A few weeks ago I posted a Developer Diary about the new Premium Themes coming to Xbox LIVE with the New Xbox Experience. Well, now that NXE is here, I wanted to share some of the Premium Themes available for download. There are a ton of great ones up, from the Fable II Albion Theme to Castle Crashers and more. Check out the list below for many of the Premium Themes that you can download today, and go browse Xbox LIVE Marketplace to see all of the great content we are offering and quickly add them to your download queue.

Gears of War 2 - Bare Your Teeth (went live 11/7)
Gears of War 2 - Hope Runs Deep (went live 11/7)
Gears of War 2 - Last Day (went live 11/7)
Halo 3
Halo Wars
Fable II Albion
Castle Crashers
The Last Remnant
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise
Forza 2
Call of Duty: World at War
Sonic Unleashed
Guitar Hero World Tour
Rock Band 2
Tomb Raider: Underworld

Also, NXE Ships with a couple of new (free) themes. You can get details from the Top 10 list I posted earlier this week. Don't forget, all of the Themes you've already downloaded will work in the New Xbox Experience, so you don't need to worry that your Kameo Themes from 2005 disappearing.

We hope your’re enjoying the New Xbox Experience. As expected, Netflix on Xbox 360 is a huge success, with the LIVE community flocking to this portion of the New Xbox Experience. Some of you may have had a few challenges earlier today but I wanted to let you know they've been resolved.

The New Xbox Experience is in the process of being deployed to all Xbox LIVE members, but it will take a few hours for everyone to get the prompt to update to NXE….be patient! so in the meantime, I thought I would give my Top 10 list of things to do with NXE when you get it later today:

1) Create (or Customize) your Avatar – You can spend as much (or as little) time as you want in the Avatar Editor to personalize your little guy/girl

Bonus: When you are done with #1, be sure to take a Gamer Picture of your Avatar. In the Avatar editor, choose Gamer Picture. You can use the controls to move your avatar around, zoom in and out or even change the background color (press Y)

2) Explore the all new dashboard. (hint: use the trigger and bumpers to quickly scroll up and down or left and right)

3) PAR-TAY! Check out Xbox LIVE Parties and chat with up to seven of your friends. Go to the Friends channel…choose a friend who is online and press Y to get the party started. You can also hit the Xbox 360 Guide button > Party >Start a Party. Once you do that, send off invites to your party (since one does not make a party…does it?)

4) Themes. While any themes you work will NXE, check out some of the new themes via My Xbox and select your profile (second slot) and then change theme. Xbox 360, Spectrum, Day and Night are new themes that available as part of your NXE upgrade…check them out.

5) Marketplace on Xbox.com. This new feature lets you search, browse, and purchase games and videos while you are away from your console. You can also perform account management functions like changing your billing information, viewing your purchase history, and downloading items you already own.

6) Netflix – Xbox LIVE Gold Member and you have Netflix? If you are in the US you can stream thousands of videos (some in HD) directly from Netflix to your Xbox 360. Not a member? Sign up for a free trial at Xbox.com/netflix

7) Install to / Play from Hard Drive. With the game in the tray, return to your dashboard. (pressing the guide button then Y works as always) then go to My Xbox. From here press Y, which will bring up a new menu which will allow, among other things the ability to install a game to your hard drive.
Hint: You can still use the Xbox 360 guide while installing a game to keep in touch with your friends or start a Party.

Bonus: Before you do #7, be sure to set up what happens when you turn on your Xbox 360.  My Xbox->System Settings>Console settings. Then choose Start up to to choose Disc, Xbox Dashboard or Windows Media Center. Once you are done there…check the option right below it: Autostart. This tell your Xbox 360 what to do when you insert a game. The choices are enable or disable. I have mine set to disable so I can easily use install to hard drive.

8) Delete Zero Gamerscore games. You can remove any games from your games played list that you have earned no achievements or gamerscore. Press the Xbox 360– guide button, navigate left to the games section and choose Achievements. From here choose the game with zero gamerscore you want to remove and press X (Delete Game History.)

9) Press the Xbox 360 button on your controller to see the all new Guide. The team has added more functionality than the old guide, while making it more responsive. It’s a quick way to check your messages, see who is online or start a party. 

10) Take a look at Community Games in the Games Marketplace. For the first time in the history of console gaming, thousands of games developed by the creative community will be available to the public.

For those that have the new Xbox Experience, what are your favorite new feature(s)?

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based onUU’s)
1 Gears of War 2
2 Call of Duty 4
3 Halo 3
4 CoD: World at War
5 Left 4 Dead  Demo
6 Fable II
7 GTA IV
8 Fallout 3
9 Madden NFL 09
10 Gears of War

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)
1  Worms
2  Portal: Still Alive
3  Castle Crashers
4 Vigilante 8: Arcade
5  Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
6  UNO®
7 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader
8 Duke Nukem 3D
9 Pinball FX
10  Marble Blast Ultra

The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.

Original Xbox Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)
1 Halo 2
2 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
3 Fable
4 Counter-Strike
5 Call of Duty 3
6 Battlefield 2: MC
7 Call of Duty 2
8 Street Fighter Anniv.
9 Rainbow Six 3
10 Splinter Cell Chaos


These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade, full versions purchased that week.

Xbox.com and the Xbox forums will be offline for maintenance on Tuesday, November 18th from 12:01am PT until 4:00am PT to prepare for the New Xbox Experience launch on Wednesday the 19th. 

This does NOT affect Xbox LIVE, which will remain available during this time.

This week’s show:
Co-host : e
More NXE Preview Program additions
Interview: Tom Farrer Mirror's Edge (17:19–30:26)
Interview: Andy Trowers , You’re in The Movies (30:28–36:49)
Interview: Daniel Suarez and David Vonderhaar, Call of Duty: World at War (36:50–56:20)
Interview: Adam Miller, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (56:21–1:04:55)
Interview: Chet Faliszek, Left 4 Dead (1:04:56–1:17:14)
NPD
Name the Game
Much more…



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Format:
01:44:11, 47.5 MB, (MP3)


Show open/close music courtesy of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

Since we’re less than a week out from the launch of the New Xbox Experience on November 19th, we have a video that shows you just how quick and easy the install will be. For many of you, the download and install will take just a few minutes and you’ll be back to gaming before you know it.  If you’re in the preview program, feel free to let others know what to expect.

 
Sara at the Gamerscoreblog has a summary of our past NXE vidoes and posts.

We did ittwice before and we’re going to do it again. We’re adding more people to the NXE Preview Program. This time, over 10,000 more Xbox LIVE members are being added in this third and final stage of the New Xbox Experience Preview Program. If you are chosen, you will receive an email later tonight (be sure to check your spam folder or add msftconn@microsoft.com">msftconn@microsoft.com to you safe list) followed by the update tomorrow (November 14th) afternoon (PT). As before, we’re only pulling names from those that originally signed up (there is no way to sign up if you missed it, sorry) and this selection process will be at random from those that previously filled out the Connect Program Survey from my original post.  Again, this is final wave. All Xbox LIVE members will be getting the New Xbox Experience via Xbox LIVE November 19th.

Trailer

Title: Madagascar 2

Title: SW Snowboarding

In Game Content

Title: Dead Space™

Title: FIFA 09

Title: Rock Revolution

Title: TNA iMPACT!™

Title: Civilization Revolut'n

Gamer Picture

Title: SW Snowboarding

The next time you start up a Games for Windows game that is LIVE enabled, you’ll be prompted for an update that will give you an all new LIVE guide. I’ve posted some pictures of what it looks like over at Flickr. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

In lieu of a new Arcade title today, there are three new Arcade titles being added to the Arcade Hits program. Feeding Frenzy, Worms and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 are now available for 400 points.

In addition to the 2 million copies of Gears of War 2 that flew off the shelves over the weekend, LIVE was pretty active as well. More than 1.5 million people signed into "Gears of War 2" during the weekend, racking up a total 15 million gameplay hours and helping set a new record for concurrent LIVE players. These players also collectively unlocked more than 19 million GoW2 Achievements.

I’ve gotten a few messages and seen some forum threads pop up on console bannings so I thought I’d post and let folks know what’s up. In our our continued effort to keep gameplay safe and secure for our community of more than 14 million members, Microsoft has taken action against a small percentage of Xbox 360 consoles that have been illegally modified in order to play pirated games. You should know that modifying your Xbox 360 console is also a violation of the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void your warranty and result in a ban from Xbox LIVE.   The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive, both from manufacturers and the local companies that support them. We will continue to employ and bolster anti-piracy security measures to counter piracy in the gaming industry and improve security in the Xbox LIVE community. 

Conent: Battlefield: Bad Company™ Community Choice Pack
Price: Free
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
Dash Text: [ESRB: T (Teen) ALCOHOL REFERENCE,STRONG LANGUAGE,VIOLENCE] The community has spoken! Battle it out on Par For the Course and Acta Non Verba, two single player levels turned into playgrounds for fierce multiplayer Conquest warfare as chosen by the players. This FREE map pack also contains the two DICE choices Crossing Over and Ghost Town, bringing the total number of maps to four. See you on these new battlefields, soldiers!

I mentioned this on my last show, but now it’s time to make it happen. This week we took a look at the list of the thousands of Xbox LIVE members that originally signed up for the preview program and decided it’s time to add more members. That means that on November 8th (tomorrow) we’re going to be adding more folks to the New Xbox Experience Preview Program.  If you are chosen, you will receive an email later tonight  (check that spam folder!) followed by the update tomorrow evening (PT). We’re only pulling names from those that originally signed up (there is no way to sign up if you missed it, sorry) and this selection process will be at random from those that previously filled out the Connect Program Survey from my original post.  The New Xbox Experience will be available to all Xbox LIVE members on November 19th.