Thanks to the wonders of Xbox Live, Microsoft have been able to offer regular system updates for their console so far, taking us from the functional, if not that pretty original dashboard, to the attractive-yet-not-as-good NXE that we have today. In a few weeks time, another update's scheduled to roll out, bringing with it a number of new features - almost all of which will be invisible to the public eye.
The NXE as it looks today.
Most of the changes are being made to the backend of the dashboard - i.e., how the dashboard interacts with Xbox Live and finds information about games - and arguably the biggest is the decision to include support for a new type of disk format, called XGD3, which modifies the copy protection, and frees up an extra gigabyte of storage on the disks for developers to use.
However, it seems that, as with most dashboard updates, this one's having a few teething problems too - and not of the sort that can simply be solved with another update a few days later.
According to Microsoft, their internal testing has suggested that certain systems, with certain DVD drives, are no longer able to read games disks after receiving the update. As not all 360s use the same DVD drive (there are numerous different manufacturers Microsoft have bought drives from during the console's lifespan), it's hard for you to tell exactly whether your console will be affected, but, apparently, Microsoft can.
Rather than modifying the dashboard update, Microsoft have instead taken the step of identifying all users who have a console that's going to be affected by the update, by running a check over Xbox Live, and are in the process of e-mailing them with an offer to replace their old console with a brand new 360S, with a 250GB hard drive, and a free year of Xbox Live.
While this is certainly a nice -and probably quite costly - gesture from Microsoft, we're sure there are going to be plenty of people who are perfectly happy with their old style console, which actually has several advantages over the new one. For starters, it can read Xbox 360 memory cards, and as such, lets you have up to four devices connected at any one time (two memory cards, and two USB sticks). The 360S only allows for two. Equally, the original 360 let you change the faceplate of the console, and, as the proud owner of a rare Viva Pinata faceplate, we know we wouldn't be too happy having to trade our console in, through no fault of our own, and effectively render our faceplate useless. It also poses something of a problem for players who don't have access to Xbox Live - as the updates are often included on the disks of popular Microsoft titles, there's every chance these owners could receive the update, and find their console suddenly stops being able to play disks. Hopefully, the update will come with some sort of built in warning for people who're going to be affected.
Our pride and joy.
Further questions are posed if the issue affects limited edition consoles. As someone with something of a weakness for limited editions, we own three - a Beatles Rock Band one, a Resident Evil one, and a Halo 3 one. We wouldn't be willing to send either of these in, in exchange for a 360S if we were asked to, but nor do we see that a software update should stop us accessing games on our console. If these consoles are affected, we'd hope Microsoft would simply offer to switch the disk drive.
Of course, as we're not sure which consoles are affected at the moment, it's hard to get too upset - but we'll be keeping a close eye on the issue over the next few months. At the moment, it would seem to only be consoles that came with a 60GB hard drive that are affected, but there's little you can do to check bar to simply wait and see. We've reached out to Microsoft for clarification of the issue, and will update the story as and when we get it.
EDIT: We've received some official word from a Microsoft spokesperson, although it doesn't quite touch on the question about which consoles are going to be affected - which would suggest that this may not be limited to a particular model of machine."Following a recent update to our system software, we have become aware of an issue that is preventing a very small number of Xbox 360 owners from playing retail game discs. This issue manifests itself as a unique "disc unreadable" or "disc unsupported" error on the screen. We are also able to detect this issue over Xbox LIVE and are proactively reaching out to customers that may be impacted to replace their console. Any Xbox 360 owners receiving this error are encouraged to contact us at www.xbox.com/support/contact so we can verify if the console has been impacted."
Those of you with limited edition consoles, keep your fingers crossed.
