard will be: "Simpler. Cleaner. Easier to navigate. With the addition of new entertainment content on Xbox LIVE and our commitment to continuously improving the overall Xbox experience, we’ve updated the dashboard with a new look and feel that makes it even more open, inviting and intuitive to navigate. All of your favorite content is categorized in a way that is easy to browse and find what you’re looking for, plus you can use voice anywhere in the dashboard to effortlessly navigate and get to what you want".

 

Xbox LIVE TV

 

Microsoft also announced that Live TV will also be coming to Xbox 360 soon, as we have reported earlier. It seems like the deals might not have been signed yet, as Microsoft will be providing more details later in the coming months:

 

Over the past two years, Microsoft has joined with some of the world’s largest TV operators to bring live television to Xbox LIVE in the United Kingdom with Sky TV, in France with Canal+ and in Australia with FOXTEL. Now, Microsoft has announced its commitment to expand access to live television programming on Xbox 360 to more providers in the United States and around the world during the upcoming year. Consumers will enjoy news, sports and their favorite local channels, all just a voice command away, on Xbox 360.

 

Bing on Xbox with Voice Search

 

Voice Search with BingBing will also be making it’s way to your TV screen via Xbox 360 and Kinect, but not only this, but it will also feature Voice Search just like on Windows Phone 7, powered by Microsoft’s Tellme technology. Simply say "Xbox, Bing, X-Men" and your Xbox will find the movie you want.

 

We are bringing Bing to Xbox. Bing on Xbox searches Netflix, Hulu Plus, ESPN, as well as our music, video and Xbox LIVE marketplaces to find exactly the entertainment you want to enjoy. With Bing on Xbox and Kinect, you can effortlessly find the games, movies, TV shows, sports and music you want by only using your voice. You say it, Xbox finds it. The experience is now simpler than ever before.

 

Unfortunately, like always, Bing on Xbox will initially only be available for users in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom, with support for Australia, Canada (French), France, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and Spain coming by the end of this year.

 

New Game Releases

 

Microsoft once again revealed a list of blockbuster games coming to the Xbox 360, including the long-awaited Halo 4. Some of these games have been enhanced with Kinect support like "Forza Motorsport 4" and "Mass Effect 3", while others are Kinect-only such as "Dance Central 2", "Kinect Star Wars" and "Kinect Sports: Season Two".

 

Source: damaster, www.liveside.net