Microsoft has recently announced that, on November 19, they would be launching an update to their Xbox Live interface, called “New Xbox Experience.”

The company revealed the information during a keynote address at the Tokyo Game Show, a video game exposition / convention held in the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan, between October 9 and October 12.

Scheduled to be released in 26 countries, the redesigned interface will be localized in 19 languages and it will join another makeover, which the Xbox Live's Marketplace has undergone. The latter is a virtual market that has been designed for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming console, in order to allow users to download content such as map packs, gamer pictures and Xbox 360 Dashboard themes. It has been improved so that players can view a more detailed description of the content they wish to purchase. Moreover, two new channels have been added, one that offers further info on the games and another that lets users know of the most popular content on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

As for the „New Xbox Experience,” it is said to have replaced the blade interface (which enables to easily access pages by virtue of the fact that they are piled up on top of each other) with one that uses full windows that stretch across the console’s screen.

Other new features include an avatar system, players being offered the option to customize their avatar in terms of clothing, hair-style and accessories, the „parties” tool, via which users can chat or send text messages to each other and a function that allows the latter to faster gain access to the Xbox Live services.