Xbox Live’s Major Nelson has made it official – the global release of the new Metro UI inspired Xbox 360 dashboard will be on 06 December 2011. The update will be available for free to all Xbox 360 consoles and will include:
- New personal and social features including Cloud Storage for Game Saves and LIVE Profile
- Beacons and Facebook Sharing
- Enhanced Family Settings
- Integrated voice and gesture controls across the dashboard and in apps
- Bing voice search (Available this year in the US, UK and CA)
He also mentions that the recently announced TV features, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Get Deeper into the Television Business, will also be part of this update and many new applications and apps will be added over the holiday period.
Based on the preview shots we saw when the new TV features were announced the dashboard is talking on a decidedly Windows 8/Windows Phone user interface look.
If the popularity of the current Xbox 360 Dashboard Preview, which filled up in about 24 hours, is any indication then this update is being anticipated by a lot of Xbox 360 users.