...that it's out now. It's available. I've just downloaded it and you can too, if you're at home or in a particularly liberal workplace.

It's finished. We don't have to listen to Major Nelson telling us how to press a button any more, nor will there be any more teasing of features. We have all the features. It's OVER!

To celebrate not having to be excited about a new icon layout any more, here's a quick reminder of everything we've done on the new Xbox 360 dashboard update this year. We've been busy, it turns out. Here's everything we've done on it, in chronological order, so you can watch NXE unfold almost as if you're a regular reader...

18 Feb 2008 - The internet uncovers a job ad, in which Microsoft asks for someone to help create "a totally new LIVE experience". If only we knew then what we know now.

23 May 2008 - MS says there will be no Spring dash update this year. Hmm, perhaps it has something big planned for, say, November 19?

16 June 2008 - SHOCK! A leaked marketing survey reveals something called Avatars - complete with images of wacky characters jumping around. We recoil in horror, swallow a bit of sick that nearly came out, and hope it's just a joke.

15 July 2008 - It wasn't a joke. We are, of course, much more "on message" about it now, and are quite keen on spending an hour or two creating a little avatar with a realistic hairline tonight.

15 July 2008 - The very same day we do a complete 180-degree about-turn in opinion, saying that installing games to hard drive - a feature we'd previously torn PS3 to shreds for - was a good thing now it was coming to Xbox 360. Hypocrisy is fine as long as it generates page impressions, as we say on the internet.

17 July 2008 - This thing about Themes still working on the NXE. July 17 must've been a really slow news day, as we also did a separate update about a video of it on the very same day.

18 July 2008 - The first of many, many comparisons regarding HD installation load times. Some people REALLY care.

29 July 2008 - HACK SHAME! The NXE is hacked, dumped on the internet and video-ed. Then reported on.

22 September 2008 - How to make a moustache.

25 September 2008 - We have a launch date for it. There is light at the end of the updates-about-minuscule-features tunnel.

29 September 2008 - Now Microsoft starts to string out the announcements a little too much. This one's about how the Friends list will be different in the new dash.

6 October 2008 - This one's about how the Marketplace will be different in the new dash.

14 October 2008 - PROPER NEWS! Microsoft announces what sounds like the world's largest logistical nightmare, in which cheapskate users with Arcade machines and no memory cards are shamefully rewarded by being given memory cards for free so NXE can run properly.

31 October 2008 - This thing about a game/experience called Photo Party which sounds like the last thing on Earth we'd want to do - so DO NOT COME BACK LATER TODAY if you want to read a review of it.

3 November 2008 - This one's about how the Avatars will work.

17 November 2008 - This thing about what happens when you install it as Microsoft embarrassingly runs out of things to talk about a week before NXE goes live.

18 November 2008 - AND FINALLY! A tired and emotional Microsoft declares NXE the most important thing to happen to the entertainment world since the launch of the colour TV, then, we hope, buggered off to the pub for a rest and de-brief.

FAST FORWARD TO TODAY
And here we are with it sitting on our hard drives and looking back at all the news. That was that. Now onto the inevitable feature about what we want to see in next year's dash update.

(Via Xboxer.tv)

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