Xbox Annoucement 1: New Dashbord, Avatars, Netflix

 UPDATE: We just found out that the Netflix-sharing feature will only be available to those with an Xbox Live Gold account and a premium account with Netflix. Not exactly free, but still, it’s pretty cool. -Ed.

Ah, your Xbox dashboard.

Safe. Familiar. Clunky.

This fall, get ready for everything to change. John Shappert, chief of Xbox Live, annoucmed that the Xbox would be “reinvented through software.”

Meaning a huge update. Gone are blades. Gone are gamerpics. Say hello to a rotating carousel of “channels.”

Very Wii-ish.

What does it look like? Slick. Sophisticated. Think the “floating cover art” album filing system in iTunes. That will give you an idea.

Interacting inside those channels will be avatars… again, very Wii-ish. Through them, you can cruise these channels. Upon logging in, you’ll see the avatars of your friends who are online. You’ll be able to invite them into your Community Channel and show them your photos over Xbox Live (conveniently stored with your movies, games, and videos in your My Xbox Channel).

PrimeTime Channel will allow your avatar to participate in gameshows (with real prizes and a live host) with all other users of XBL. Games will include “Deal or No Deal” and “1 vs. 100″ (which will debut this fall).

Yes, we know. You’re pissed. You spent a lot of moolah over the years on gamerpics and you’re not one bit happy about seeing them go the way of the Edsel. “This is an outrage, a BETRAYAL!,” you say.

Get over it, sunshine. And to make things easier, Microsoft saved the best feature about this avatar thing for the very last. XBL and Netflix have teamed up to allow XBL users who are Netflix subscribers to as many as 10,000 download movies and television shows instantly to Xbox Live.

And… it’s free of charge.

AND… You’ll be able to watch these downloaded movies and videos WITH YOUR FRIENDS over XBL. Shappert demostrated how seamlessly you could move from sharing photos to playing a game, and then moving over to view a film.

And yeah, it was pretty damn cool.

Almost too cool. There’s many questions that this Netflix thing raises. Almost far more questions than it answers.

We’ll definitely be airing those thoughts tonight on the GameHounds special E3 coverage on the GameHounds Podcast.

NEXT UP: Hell Just Froze Over