Microsoft has fastened the armor on the Xbox, donned their helmet, and grabbed their jousting lance, and thrust their ever-popular console into the arena where it’s certain to dominate as the entertainment-center of the living room. Not only does the Xbox connect a network over 35 million people across the world—not to mention all the new owners from their recent biggest sales week in history—that means that it’s sitting atop nearly that many TVs that it could be pushing content to.

Wait no longer: Microsoft is rolling out a dashboard update—calling it “a new Xbox 360 experience” that will incorporate the elements of the Metro design language seen on the Windows Phone 7 and is coming to Windows 8—that will change the entire landscape of Xbox ownership. Not only does the console do video games, but it has already been slowly expanding into TV entertainment, Internet streaming video, search-on-demand, social connectivity, and even cloud storage accessibility.

In the announcement, CVP of Xbox LIVE Marc Whitten speaks of the road Microsoft took since the software giant revealed its intentions at E3 until today when the launch shall begin to release components and the new dashboard to Xbox users everywhere.

TV entertainment and Internet streaming will come to the forefront with the new experience as Microsoft leverages their numerous cable and content partnerships. “The first wave of new partners rolls out today with experiences like EPIX and TODAY (MSNBC) in the US, LOVEFiLM in the UK, Sky Go in Germany, Premium Play by (MediaSet) in Italy and Telefonica España—Movistar Imagenio in Spain,”
writes Whitten. “And we’ll continue to roll out more entertainment content to Xbox LIVE in the coming months.”

No doubt this will move the Xbox from stealth living room entertainment centerpiece to the position of a terrible Internet god of digital delight sitting atop the TV.

The partners Microsoft has bundled together to boost content through Xbox LIVE has been nothing short of staggering through a licensing agreement with Comcast cable and Verizon. Although the initial FiOS debut has been seen as a little bit under-the-weather from expectations, we’re still hoping that this marks the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Already Verizon is offering 26 channels including CNN, HBO, HBO 2, Nickelodeon, Spike, HGTV, etc. So this is nothing to sneeze at.

Bing search will integrate not just the capability of searching the Internet with the Xbox but a human-Xbox interface with gesture and voice support via the Kinect and that makes all the difference. The Microsoft Kinect peripheral for the Xbox 360 has been a brilliant achievement for human-computer interaction that it’s still almost overlooked by the popular technology community as it was first debuted as a video game controller and it took Microsoft longer than it should have to capitalize on its full capacity.

The new dashboard experience integrates the Kinect in such a fashion that a user who wishes to watch their favorite show (or perhaps launch the video game they want) needs not grab a controller; they can simply wave or speak to the Xbox, and ask for it. The Kinect will recognize the gesture and then the Xbox display results based on voice recognition.

Want to watch “The Office?” says Whitten, then just step up to the Xbox and say, “Xbox, Bing, ‘The Office,’” and episodes pertaining to the show will be displayed from the TV apps currently installed on the console.

Social connectivity will also begin to take its place closer to center stage with the new update, giving Xbox LIVE users a reason to gather together in front of their respective plasma screens.

All of these features have been seen in the announcement of the code-name “Madrid” dashboard last month, based on the Metro motif from Beacons to Facebook sharing.

“We’re also bringing you Beacons and Facebook sharing, further integrating social into your Xbox experience,” Whitten says, explaining this social-feature of the Xbox community. “Before jumping into an episode of ‘The Office,’ you can activate a Beacon to let your friends know that you want to play, say, “Gears of War 3.” Then, sit back and relax with the Dunder Mifflin crew. The Beacon will let you know when a LIVE friend is available for a round of Horde in Gears.”

Friends and family, even separated by continents can use this feature to discover that one-another is in an entertainment mood and connect across the spans of water and rock to mend again across the digital byways of the Internet. My living room, back in Arizona, one of my friends often sits in Grand Theft Auto with his friends in Germany to catch up with them and keep the friendship alive.

Xbox 360 Into the Personal Cloud, Mobile and Beyond

Cloud storage and accessibility have become dominant because not all gamers just play on their Xbox console but on their mobile devices and sometimes at friend’s houses, and Microsoft acknowledges this advancing facet of personal data continuity. As an extension of the previous cloud-based development, Xbox LIVE will continue to enable player profiles stored in Microsoft’s cloud so that personal customization and save files can follow players form place to place.

The cloud storage aspect has been somewhat downplayed against the social, search, and TV streaming by Microsoft’s spokespeople and in press releases, but there’s a great deal of service that the Xbox can bring to its users if developments such as the above continue. Currently, the LIVE profile and save games, including achievements, can be access from friends’ consoles as well…

But I see more:

As the Xbox dashboard embraces further social aspects, TV streaming, and apps, this will no doubt balloon the type and demeanor of that data. Users will want to be able to keep their playlists, favorite shows, and perhaps even app profiles in their Xbox personal cloud so that they can toss them easily onto their neighbor’s consoles should they visit.

Little word has emerged if Microsoft intends to implement these resources; but it would make the Xbox LIVE no doubt the killer-app of the set-top-box ecology if it were to use the cloud to connect the personal cloud with living room with mobile and with friends’ consoles. Nothing else on the market could compete in sheer versatility.

[Image credits: The Verge gallery of XBL2011 screenshots.]